The backstroke flags flutter in the hot breeze and remind me of the Buddhist prayer flags on the foot hills of the Himalayas. Just plastic playing with the wind. Funny what goes thru my mind at the side of a pool.
At the turn everything stops for the fraction of a second as all of the mass and inertia change direction; one hundred and eighty degrees and get ready to explode off the wall, heading for the other end of the pool.
There's an anticipation when you swim in a relay. You need to be like the middle of the three bears. When your teammate comes barreling into the wall you need to time everything perfectly. Stay too long and you lose time. Leave too soon and you are disqualified. Get it just right and the advantage is all yours. Just like real life.
After the swim meet I went downtown to see my friend of 17 years, hundreds of shoots and thousands of smart conversations. (At least from her side of the table). We drank "single origin" coffee. We talked about growing older in America. I looked down and her coffee was perfectly lit by the open shade of Congress Avenue in the late afternoon. I couldn't help myself. I photographed another cup of coffee. I'm seeing a pattern emerge.
Tonight, Ben helped make dinner. The white bean and tuna salad, with roasted red peppers and celery was wonderful.
It wasn't supposed to rain this afternoon. It's not supposed to rain all week. I told Belinda at lunch, "I wish we'd get a big, wild thunderstorm this afternoon."
Around 2:30pm the first cracks of thunder peeled and it rained like crazy for forty minutes. A soaking rain, by measures frothy and misty, and then hard and fast. The gutters were foamy with street oil and dirt. And everything smelled fresh.
I went to the camera store today to consign a carbon fiber tripod. A vintage Gitzo.
I'm into my second year infatuation with wood tripods.
My two Berlebachs are my favorites by far.
I thought I'd make a little cash from the sale and open up some space in the studio.
But when I left I had a big Pelican case in hand and a couple more
Elinchrom Monolights to play with.
I swam. We watched movies. We ate breakfast tacos.
It was one of those weekends when everything was just right with the world.
Savored and enjoyed.
click.
2 comments:
Yeah, the weekend was nice.
I've got your second book lately, and after reading your advice ("Get 2 or 3 of those small 320Ws ABs"), I bought a 300Ws studio flash with Bowens mount, and I enjoy plaing around with it tremendously.
I sometimes wonder: you have those ABs, Profoto as well, Elinchromes - how do you ever manage all those different mounts? Are there adapters, and you use universal mount on the light modifiers?
Anyway, nice to read that your weekend was cool as well.
Keep up the good work,
Wolfgang
I'm writing a post about rationalizing all my flash gear. Stay tuned.
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