WIP.CRACKER

Jackie and I were running on a trail in the Presidio a while back when we were surprised by this huge wooden spire that had appeared.

It was pretty startling, and then intriguing. Turns out it's a work by Andy Goldsworthy. I like his work, and even more so his attitude toward his work and his process.

I watched Rivers and Tides some time ago. I was most struck by a scene where Andy Goldsworthy is carefully stacking rocks. He builds them up to a certain level, but the rocks suddenly collapse into an indiscriminate pile. He hangs his head in frustration for a moment but then says "This is my work".

You can find Spire by entering the Presidio at the Arguello Gate. Make a right at the gate and follow the road down the hill. After maybe a quarter mile, you'll see on overlook on your right. Look left and you should see the spire.

It's a ways from downtown, but if you catch the 38 Geary from downtown, get off at Arguello, and walk north, up the hill, about six blocks. That'll put you at the Arguello gate. Cabbies might not know where the spire is, but they should know the gate.

If you feel like getting some golf in after, the Presidio Golf Club is a public course. Or you could head down to Clement St and get a bite to eat. Giorgio's Pizza, Burma Super Star, and the tiny sushi place that's between those two are all great places. Avoid the sushi boat place however.

Finally, it seems that Andy Goldsworthy has inspired some imitators near the spire:

Labels: MySanFrancisco

I finished these shots quite some time ago - the red background ones are outtakes from the Resolutions project, and the blue ones were prompted by getting shoes as a Christmas gift.










I just pulled them out of my stack of work prints. I haaaaated the running shoe shots when I first finished them. I thought they were hokey and overly contrived. But I like them now. They're still kinda hokey, and I'm certainly ok with contrived, but some affection for them has appeared.

It's a strange process sometimes, the convolutions in the relationship between me and my photos. Some I love immediately, but the love fades over a couple weeks. Others I recognizes as technically great, but I hate whatever happened to the idea on it's way from my head to the paper. And there are some I have loved for a long, long time.

But in thinking about it I realize this is also true for the work of other photographers, and even movements or trends within photography. I loved the Jill Greenberg look when I first encountered it...now, not so much (although I still love the apes).

I suppose it's worth a look at what images have been extremely durable, to see what's there, what helps that to happen.

Jackie and I saw a film at the Metreon recently, and wandered around there afterward. In the space that was once the Microsoft Store (I know!), and has since been a bajillion different things, there is this:

If you haven't guessed, those are all claw games. And, spookily, just claw games. It's an entire store space in the Metreon occupied by nothing but claw games.

And nothing, and no one, else. Jackie and I were the only people in there. Occasionally a machine would kick into attract mode - make some blips and flash some lights, but otherwise, it was eerily quiet.

Just a bunch of lonely stuffed animal prisons and us. This claw machine room appears to be an annex of Tilt, next door. I remember Tilt from way back, as the arcade with virtual bowling and a bar. I don't remember anything about claw machines.

Claw machines have always struck me as a bit sad; never more so when dozens of them are packed into some otherwise empty space. Until I'd watched the video linked above, I never had proof that they're rigged, but I always instinctively knew that. Jackie and I, uh, admired all the toys, but felt no interest in trying to get any.

Even the prizes are a little off - these Disney characters are monochrome.

And yes, that is a VW Bus-shaped claw machine!

Tilt and the Claw Machine Annex are in the Metreon, San Francisco's premiere kiddie mall. It's right near downtown and a bunch of hotels, so it might be worth breezing through if you have a hankering for low-grade stuffed animals. Chronicle Books has a little store on the first floor, which is a good place to spend some time, but otherwise, there's not much of interest in the Metreon.

Well, since they closed the Warhammer store. Now that was a place for social anthropology.

Labels: MySanFrancisco

I worked with Art Director Adam Weisman, on a project for his portfolio. When he told me about his idea, I jumped at the chance to make some pictures about nothing. Well, space, really.

I like working with Adam a lot. He has a lot of energy, concise ideas, and he's really dedicated to faithful execution of them. We bounced some refinements off each other, and came up with a plan that included locations, props, and models. We shot these three images over two days, in the studio and on location.

It's interesting to start out talking about an idea, and to watch it to take shape as the project moves. Sometimes things that seem important early on wind up being trivial; for example, initially I thought we'd have to do the harvest shot in an orchard, because I was afraid the "harvest" idea wouldn't come through. As it turns out, it comes through fine with just a backyard lemon tree. On the other hand, we both thought from the beginning that the right props would be key, and I think that is true.

One thing learned is that it's often, counter intuitively, much faster to show someone something than it is to tell them. During shooting, when Adam would wonder what it might look like with pliers instead of solder, instead of talking about how it would look, it was much faster to rough it out and then talk about it. Similarly, we could have had a conversation about how much better the blue gloves would look than the tan gloves, or I could just switch them out. This is usually true for even large changes, like "What would this look like with completely different lighting?".

Labels: Ads

Re my earlier post about how Flickr doesn't have an economy, apparently it does. According to The Searcher:

"Ever come across a photo with dozens if not hundreds of comments, and they all have these little blinky "Best of Sparkly Award" graphics in them? "Diamond in the Rough!". "Flaming Sword of Awesome!!" etc etc. Well the reason for that is many people are members of Flickr groups that enforce strict "commenting" rules. To post to the group, you have to first comment on some other photos in the group, or favorite them, or give them award blinkies. It's an artificial "game" of false attention, almost all geared towards one thing: getting their photos on Explore."

I had wondered why so many mediocre photos had so many hyperbolic (and blinking) adulations in the comments.

But really I made this post to increase exposure for this awesome image.

They say you have to spend money to make money. It's much easier to verify that first half than the second.
Here's to providence.

Jackie and I went to Japantown recently. Japantown's always struck me as odd - there's a weird energy there, like it's built on an indian burial ground or something. It's nothing that really sticks with you, it's just a bit off.

But it has the Hi-Tech Car Air Freshener Store, a combination weird/awesome knife store, pretty good Udon at Mifune, and a dozen other japanese stores. Oh and now that Sundance has taken over the cinema and turned it into a cocktail-dinner-movie experience, the movies have gotten better.

But it also has Pika Pika.


This entire shop is devoted to insanely complicated japanese photo booths. It's in the corner and the outside is pretty nondescript - I'd never noticed it but it's been there awhile. Walking in results in slight disorientation because of all the graphical busy-ness, jpop music, and occasional shrieks of teenage girls.


Picking a booth turns out to be rather difficult. There are about a dozen, and they're all kind of overwhelming, not least because all the instructions are in japanese. In the end, I'm not so sure it matters which one you choose...


That's right. Eight bucks. Well worth it though. You put your money in and step inside. And then you panic. There's a shrill voice telling you what to do (in Japanese) and high strung girls on video showing you how to pose...and a countdown. You try to keep up and do something interesting.

After (5? 10? 30?) minutes, you've posed four to five times, encouraged to do some pretty bizarre things. But wait, you're not done. Go around to the side of the machine where you'll find a screen with a stylus - here you can customize your pictures with as many saccharine glittery effects as your little heart desires.

You end up with something like this. If we were in Japan, you could have the machine email the pictures to your mobile phone.

It's pretty easy to get to - straight shot West on Geary from downtown ($10 cab ride, 15 minute bus ride, and there's a parking garage). All in all, it's a slightly bizarre, highly entertaining afternoon in San Francisco, especially if it's raining.

Find Pika Pika on Yelp.

Labels: MySanFrancisco