Indoor Sessions

One of the advantages to indoor balancing is a much more controlled environment.. When it’s cold and/or windy, indoor is a nice solution.. here I can play with not only finer balances, but also precision lighting.. :)  I have an old wood desk that I normally do my work on… at night, I’ve begun clearing it off and setting up my small makeshift photo studio.. :)

Supplies?

– Large piece of black foam-board… (I like dark) for the background
– heavy, solid, wood desk… or solid base
– warm and/or cold lights… (soft white/daylight)
– Rocks

Advice? …step lightly. houses are not nearly as solid as the planet. ;)

I like doing this at night because of the easily accessible void-like darkness….  It is a nice change to photograph the rocks emerging from darkness, instead of the regular condition of working in daylight..

This balance with the three round rocks is a bit more multidimensional than doing a straight vertical arrangement..  Why? because it flows along a CURVED line of balance… slightly feminine in a way.. <3 Here the curves are the result of continuous counterbalance.. The weight of the top two rocks balances the third, while the top rock counterbalances the second… Simple yet challenging to realize, especially wokring with roundish rocks….. Not only are all the rocks on very fine counterbalance points, but friction is also at a threshold… the two lower round rocks are begging to slip and collapse..

“Many times I think I need the silence… And it’s not an escape, it’s a kind of complimentary activity. At times it’s so completely absorbing. But there are other times… when you’re cross country skiing, when you’re cycling, you can reflect, and often I find.. solutions, to designs. There are many dimensions to those pursuits..obviously they’re about pleasure.. but they’re so inextricably linked with what I do as a designer.”

– Norman Foster (English Architect)

Here are some more indoor creations from the past few days…Each one, especially the back and forth counterbalances incorporate a great deal of physical tension as they slink upward..  Evidenced by the large rocks on the tops of these, all that weight must be balanced for each rock below… meaning all the balanced weights are opposing one another for the most part…