Framed I Tell You, Framed!!

everything today seems to be framed...from the pictures on the wall, to events in the media, to the messages that politicians wish us to devour whole-cloth...one of the things that humans seem to do innately as a species is make images of life...as someone who remembers the advent of television (but not the events in the lascaux cave), i can attest that this visual framing of everything is everywhere in our lives...propagandists and preachers rejoice!!

i sometimes wonder if we tend to live the greater part of our life being influenced more by framed images and messages than we do by actual real life involvement... it is after all just as easy today to live local lives between home, work, and possibly church...and to shrink from real life as a dangerous horror or snide joke that we see framed in the media spread before us...wouldn't a thought or two remind us that all images are taken "out of context"?....

i wonder... "short of involvement" and "through a glass"

Phancy Phlights

sometimes...setting is all. a diamond set it in a glass of water...it becomes invisible for all practical purposes no matter how perfect a diamond it is. take a rotten tomato, place it on a black field and set a small spot light on it...you will have an interesting if not beautiful picture...

so...i thought that i'd search the archives for items that i've always liked, but never did know what to do with and apply some creative settings using elements of the original shots for that purpose...(this bears further experimentation i'm thinking...)

these two have always reminded me of the french impressionists...and now dipped ever so tentatively into the arts nouveau setting have a bit more sparkle than before...

"lily pond pastels" and "lily bloom"

Getting the Bird

i always have a feeling of triumph when i can actually get a shot of some birds that are interesting to me...they are usually all over the place and not very amenable to close inspection unless the observer hides out somewhere...alas, a nature photographer i'm not... that being said, i love to watch birds interact...they often take on the form of human social groups...gathering in cliques, chattering away, excluding some hapless member of the avian community...hanging around some light pole or other...real light weights...

in that vein i'm sneaking in "not ready for prime time" and "evening recap"

Sparkle

keeping that "spark" way past the jaded...can everything old still be new without having to get alzheimers to experience it. i suspect that the key has something to do with learning to really look at things anew and not blowing them off as "the same old thing". photography, or any of the "arts" seems to be a facilitator for looking anew at things...almost of necessity the process slows us down enough to look or think again...

"preening in the Sunset" and "morning hangover"

Candy

there's subtlety and refinement and then there is CANDY!

enjoyment at an entirely different level...the guilty pleasures...
sometimes that's all we want...the uncritical glutinous intake of an intricate visual feast. that's how i feel when i look at these. this subject is pretty unceremoniously an enjoyment of raucous architectural flamboyance...yes, it is obviously art deco flair, but considering that it is a stucco front on a metal quonset building and that the building serves as a construction headquarters pushes all the meters towards the top...

pure candy!

"sweet!" and "more than one way to the top"

Secret Places

funny thing about "art"...if it has any chance at all to be any good, it comes from, and in all reality is about, the secret places in the craftsman's heart and soul...the very private and personal element that is mostly unseen by anyone but the artist....then it is outed for anyone with eyes to see. probably not a good thing for the artist to muse on, but definitely a great thing for the enrichment of souls and hearts...

"casual enticement" and "heart of the secret place"

Jumping Off

well, after considering the virtues of asking the important questions before i take a shot, i have to equally consider the virtues of just jumping in...that doesn't say that the eye behind the lens shouldn't think...maybe it's more that i wonder how often after thinking some fine impulse over and over, to my later regret (or surprise) i realize i missed something special.

the included visuals are older shots revisited...areas cropped for visual and visceral interest and to the dogs with my nagging technical (nice word for it) conscience. i find that very often, the result is more satisfying than i had considered...so here's to "on the higher plane" and to "jumping off"

See Worthy

a couple of new ones...i had taken a batch of photos while wandering among the tide pools and the rock formations and this is my second round at some of them. many looked good to me after the first round, but lacked the bite that i felt i had experienced while taking the shots.

i did some experimenting with light as the focal element and actually am a lot happier with these two than originally...once again, i had to go back and remember what it was that excited me about the subject matter that day...the closer i can recall that and focus on that, the closer the finished pieces satisfy my emotional memory of that day.

"stand offish" and "untitled rocks" (so far).

STARK

"what was it about this scene that compelled me to take the shot?"

years ago, i read some advice from photographer Freeman Patterson about taking photos...the idea was that it is so easy to pick up a camera and point and shoot that we really need to ask ourselves what it is about the scene we are contemplating that is enticing us to make the shot...and then do all we can to capture that element.

i have tried to do that over the years with better success at times than others, but i find myself just as often asking myself the question afterwards...it certainly can be an intriguing exercise and at times illuminating....

"night in day" and "stark"

PushPush

well, i've been having an interesting time pushing these out to the edges...i find that the gritty textures and shapes along with the colors (which are there, but a lot more subtle) are very satisfying to me...like i can run the outer edges of my sensibilities along the surface and feel a bit raw.

this may be a very productive venue...who could know? "notorious"

Cripes!

at the rate i update this blog, i could never publish a newspaper that's fer damn sure!

i think i'll get back with a couple of pics with little or no explains...some of my photographic work that is "clicking" for me....a spark in the dark....and a paddle to get out of the becalmed sargasso that i've floated in for some time now...we shall see....

oh yeah....titles... "rocky shore" and "clear headed" and "appearance of propriety"