The (un)project plods ever-onward, though my motivation continues to ooze like so much… well, I forget exactly where I was going with that simile.

Alas, the Fringe Festival wound to a close for another year this past weekend, and though I spent most of that weekend locked in a dark, curtained room sorting other people’s photos on a computer, I did manage to sneak out once or twice to grab a few shots of my own. I won’t claim that this year’s pics are among my better works. Most were trying too hard. You know how that goes, right? You try to do something funky, and it bites. It’s that Gap question again, though. Filling The Gap with creative fodder. Every bad picture is a good learning experience. I mean, there are some that are kinda artsy and interesting, like this one of the Slush Puppies machine at some unnamed food vendor booth. But there are lots that are less interesting. It’s always a challenge to shoot the Fringe, and that challenge increases when you’re limited to twenty minute intervals between shift changes. Sigh. Next year. Next year.

I opted for something a little more basic on Sunday evening. I mean, it was a beautiful day. It was the warmest day (literally) we’ve had since May 2010. The sun was shining. There was a bit of a breeze. It was awesome. But instead of going out on a photo expedition, Karin and I went furniture shopping. True, it was furniture shopping in air conditioned comfort. We got to wander around dimly lit caverns of upholstered newness, being called sir by desperate salesmen on sunny summer Sunday afternoon that was probably the worst day of the decade to be trying to sell a couch. So that wasn’t too bad. And it wasn’t a waste, because we made some buys… so less shopping in the future, right? But I left my camera at home, and was forced to reserve my photography for later that evening when Claire was freshly home from a weekend adventure with her grandparents. I caught her blowing bubbles on the deck. It was very tricky getting her to cooperate. I’d count to three and take a photo. But she’d start blowing on one. You’d think I’d have figured that out a little quicker.

Last night it was too hot for anything. My arm was sore for some reason. I burnt my kneecap with the laptop computer. “How hot was it?” I was sweating profusely, and the sky was that mangled dark and foreboding sort of sky that is threatening something, but even it was too hot to be bothered figuring out what it was threatening. I sneaked away to the relative cool of the basement and tried to set up my 25 cent light-box once again. It’s not a real light-box. It’s some printer paper curled up against the leg of a chair, the chair holding an Ikea lamp at various angles to light the scene, and me with my macro lens a few inches away trying to grab something interesting without too much effort. It’s more of an experiment in three things: (a) lighting, (b) white balance, and (c) shadows… all of which are three sides of the same coin, I know. (I wanted a three-pointed list. You caught me!) But in the end, I dug out some of my old smurf figurines and they got to be the models. It had mixed results. The 25 cent light-box is reaching its limits of what it can teach me. Maybe. A couple more shoots and we’ll see what emerges, I guess.

Eight more days of (un)project. And just a reminder, I’m open to some ideas.