Joseph Pobereskin

My first impression, seeing the previous entry, was shadow.   A very tall shadow.  Gearing-up for today’s turn I was also thinking tennis, court, ball, clay, grass, etc.  Unable to release my mind from a sports and field thing, I was reeling. Then it occurred to me that Russ’ shadow was tall, and the posture somewhat confident.  “Standing tall” became my mantra for today, and this image stood out in my mind. Standing tall, detail in the shadows, fits pretty well.  It’s also blue, contains a flag… pretty much, my signature themes. — Also my last play for this round, a nice parting shot.  Great experience, playing Daily Photo Game.  Thanks to all of my fellow players for the challenge and the inspiration. JP

Capitalizing on the rotunda theme, and being pressed for time, I’ve pulled an image from my files that I made almost exactly twenty one years ago, May 11, 1993.  I had gone to Washington to shoot some travel stock, thinking that it would be my last chance to get out of town for a while as I was expecting the birth of my first child in about six weeks. I’d been there a couple of days and had an idea to shoot The Capitol.  I set-up my camera and my 600mm f4.0 lens on two tripods, right on the center line of Pennsylvania Avenue, and had just begun shooting when a DC policeman came by and told me I had to move, the President was coming through.  My assistant and I picked-up the entire rig and moved off to the sidewalk.  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the President’s motorcade passed.  We waved at Bill Clinton, he waved back, all the cars went by, we picked-up the rig and moved back to the center line.  A few adjustments later I was shooting again. I’d managed to squeeze-off about seventy frames when the same DC policeman from before reappeared, told me I had to move, the President was coming through.  My assistant and I picked-up the entire rig and moved off to the sidewalk.  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the President’s motorcade passed.  We waved at Bill Clinton, he waved back, all the cars went by, we packed-up the rig and went to meet a friend of mine for dinner. Later that night, returning to the hotel, there was a note from the manager stuck to my door, asking me to come to the office.  While I was doing the stock photo thing on Pennsylvania Avenue, my wife had prematurely gone into labor at NYU Medical Center in New York.  We rushed back to NYC over night, dumped the equipment at my studio and made it to the hospital.  My son, Aron, was born the next day. Leaving the hospital that evening, totally exhausted and struggling with the weight of being responsible for someone new, I was attempting to leave the parking lot when a NYC policeman came by, blocked me in and told me to wait, the President was coming through.  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, the President’s motorcade passed.  I waved at Bill Clinton, he waved back, all the cars went by, and I went home to bed.

Literally. Now, let me tell you, my iPhone camera isn’t a DSLR.  I know a lot of people who rely on these cameras 100% (most of them are under 21), but trust me, it’s a phone and not a camera. I’ve been struck by the turn the game has taken the past few days, the gauziness of it, if you will, and I wanted to continue the theme.  I was looking at Russ’ image earlier and thinking of how to respond when I looked out the window and noticed it was snowing.  Snowing!  Then it hit me.  A blanket of snow covering my BBQ grill. A blanket covering Russ’ alien figure, a thin blanket covering Bob’s light fixture, Jay’s blanketed nude, Charley’s red blanket blowing in the wind… and the blankets are thin, see-through.  There I was, looking at the thin blanket of snow through a screen door and it occurred to me to photograph it through the texture of the screen.  I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and began to work the problem. The problem is that the iPhone has no manual focus.  It would only focus on the screen, obscuring the view behind.  It wasn’t allowing me to play on the thin-ness, the texture, or focus where I wanted to focus. I became fixated on the screen, frustrated that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do.  But I remembered that, in response to a series of images Eliot made in 2007 (see, we were playing even then), I’d made a series of images of textures found in my back yard, and one of them was of some window screen material. Well, it’s perfect.  It follows the material theme, it’s gauzy, layered, but not literal… leaving room for David to freely interpret and go wherever. In the meantime, here’s a few of the uncorrected iPhone failures…  

Those who know me well will tell you I have an affinity for round things… well, actually, round food.  Pizza, hamburgers, meatballs, hot dogs (in cross-section), salami (ditto on cross-section), bagels… you get the idea. Okay, this isn’t a food shot, it’s a jet engine.  In fact, it’s a Rolls Royce RB211 Turbofan Jet Engine, and I made this image over the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  But it’s round, it has the warm colors of some of the preceding images as well as the blueness of the image Russ played yesterday (I love to follow Russ with a blue image). It not only matches some of the preceding images, it will jive perfectly with the image David plays tomorrow (usually a rock climbing image in some spectacular natural landscape), making this the perfect preceding image as well as the perfect following image. Take note, Eliot:   this is how defense is played at DPG.  (so glad I got it before it’s game over!) 😉  

