A year ago today I bumped into Dennis Hopper in Taos, New Mexico. He was photographing a sculpture of a bird out in front of a gallery on Ledoux Street. As he walked around the sculpture looking for another angle I felt excited and compelled to take a picture of my own of Hopper at work with his camera. Unfortunately photography has never been my thing and the resulting image was a real stinker. Frustrated and not wanting to bother one of my hero's any longer I retreated and eventually forgot about the entire situation.
6 months after my first meeting with Hopper I returned to Taos to see his show at the Harwood - "Hopper at the Harwood". Again I became excited about the situation and about his work - I found it incredibly inspiring which was refreshing to me because I have been at a creative stand still for the last couple years. Stoked and still in Taos, I grabbed my camera and dove in with fire and vigor- once more the results were viciously forgettable.
A week ago a good friend of mine gave me a book for Christmas - "Dennis Hopper & The New Hollywood" from an exhibit in Australia where he lives. He witnessed the show and knew I'd love the book. After reading it I found myself excited once again about photography and came up with the idea for this blog "National Rain". Practice and Persistence have always been the key to my successes so starting today I will take a daily photo and post it on this site. A year from today I will have shot 365 images and hopefully learned something about this black art (to Me) and in doing so be ready for the next time I bump into Dennis Hopper - that inspiring fucker.
Dispatch #01282011. It's now been a few months since Dennis passed away. It's taken me this long just to begin posting once again. I was not sure what to do with this site but now have decided to keep going in Dennis's honor. So to the eleven of you out there that signed on - let's get on with it.
The Equipment: I'm going to use a Canon SD870 IS ELPH 4.6-17.3mm 1:2.8-5.8. It's your basic pocket point and shoot with a twist - it has a pretty decent wide angle lens. I love it for it's portablility and easy peezy HMI.