Important July Closing Information

I would like to let all my clients know that Lucid Musings will be closed from June 26 until July 28. Part family trip, part personal vacation, and part photo project throughout the former Yugoslavia. I am hoping to capture some exciting and important images of this tortured and beautiful part of the world, with a particular reflection on the conflicts of the 1990's. All orders, bookings and commercial requests will be handled immediately upon my return. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused during my extended absence and look forward to offering you the full service you are used to again at the end of July.

The Many Faces of Eastern Europe

In keeping with my new photo project, I thought I would post some of the many faces I had the opportunity to take images of on my last Russian/Chernobyl/Maramures project in 1996. There is nothing more distinct than a face, in each is a story to be told, as different for the interpreter as for the subject.

Movin' on Up!

It is with great excitement that I would like to let all Lucid Musings clients past, present and future know that I've moved my studio. Now located above "The Flower Shop...and more" at 147 Queen St. East in St. Marys, I will still be offering my usual location Commercial, Wedding, Portrait services, and continue my in-house framing services. Only now, I will also be able to offer a substantial studio experience and enhanced client viewing facilities in my new open concept loft. Although some fine details still need work, I am open and invite you to pop in and see me and my great new digs:-) Also in the same situation is my new website, so if you can't get over to see me, be sure to check out my great (and almost done) new web presence at http://www.lucidmusings.com/ or give me a call at 519-284-0858.

1 Week and 1 Day in Fidel's....I Mean...Raul's Cuba

Viva la Cuba! In April I had the pleasure of not only being a guest (and photographer) at the wedding of my best friend in Playa Larga, Cuba, but also got to scratch the surface of this most distinct of Caribbean islands. Other than a youthful read through 'The Motorcycle Diaries', Che Guevera's personal awakening road trip through South America, my knowledge of anything remotely Cuban, in the historical sense, prior to March was limited. The obvious Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs, last Communist bastion in the Western Hemisphere, run by some bearded dictator named Fidel since the 50's details. A basic perusing of the front pages of Cuba 101 textbooks. Flying into Varadero on an all inclusive package (bottom end all inclusive hotels vs. air only into Cuba from Canada is price-wise negligible and even though my personal mind-set on travel balks at the resort lifestyle, an airport transfer and a bed on the 9:30 arrival night was worth $60.00 to me for mere piece of mind), I had my first taste of Cuban bureaucracy. With my camera bag in tow as a carry on, I was accused as being a foreign journalist and spent a good 45 minutes in going through immigration (although I almost made it out, before the grabbed me, giving no explanation). Maybe it was the presence of so many foreigners, or maybe it was my lack of patience surrounding the ludicrous situation, but I decided to confront the final immigration official outright and say that this is ridiculous and that I had better not miss my airport transfer-the reason I payed that extra money for in the first place. A smile and a somewhat lighthearted where/when discussion of my plans got me on the bus to Varadero. I began to realized that although Cuba is considered Communist, it is apparent that it is not the cold/grey affair so apparent in the Communist weaned countries throughout Eastern Europe I am so familiar with.

This would not be my only exposure to this Cuban official 'laissez-faire' attitude towards me. In Playa Larga, I was out of luck for a room (rooms are limited in this dusty Bay of Pigs town, the only hotel closed and just enough beds at Casa Particulars for the few foreign divers that end up here), so my friends new wife suggested I stay at their house. Under well written Cuban guidebook rules and regulations it states that staying with a local without the proper visa/documentation is a 'grande problema' for the owner of the home, which could result in a large fine, or worse, for the Cuban homemaker. Well, after a phone call a military vehicle arrived and a quick glance through my passport and a piece of obligatory left-over wedding cake for the 2 officers, my bed for the weekend was sealed. Would this happen under Kruschev, Ceausescu, or even under 'democratic' Putin, without proper stamps and hassles-not, not likely. Then again, a $20.00 bill got me my home stay visa stamped and dated, in a darkened hotel in the sticks of Russia, when last I travelled there, no questions asked, so who's to say?

Cuba is, however much more than bureaucracy. It is a country of hardships we can only imagine, hidden behind the walls and doorways of Havana and felt throughout the clapboard farming regions scattered throughout the blinding beauty of this tortured land, but it is also a country coming of age in a slow and unpredictable transformation.

One that many foreign visitors will never see, carted like ants in and out of their all-inclusive home away from home, 'McDonalds in the center of Rome' comforts. A comment from the tour-guide on my multi-resort bus en route for the ultimate family beach playground for some and round-the-clock drink your face off sessions for others, really hit me. Under new regulations instilled by Fidel's brother Raul, Cubans are now allowed to buy cellphones, DVD players, computers, (if they can afford it) and cross the lines of apartheid which, until a few months ago, barred all Cubans from coming into the resort zone, unless they were gainfully employed there. Explaining this situation, in slow, unsure English, he said "so don't be afraid if you see one (meaning a Cuban), they don't bite". Said tongue in cheek, it was taken with an irony of truth for me cementing my beliefs that many, if not he majority of resort visitors fear and have no interest in discovering the country they are visiting beyond the walls of there compound, unless accompanied by more of their own to maintain their comfort zone on the 'exotic' day trips. To many this is Cuba, and will always be and so be it, right or wrong-I will try...not to judge.

