Random Excellence: Carli Davidson

Photo by Carli Davidson

Completely freaky. Stop-action photos of pets shaking their heads, by Carli Davidson. As Subtraction put it, "What I really like about these images is the way they capture something hidden but that’s been right out there in the open forever, until technology came along and allowed us to see it." Not exactly a new idea (cf. Harold Edgerton et al.), but then again, I've never seen any dog and cat photos like these before. Wonderful. Weird. And wonderful.

What these remind me of more than anything are the amazing boxing photos by the old New York Daily News sports photographer Charles Hoff, documented in the 1996 book The Fights (note that according to one Amazon reviewer, a lot of the identifications in the book are mistaken). A different era and a different subject, and different technique, but he often captured human faces frozen in similarly distorted and unfamiliar aspects.

Mike
(Thanks to Dave Sailer)

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Eli Burakian: "I just got back from Armenia two days ago and happened to meet Carli in the Moscow airport. She had overheard me talking about a photo project I was working on and showed me her photos on her ipad.

"Just thought it was a funny coincidence.

"Although she wouldn't tell me her secret on how to get the dogs to shake their heads, she did relay an interesting story.

"She's been doing this photography for a little while and wasn't getting much traction. She won a PDN contest and that propelled her to the top instantly and now there's amazing amounts of interest in her photography.

"Just a little reminder that you should keep on working on what you love, and eventually if you persevere, your break will come."

Comments

[Bob Rosinsky]

Being a dog photographer, I try to stay current on who is on the cutting edge of interesting pet portraiture. I first saw one of Carli's pictures about six months ago. They are great. Not only a great idea, but her execution is flawless. I once thought about doing a series of dogs getting their baths outside and photographing them shake water off onto their owners. Her stroboscopic close-ups really catch highlight jiggly jowls and loose skin of our canine friends. Great pictures!!!

[Archer]

Wow, that looks like a rolling shutter photo. Fun!

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Mandatory scientific reading: http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.3279

(more accessible version here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/dog-drying-physics/)

[Jay Frew]

Mike said, "...the way they capture something hidden but that’s been right out there in the open forever, until technology came along and allowed us to see it."

This is what appeals to me most about photography. It gives me a chance to study a subject at a level of detail otherwise unavailable to me.

These wonderful images of Carli Davidson's are of special interest to me because I have a passion for photographing my dogs. One of the many things I learned about my dogs, (through my camera lens at six frames/sec), is that they each have a series of facial expressions that repeat, in a cyclical way, when they run. Same expressions, in the same order - every time.

Ever wonder what your dogs are thinking? The camera (in high speed drive mode) can help here too.

There are two series of shots here that illustrate the points I made in the paragraphs above:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toxonophile/

Cheers! Jay

[Tony Mindling]

Get me nekid in front of a camera and dowsed with cold water and I'll look funny, too!

[Ken James]

Don't like them. Why would you want to see your dog looking like this. It is not portraiture. Original, yes. Technological, yes. Interesting, yes. But anyway, I don't like them.

[Scott]

Yes, but how does she get them to "shake" on command?

[Ed Hawco]

Yikes! At first I thought it was a dead dog that had been run over by a truck or something. Wow!

[Mike Plews]

http://www.trulia.com/blog/BoiseBroker/2011/01/how_to_identify_a_meth_lab_-_dog_gone_funny

This got sent to me last week and had me laughing all day.

[Tom K.]

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Brilliant.

[Ed]

I guess some of these dogs hope no bits fall of during the process. Now Mike how about giving Lulu a portrait run like this.......bet you have a strobe lying round the house somewhere.

Greetings, Ed

[Larry Lourcey]

That is truly an amazing capture. Gotta love strobe! Well done.

[Lagged2Death]

Reminds me of an old music video, though the real head-shaking doesn't start until 2:10 or so.

[Mike Johnston]

Ed,
I do, but Lulu is darn hard to photograph! Past that first day with her I have never really taken all that many good pictures of her.

Mike

[Amin]

"What's that, Dad? A dead dog?"

-My son Philip, age 6.

I had the same reaction. Freaky.

[Ken James]

I must be an old curmudgeonly fuddy duddy - not to like these. Oh Well.

[Chuck]

Carli is the subject, manifesting herself into these remarkable images... with her minds eye and talent.