Where’d they go?
Posted in ashtanga yoga, technology on 03/14/2010 10:50 am by karenI’ve been missing my feet lately in kapotasana. It was a huge mystery: my backbends are much more comfortable and deep, and yet I’d be in kapo, crawling my hands forward and then out to the sides, but my feet were nowhere to be found. I didn’t freak out, since the kapo Bs were in a huge improvement cycle, but I was perplexed, ’cause I could feel my hair brushing my feet, but couldn’t find my toes!
This morning, I set up the video camera and aimed it at my left foot. What I discovered was that I was crawling my hands up past my toes on the outside. Duh! Then I’d vainly search around, moving my hands out toward the edges of my mat — further away from my feet!
The most amusing thing about this discovery is the camera set-up. Below is my rig: a foam block strapped at an angle to the yoga room lamp holds the video camera at the correct angle to keep an eye on my left foot and hand. (The image is taken on the iPhone, using the Hipstamatic app. Cool, huh?? I love that the pic is square.)
03/14/2010 at 10:59 am
Karen! Glad to know I’m not the only one who gets “lost in space” when I’m upside down. I love that you moved PAST your toes- awesome.
The app made me laugh because I spent so much time in college trying to perfect this look- but old school, you know, like with a real camera and film. Everything is at our fingertips now. (I’m a huge fan of the square format!)
03/14/2010 at 11:29 am
Ha! I was thinking that if I was a teacher, I could see students doing stuff like that and make helpful suggestions like “Stop being an idiot!” and “You’re just upside down! It really shouldn’t shave that many point off your IQ!” LOL!
The app rocks. You can switch lenses and films and get all kinds of different effects.
It’s kind of shameful, really, that technology lets total hacks like me make arty images, but there you go. Just part of evolution. The real artists will continue to make real art; it’s just gonna be harder for the general public to discern the difference between artistry and hackery — but that exercise may end up helping humans revere true art? Let’s hope that’s how it plays out.
03/15/2010 at 5:17 am
When I first started walking in my urdhva d close enough to see my feet, sometimes I’d see my teacher’s feet on the side and get all confused. Or walking my hands to my feet for chakra bandasana. I’d touch Greg’s foot. “No that’s mine,” he’d say.
If you can straighten your arms a little when you’ve walked in, you’ll get the lay of the land (feet).
03/16/2010 at 6:08 pm
I miss my feet too…oh…wait…I think we meant that differently!