Diwali

Every year at work, they hold a big event in the courtyard on main campus for Diwali, which is basically the Indian festival of lights. As a photographer, when someone says "Festival of Lights", my ears perk up, and I wasn't disappointed. Hundreds of candles get lit, and this year they brought sparklers. Recalling how happy I was at that birthday in Vegas with this kind of light, I figured it'd be an interesting opportunity for some portraits. Really liked this one, which worked well even in the pretty fitful light of fireworks and all those candles.

I won't say I had an instant rapport with the subject, but when she asked my name, she said, "Oh, you're that Brandon who takes all those great photos!", so I may have been pressured into exceeding expectations. ;)

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Speaking of portraits, if you're up in SF tonight, local photographer Julie Michelle is holding a reception for her "I Live Here: SF" show at the SOMA Arts Cultural Center tonight.

"I Live Here: SF" is based on a cool premise -- Julie basically would take a photograph of anyone who contacted her who lived in SF. She'd ask them to pick a spot that was special to them, and then she'd go there, photograph the person, and find their story. SF being SF, she had an instant cast of characters.

It's an interesting project to me photographically because Julie has to solve two different problems with each person: Not only does she have the challenge of making a given person interesting, she also has to use their environment to do something special. And since the project stretches over some time, you can watch how she gets better at doing this, which is a great way to figure out some things for yourself.

It's from 6-9pm tonight, and I'll be there. I can't exactly say I'm supporting the "Local arts" since I live on the peninsula, but I'll guess I'll be there to 'support all art in a 50 mile radius', which is probably good enough.