OMG. I decided to photograph this little slice of light that goes across the lawn every evening as a summer project. And the past few nights have been frustratingly cloudy.
Right now I’m standing behind my tripod photographing the light as it slowly travels across the lawn. My camera is pointed at the weird stone wall that runs across our yard because there is a single round stone sitting on top of it that adds visual interest.
I’m watching the patterns of light that are shining through the leaves of some trees and making little patterns on the wall and it’s totally magical. Then a little chipmunk pauses just long enough for me to get one perfect shot of him and then runs away. And I feel like I’m tripping after the ketamine experiment and feeling so very connected to everything in the universe.
Oh, also I couldn’t figure out how long to wait between images so I set the stopwatch on the phone until I watched it change enough that I wanted to take another picture and that was 28 seconds so I am taking a new image every 28 seconds until the light passes the stone. And I can’t figure out if I’m gonna be standing out here for 5 minutes or 50 minutes.
Just put a knife through my heart now there is a robin bopping around in the grass.
Oh no. This is definitely going slower than I hoped.
I should have eaten dinner first!!
No! I will not go inside and eat dinner until the light passes the stone. I am too committed to my process.
The mistake I made today is that when the timer goes off I am taking the photo and resetting the timer. But when I reset the timer I have to look at the phone so I’m not seeing the images when they pop up on the back of the camera — but I want to check and make sure the exposures are good so the next time I do this I have to remember to reset the timer and then take the photo so I can easily watch the images as they’re being recorded. DUH.
Should I send you progress reports? Are you invested?
Bird Fights!
The cool thing that is going to happen is that the slice of light will also move across the foreground if I stay out here long enough
Impossible to tell. He is completely unpredictable. He was only up for about 90 minutes today. He went back to sleep FUCK THE CLOUDS JUST MOVED IN!!!!!!
This is great!!!!! Missing time!!! What a mother fucking metaphor for my life!!!!
I would kill for a burst of sun that lasted a couple of minutes at least.
Aaaaaahggggghhhjjhh
Sun is out again.
No!!! I will NOT go inside. This is perfect!! I love that it is taking forever. I love that I’m fucking hungry as hell right now. I love that it’s taking forever. Every part of this project that I’ve given myself without even realizing it before I committed to myself to do it 100% represents my current lived experience and I’m in this insane loop that I can only escape from through tragedy. A tiny hour or so long version of my life. This is perfection.
You’re the poet!! Write something for me.
I love that I was unprepared. When have I ever walked into any life situation prepared?? NEVER ONCE!! It’s my signature move
I’m trying to will this little flock of birds to move into my camera frame
Yes! Right on the edge. Just one but I think they’re all about to make my dreams come true!!
These birds are killing me. They moved in and out of the shot between shots and I didn’t want to cheat. However, someone just made an entrance from the left.
It’s a robin and now he has starred in two of my images since the clouds have returned
That cheeky bastard hit the ground for shot number three!!
Ok. I’m close to the end. The rock has traversed from one side of the slice of light to the other. The sun is almost set.
I lied. All the lights gone from the background and I am staying here until the sun is down.
Which is about to happen
Well. If you just the word PSCHE! shouted down from the heavens it’s because I got fooled by another cloud into thinking this was the end of the light.
I WILL NOT GIVE UP!
But here’s my secret. I keep hearing these squeaky and scratching noises coming from the house gutters behind me and I’m afraid to know. Praying it’s a tree branch. Pray for me.
Done!
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