November 12, 2004

This is a process I developed called following, in which I take many photographs in succession using a hand-held camera with a viewfinder and crosshairs.

more about the following process here

While looking through the camera's viewfinder I position the crosshairs on my intended target, following it with each image. In this case the target is a moving cloud. In practice, I stand still on a street corner following the cloud across the sky with my camera, my head and neck swiveling as the cloud passes overhead, eventually taking, in this case, a total of 163 pictures.

I shot images as fast as my camera would allow, perhaps one every 2 or 3 seconds. (So, 163 x 3 seconds = 489 seconds, = 8 minutes and 15 seconds.)

After the shooting sequence I made the following audio recorded note.

Transcript:

I'm reminded of the Kittens sweater booth at the CNE where the live models stood unmoving on the stage while people watched them standing still. That's how I felt standing on the corner just now, taking pictures of the clouds. I'm not sure if people passing by or driving by noticed that I was moving very slowly. They must have perhaps thought I was just standing still for quite a long time. It's a beautiful, beautiful day. The clouds are absolutely gorgeous.

Posted on Instagram here and here