An Anniversary?

Yipes, Andreas just reminded me ... well actually noted, I had no idea... with a post on September 10th, that ImageFiction is a year old! And with few exceptions, you and I have "enjoyed" daily postings since then! Holy Moley!

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On September 10th of 2006 I posted this image. It was about POWER. I looked at these guys and tried to figure out who had the edge. The foreground fella sits on a monstrous hog. He's burley, strong. The skinny guy in the background's got a paltry bicycle. And yet... With all the horsepower between the big guy's legs... When it comes to figuring out who's got the power remember this... That man in the back wears a gun.

I still love this image and it developed as a result of your input. Some of you were disturbed by a distraction in the upper left hand corner. Oh, don't look for it now... As a result of your emails (and most of our interaction is sill email, I haven't figured that one out...), I covered the sign.

Here on the first birthday of this blog, let me give away a secret. See that tree on the right that forms half of a graceful arch around the actors in this scene? Okay, now look at its twin on the left. See how it reflects in the windows behind it? Look carefully... very carefully.

They say the best work happens when no one notices. I think that happens here, and I'm quite proud of it. What I did was to take the tree on the right and move it also to the left. And I hope until now you didn't notice. Instead I hope you enjoyed the exquisite detail on that foreground bike and the super subtle smirk on the biker's face. I hope you enjoyed the motion blur around the policeman. Yep, I enjoyed working them all into just the right mixture to make my point.

After a year, "Power" still works, don't you think? Hope so... happy anniversary to us all.

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Travel Time

We're off to Rome this weekend, then to Florence. I won't be back into this studio until October 15th. Oh there will be folks playing about here as they move into our home to dog-sit with Rocco and enjoy living for a couple of weeks in downtown Lancaster. I'm told that there're plenty of opportunities to grab some WiFi in those parts of Italy. And I'm reeeely excited that I'll get to meet Andreas Manessinger in Florence. Well, not really meet him, Andreas has become a good friend even though we've never seen one another face-to-face, but on October 6th we'll finally get to share some adult beverages together and talk about the state of humankind into the night in Florence (what better place to become enlightened?). If you'll be in that neighborhood - drop an email to one or the other of us. We could all party.

But, this also means that after a year of almost daily postings, this may be the last until the middle of October. I hope you won't forget to check in from time to time. And use the comments line here ... let everyone get to know you. Maybe, somewhere we'll all get to share those adult beverages together and settle the state of the human condition. Or at least laugh and smile... and see what each of us look like as we do it.

Off an adventure... Hold down the blog... K?

Ted

Son, Father and Crabs

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My friend owns the finest seafood store in Lancaster. I learned crab picking at the kitchen table with my dad. He'd drink beer, I had soda. And at six, seven, or eight years old I'd watch and learned how to break the shells and knife out the meat and listen to dad tell me stories about his week, the Phillies, about his his friends, his life - and through wide wide wide eyes, it'd be so great. A boy and his daddy together on a summer night - eating crabs, talking, laughing, loving.

Now to cut their salty seasoning I drink the beer. And for moments I'm a kid and imagine the PHillies on the radio and it's summer in the city, with my daddy at that tiny breakfast table all aspread with newspapers. And that's why I saw Tim and his son sorting crabs at their seafood shop today through the hazy multi-colored lenses of a summer ritual.

Culture passes from dad to boy.

@ Playwrite

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we stopped at the Playwrite for lunch and other things. It's an Irish pub, Chris on the other hand is of German stock. None of which accounts for gin & tonic after Labor Day... Nope, thirst accounts for that. This place is in the middle of the theater district just off of Broadway and served up the piles of corned beef and cole slaw on bread. I sort of hoped we'd catch some actors filling up before their matinees. Still, it's a typical downtown Manhattan bar. Chris will publish a story about out trip in one of his papers next month. As you can see, we captured the flavor, which happened to be, in this case, the flavor of tonic seasoned with gin.

Neon Night

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The smoker's haven't gaggled here yet. They will.
You look at this place and you know it's a city because rural spots don't have "out-backs" like this. And you know that very nearby there are girls in short skirts, and guys who like girls in short skirts accompanied by a driving bass.
And you know that a neon back alley and a driving bass behind a club are as much a pulse beat of a city as blue skys and brook babbling are to the country. And the cool thing about Lancaser is that it is minutes away from both.