Smooth, creamy, colorful… these are the qualities I always strive for in my commercial work.  Playing after Russ, Bob and Jay with their colorful, creamy smooth… and somewhat pristine… images of storefronts in the center of town was a real challenge.  And just like Jay did, I grabbed my camera and hit the bricks. Living in Chicago isn’t quite the same as being a resident of Long Beach, Fullerton, or whatever fictional town exists in the image Russ made in Leland’s model railroad set. The only goal I had in mind was to keep (loosely) to the storefront theme but with my own twist.  I have a penchant for making American flag images and I found several on a short walk (remember, it’s still colddd in Chicago) across Montrose Avenue and then down Lincoln Avenue. I chose to get closer to the storefronts than my fellow players did, hoping to remain colorful on a still drab, wintery day, and quite a bit grittier than the pristine, smooth visages of days past.  The anti-hero to their images. Coincidentally, my two favorites are pretty much the same and it was a difficult choice to make.  The image that didn’t make the cut was to be titled, How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?  But despite the cute factor, the flag was just too new and I discarded it (almost, see it here in the notes). Someday I’m going to solve the mystery of choice, learn whatever it is that makes me choose one image over another when they’re pretty much all the same, but until then it’s just a gut feeling and I’m going with it. And then, there was this one, but…..

As so often happens in this game, one of us will seize upon the color of the previous image (or the texture, or it’s a car) and that takes us down a particular road which requires a magician/navigator to change course… or not.

Defense.  This is a game, after all, and we’re all tempted to play defense. How can you not? The players are so awesome, we unconsciously push each other to be better communicators every day.  Just a couple of days ago Jay Ahrend wrote: “…here I was one day before my turn thinking about the previous 3 posts and thinking ahead to Charley’s upcoming post and the fact that he would probably follow with the ongoing water theme…”  Yes, Jay was playing defense. I do it too.  I remember that back in November, just a few months ago, I was trying to follow a theme that seemed unsinkable, playing a few days ahead of the actual game, when Russ changed the direction of the game rather unexpectedly.  It was the same day I made the image I played in Urbanize It!  Well, here we are, and as my turn sneaked-up on me (I didn’t realize it was my turn today until it was almost too late to post) I realized I’d let my attention slip, I took my eye off the ball.  Not as great a defensive player as I thought I was… until I remembered the leaf image.  The game has come full circle, we’re back to a water theme, Russ played a rain drop image, I have one too, and, it’s a Daily Photo Game original. Catch a falling leaf, put it in your pocket, save it for a day to play rain.

It’s 19° In Chicago.  Another beautiful day in our never-ending winter and, seeing the last couple of images by Bob & Russ, I was struck by the disparity in our situations.  Both of them… or should I say, all of my DPG colleagues… enjoy consistently warmer climes than I do. What’s that got to do with anything?  Moving away from skeletal remains and pickled brains, Jay posted a cabbage which led to Bob and his Field of Dreams, then Russ and his Side Trip. The cabbage, the field of cabbages with diminishing perspective, the stand of poplars with both perspective and repetitive verticals… oh, “and I’ll just be a minute…” I’m longing for warmer weather, the warmth of summer, which is typically signaled by the return, the re-opening, of farm stands lush with produce fresh from the field.  Every time I see one I’m compelled to stop (and shop) and make photographs.  And every time, my companion, whether a long-suffering child or significant other, has told me: “that was longer than a minute!”  As if this son of a watchmaker doesn’t know how to tell time. Of course, if I told the truth, if I’d said, “hang on an hour, will ya, while I stop and (shop and) make pictures,” I’d have been murdered years ago.  Of course, then we’d be right back to pictures of decomposing skeletal remains. It’s the circle of life, or, as Russ would say, “a career in photography has been one continual side trip.”

Following Empty Pocket by Russ Widstrand was a tall order.  I kept thinking to myself, “empty pocket, empty pocket, what am I going to do?”  

ORD is the three letter code for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where you’ll find this underground walkway between the terminals.  It reminds me of the paint aisle at a Home Depot:  an explosion of color, albeit a bit better organized than your average junk yard (see “Pop Cars,” by Russ Widstrand, yesterday).