Framing the Sound

Category: Wintertime

  • Framing the Sound

    Camera and chords; two different subjects but one love for both. That’s my dilemma (it’s not really).

    I’ve been strummin a six-string guitar for over 50 years. My time pressin the shutter on a camera started around 20 years ago. I never thought photography would overtake my love of playin acoustic guitar.

    I wish I could say that I’ve played guitar in bands for most of those 50 years but I can’t. I’d guess 10 years, give or take, is about all the time I spent playin in bands. I still wonder where I’d be if, IF I had somehow managed to make a career of it. Not so much as a rock star, just a guitarist playin gigs, and earning enough for survival. And maybe, just maybe havin a chance to play with a national act once or twice.

    I also wonder what a career as a photographer might’ve brought. A chance to meet Ansel Adams or Diane Arbus? Perhaps. I’ve made a few dollars shootin a weddin or three and a few senior photo sessions for friends have been profitable. I made a weak attempt at startin a photography business but was immediately discouraged by the amount of time and effort required for self-promotion and gave up.

    So, I guess you could say I did what the average(?) American white male does – they either get a job right out of high school (I’m a Baby Boomer by the way), or they quit school and join the Navy. I missed the proverbial bus that might’ve carried me to a career in music or photography.

    In retirement now I spend time enjoyin both. They’re much loved hobbies, and every so often, I’ll make a few dollars at a gig or from a print. And that’s fine with me because I think doin what you love in retirement is just as enjoyable as the career might have been.

    That’s my dad on the left holdin the guitar, not sure of the year but lets just say it was a long time ago.
    That’s me on the left, playin djembe with a couple of close friends.
    Self-portrait, 2019, Winter.

  • It Is What It Is

    I’ve heard those 5 words more than I care to, and yet, I find myself uttering them on occasion. What does it mean when you use that phrase?

    I discovered that it’s a tautophrase – “A phrase or sentence that tautologically defines a term by repeating that term.” I don’t remember studying tautology in any of my literary criticism classes in college, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Go here to read the definition.

    It’s probably okay to use it in tenses too. With “it is what it is” being the present tense, “it was what it was” the past tense, and “it will be what it will be” the future tense. I use those on occasion, even though I think they’re all inelegant phrases.

    Nevertheless, one of my college English lit professors told me that as a writer I can use any phrase I choose if it suits what I’m trying to communicate to readers. She said I can even make up my own words or a phrase if it gets my point across. So, I’ll leave yall with this one:

    It’s not what it’s not.

  • Have you heard what I saw?

    Since the name of my blog is “Framing The Sound” and the purpose is to write about my attempt to merge photography and music I think I should elaborate a little more about what that means.

    Music, specifically the acoustic guitar, has been a part of my life since childhood. One of my earliest memories of an acoustic guitar is seeing my father play. It’s probably one of only a handful of halfway pleasant memories I have from back then. He would sometimes have me or my brother hold a harmonica to his lips while he played. I guess the kind you buy in a music store weren’t widely available back then.

    Photography is something that came along years after I picked up my first guitar. After graduating in 2006 with a degree in English Writing I got a job writing a weekly gardening column for a local newspaper and needed photos of garden related things, mostly flowers. About this same time I met a garden writer from Mississippi, Felder Rushing. He took his own photos and I thought if he can do it so could I.

    My first guitar was a Sigma acoustic, Martin used to make them. That guitar went wherever I went, including on a submarine during my stint in the Navy. It now lives with my oldest son in Kentucky and he says it sounds and plays just as good if not better than any Martin guitar. I’m inclined to agree, but not entirely since I own and play a Martin D28 (which has always been the guitar I dreamt of owning).

    My first “real” camera was a Sony Cyber-shot DSC H1. It was quite an expensive camera at that time, around $400. (My Sigma guitar cost about the same in 1973.) The Sony camera was great and took really nice photos, I didn’t know anything about photography when I first got it. After using the photos in more than a few gardening articles, I felt like photography was something I’d like to explore a little further. And that led to my present day journey of “Framing The Sound.”

    It’s a journey I’m still learning to navigate. And I’m seeing sounds and hearing photographs that are urging me to combine and shape them into sounds and sights that you can see and hear too.

