Photography

I registered for an actual photography class at the College this semester on Monday nights and am initially finding the study a little more tedious than I'd hoped. We're talking aperture, focal length, exposure meter, DPI, gray scale, ISO, and I just want to hang myself. I believe once we get these 100 or so terms ingested, it will get more interesting as we put them into practice.

My goals are simple: 1)Put a "pro-sumer" camera to better use than setting on "automatic" 2) develop a better visual vocabulary that I can bring back to my work 3) attempt to use photography to enhance any freelance writing I might do later in life.

We have a great instructor. He's been a professional photog for 40 years and is a pretty easy going guy. He pushed us in the deep end two weeks ago by assigning 36 exposures for the following class. Without a clue what I was doing shot over a period of three days around the house, in downtown Chicago, at the Arboretum, printed them out 4x6 and turned them in. He is choosing our four best and critiquing them tomorrow night. I'll be curious to see which ones he chooses. I'll post here.

Blithe Spirit

Amy and I have tickets to go see a preview performance of a Noel Coward play, Blithe Spirit tonight at First Folio Theatre. Amy and I visited First Folio Theatre last year for a Wodehouse production that was quite good (Amy will not let me forget, however, that I fell asleep; it was Friday, it'd been a terrible week, and I was exhausted; and if you've read enough Wodehouse, you don't actually have to see it to know what happened; she liked the play a great deal, though). It's a first-class professional theatre located on a former estate in Oakbrook with three separate venues. This is precisely what I wanted to do on a Friday. Fortunately, Amy moved quickly on the tickets an hour ago. I just checked back, and they are now sold out.

Hanging in just fine

I should have raised the ISO on my camera, I guess, to really capture that hell that is Mother Nature, but it's too cold to go back out there this morning to take better pictures. The homeowner's association snow guys showed up last night and tunnelled our homes out. It hasn't been bad. The power's staying on, which means I'm catching up on some good shows. I watched the second of the Red Riding Trilogy last night. These are awfully good movies, though the West Yorkshire accents are so strong I occasionally have trouble following. I read that they decided to subtitle some of it because of this, but I didn't see them. We also watched The Kids are All Right, which means we've seen all 10 up for best picture. I don't think it should have been nominated for best picture, but it was pleasant. May or may not go to yoga today.

Blizzard

So we got a bit of snow last night. This was the view from my patio and garage when I went to take the dogs out. We have plenty of food and water and, as long as I have electricity for various entertainments, I don't anticipate losing my mind. Crumley still loves burying his head in the snow, "hiding", and then flinging his huge head up and back, spraying us all with his snow. They say the snow should begin to wind down at around 3 p.m., but the wind keeps coming through the night. Have no idea when we get to reopen at work.

We have some pretty cool people here. One of the secretaries in our office also does baking and catering. She brought in a whole bouquet of these. I only had my little six-pixel, but I might use this bottom shot as one of the first 36 prints we are assigned in my photography class next Monday.

Gracie

My Dad and my newly Christened Step-Niece, Gracie. Look at those blue eyes.

Hot Yoga

Beginning in October, I have been going to Bikram Hot Yoga, or Hatha Yoga as systemized by Bikram Choudry. I'm very lucky that a beautiful, large studio opened about a tenth of a mile from where I live. Addicted but not obsessed, I go three or at the most four times a week. I'd like to go more, but it's hard to drink enough water to stay hydrated between classes.

It is 26 rigorous postures in a 105 degree room with 40 percent humidity. Most of the time I just wanted to die those first few weeks and nearly quit because I thought I might not be designed to handle the heat. It took a while to get down a system of hydrating before and after (my big discovery was not to drink water during) the 90-minute workout. At some point during the last third of the class I still wonder if I'm built to deal with heat.

I've been pretty pleased with the results. I am more flexible now. My neck feels better, I haven't had a twinge of back pain since I started. Perhaps most important to me, my right ankle that I had messed up so badly three years ago seems to be finally healing properly. And I sleep well.

Why do I prefer this kind of yoga? I could make lots of aspersions about other classes I've been to over the years, that they seemed more geared to make people feel pleasant than accomplish any kind of physical/mental/spiritual breakthrough: new age music, special straps and blocks, etc. But those classes do serve their purpose, I'm sure, even if it is just to provide a nurturing environment for people who need respite.

Having acknowledged that every kind of class has its place in the world, I do appreciate that Bikram eschews all of that inner goddess crap. With Bikram all you need is a towel mat. Nothing else. Unlike the fluffier classes, Bikram provides some genuine mortification that forces you to push past pretty compelling urges to get up, throw up and flee the room. I'm not wearing monastic horse hair, but for a desk jockey it's a pretty tough experience. I lose about six pounds every time I attend.