Jason M. Parker | Social media marketing, kid raising, art photographing, thought musing, occasional blogging

I barely write blog posts any more. Between my day (and night, and weekend) job, Art Relish, graduate school and family, it’s very difficult to find time to write longer posts. All those words, all together at once? Jeez.

But I have to note some recent successes. I was asked by Carolina Gallery to be the juror for their recent photography invitational competition. “Who, me?” I asked. Sometimes I am modest. Closely followed by, “Wow, sure!” One thing I am very good at is looking at pictures and talking about them. There was some very strong work in the show. Laura Noel’s “Red Rocket, 2007″ from her Love and Rockets series stood out for its craft, humor and historical awareness.

Laura Noel's "Red Rocket, 2007"

Here’s what I wrote:

“This image elevates its snapshot style with a sophisticated visual sense and coherent concept. The obvious reference is to Lee Friedlander’s style and ‘The American Monument’ in particular, along with a healthy dose of the wit of Robert Frank or Martin Parr. I’m intrigued by its simultaneous strangeness and familiarity, and the image’s acknowledgment of its author in the shadow. Crossing the lines between casual humor and formal beauty make this an outstanding piece of work.”

Congratulations to Laura! I’ve since browsed her website and she’s got a very clear and consistent vision. Consistent vision counts for a lot when everyone is a photographer, and critical to being an artist.

On Saturday I live streamed video of the talk between High Museum photography curator Julian Cox and photographer Mark Steinmetz. This was exciting as it was the first time I’ve attempted a live stream for Art Relish, and it turned out that I’d actually taken a photography class from Steinmetz back in 93 or 94 at UGA. It worked beautifully. Concept proved. I look forward to doing more of these, though with better lighting.

Then on Sunday it was back to work. Wait, it was all work. I shot and printed some of my own photographs for my current class. I’m very much looking forward to being done with graduate school this year. After more than five years of one course at a time, I only have two more to go until I’m validated with an MFA. Of course, that assumes I pass my review (please, oh please).

This week it’s Tybee time. I look forward to being out of touch, if only for a day. Now how do I say all this again in 140 characters or less?

I’ve finally found some time to do a new video interview for Art Relish. It’s been a while.

I was happy to meet Jennifer Schwartz at her gallery and the work on the walls looks great. Ron Hughes, formerly of Composition Gallery, is going to bring a lot to his new role as gallery director at Schwartz.

Tech notes: Since my latest favorite video camera, the Kodak Zi8, doesn’t handle mixed lighting well/at all and has no white balance adjustment, I’m going to need to start bringing lights with me. If they could add some kind of manual WB setting that would be awesome, but I don’t really expect a whole lot from a $180 camera. The microphone input is a dream come true in itself. Today I’m expecting a new microphone to arrive and that should take care of our ambient noise issue to make sound even better. That’s what I’m excited about right now.

Final Cut is doing something wonky with my transitions, so I’ve had to cut them out mostly. Has anyone else seen … I don’t even know what to call them … frame skips(?) after adding any kind of transition? I’ve talked with a FC pro and he’s never seen it before. I could export a raw, full-quality file, re-import and that might solve the problem, but who has time for extra steps? So it’s always a learning experience.

Regardless, I’m happy to finally have a new interview up. Enjoy.