Yearly Archives: 2008

Love is a Rebellious Bird

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle
que nul ne peut apprivois­er,
et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’ap­pelle,
s’il lui con­vient de refuser

Suddenly, he came upon the real­iza­tion that her beau­ty unin­ten­tion­al­ly entraps men, who are then led to their down­fall by their own mis­guid­ed ideas of love, and that he was sim­ply anoth­er one of many. Not that it mat­tered any­way; to force such things is futile.

So enough about love, he said, for love is often fick­le and unre­quit­ed.

Tu ne l’at­tends plus, il est là!

Photographing Couples

Julie and Blake about to kiss

Julie and Blake kissing series

Been work­ing on pho­tograph­ing cou­ples the past few months. It’s more dif­fi­cult than I ini­tial­ly thought. You want to express love, but there are only so many ways one can do so with­out kiss­ing.

You’re no longer pho­tograph­ing an expres­sion, as with a sin­gle per­son por­trait, but an inter­ac­tion.

Julie and Blake hug

Julie and Blake hugging series

Having two peo­ple express them­selves in such a way can be tricky too. Many are too shy to kiss in pub­lic, let alone on cam­era.

When it works, though, it works. You can see it in their faces. The way their eyes shine. It’s almost like they lose them­selves, because they’re drown­ing in each oth­er, and noth­ing else in the world exists.

And, of course, best viewed large and on black. Click through for full size.

Developments and Denouements

Lights down, sound up, for this one. Maybe some tea and a pas­try if it’s not too late.

I had Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs play­ing here.

Stripped down, the beat alter­nates between triplet-three-one-two-three-one-two and one-two-three-one-two-three-one-two, fool­ing the lis­ten­er into think­ing it’s in some sort of com­plex time-sig­na­ture. It’s actu­al­ly based in com­mon time, but with the triplets in there and the down-beat (marked by the open snare) falling on four and then three of the next bar, the song takes on a syn­co­pat­ed rhythm. This isn’t what makes the song good, though. It’s all Karen O and her voice.

I’ve been so moody late­ly. Up and down. Developments and denoue­ments. Most like­ly a result of my over­think­ing and over­plan­ning over every­thing. Still try­ing to take things one day at a time, with­out rush­ing head first, with­out falling head over heels.

It’s all a mix­ture of good and bad. Sometimes, I don’t even know how to feel.

I’ve begun see­ing my psy­chol­o­gist on a ses­sion-by-ses­sion basis (instead of on a sched­ule — an indi­ca­tion of progress). In between, my Tai Chi class­es have become my ther­a­py. There’s some­thing about class that cen­tres me; the cama­raderie, the move­ments, the breath­ing, the con­tact, the feel­ing that I’m improv­ing a part of myself, bit by bit, even if it’s sub­con­scious­ly. A time where I can total­ly focus, a place where I can for­get every­thing else.

Afterwards, it’s a dri­ve home in the dark with the win­dows down, and the rustling of wind in my hair.

The seren­i­ty car­ries for­ward. I’m recharged again. Then I’m strong enough to be myself. I’m strong enough to accept these feel­ings.

They don’t love you like I love you.

Things I Learned At My First Western Funeral

  • I still know the words to the Lord’s Prayer and Amazing Grace, thanks to my years at Catholic School and UCC
  • It’s not the words of the speak­er that make us cry, it’s their own emo­tion. Therefore, humans are born with an innate sense of empa­thy.
  • Old peo­ple like to pick at their faces
  • The pas­tor may go on longer about their reli­gion, than the per­son who passed away and their faith. This is more to com­fort those in mourn­ing, than about hon­our­ing the mem­o­ry of the dead.
  • Knowing some­one for only a month before get­ting mar­ried can lead to over six­ty years of mar­i­tal bliss

Avian Encroachment

Pigeon on a building

One of my pho­tographs, enti­tled “Avian Encroachment”, has been select­ed as one of the final­ists in CBCs 2008 Nature in Focus con­test under the cat­e­go­ry Your Habitat. There were 1200 entries entered this year.

The title is a play on the term “urban encroach­ment”, which is used to describe the destruc­tive habits of human activ­i­ty spread­ing over nat­ur­al areas.

Since the pho­to is of a pigeon sit­ting next to the spikes used to keep birds off the ledges of build­ings, it appeared to me that he was flaunt­ing his posi­tion, and push­ing back.

One of my geol­o­gy teach­ers in uni­ver­si­ty said that it was sil­ly to think of us try­ing to save the plan­et, because the earth, as a liv­ing thing, is going to be around for a long time. Environmentalism is real­ly about sav­ing our­selves.

You can check out the win­ners and oth­er final­ists on the CBC web­site.