Clouds on the Mountains and One-Legged Seagulls

Early this morning with the rain slowing and the clouds lifting toward the heavens, the mountain revealed itself as still there, which I suspect will be the case long after I'm not, and it seemed to bask in the feeling of the clouds gently caressing it as they passed slowly up its north slope and fell into the void of its southern exposure. The clouds had engulfed the mountains all night and the morning light showed a softening and moist transparency in the sky around Cadillac in particular.

The seabirds were here this morning, their calls and antics in the water providing entertainment around the miracle of nature and the abundance of life in our world. They are so beautiful in their movements, and yet... under close scrutiny my photograph makes them look like, even if it is only an aberration of camera angle or a posture of comfort created by the creatures for their own internal balance, like they have only one leg... so sad!

Weekends ZOOM By... Life is a Rush!

Just posting a couple of photos so I don't forget how (plus I have a new photo class starting next week)... kids with kites, our handsome music director (MDI finished 2nd in their division in So. Portland last weekend), and some residual last week snow. I'm still trying to keep up with everything going on...

Student Framed and Another Blood Orange

Yes, "hamming" it up, but kind of serious about the expression and content,especially with the hands in the photo and obviously knowing and expressing an "attitude". I like this photo of this student on a number of levels, but would need to explain background and such, which I can't really do here.
The "blood" orange is just that!

Westerly Wind and the Water

So that's about it, I got home from school this afternoon and the day was dark and gray, but the light was "good enough" and so I made some photos of the water on the shore. 1/1000 of a second in shutter priority did a pretty good job of "freezing" the motion of the water, but the images were a bit dark so I had to increase the exposure and contrast a bit to get the look I wanted. The ocean, as with our lives sometimes, can be a dark and scary place, as the first "wave" shot above points out.

A Rose by Any Other Name...

... would smell just the same!

... this is for all you "lovelies" out there!

Matt and Sandy

I shot this picture of Matt and Sandy TC (the cat) just before supper tonight. Matt really was doing pretty well comparatively, and he wanted to watch a movie this afternoon/early evening. David and I decided we would watch the flick "Starman" (Jeff Bridges) with him, and he did so well... he came up and had dinner with us in the middle of the movie (paused it) and then we went downstairs to the "media room" and finished watching it. He stuck with the whole movie, even though it got a little "mushy" toward the end.

3 Pictures

... and that's the story!

St. Patrick's Day & Pooter Again

So here's where these posts came from...

The old fence I noticed as I was driving down the driveway when I got home tonight. The light was a little high and I thought at the time that the fence would be a good shot as the sun got lower, so I waited an hour or so and walked up the driveway and took a dozen or so pictures. I was thinking that "we got through another winter", and the aged quality of the old logs just fit that theme for me. The green moss seemed somehow appropriate to St. Patrick's Day with all the green around today.

Pooter came downstairs again tonight around suppertime and I noticed him watching me from beside a kitchen chair. He was "striking a pose", and is usually skittish when I try to photograph him, but tonight he just sat there a took it. I took two shots and the second one had him looking square into the camera, and I just liked it.

Faculty Meeting Portrait

Some of the discussion in our faculty meeting after school wrapped around the increasing of time for our advisory groups for students. I think the key there is the "for students" part. We in the teaching profession are all tired in so many ways from the increasing demands made of us in the name of "improving" education, but the quality of our experiences with students is almost always enhanced by our understanding of them and the empathy we use in applying our teaching methods to individuals.

The portrait I'm posting is a shot of a teacher and his child, with our principal and Senior Exhibition Director in the background. Yes, I know she has her eyes closed, but that to me seemed a part of what draws these four people together in the shot, making it appealing on several levels. Speaking of levels, I did "tweak" this piece a bit to give it the "bite" I desired.

The Mall Show Video 2010

The Annual Art in the Heart/University of Maine Museum of Art Bangor Mall Show went up today and I took some video and a bunch of stills, so I put this video together when I got home. A lot of very good work from schools all over the greater Bangor (and beyond) area.

Green Bursting Through the Frost

Just a bit of green, but as it isn't officially spring until more than a week from now, I find the bursts of green uplifting my spirits. I'm in a web of spiritual connections through the many paths in my life.

Bighead? Not Really!

My friend and colleague, George, with whom I spend a lot of time commuting back and forth between Sullivan and Mt. Desert, is not at all a "big head" except went considering what ways we might make the educational process a better one. The other day I spied a device in Super Wal-Mart (I know, I'm not very politically liberal with my patronage of such a capitalistic business structure, but it is my favorite store - they have everything) that is intended for youngsters to be able to safely inspect the varieties of wild flora and the insect world as well as fauna, if you want to include field rodents perhaps, in the landscape. This device actually floats as well, so can be use to photograph the depths of the ocean or lake. Well, I did a photo shoot of George the other day and this was the last shot I took. Just had to post it.

Blood Orange

Roberta Scott, a neighbor up the road whom I have shared art interests and conversation with a number of times, brought some oranges to the house the other day. She has a son who lives in California and he had sent her some oranges that she wanted to share, as we have shared garden produce and such with her in the past. Well, she said that some of the oranges were "blood" oranges and that you couldn't really tell them from the outside. None of us had ever seen these, and so I wondered, but yesterday I opened one as I usually do, and sure enough! Now I understand the name and am posting a couple of macro pictures of them.

Landscape and Portrait

The photo of Marjorie Spock's barn should have been bracketed as I didn't realize how bright the early morning sun was on it, but the textures make it an interesting shot anyway. I might have also saturated the colors a bit more... take it and try it, Apple's Preview works pretty well although I have had troubles with the "sharpen" tool darkening the whole image.

The portrait of my colleague Dan is just a goofing around fun thing we got involved in during our department meeting yesterday after school. Busy, but not too busy to interject some humor and fun!

Pooter and the Mountains

The mountains still have a lot of snow on them and they are beautiful right now. I took this shot this morning, but have been working on finished stairs (bamboo and red oak) all day and just getting around to doing the blog. The water on the bay was really gorgeous at noontime today with the sun shining and brightening the whole day. Pooter the cat was at my feet as I was shooting the mountain (extreme telephoto) so I grabbed a few photos of him too. The one I'm posting was definitely the best, with clarity and expression the best traits of this picture.

Busy Room and the Nectarine

Too busy this week with early mornings and getting home late, midterm grades and the challenges of new classes, projects with the community, and meetings, the continual meetings. But to tell the truth when I have kids in my room working on a project, doing things that benefit others for fundraisers and watch the excitement and enthusiasm they exude it is more than worth it to me. My room after school this week has been everything from designing posters to getting work hung in an art show to screen printing t-shirts to painting and I love it. Picture posts today are from some of the activity in my room last night and today and a nectarine I photographed during lunch yesterday.

Stillman Still Life

My colleague across the hall recently set up a still life for his Art One class to draw in graphite, and I have done lessons compatible for my digital media class, so I took a bunch of photographs for my class to work up digital still-lifes. We took a little mini-field trip today to look at the still life in full three-D so as to have a better sense of the objects forming the still life.
I was at school today until about 5:30 after meeting with the "nurses" for the "Pink Gloves" video and then working with my Art Society kids to print t-shirts for a "Nothing But Nets" fundraiser... maybe some pictures of that tomorrow, but for today, the still life.