Weight Lifting Tip #43

#43. Whenever training triceps, after warming up, do a set of 20 bicep curls to get the blood flow going in the bi, this will provide a cushion and "bounce" for those last skull-crusher reps or overhead tricep extension.


After nearly a two month hiatus, I have returned to the gym for some heavy training. Arnold style baby. My new project will demand a lot from me physically, the 10 hour walks with a heavy ass camera on my shoulder will demand that I am in good shape. Shooting has always been an incredibly physical act for me and thats the way a hyper-active boy like me likes it. As I think and day dream about my long journeys into the night I am reminded of the work by the great grand fathers of the Western Landscape, (Chapter 3 in "A World History Of Photography, third edition, Naomi Rosenblum) Carleton Watkins, Timothy O'Sullivan and William Henry Jackson. These photographers/explorers/heros provided us with some of the earliest records of the new American frontier in a post Civil-War era. I have the utmost respect and admiration for the work these men did and the physical demands that these images required. Rosenblum lays the backdrop for their work:







"As the frontier moved westward and industrialization began to change the character of the landscape, Americans increasingly turned to the photograph as a means of both celebrating technology and of expressing reverence for the landscape being threatened by its advance."

Yes, these men had animals and crews to help them, but, nonetheless, it does not take away from their journey and the sacrifices and hardships they endured to make these images. In a digital age with 2 pound cameras, carbon fiber tripods and MacBook Airs, the romance of the back breaking journey through the wild lands seems to be lost, and those heavy on common sense and rationality might even say a bit foolish or plain ignorant. Oh, well. Call me what you will, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words......