The Wrong Thing

i really have taken a liking to the sound of the word "bling". it's a wonderfully descriptive utterance for something that has a momentary sparkle and flash...the passing twinkle in an eye used in an over-the-top visual comedy...so sad that we grab onto that so often as the first thing...and spend an inordinate amount of energy of all sorts trying to possess...nothing...or, arguably less satisfying, the wrong thing.

such an incredible lack of discernment..or is it simply just laziness, like looking at nothing in particular and past everything and just grabbing the first "bling" we see?

it makes me very uncomfortable to ponder this one..."calming vibrations"

Facing Faces

i usually take the stand that there are "absolutes", but as i get more experience in life i have to admit that there seems to be no possible way to ascertain what they (or it) might be.

every single object or event looks different, and may have different significance, depending on the person observing it or the location of the observation point...that would seem to include physical location, mental state, life experience, education, and whatever else we could imagine that would make each observer/location combination unique. it sometimes seems to me that if we could just get all the views, we'd know what something absolutely is...or would we?

i'm fascinated by this concept, and it's easy enough to play around with it on a small scale while photographing the same thing from different perspectives...the more i play with it, the more i'm convinced that there's just no telling...and so i go on exploring and observing.

two of the many faces of one of my favorite buildings, the templeton granary..."a matter of scale" and "boxes and boxes".

Rachel

people and images...i surely find people the most challenging of all images to make. it's not all that difficult to take a good photo of a person, but to capture a bit of their personality...for me, that's a tough one...

my favorite person, wife, partner, and, pleasurably, my favorite model...rachel... "rachel deep in thought" and "piece of mind"

In and Out of Focus

it is interesting to consider that even though we think that everything we look at is in focus, actually only the very specific area that we are looking at is in focus...the rest is just shapes, colors, or movement. we don't normally take notice that we look rapidly at a great number of things in a short period of time, and that our eyes focus and adjust very quickly to each new area of interest...so we get the whole picture rather than just a bit. the camera can tease us with a different view...

playing with that concept with the camera has all sorts of possibilities..."fiery iris" and "green bursts"

O So Mysterioso

when i was very young my father used to take my brother and i for walks in the woods...we used to explore and play tag and hide and seek (me in my red jacket)...i always thought it was a magical place...mysterious, dark, sometimes light streaming into secret places revealing wonderful scenes...i don't think i've ever lost that feeling of the mysterious in nature...one of my favorite experiences, still, is wandering in some out of the way area (this often can be 5 feet from a road!) and discovering a bower, a pile of leaves, a stream, a wizened and impossibly gnarly tree, a spider sitting on it's woven lace picnic blanket awaiting a guest for dinner... being awe inspiring without the slightest need for an audience...and here i am, the lucky observer... like being someplace i'm not really supposed to be.

if i have my camera with me, i can spend hours, trying to capture that feeling of awe and the delights that i'm seeing and experiencing. it's not so easy, i find, to capture that mystery...

these two shots are a pleasure for me...i think i came close to capturing that element of mystery that i enjoy..."after the shower" and "oak grove on a rainy day"

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"

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"