Saturday, January 23, 2010

I got your hint right here!!!



Just in case this video collection isn't explanation enough. There is a fountain in downtown Rome that shoots water in the air so it looks like a tube. (The water, not the fountain itself.) I held my camera directly above the highest point that the water reaches. Lights surround the base where the water shoots out. I did this at night.

So.....you've got your darkness, your bright lights, and water shooting directly toward the camera. As the water of the "tube" reaches its apogee and then begins to descend it falls on to the still ascending water so it collides in on itself. Kinda cool, I think.

I'm happy with these short shots edited together. It could definitely be smoothed over, but probably not by me. I don't know what I'm doing.

The photo below was a still picture I took above the water at its height, as it is collapsing in on itself.

Yes, I got very wet.

(And, yes, the camera.....well, you don't need to know everything.)

23 comments:

Unknown said...

I thought it looked like some sort of flower....but I knew that wouldn't be creative or clever enough. Excellent shot!

Steven Taylor said...

A representation of your secret, seething inner rage?

Steven Taylor said...

(Actually, very cool).

Andy D. said...

I'm too distracted trying to work out a pun about ST involving Hun, Saxon, Tudor, or even viking. I'm too tired though, he's off the hook.

What are the odds I give up on a joke... one in a hun-dred?

Oh!!

Technoprairie said...

Awesome video bro! Loved the music you used. What is it?

Andy D. said...

Serious photography/art question.

Is it "artistic enough" (whatever that means) to take a digital video of something, and then lift a frame out of it and publish that frame as a still photo?

Or is that cheating?

Seriously, this is not an accusation, I'm curious what you think. As I watched this video, it reminded me that I've wondered about that before and what the art community would say. The thought has occurred to me as I've loaded home video onto my computer to put onto a DVD, and you can literally see it frame by frame as it advances...

Mike Bailey said...

Julie: Thank you! But I'm not too creative for flowers. I was a little surprised, since I knew the source, that it was as hard to guess as it was. Gestalt principle or something. Okay, it has nothing to do with the gestalt principle. Sorry.

Steven Taylor: My seething rage. Nice. I'm not a rage guy, really, so this makes me feel good; I've broken out of my mold.

Andy D: you? give up on a joke? no...not a saxy guy like you.

I think so, but it will always be a still frame from a movie, right? In other words, if you have hang-up with that kind of art, then, yeah, it will seem illegitimate. Really what concerns you is the accidental nature of the find. But I absolutely am banking on nice accidental finds all the time. Which may diminish the artiness of what I do, but really I'm just trying to create images I like, and I'm not going to turn away accidental finds.

Shut up! I am NOT defensive.

timekeeper said...

You got the camera wet????? Where was your inner voice saying "water and camera is bad!"

Elisheba said...

Andy D.--I would say no. A video is just a collection of stills played back really fast. However, while I can't define artistic either, I'm pretty sure that a piece of art doesn't follow mathematical laws (though math can be artistic), in other words, art="all pieces of the art added together" may not necessarily hold true. So you can take pieces out of a video and create from those little pieces art that is just as much art as the original art without actually diminishing the original art.

Mike Bailey said...

S-S: "No" to which of his questions? The is art? Or is it cheating? It need not be art, right, but it need not be cheating either. That's your position, it seems, And it's mine, too. More or less. Usually I take the "anything can be art" position, and whether or not it is depends on intentionality. To me the real question is this:

Is there good and bad art, or is there only art and not-art?

Mike Bailey said...

Timekeeper: we see things SO differently, it's actually scary. I don't think of it as "I" got the camera wet. Rather it's more like this: A rogue water spout of extreme height, well beyond its peers, hit my camera. I made every precaution possible to avoid this fate. (Apart from keeping the camera away from water shooting at it.) Not my fault. The water's fault.

Mike Bailey said...

Technoprairie: Thank you!!! That was three exclamation marks. I used to condemn them, and if you don't believe me, ask your mother. But I've grown all soft as I've grown old. Now I abuse them. Hey, have some fun!!!

Is what I say.

The music is "Palladio" by Kerry Muzzey. It's from an album called "Trailer Music," that was written to sound exactly like it says--but it's not attached, as far as I know, to any actual movies. He's picked up on a genre of music, separated it from its orignal source, and run with it. Or so it seems. The truth is I actually have no idea what I'm talking about. But I am confident you'd like the music on this album a good bit.

Yours,

Mr. Fun(!!!)

Steven Taylor said...

A representation of acid reflux, then?

Or Huns, Saxons and Tudors, oh my!

And timekeeper said what I was thinking, but held my tongue.

Mike Bailey said...

White Boy: God help me if you and Juli start to gang up on me.

Steven Taylor said...

Don't worry--she's no doubt still mad at me over the voodoo doll.

Mike Bailey said...

whitey--as she should be. i know i am. look what you started. rude!

Steven Taylor said...

white guy voodoo?

Mike Bailey said...

Whitey--"white guy vodoo?" Oh, so you think you caught me, eh? Big deal. I don't waste my time trying to reconcile the contradictions of a whitey like you. I see my job more as trying to limit and, if possible, repair the damage you wreak with your whitey ways.

Word.

Elisheba said...

I think I meant I don't consider it cheating at all, whether it is art depends on the still produced, of course.

ST and MB-there's a horrible Bela Lugosi movie called White Zombie in which the white Lugosi is a Voodoo Prince.

Mike Bailey said...

S-S: well, we're in agreement, then, and that's what counts independently of what andy d may think. who really cares, right?

and thank you for the white voodoo information. i'll take that as a victory over steven taylor. i don't know how, but that's the only sensible interpretation, i think.

Steven Taylor said...

I am claiming my white guy voodoo powers, amigo, not denying them and s-s is helping make my case.

Andy D. said...

Here's what I think:

I think you (MB) was trying to get your camera soaked to get a new one finally. "Anything can be art?" No. "Any possible way to get myself a new camera?" Yes.

And the "photographing a spurting fountain from (6 inches below the supposed but unknown point) above the apex, seemed like just the ticket.

Respek.

Technoprairie said...

I think you should start a band (you and Steven Taylor) and call it White Guy Voodoo. That's a great band name.