Kinetic Musings: mk smith

Moving!

mksmith — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:40:28 +0000

I have officially completed one of my goals for 2011 and created a new website and blog. I will no longer be updating this blog, look for new work and musings at the all new www.kineticmusings.com, and www.kineticmusings.com/blog

Here’s to new adventures and wisdom.

Two Little Darlings

mksmith — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:00:59 +0000

They climb, they smile, and giggle with glee. They image wondrous marvels and adventures to see. Tiredness does not phase them. Nor bedtime or timeouts. Sometimes they fight, for whatever about. Having one without the other just doesn’t do, for great moments of life there must be two. A sister needs a brother, and a brother a sister for then they will always have one and another.

Monster Cookies

mksmith — Sun, 22 May 2011 23:06:44 +0000

When life gets a little icky my Mom would start baking. So when my brother called to talk about life being a bit icky I knew what to do, make cookies! To the yellow box I went and found my Mom’s Monster Cookie recipe. She would make the whole huge recipe which calls for 9 cups of oatmeal and a really big bowl, which she kept in the basement and only brought up to mix these cookies in. Alas, I have a tiny kitchen and a normal size bowl so I had to half the recipe. And, sorry Mom, I omitted the corn syrup, times have changed and corn syrup is no longer needed to sweeten cookies up.

The cookies tasted great and my brother was happy to have a few arrive at his doorstep. Though monster cookies can’t fix everything, I think they can make life a little less scary.

24 Hour Film Race

mksmith — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:48:40 +0000

I shot my first film! A week ago I participated in the 24 Hour Film Race. I was part of the Dream Reality Films team as director of photography. The rules of the race are simple and a challenge, make a three-minute film in 24 hours. At 10:00pm Friday April 29th we were told our theme was identity theft, the required prop was noodles and the required action was stretching. Aaron Toy lead our team, and I did whatever he told me to do. It was a crazy few hours shooting in the rain and then bright sunshine. It also marked the first time I shot video with the 5D while running, so glad I didn’t trip.

Shooting a narrative was much less nerve-racking than shooting a documentary. I never worried that I wasn’t going to get enough action or emotion to make a story. Never fretted about one shot being out of focus, simply did a second take. The pressure came from the clock, after getting the criteria we met to brainstorm ideas, after a few hours of sleep we started shooting at 8:00am. The shoot got a little long in the tooth and Aaron had to start editing while we were still shooting. At 4:30 all shooting was done, Aaron and Dietr Poppen took over the editing and music composing. With about five minutes to spare the film was complete and uploaded. We finished the race on time.

Ten films in Minneapolis were completed on time this year and will be screened Thursday at the St. Anthony Main theatre starting at 7:00pm, my first premiere! The film, Double Standard, is only three minutes long, but in my head it’s so much more. Big thanks to Aaron Toy for directing and pushing us all along, and to the rest of the crew Dietr Poppen, Sam Poppen, Lisa Musselman, Ryan Lane, Andrew Lawrie, and Mike Krause.

Meet Evan

mksmith — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:19:55 +0000

In March I started volunteering as a photo teacher at the Jewish Community Center in Minneapolis. I meet once a week with Evan, he loves taking photos of people and also has a mental disability. My friend Andy is there to help Evan learn iPhoto, and be Evan’s model for our weekly lessons.

I didn’t seek out this opportunity, but I am very thankful I am able to spend time teaching and learning with Evan. He is very dedicated to learning aperture, shutter speed, ISO, depth of field, motion, framing and how to hold a camera correctly. Evan has a fear of taking a bad photo, he works to make sure everything is perfect before pressing the shutter. That’s a fear I struggle with as well, at times a bad photo equals in my mind I’m a bad photographer. That doesn’t logically match up, yet it feels like it should. I encourage Evan to take the risk and shoot photos and he encourages me to keep learning and exploring photography.

At the end of our time together I hope Evan has the knowledge and desire to keep shooting and I hope to remember its more important to take many photos than to take one amazing photo. I also hope Andy comes away with a career in modeling!

Mom’s BBQ Beef

mksmith — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:30:51 +0000

The yellow box of recipes has been cracked opened and my desire to cook and bake away are returning. It was in the kitchen cooking and baking away with Mom I learned about my family history, laughed, and heard stories about her Mom’s cooking adventures, including the night my Grandpa ran a rattle snake over and brought it home for my Grandma to cook for dinner. So that night they had rattle snake soup and as my Mom said, “And we’ll never have it again.”

I was delighted when I found the BBQ Beef recipe in the box. My Mom made BBQ Beef for our High School graduation parties and it was such a hit by the time I graduated nine years after my oldest brother people were asking if that was what my Mom was going to serve at the party. We are big on tradition in the Smith family. While you try to figure out the rest of the recipe I’m hard at work designing and updating my website and blog, big changes on the way for Kinetic Musings, stay tuned.

About my Brother

mksmith — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:27:04 +0000

During a quiet moment a small town musician talks about what he learned from his older brother.

Working through to unblock my creative self once again, going back in time and remembering when, how and why.

Afternoon Cappuccino

mksmith — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:07:32 +0000

Sometimes a coffee break is needed.

Woman As Photographer Selected Entry

mksmith — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:21:23 +0000

One of my photos from my trip to Haiti has been selected to the Minneapolis Photo Center’s “Woman As Photographer: Documenting Life as a Woman” Photo Exhibit.

This is the first photo exhibit I’ve ever entered, a bit surprised I was chosen, but happy to be among this group of photographers. If you’re in Minneapolis on March 11 come to the opening!

Christmas Baking

mksmith — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 05:49:40 +0000

My mom was a baker. She cooked very well too, but baking was her forte. Every year we would spend a day baking Christmas cookies, and every year it got out of hand. We had to make the usual cookies of coconut joys, peanut butter blossoms, crinkles, peanut butter balls and sugar cookies. And beyond those she would always find a recipe or two for a new cookie to try out.

There were a few things I came to count on during our Christmas baking marathon, it would take most of the day and night, we would watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” while baking, and we would laugh. Laughter was a main ingredient.

I miss my mom dearly. Everyday I miss her more, but tonight I really missed her. I did my Christmas baking without her, without “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and without the laughter. I worked alone and only made three kinds of cookies, but she was with me. I found her hand written recipe for Peanut Butter Blossoms, so in a small way we made them together.

I miss you Mom. Thank you for teaching me how to bake.