Clarity

I don't exactly know if there is an appropriate place for me to talk about...whatever this is. But a low readership blog seems like it might be a good place for honesty. This place is a rolodex of memory for me in a way, so maybe it's a good place for this:

Every once in a while things are clear. I’m not sure if that’s a statement that’s true to everyone, but it is for me. There are a lot of metaphors for how I feel most of the time. It’s either grown slowly, or it has always been there. but when *it* lifts, the world is so much…clearer I guess?

ADHD is one possibility. Some guy with a lot of Native American drums once diagnosed me. And some lady with bare walls once gave me medicine. I didn’t take it for long enough to know if it worked. It seemed to, near the end, vaguely. But I was on Summer vacation, and the school’s mental health clinic was closed to me at the time. So I ran out. And I guess the fog, if its there at all must have thickened up again.

That’s the problem with deciding if you have a problem like this. *If* I do, it’s been there the whole time. And without putting on metaphorical glasses, the world has always looked like this to me.

Here are a few metaphors for what this feels like:

-A battlefield of ideas where everyone wears the same uniform.
-A spider web, where my thoughts can progress and get caught along the way. The inertia slowing.
-A sandstorm
-A fog
-A whirlwind

The most apt one has always seemed to be a whirlwind. I’m at the center. All the ideas are circling at different speeds, knocking into each other. To focus on one I reach out and grasp at it. It’s moving so sometimes this takes more focus than others. The strength of the wind varies.

And now we come to clarity. Sometimes the wind dies. Dust lifted from the ground along with ideas and memories settle down. And I can organize them. Group them. I can see them. And what’s amazing is I can ignore them too. I can pick one up and just walk around with it, turn it over in my hands. But eventually and sometimes suddenly the wind picks up again.

I don’t know if this is just *life* or if this calm desert hardpan is what everyone else sees. Perhaps my ratios are just off. With more dust storms than most people. Maybe everyone has them, but they’re occasional annoyances.

So, if anyone reads this these days, what does your desert look like? Is it as tumultuous as mine? Or calm most of the time?

Moving.

So I'm going to be making that move now. Photography news and the like will now be situated www.danjclarkphoto.com/blog. Hope to see you there.

City Moves

I recently photographed a dance show entitled "City Moves". It was a collaboration of Las Vegas Strip performers, CSN and others and it was fantastic. I was asked to provide photography for the event, and this is what I produced:

I can't take even half the credit for these, because the choreographers, dancers, stage lighting, and a long list of other people are responsible for most of the artwork here.

The Occupation

I headed out to Occupy Las Vegas last night for their first night of physical 'occupation'. It was very interesting. There's a lot of heart in the movement, and they're very accepting of new people and new ideas. They're part of the overall Occupy movement, but they're not afraid of doing things differently than other Occupations.

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:

In an effort to...

...keep this thing updated I now share with you a seriously unguided post. It's a good idea to have a direction when you post something. It keeps readers engaged, and lets them know where something is going. You do not have that luxury (Unless you're me, which is more likely. In which case you know exactly where this is going.)

Lost *spoilers*

I know. I'm the last person on earth to watch Lost, but shut up. I'm halfway through the final season and I'm realizing that LOST is MYST. Just think about it.

Occupy Wall St.

I definitely knew this thing would be big. And I want to be involved, but then again I also want to eat, and pay rent.



Oh! Road Rage.

What the hell is up with people. So I cut off some guy the other day. He followed me for two miles. And when I got to somewhere I had to stop he pulled in front of me and got out of his car. Walked stormed over to me and began yelling incoherently. I (from the safety of my locked car) told him that I had indeed already said I was sorry for cutting him off. Then he began hitting my window with great force. I think he might have hurt himself. My window is fine. Then he kicked my car. I think he hurt himself there too. My door is not fine.

Anywho. I'll post some photos of something sometime. This blog needs some pretty rectangles.

Tense.

Ever step up to a ledge, be it the edge of a cliff or the edge of a swimming pool, and feel your body prepare? Not a physical tensing of the muscles, that's what happens *next*. What I'm describing is anticipation I guess, but the raw feeling. It's this transition moment of potential I'm pointing to.

That's what I feel sometimes in my head. It's infuriating sometimes, getting past that ledge. I'll just wait and wait and the revelation won't come. Then, later by some magic what it is will come to light. Usually after I've moved on.

This is similar to another phenomenon I also find frustrating. This one is this sudden onset of a mental pause. It's like I come to a log across my path. And I stop. And I look at it wondering what it is. And I can't get past it. Then I realize it's freaking log and just climb over it.