    My father is first one from the left.
    Sony Cyber-shot DSC H1
    Last summer’s forgotten pepper
    Sigma DR35, circa 1970s, if it could talk…! (Photo courtesy of Benjamin Conner)

    If it makes you scratch your head, leave a comment!

  • Valentine’s Day

    Valentine’s Day

    He was a saint it’s said. I guess if you were around back then you probably would’ve been very lucky to have him as a friend. After all, love is kind of related to St. Valentine and the day named after him. Christian folk are especially familiar with St. Valentine, but as is the case with a lot of traditional holidays, the meaning behind it often gets lost in candy and toys.

    I often overlook the meaning behind Christian holidays. I’m guilty of wanting this or that for Christmas instead of giving serious thought to what it’s really all about – the birth of Jesus Christ. I’m guilty of forgetting to give thanks at Thanksgiving, I instead load more mashed potatoes and turkey on top of what’s already on my plate.

    I forget the meaning of Easter shortly after sunrise, and before noon I’m grabbing a handfull of jelly beans in one hand and several candy marshmallow bunnies in the other. Washing it all down with my favorite hazy IPA. Halloween is another holiday that for me has lost all meaning except for how many candy orange slices I can eat before having to clean out the melted sugar that gets stuck to my gums and teeth.

    I should probably make a few changes and try to remember the “why” behind those holidays. But at my age that just doesn’t make much sense. Or if it does, I’ll probably forget what it was.

  • When Winter Ends

    And the warmth of spring begins that’s when my brain slowly but surely signals the rest of my body to start preparations for another new gardening season. It also tells me to start planning for a new photography season as well. Let me explain…

    I’m not a cold weather photographer, never have been and probably never will be. Me and cold don’t get along at all. I might brave the cold for a short walk with my camera to where my back yard meets the tangled woodlot after the first snow, and after Old Man Winter decides to slack off for a while.

    A day or two after that first snow melts, Nature reveals the tangled, cold, wet, soggy woodlot behind my house. Maybe I’m just a cynical old man when it comes to trying to be a winter photographer. But I always lose my cynical outlook when spring returns and I hear the first chirps of tree frogs, and robins with their confusing but pleasant song of “is…it…spring…or…still…win…ter?”

    If you’re wondering what helps get me through these forever lasting northeast winters, it has six strings and the wood it’s made from might just be related to those trees in that woodlot I mentioned.

  • Before I Leave

    As each year comes and goes I find myself wondering when it’ll be my turn to depart this Pale Blue Dot? Along with that open-ended question, I’m sure you’re familiar with this one too: “Why am I here?” And this one: “What should I do with my life?” There are no easy answers for such existentialist ponderings.

    68 years ago, Act 1, Scene 1

    Someone told me several years ago that “it’s all just part of the movie.” Are we all just actors in the same movie? Kind of an interesting way to look at life isn’t it? Instead of trying to figure out why I’m here and what should I do with my life (or what I should have done) it’s much easier and less stressful to play the part.

    You might ask what that part is. I think it’s just being a good human. Nothing more, nothing less.

  • Artistic Vision – A Creative, Critical Thinking Exploration

    I think I mentioned before that I’m a member of an online photography group. It’s one of, if not the best photography investments I’ve ever made. This is my second year and the journey this investment is taking me on has become something of a phenomenon.

    One of the first things I did as a member was take a course titled “Discovering Your Vision,” by Blake Rudis, the founder of the group. I was kind of overwhelmed by some of the course content as I’m not at all familiar with how my brain can help me take better photos. Which has led to the journey I’m on now – discovering my vision.

    A few other f/64 members and I decided to retake the “Discovering Your Vision” course together. We formed a discussion group to help us better understand what this journey entails. Of course this journey of discovery will be quite unique for each of us.

    We’re in our first week of “the journey” and one very important thing I’ve discovered so far is that I better start taming my somewhat cynical attitude towards Artistic Vision. If it is a part of who I am, and if it’s always been there, undiscovered, I want a more personal relationship with it.

  • Sounds Need Framed

    Determining what design to use for a website/blog that’s about photography and music isn’t as easy as I’d like it to be.

    Do you have any suggestions? I would certainly be most appreciative if you could share a few.

    Comment below and tell me what you know!

  • History Repeats Itself

    And I decided to return to WordPress for hosting tcconner.com. I will delete my Blogger blog, and I would appreciate your feedback on my new website here.

    Thanks!

  • Hello World!

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