April 22, 2004
we have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night
He remembered as though it were but a few days ago that winter night, himself too young even to know the meaning of beauty, when he had looked up at a delicate tracery of bare black branches against the icy glittering stars: suddenly something that was, all at once, pain and longing and adoring had welled up in him, almost choking him. He had wanted to tell someone, but he had no words, inarticulate in the pain and glory. It was long afterwards that he realised that it had been his first aesthetic experience. That nameless something that had stopped his heart was Beauty. Even now, for him, "bare branches against the stars" was a synonym for beauty.
~ Sheldon Vanauken in A SEVERE MERCY, (p.7)
Posted by joydriven at April 22, 2004 11:29 PM | TrackBackThat is an amazing picture. "Amazing" doesn't quite do it justice.
Posted by: Aman at April 22, 2004 08:10 PMWow. Without ruining the poetic impact of the picture (I hope), may I ask HOW you took this? (Is it time-lapse?)
Thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: cbo at April 22, 2004 09:25 PM
well, it was very complicated and took a lot of talent.
1. walk out of burritt township hall where we meet for church. look at the "real" church building across the field next door. note moon and planet (they're not really stars). note lighting. withdraw olympus d560 zoom. say to self, "what if?"
2. set camera so that it will not flash.
3. hold camera steady against roof of car while pressing down the button.
4. voila. take several, but don't leave time for yourself to edit or manipulate any before blogging one.
5. hide camera and pretend to be talking on phone or washing your hair when other cars leave the parking lot so they don't think you are a perfect maniac.
Posted by: joy at April 22, 2004 09:33 PMjust a follow-up about non-flash, steadied-camera endeavors...
the thing to keep in mind is that you don't want overpowering bright points of light to totally eclipse the rest of the lighting in the picture. especially with my camera, i get frustrated because of the yellowing effect or overexposed look that can typically come with non-flash takes. however, if there is a relatively even smattering of dim light all the way across the photo as opposed to extremes and gaps, you can come up with a nice shot.
see here (the fog helped) --
http://www.chattablogs.com/effigy/archives/009333.html
and see the April 18th entry here (i asked mike, and he said there was fog there too that may've compensated for the lanterns' bright points) --
http://www.mikes-weblog.com
picture, prose, and poetry--all created a remarkable aesthetic experience of my own.
Posted by: david at April 23, 2004 07:14 AM