This happens with simple things like, say, applesause. I'll be stoked about eating some applesause. Freakin awesome delicious applesause. Then I get sidetracked by something else momentarily, like a news story, or a bunny. Then, for all the salt in the sea I can't remember what it is I wanted to do. I'll sit there. Staring in the direction of what I wanted to do. "It's that way." I'll think to myself. "It was....tasty?" Time passes, I have no idea how much, Then, pow, I remember.

Daniel Clark/Las vegas Review-Journal

I now work for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They even pay me! I doubt anyone cares, but I will create a breif timeline of events to explain. Maybe this will be nice for me to look at in the future.

I am at my parents house. My brother comes home and informs me that there's some sort of sutuation over by my old high school. Against better judgement and logic I set off to see what's going on. I learn that there is what appears to be a hostage situation gouing on. No one can get close, unless they're me, and sneaky.

So I creep a bit, a man says to me, "Hey, want to see some smoke?" I tell him that I indeed would like to see some smoke. Se co down one dead end road and if you peer in between two houses you can see smoke wafting from the house where the alleged hostage situation is going on. I approach and find that from the backyard of these houses, I could see the whole situation below me. I wait. An old woman comes out of her home into her backyard. I ask her for entry, and I get in. Taking photos noone else has access to I phone the RJ. I ask them if they wanty them. They say yes. I finish up shooting and rush to a place to edit. I do, and then I send them off.

I get a call from the editor.

"These are great." "If we were running a story on this, these are the ones we'd use." (And various other nice things.) So I ask him if I could maybe meet him for coffee, just to talk about the photojournalism world. He tells me, "We have coffee here at the office, why don't you come down sometime?"

I go. We meet, he tells me that the photo world is inundated with new talent, and I'd probably have to get more school, or go somewhere else for a job in journalism. Another guy takes a look at my portfolio. He says that I need to trim it down, way down.

I leave.

I edit my portfolio, and I contact the person who'd looked at my portfolio. He invites me down again. We talk about my work, and he says that there's a lot going on at the paper right now and the photo editor I'd talked to was no longer the editor. We shake hands, and he tells me he'll shop my portfolio around when I edit it down and make it perfect.

I begin doing that.

Then, a phone call from a number I do not know as I sit watching TV. It's the interim photo editor, he tells me that he has work for me. The next day I do my first assignment, go to the office, and sign paperwork as a stringer.

People who need to ne thanked and without whom this wouldn't have happened:

Justin Yurkanin (Helped me with my portfolio, and showed my portfolio to people)
kevin Cannon (Interim photo editor who has given me this chance)
Jeffrey Scheid (Who let me come meet him at the RJ office, and looked at those initial photos)
Sean Clark (Who looked up the RJ phone number while I was shooting)
Deanna Jones (Who supported me and my crazyness)
My Parents (Who put me through school, which allowed me to develop the skill to do this)
And really a lot of people. Like...a lot. David Calvert, Amy Beck, Brian BBenedict, Jessica Estepa, Peter Goin, all my professors (art and jour)...

Seriously, without the help of others this path would have been nearly impossible. I'm not there yet, so don't think I'm just cosating along at this point. There's a lot of proving left to do.

New Blog

So, Wix, who hosts my current portfolio www.DanJClarkPhoto.com, is going to be adding blog capability in the coming weeks. (They've been saying that since February) But as soon as they do I'll be starting up a new blog there. maybe something to the effect of "Beyond Doors" or maybe just "Blog". Not sure yet.

I'll still keep this one here, but it will be like the underground edition of my life. It will feature my rants and my more eccentric posts. The blog on my website will become the photo heavy, project update type thing. But I guess we'll see if they even get their blog up and running. Heh.

New Project

So the wedding is gearing up for a wonderful year long roller coaster ride of planning and stress. Flowers, honeymoon, tux, dress, alterations, boots (yeah boots), and so much other stuff its insane. I think that there kind of is an entrance exam for marriage. And it's this part. Okay, that aside, I have a new project.

When I was younger my friend Gabe and I created comics. He and I collaborated on content and I drew them. Given my remedial skills as an illustrator, we kind of looked like the same person in the comics. And, while the storyline was kind of there, I like to think we'll have more depth this time around. We're going to attempt a comic about childhood. A sort of blend of reality and fantasy. I found that after drawing long lanky characters all my life, drawing kids is freaking hard. (As I said to both Gabe and Deanna because I thought myself clever: "They're all big heads and tiny arms. Like a T-Rex, but less cool.")

So now gabe and I are working on a story and character models. I see the comic starting out playfully, but dealing with some real issues as the story progresses. Possible things to tackle:

Is what is happening (aliens, dinosaurs, etc.) actually real?
If not, then is the other friend even real?
And probably more, lol. I have some sketches I'd like to share now.

Anon Post: 01

Anonymous will become a social movement very soon. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet.