Morning, Afternoon & Night

I shot some more photos this morning, on the way home from work, and at the edge of night as the sun was low. The clouds were so beautiful today, they billowed, they drained soft gradients of rain from their undersides and they swelled and broke apart.... beautiful! The colors were so differently gorgeous in each light that I am overwhelmed as I look at them. There was a spot on my lens and it messed up a couple of shots, but I got it and then all was well.

Plants, the Sky, and a '68 Fairlane

... and there you have it in totality and in a wholly random sequence. Just three pictures that I thought were pretty cool, I took them all today (my birthday, by the way to those of you who did not know), and I'm going to post them and then head for bed. Ahh, the rhyming word and the poet within me. I did a GarageBand workshop after school and it was a learning experience, but I didn't manage to get anything I liked, really... none of these were retouched in any way, either!

No Smoke, Just Mirrors

As we played around with the use and effect of mirrors and the symmetry often formed from the mirror's edge in combination with a number of things, including a stool missing it's base. Reflections are meaningful in so many ways, but I just liked the way this shot came together with the curves and straight lines as the main elements. I even caught a student in the edge.

Two Things Touching

Apples and all they symbolize... the garden & forbidden fruit, goodness, Mom's pie and the American way... sometimes it's not what you photograph, but how that makes the big difference, the difference between a mediocre and a good photo. It helps so much to know composition, but when you come up with an idea or a concept that works it is huge. I feel sometimes that my students would rather not think, that they find it safer, not easier, to just let their minds roll without stopping anywhere to see the idea or the concept that can work so well to express an attitude or feeling. I don't mean to generalize, for many of them are very good thinkers and try to stretch the concepts that are close to them, but sometimes they stare a great idea in the face and miss it.
Ce n'est rien.

Long Cove Morning

Calm and peaceful... I had to stop and let the cars whiz by me at Long Cove this morning. The sky was perfect, the water was so calm as to be a mirror, and the brief moments of peace were needed after such a hectic week as the last one has been. Sleep has been escaping me in the middle part of the night, and fatigue seems to lead to stress, so ..... I decided to skip my morning workout ritual and take some photos on the way to work. I am back with a Photo One class now and it is an inspiration to find more of my own photos. Oh, well... last uploaded and saw the image was corrupted, so... here's a new one!

Dancing Fire

So I've got a ton of pictures from burning the field tonight, and I may post a bunch of them to FaceBook or some such, but I really think some of the fire ones cam out really well. Shot at asa3200 and a fast 1/2000 of a second shutter speed, they captured the essence of the moving flames that we don't really realize as we watch. The intricate shapes that form, or are they actually forms of light? The fire is three dimensional, so technically it can produce forms.

There were several areas we were burning as it grew darker and we worked on the field, the most dramatic being the loam pile, where the growth had lots of nutrients and gets quite large which in turn provided plenty of fuel for the fire. Our neighbor up the road (the one with the "blood" oranges - previous post) called when the loam pile started burning quite brightly as she was concerned about the fire.
The sequence of these shots made a sort of "back and forth" as I started with a wide shot of the "lines" along the edge of where we were burning and then got up closer, went back to the lines, and then finally found the shutter and film speed I needed to get what I wanted and took 20 or more similar to this last one. These are full of "spirits" to me...

After School at the Shore

Such a nice day yesterday as the weather had turned that I felt pulled down front to the beach to explore the intertidal zone I was delighted with some of the images that presented themselves and even saw seaweed in the lower spruce branches from the "wicked" high tides a few days ago. Driftwood has always fascinated me because of the wearing from the sun and sea that highlights the grain and softens and bleaches the surfaces and the linear shapes that result.

The heavy rains had caused high drainage and with a quick shutter speed (1/1600) I shot some of the moving water. the little waterfall from "intermittent stream" I have taken pictures of before, and maybe even on this blog, but it always seems to be different somehow.

The bubbles were constantly changing as the water flowed down the beach, and I didn't notice my reflection in them until I had brought the shots into iPhoto to process. Duh! Of course they would reflect.

I was looking back over this blog with Matt the other day and I am amazed by the memories it brings back and by the factual record-keeping of events that it creates. I know the reason I started it was for communication, and originally I thought I would do it for others, but I find in looking back that it is probably mostly just for myself as far as its usefulness. Boy! Things have changed a lot since I started it...

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!