Chasing Light

San Simeon | Ragged Point

Nikon D300, 80-200mm Nikkor.

Ragged Point © Doug Kim

Sofia Aristotelis

Things happen, the day grows older, measured in moments and the mundane minutiae of right now; there are tasks, events, drama, weddings, the accumulation of responsibilities and obligations, all of these pile up on top of each other and account for the passage of time.

And then sometimes, sometimes, a child wanders in, oblivious, magical, barely held down by gravity to this earth, in a complete pre-Copernican world, the sun revolving around them and only them, strewing charm, wonder, and flower petals in their wake.

Sofia Aristotelis, Dan & Heather's wedding, Nikon F5, 80-200mm, Kodak Tri-X

Sofia Aristotelis, Dan & Heather's wedding, Nikon F5, 80-200mm, Kodak Tri-X

Sofia Aristotelis, Dan & Heather's wedding, Nikon F5, 80-200mm, Kodak Tri-X

Sofia Aristotelis, Dan & Heather's wedding, Nikon F5, 80-200mm, Kodak Tri-X

Sharon Olds | The One Girl at the Boys Party

St. Maarten's, Nikon D300, 80-200mm © Doug Kim

The One Girl at the Boys Party

When I take my girl to the swimming party
I set her down among the boys. They tower and
bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek,
her math scores unfolding in the air around her.
They will strip to their suits, her body hard and
indivisible as a prime number,
they’ll plunge in the deep end, she’ll subtract
her height from ten feet, divide it into
hundreds of gallons of water, the numbers
bouncing in her mind like molecules of chlorine
in the bright blue pool. When they climb out,
her ponytail will hang its pencil lead
down her back, her narrow silk suit
with hamburgers and french fries printed on it
will glisten in the brilliant air, and they will
see her sweet face, solemn and
sealed, a factor of one, and she will
see their eyes, two each,
their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes,
one each, and in her head she’ll be doing her
sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body.

-Sharon Olds, (1983)

Sharon Olds by David Bartolomi

Tompkins Square Park

There was a punk rock show in Tompkins Square Park last weekend, an anniversary of a big riot there in ‘86 when the park was full of punk squatters and dealers. That was back when going to a hardcore punk show many times had a strong element of danger and fear; fear of getting stomped, sometimes fear of the police, or just in general, fear of getting hurt.

So seeing reunion shows or bands that are still performing 20 years later is always a dicey proposition. I remember at the tail end of the summer in DC in ‘84, everyone was agreeing that hardcore was dead and you could feel the energy of the scene move elsewhere. I kept going to shows but they were not the same. Sometimes these shows are depressing. We’re all old and slow and fat and should know more than three chords by now. Other times, you remember the energy and the reason why you went to every show. Plus seeing the East Village Whole Foods crowd with their little doggies watching the show was funny.

This was a good show. Mongrel Bitch, Urban Waste, Hammerbrain, Nihilistics and Reagan Youth.

When I moved to New York in January, I met Laura of Mongrel Bitch while looking at apartments. She gave me the heads up on the show so thanks, Laura.

L. Brownia, Mongrel Bitch

Laura Sativa, Mongrel Bitch

Charlottica, Mongrel Bitch

Mongrel Bitch

Ron Rancid, Nihilistics

Nihilistics

The only time I saw Reagan Youth was in 1985 or ‘86 at the Rock Against Reagan show on national mall in DC. That was a long time ago, with a massive outdoor crowd, cops driving their cars through the crowd periodically, helicopters overheard. Dave Rubinstein has long since passed.

Pat McGowan, Reagan Youth

What would a hardcore punk show be without David Peel. He still looks exactly the fucking same.

David Peel

And to cap it off, I got my feet puked on and I was only wearing flip flops.

this fucker. don't know what he ate but it looked like mabo tofu when it came out

Willow Springs Racetrack | Turn Five

I spent two years shooting the club racing circuit in California and it was a challenge for numerous reasons. Technically and aesthetically, road racing shots are incredibly boring: the same shot of a guy on a knee at a turn over and over again. Even at some tracks, the racers complain that the track shooters take exactly the same picture of them at the same turn every year.

I wanted to convey the speed of racing. I picked one of the best turns in SoCal, turn five at Willow Springs racetrack for shooting. The turn comes after a succession of s-curves and is at the top of a hill so that the racers tend to accelerate as they get ready for a downhill s-curve then a big stretch of flat.

I was shooting film and trying for a whip pan effect. I didn’t want to track the racer and have him or her be in focus with the background blurred. I wanted the rider and the background both blurred with the racer and bike an intelligible smear on the frame.

It took several months and many rolls of film to finally nail down the technique which was to have the aperture shut down, almost at f22 in the bright California sun, and to shoot at sub 1/60 shutter speeds. I was also whipping so fast that I would press the shutter when the bike wasn’t even in the frame, then whip the lens right to left, following through so that my lens was almost behind me. There were many, many blurred empty frames until I started getting my timing right.

I must say after all of this effort, I think I finally created an image that conveys the sense of speed of road racing.

Nikon F5, 80-200mm, Kodak Tri-X © Doug Kim

Sussuration

Su·sur·ra·tion, noun. A faint, indistinct, or background sound resembling whispering; murmur.

St. Maartens, Nikon D300, 80-200mm © Doug Kim

African White-backed Vultures

Seeing White-backed Vultures in the wild at Kruger National Park is a wholly different thing from seeing turkey vultures by the side of the road, picking at some road kill. These vultures are massive beasts, almost twice the size of the turkey vulture. Like every clichéd rendering of them, they hang out only in leafless dead trees because of their large wing span.

They are some graceful and spooky motherfuckers.

Mono | Le Poisson Rouge

If you ever have the chance to see Mono, run. Do not walk.

Shot for Giant Robot 05.09.09.

mono

taka

yoda

taka

yoda

tamaki

Soignée

From Merriam-Webster:

Soi·gnée, adj. Etymology: French, from past participle of soigner to take care of

1 : well-groomed, sleek
2 : elegantly maintained or designed

Betsy Stockwell in Vera Wang; Nikon D300, 80-200mm © Doug Kim

Bike Wreck at Buttonwillow

I found it to be extremely tough to shoot bike wrecks. Not for lack of trying. When shooting a race, you are normally viewing the world through a long lens, focused on a single rider or pack of riders on a far turn. When you finally take the camera from your eye, you see the cloud of dust and wreckage right in front of you and the ambulance already on its way.

After shooting two seasons of the club racing circuit in California, I was able to capture a handful of wrecks on film. Here is the sequence of the only one in color from the Buttonwillow Raceway Park in November of 2005. Shot with a Nikon D200, 80-200mm.

Click here to view an animated gif of the wreck.