Week 20 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 134

A few of us were debating about whether a photograph is always a moment in time or whether, like a painting, it can speak of the eternal of infinite.  Yes, the camera more than a pencil or brush can capture that moment in time and hold it still like it does the ripples in the water in the photograph above or the bubbles before they burst in the photo below. But if it touches a cord in the memory of the viewer than it transcends that snapshot of time.

It is one thing to digitally capture an instant and another to capture an emotion or speak of a time past. A pleasant walk at dawn along a still pond with a beloved friend or favorite dog.

And even the bubbles below can cause the viewer to remember a bath as a child or a party with bubbles blown into the air.

Day 135

Garden gazing balls always fascinated me as a child. Three of my aunts had them in their gardens. I thought they were what Alice must have walked through in Alice Through the Looking glass. I am not sure why I have never bought one for my own garden. I seem so drawn to them when I find them on my photography explorations. The photograph below is another SLR Selfie with dog and the aid of a gazing ball.

Day 136

And the photograph below is the same gazing ball but taking myself out of the picture as it were. A different angel and you get a different world reflected. Convex to concave arcs.

Day 137

The geese are back. No goslings. I do not know if they have made another nest or not. The pond's inhabitants seem all jumbled up this there. There are four male Mallards and no females. And today I saw six ducklings paddling like mad and not a parent in sight. Can ducklings make it without a devoted pair of ducks. Will the geese have a late set of goslings. So the photograph below is not just two geese swimming on a silvery lake but a bookmark in a disrupted season of water fowl.

Day 138

Where as the snow capped Sangre de Cristos are beginning to all seem a like. So many snows this year. So many opportunities to attempt to capture the ultimate snow capped photograph.

Day 139

But when I found these four chairs on a brick patio my mind began to work on the opening lines of a short story. Such nice wooden chairs but much in need of new paint. Used wooden chairs. Which four friends sat here and watched the rain in the pines. Or surveyed their work in the garden terraces below them. Have all four of them been used at once lately? When I first came upon them one was collapsed upon the brick. Unneeded or just blown by the winds of winter now retreating.

Day 140

Photographs should be more than I was here on this date. And yet there is much to be said for the posed family before the rim of the canyon. I saw a story where a couple fell off a cliff at Yosemite trying to take a selfie. My macabre mind wants to know if they snapped other shots as they fell.

Week 49 - 2014 in Photos

Day 337

As the days of 2014 dwindle down to a precious few the question of whether to do 365 Day Photographic challenge for 2015 arises. It has its fans, gives me an excuse for a post every single day on my Facebook Studio Page, and provides a calendar of photographic files. But maybe for me as an artist, the most important is the photographic journal aspects. This weekly posts chronicle where I am in my exploration of the photographic process and dry darkroom skills.

Like many an artist and photographer I do revisit certain subjects like shadows and reflections in an effort to capture it better. This year over last I have probably done less photo manipulation than last year. This is strange is as my photographer friends seem to be doing more. They are going crazy with layers and painting programs and I find myself falling back on the basics. Lots more black and white, and reduction of saturation. More playing around with tone and contrast. Love how that cam out with this stand of aspen I have photographed again and again.

Day 338

Old trucks are also a frequent theme in my photographic explorations, but they are also a canvas for post processing and lots of color. But even they can be reduced to black and white and reveal wonderful form and textures when processed in such a way.

I am going to take the liberty of stepping out of the usual format for these blogs of "by the numbers." The week divided into frequent subjects and a new exploration. So frequent subjects first. 

Day 343

Window reflections, aspens and their shadows and old trucks, and then probably the oldest subject in a blog post of photography - snow capped mountains.

Day 342

When I first began this blogventure photography was the tool by which I presented my paintings. And I got a comment on one such blog about the snow capped mountains in my paintings. "New Mexico does not have snow capped mountains." It was spring but spring after a heavy winter so I grabbed my camera and put together a collection of photos of snow capped mountains. And so began the then occasional photographic blog. This is Wheeler or Old Mike (one hides behind the other depending where you stand) peeking through the clouds after a heavy snow on the high peaks. I have a handful of select spots guaranteed to give a good view of the heart of the Sangre de Cristos. This was a new spot. Like Monte Verde Lake in the foreground.

Now on to the new photographic adventure: Seeking the creative SLR selfie. There are rules. No tripod. Like all the iphone selfies out there the SLR camera has to be held. If you put the camera on a tripod and shoot remotely or with a timer it is a self portrait and not a selfie. Rule two - it should say something about you beyond your face. Admittedly most iphone selfies do not adhere to this rule. But I think they should. There ought to be something besides stupid face which gives a sense of personality or place.

Day 339

The collage selfie involves not actually in that photograph taking your own picture. This is a 3D collage or still life which includes a photograph of me. All the objects in the selfie also say something about me. I used to make masks, I love to explore in various media, and I love eclectic containers for brushes and pencils.

Day 340

The reflective Selfie. Probably the easiest way to take an SLR selfie involves a reflective surface. In this case mirrors. I have this tiny little half bath down stairs which I have decorated with mirrors. So this is not merely a picture of me but of my things.

Day 341

And the above selfie goes back to pictures of me. I am in this collage of refrigerator magnet photos four times in various stages of my life. And my friends are here too. I was rather surprised when looking at this one carefully how many of these friends are now beyond this realm. But that too says something about my journey.

But so do all the photographs I take. I could argue all my photographs are selfies whether or not I am in them literally.