Seven, but only if the hail at Yale falls daily on the snail, otherwise it’s three.
Wow, thanks stranger!
It’s funny you say this because in the “real world” most folks who know me would say that I’m a bit of a “Debbie Downer”. And it’s true, I’ll admit that 99 percent of the time I’d call the glass half empty. I worry all the time and it makes my wife Vicki quite grumpy.
That being said, every time I sit down to “blog”, I suddenly realize that my life must actually be pretty okay. The reason being is that I feel that for the most part, folks who are really struggling in life wouldn’t have time to have blogs. I see so many folks complain about stuff on tumblr and all I can think is…
a. You are lucky to have a computer
b. You are even luckier to have an internet connection, which is not cheap
c. You are super freakin’ lucky that you have FREE TIME in your life to write a freakin’ blog post!!! Seriously, if you have time to blog chances are pretty good that you’re not working three jobs round the clock trying to put food on your kid’s table, so lighten up!
d. This does not apply to everyone, but for the most part it seems like most folks who blog have camera phones, specifically iPhones. Most folks in this world have never held a camera or used a phone, and chances are pretty good that if you’re reading this you actually have a device that does BOTH!!! How cool is that, life is good, don’t complain!
Anyway, I think that’s probably why my blog is more “positive” than “negative”, I just picture myself struggling to feed my hypothetical kid and I realize that I probably shouldn’t complain too much, especially when I remember that I happen to own a camera phone.
That being said, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always listen to my own advice, as can be seen in all my recent angry posts about the lack of chicken teriyaki in Japan. Seriously though, what’s the deal Japan, where you hidin’ the chicken teriyaki???
Hmmm… good question. Here are the three most probable answers…
a. No, Vicki does not have a voice, because Vicki is not real.
b. Vicki is very much real, but has no idea I exist. I watch her with my telescope.
c. Vicki does her talking with her fists, not her mouth.
d. All of the above
The answer is obviously “d”.
Anyway, I’m not sure how it happened, but somewhere along the way this blog became primarily about my awesome wife Vicki. She is real and I keep telling her to start a Tumblr, but it hasn’t happened yet. At one point she almost started a Tumblr that would’ve been about her making a Tumblr about my Tumblr, but that got complicated in a Charlie Kaufman-esque sort of way and she called it quits.
Anyway, maybe one day she’ll have a voice around these parts, but until that day I plan to keep blaming her for stuff that is probably my fault.
That’s a tough question as there’s too many to name. But here’s a few off the top of my head…
1. My awesome wife Vicki - If you look closely, my Tumblr is about her at least 50 percent of the time. In retrospect naming this blog “Tanner Blog” was quite unfair to Vicki as she is usually my partner in crime.
2. Nick Prevas - My best friend who also happens to be an insanely talented filmmaker, photographer, graphic designer, actor, and musician. The dude can do it all and inspires me daily.
3. Hollie Lavenstein - She was my Film 1 teacher in college. She really instilled in me the belief that every shot in a film should have a meaning or reason behind it aside from just “looking cool” or “being funny”. Obviously this can be applied to photography as well. Do I always follow this advice? Probably not. Do I at least try? I think so.
4. Vin Grabill - He was my “Video Art” teacher in college. Before Vin I had no idea video was something that could ever be shown in an art gallery. We watched some crazy stuff in his class, much of which I found to be absolutely terrible, but it was always interesting. I recently invested in some old VHS equipment on eBay in an effort to start toying around with some “video art”. We’ll see how that goes.
5. Several filmmakers, most notably early Tim Burton (The Pee Wee through Ed Wood era is brilliant, after that, not so much), Wes Anderson (If I had time I’d watch The Life Aquatic every day), and Jean-Pierre Juenet (Delicatessan is perhaps the most quirky and creative film ever made, and don’t get me started on Amelie).
6. Dr. Suess because he made reading fun and magical for a kid like me who absolutely hated to read. I’m pretty sure he’s the only reason I ever started writing these poems about my pictures.
7. The Adventures of Pete & Pete is a brilliant TV show that used to be on Nickelodeon. It’s definitely influenced my sense of humor and sort of “out there” style.
8. Flight of the Conchords - A more recent TV show that I was particularly drawn to, so much so that I made this.
9. Thrift Stores - Particularly Value Village in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Every single time I’m in that place I find something new that blows my mind. Quite a few of my photo and film “concepts” have been formed while roaming the many isles of the Value Village.
10. The Salton Sea - I’m really inspired by old abandoned places, most notably The Salton Sea, a place where I’ve shot way too many of my film and photo projects. I love being out in the middle of nowhere just shooting without having to worry about anything aside from the sun going down.
11. The Madonna Inn - Next to the Salton Sea this has been my second favorite place to take pictures. It’s a magically campy hotel located north of LA in a town called San Luis Obispo. Every room has an awesome unique theme and I was lucky enough to shoot two films there right before I left LA for Brooklyn. Sadly I’ve been in Brooklyn for a year now and have barely scratched the surface on editing either film.
Insert Mini Rant Here: This is a huge issue for me that I can never seem to figure out… with work and general “life stuff” like laundry and cleaning the shower I have very little time to work on my own stuff. Yet for some reason I keep shooting new things when I probably should just stop shooting new things and finish old things.
