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Book of Days
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The Folded Earth
Apr 20, ’09
1:45 PM
All buffeting ceased when they emerged from the clouds over mountains worn and low and green. Tense squall warnings were replaced by indistinct shouts of elation as the lookouts reported barns, fields, and other structures.
Exhausted, he watched a chart marker roll into the gutter at the edge of his navigation table. A 45 degree turn to port. Time to take another drift sounding.
Outside, clipped onto the harness and lines, he was briefly overwhelmed by the memory of a meadow near his grandfather’s house. The memory of sitting within a secret fold in the Earth there, playing in the peculiar way of an aeronaut. His fingers traced tiny roads in the damp sand. They followed the outline of a clump of moss, a row of twigs raised like barren trees.
Elsewhere, he heard the rhythm of the wind across the grasses, the rapid beat of the loose barn boards which always spoke of storms.
Insist On Bowes
Apr 17, ’09
10:00 AM
Apologies for the continued dearth of regular sketches — other things have again taken precedence for a short time.
Lately, my reading has focused on The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes by Joe McNally. This book is totally dedicated to the subject of best employing small strobe units (such as the Canon 580EX II, Nikon SB-900, etc) to control lighting. I’ve already implemented some of the author’s suggestions. For example, I recently switched exclusively to using second-curtain — AKA rear curtain — flash sync, since this allows the camera to expose for the scene first, then pop the flash to render in foreground details.
I can’t wait to employ some of the other tips in the field. If nothing else, hauling around both strobe and camera will give me a better workout.