I took this photo over the holidays late last year, which spawned a tongue-in-cheek post on Facebook:
If I ever do a vinyl double-LP prog-rock record, I have the cover photo.
(from the Luminarias at Desert Botanical Garden).
I was just experimenting with long-exposures that night, and while waiting for my family I decided I could stand still for a long while like they did in the old days. Realized later I had a gatefold shaped cover, so I made my silly post, which pushed me from photography into music.
I suddenly wondered what the music might sound like, especially since I sometimes listen to but don’t really write in that style. So I sat down at the piano and this came out, and I liked it so I turned on the camera
and recorded this (click to play video)
Seriously, I just decided it should probably be in the key of Eb, and that suggested a set of related chords so I set the drum machine for a little oomph, and tried a progression and a variation and, well, it sounded like music.
Yes, you really should have a song or an album before you do a cover….but creativity is not always linear, or direct. You don’t always know where it comes from or where it will lead.
—-David
P.S. You can be creative or inspired on purpose too, but that’s for a later discussion. It’s okay to force it, as long as you give it room to grow where it wants to.
P.P.S I think I just shot this on a super long exposure without using a timer so I could take my place before it started, which is why the lights shine through me, but I liked the effect. In a more professional setting I would have shot it both ways, and edited this with some vignetting on the edges and exposure and contrast (levels) tweaks.
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