Memorial Day 2014: Flags of Memory

Flags of Memory

A short film depicting flags that are on display from Memorial Day till Fourth of July, Veterans Cemetery. This is an annual tradition that I love, evoking memory in a beautiful and affirming way.

Video and still photography in color, B&W, and infrared, & editing by Arthur Durkee
©2014 AP Durkee. All Rights Reserved.
www.arthurdurkeemusic.com

This short film is my Memorial Day tribute to veterans and soldiers, fallen and living alike. This is one day we set aside to remember service and sacrifice: let us not forget these things during the rest of the year.

Flags at Night

It’s Memorial Day weekend. In my small Midwestern town, there’s a region of the city cemetery dedicated to veterans. On Memorial Day they raise 50 flags on display, and also decorate the gravestones with small flags. It’s quite beautiful. They leave the flags up till Veteran’s Day in September, so they remain all summer long. Many years in the past, I've gone over there to meditate for awhile, and make images of the multiple flags.

Last night I started making images a half hour after sunset. Most exposures were between 2 and 6 seconds long, with the camera on a tripod. Flags were illuminated by a hand-held flash unit.

This is a basic night photography technique: put the camera on the tripod for a long exposure, then walk around with a hand-held flash unit, popping it off several times during the long exposure. It allows for multiple exposures and several different angles of illumination. I've done this technique with people as well as objects, so you get multiple portraits of the same person within one image.



It was a warm night after several hot days, some strong thunderstorms in the afternoon, and in the evening fitful winds that come and go.



Sometimes the flags flapping in the breeze reveal the crescent moon behind them. Later in the dark, the moon is bright enough to show right through the fabric.





Adjustable flash unit set on low-power, so you can do multiple flashes in sequence. On high-power settings you might only get one bright flash before the unit has recharged, before the exposure is done.

Apparition of Liberty

Night Colors

(Click on image for larger versoin)

Is it the breeze that moves the flag,
or the flag that moves the breeze?
It is the mind that moves both.

Fourth of July

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Beloit Fireworks    

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Beloit Fireworks

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A small series of new versions of photos of Fourth of July fireworks celebrations along the Rock River in Beloit, WI. Photos from Fourth of July celebrations over the past few years.

Fireworks photography is a special kind of night photography. Time-lapse techniques are involved, but the most important thing to remember is that fireworks (like lightning) are so bright that they will white out unless the aperture is stopped down to f8 or f11. That of course requires longer exposures on a tripod, especially at night.

The three Beloit Fireworks are such long exposures, from three different vantage points, with the desire to capture the fireworks light reflected in the dark night waters. These are layered montages of two or three starbursts, consecutive shots from the same vantage. I played with the idea of framing in the third montage, as well. I have noticed often how beautiful the fireworks are when they're in the sky, reflected in the water, and mixed in with the lights of boats moving or anchored along the river: a festival of lights.

The sound file is an ambient recording from my back porch, featuring many night sounds, of fireworks being launched from the stadium a mile from my home, which is home to a regional minor league baseball team.

The B&W flag pieces, and the antiqued flag image, are all from summertime flag displays around the town. I particularly like the graphic power of the first image, with the flock of small birds against the moon. I find an emotional content to that piece that evokes a strong feeling in me of love for the land hereabouts.

Small Town Fourth of July

Flags in the Rain

Memorial Day: Flags

The annual tradition here in small Midwestern towns is to decorate the Veterans' section of the cemetery with flags on Memorial Day. They flags usually stay up till Independence Day.