12. Folks on Tumblr and Cargo - My blog runs on Tumblr and my portfolio site runs on Cargo. Both platforms have been incredible sources of artistic inspiration, so much so that they led me to start a second Tumblr called iPhoneosaurus Rex a few months back. For the first time in my life I started taking a more documentary approach to photography, which never would have happened had I not been inspired by talented Tumblr folks like Patrick Joust, Boy Ghost, and Photo Garage (a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known as iPhonepic). I should also credit these guys for inspiring me to take photographs non-stop during my recent trip to Japan, something I honestly don’t think I would have done a year ago. My “thing” has always been setting up planned out whimsical scenes with colorful fictional characters, this new approach to photographing “real people” and “real places” has been quite frustrating and exhilarating at the same time. Please note that I mean frustrating in the best possible way.
And although I haven’t done this yet, I think I may soon give black and white photography a try due to other fine tumblr folks such as The Photographist, John Carleton, My Leica Year, and The Lisa Show. I know I’m leaving a lot of talented folks out, I apologize.
13. My Mom - I think this one’s pretty obvious. If you don’t know why it’s obvious click here to find out. Caution: Your mind may blow up.
14. Dave Matthews Band - I take so much flack for liking these guys but I will love their music until the day I die. I like to think that Dave Matthews has influenced every photograph I’ve ever taken, unfortunately this has never actually be the case. As a side note, one band that has never influenced me is Radiohead, I just can’t get into those guys. I’m not sure which I take more flack for, not liking Radiohead or liking Dave Matthews. I’d say it’s probably fifty fifty.
15. Childhood - Probably my biggest source of inspiration. I never want to loose my imagination and I think that photography and filmmaking are the two things that prevent me from completely “growing up”. If you look closely at a lot of my “work” you’ll see a lot of old toys and games, not to mention me and my friends basically playing an adult version of “dress up”.
Aside from what I photograph, the process of simply walking to a lab to pick up film is the closest I’ll ever get to feeling like a kid about to open Christmas presents on Christmas morning. So yeah, I’d say keeping the kid in me alive is my main source of inspiration.
Hmmm… let me start off by quickly describing my college experience. I didn’t go to a “film school” film school like AFI, I went to a 4 year college where I received a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in Film. This means that in addition to film classes I was also taking classes like Biology 101 and Gym. That’s right, I took a class called “Walking and Jogging” in college.
With that being, said here are my thoughts about my “Film School” experience…
PROS
1. I met my wife.
2. I met two of my three best friends.
3. I got to play around with a bunch of really cool 16mm Bolex cameras that sometimes worked.
4. I had a few awesome teachers who really inspired me.
CONS
1. Only once did it help me get a job, and that job ended eight years ago.
2. Every month until I die I’ll be paying $194 for my film school experience.
Anyway, if you have the money and are looking for an awesome experience where you may meet your future wife than I’d definitely recommend it. Many of my favorite memories are from my days working on student films.
That being said, there are two huge differences between the world we live in now and the world I lived in around ten years ago…
1. The Internet - Sites like dvxuser.com are great resources for learning the craft of filmmaking, especially in terms of technical know-how. When it comes to technical things such as how to set up a C-Stand I’ve literally learned more in an hour online than I did during my four five years of college (I had a mini-crisis and spent my sophomore years as a Bio major).
2. Technology - Back when I went to school if you wanted to shoot on something besides your dad’s VHS camera you didn’t really have too many options. Film school gave me access to equipment. Nowadays you can get an incredible HD camera for under a grand. That’s a pretty big difference.
Obviously I don’t really have a good answer, I apologize. I really think nowadays it’s pretty easy to learn filmmaking without film school, but then again, I wouldn’t trade my film school experience for anything. I hope this helps.
Perhaps Definitely Vicki, but definitely not me. Either way, thanks for the kind words stranger.
Hey Lauren. I really, really like Cargo. They have incredible templates, the staff is extremely helpful on their forum, and most importantly, it’s clean and easy.
One other thing that I REALLY like is that they store all of my photos, which means I don’t have to deal with the drama of uploading my photos to an FTP or anything. That may be easy for some but not for an old guy like me who doesn’t even know what FTP means. I just want to click submit and have it show up on my website, and that’s what happens with Cargo.
Another cool thing about Cargo is that if you pay for an account ($66 per year) you can edit your CSS and HTML and make your site look pretty much how you want it. $66 a year is also a hell of a deal if you start looking into the cost of hosting a website yourself. And for anyone curious I’ve had virtually no down time on my website, Cargo’s been extremely reliable.
Anyway, yes, I am a big fan of Cargo. It’s clean, it’s easy, it’s worth it. For anyone who may be curious here’s a link to a list of great websites that are running on Cargo. And if you’d like to check out my Cargo click here.
DO IT LAUREN!
Hey thanks Dani! I dig your blog as well, especially your dishwasher series. I’ve never seen anything like it before, it’s quite fascinating. For anyone curious as to what your photos would look like if you were to run your film through a dishwasher before shooting definitely check out Dani’s tumblr.
Wow, thank you! Not sure how you found me but I’m glad you did because now I have another awesome photographer to follow on Tumblr! Also, your captions are fantastic! Good captions are not appreciated as much as they should be. Way to set a good example with top notch captionography! Thanks again!
Hey Bari,
Thank you so much. I feel bad because I know I was following you for quite some time and really loved so many of your amazing pictures. I’m not sure what happened but somehow you got “un-followed”. I’m definitely following you once again!
I also like your take on our “furball hats”. Vicki and I thought they were mouse hats originally, but since then others have called them “cats”, “koalas”, “bears”, and even a few “dogs”. Now I can add “ewoks” to the list. Awesome! I remember seeing “Ewoks on Ice” when I was little, one of the few perks of being an 80’s kid.
Oh, and for anyone who may be confused, I have another blog called My Mom Reviews My Photos.
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