To me Cuba was a celebration, a celebration began with my best friend's wedding, a celebration of smiles of children in a one room country school, after emptying a large bag of school supplies onto their teacher's desk. A celebration of family meals prepared and eaten in the open air of an at once proud and modest home's small back yard with the sound of the national baseball finals floating in the background. It was a celebration of students walking along a pilgrimage route to Playa Giron to celebrate an American ass-kicking session over 45 years ago, it was a celebration of waves smashing the walls of Havana's Malecon as the sunset broke through hitting the Moro Fort, as if a beacon. It was a celebration of the crumbling streets of Centro Havana and the ancient beauty of Havana Vieja. It was a celebration of young and old and passion and resilience. One omnipresent trait every honest Cuban has ingrained in them from years of history and one that will bring them into the future, one that I hope will be as bright as the people of this magical island.

Havana

Havana...the People

Buena Vista Social Hour

Big Fish...

Zapata...Beer Carts, Boxing and Birds

A Big Thank You

A big hats off to my 10 students strong enough to endure my 4 week April expedition into the basics of camera composition and manual functions. Although the course was short, I feel the response was great from all attending and the hands on interacttive aspect of it was just what the doctor ordered. If a big part of education is creating interest to further the knowledge outside and after the classroom doors are closed, then I think my second venture on the teaching front was a great success. As this review from one kind student reveals (who needless to say, just made my day:-)

Just want to thank you again for the photography course.
I had a lot of fun. My only complaint is the course went by too fast. Everyone in the class was also awesome. We all seemed to be at the same level which also made it nice to learn.
I never realized all the fun things I can do with my camera. Thanks for making it more exciting for me to want to use my camera. You are great teacher and photographer.

Take Care, Tammy

Squash a few inevitable bugs encountered on this trial run and we will be ready to go for a Fall Session. If you're interested going on a waiting list, please email me Sean@lucidmusings.com or call me at 519-284-0858. Until then, to all students past and future, get up, get out and get snapping:-)

INTO THE HEART OF THE PHOTO

It is with great excitement that I will be offering a new course for photo aficionados in the spirit of getting those images you see in your mind, but have trouble realizing with your camera. A newly designed 4 week course, is not only a follow-up to my level 1 'Into the Digital Age' which I offered twice last year, but a great starting point for any SLR camera (manual function/interchangeable lense) camera owner wanting to become more familiar with their camera and improve their photos. Where my last course was an in-classroom educational/information laden 4 weeks, this course will get you using your camera on-location, help you visualize things in a new matter, give you projects that will get you out shooting independently and inspire open interaction. I created this brief, fun, unimposing and hopefully inspiring course in the belief that the digital camera is best learnt if you get out and use it. The instant results a LCD screen gives and the freedom of a digital card to capture and capture again until we get it right has changed our opportunities to learn photography. With this in mind and my belief that learning is not only gained by ingesting information but by actually using this knowledge in an open forum that becomes knowledge itself. Get up, get out and join me this April for 'Into The Heart of The Photo'-you won't regret it:-)

What: Into The Heart of the Photo
4 week interactive course to better photos

Week 1 (March 31)

In Classroom instruction/discussion of:

-Manual Functions
-Depth of Field
-Metering
-Composition
(review for those who took level 1)

Week 2 (April 7)

Location Shoot #1

-Composition 'On Location'
...take what you learnt in Week 1 and put it into action

-Homework Assignment

-due to previous engagement (trip to Cuba:-)) there will not be a class on April 14, giving lots of time to complete homework shooting

Week 3 (April 21)

Location Shoot #2

-'Couple Up' Candid Portrait Shoot

...will help you learn...

-metering
-Shutter speed and Aperture
-Low-Light Photography

...in a practical setting...

Week 4 (April 28)

Back to the Classroom

-Photo Showing
-Review
-Open Discussion

Where: Stone Willow Inn (St. Marys) http://www.stonewillow.com/
When: 7-9pm..and select locations around St. Marys...you already know the dates
How: To enroll, or for more details, email me Sean@lucidmusings.com , call me at 519-284-0858, or come in and see me at the studio 6 Water St N., St. Marys. Course fee is $150.00.

Sean

Hillside ...... Inside

Cheers to Sam Baijal, Rachel Thompson and the tireless efforts of the staff members and the many 'We Make it Rock' Volunteers. Taking the summertime institution, held on the stellar Guelph Island for the last 24 years and bringing it indoors was an at once brave, yet much needed diversion from the doldrums that the Canadian winter can bring around the start of February. With Hillside really beginning to hit their market stride, selling out the last few years, it apparently seemed time to see if expanding out was a direction of choice, because expanding up was no longer an option. With Sam at the reigns, as always, the quality and diversity of talent was inevitable, with a sampling of the bands in photos in the following posts, part of the 10 hour marathon that also included Cuff the Duke, Shout Out Out Out Out and Zaki Abrahim. What peaked me was how they where going to pull off an arena show while retaining any of the warmth and spirit of the utopian July incarnation. Well I am happy to say that it's mission accomplished. Yes, there was no sun to numb the daydreams, no river to cool the senses, there was no achingly beautiful sunsets leaning against a dancing 'I', and I saw no full moon vistas walking across the causeway, but what I did feel was spirit. From the environmental tips-of-the-hat, to the soft green covering of the ice surface, which at times really resembled an organic summertime front of stage, with people laying, playing, loving and dreaming. Thank you Hillside, you did it...see you in the summer and can't wait until next February....

Sean

Weakerthans
























Bocce