Mired

Wind of History by Jacek Yerka
Prompt provided by The Mag

Mired

Victim of mud

and history

unable to move forward

or reverse

stuck.

Progress

slip sliding away

in the leavings of past snows

squishy oozing

mud.

Swallowing

our hopes for a haven

snatching from our plans

victory over winter

mired in dreams of spring.

J. Binford-Bell

February 2013

One Subject - Several Views

Butterfly Amaryllis

Monet painted over and over the water lilies in his garden pond. When I lived in Washington, D.C. I had the opportunity of standing before two of his water lily compositions at the National Gallery of Art. They were wall size - floor to ceiling and placed on two walls that met in a corner. Standing there you felt surrounded by his subject and just a bit overwhelmed.

Artists do repeat themselves with a subject that entices until they feel they gotten it right. Beginning on January 15th I took numerous photographs of my Butterfly Amaryllis as it has bloomed, withered and then bloomed and withered again.

Post Processed

I have tried different angles, different effects and even gone black and white for a subject that seems to be all about color.

Spreading its wings

The Butterfly Amaryllis is difficult to photograph because it always blooms in twins and is huge from tip of one flower to the tip of the other. And the depth of each blossom is almost four inches.

Dying Swans

As the second set of twins slowly opened I found my photographer's eye drawn to the withering blossoms of the first set of blooms.

Taking a bow

Even fading from its full glory it maintains wonderful color and grace. I could not trim the husks from the plant as my mother would have advised because they were still magical expressions of nature.

Turning away from the light

I think of all the pictures I took of this flowering event in my studio the one above is my favorite in its utter simplicity and to me statement of a profound moment. I found this dying blossom as it wilted and turned away from the light spoke volumes to me of the process of living things. And in the ability of artists to delve deeply into one subject through repetition. My one question, however, is do we ever get it totally right?

The 365 Day Challenge - Week Six

Road to Raton -- Day 36

It has been an interesting journey this week in photography. In fact like last week most of the reasons I picked up the camera was to record work on the rental unit. But I tried to point the camera at something other than tile from time to time.

Husk of its former self -- Day 37

When desperate for a photo the studio/greenhouse always provides lots of great subjects. The drying husk of the Butterfly Amaryllis blossom posed beautifully. And when I posted this on Wednesday, February 6th a debate broke out among the fans of Binford-Bell Studio as to whether the post processing worked or didn't so on Thursday I posted a photo of the same subject with no fancy processing.

Fading Away - Day 38

Did you catch that it is a different flower husk? Amaryllis come in twins and this is the twin of the other. And what makes this photo is not the lack of elaborating effects but the simplicity of the composition and husk itself - open and bowing - turning its face away from the sun. So perhaps not a fair comparison between the two. They are different photos. And frankly I did not like Day 36 as well without the post processing effect. Part of the whole digital manipulation world is knowing when to stop. Rather like painting. And like with painting that point is sometimes missed.

Winter Reflections -- Day 39

And then winter returned. The sunlight coming through the studio windows had vanished but the subject is still the butterfly amaryllis seen here in the central window panel mixed with other images from the inside of the studio and reflections on the outside of the studio. I think I will always see this winter in black and white. It has given us more freezing cold and more gray days than I can remember.

My own personal sun -- Day 40

So on another gray day I was in the studio looking for other things to photograph and took several pictures of my "night light" which is an Art Deco reproduction. I took several with the light off and was not that fond of them. Then took several more with the light on. When I played with it in my post processing program the light behind the glass fan looked like a sun.

Self Portrait -- Day 41

I must be missing the ponds of summer because I keep getting lured back to reflections. But the beautiful snow has melted and turned all sorts of bad colors, and the flowers are only inside though some stupid iris have been lured into thinking it is spring and put up shoots. I think what makes this reflection picture are the binds on the other side of the window and the addition of texture in the post processing.

I have several photographer friends on Facebook and we do have an effect on each other even if we have very different styles. Terry Atkins Rowe has been using textures. But our friend David Hailey is true master of them with his abstract photographs. And it was Jessica Duke that this week posted a picture of nature's texture with an ice picture. I love ice pictures so I began searching the gutters of my country road for some. Too busy for a trip to Coyote Creek, home of the best ice.

Blooming Ice -- Day 42

And I found some great ice abstracts. Texture above was provided by nature. Must remember to get out of the house more even if it is a gray and cold day.

Some Other Person

artwork by Joseph Lorusso

It had to be

Some other person

And yet she knew

standing there before the painting

it was her.

A life ago

a wild and crazy woman

who drunk too much

and too easily said yes

that was her.

Back then

she ran with a wild crowd

lived with her painter

him standing in the receiving line

would he know her?

Social elite

dressed to the nines

on the arm of her powerful husband

would either see her

in the painting on the wall?

J. Binford-Bell

February 2013

Visual prompt provided by The Mag.

On a personal note I am thrilled I lived most of my wild and crazy years before the smart phone or the video camera but there could be a painter or two in my past who from memory or a Polaroid snap may have recorded a moment that slipped my mind.

Week 5 of the 365 Day Challenge

Day 35 - The Bank

One of the positive effects of this exercise in year two is boredom. Camera is always in the car or around my neck but there are days I do not even reach for it. Then sitting in the drive through at the bank - panic. Suddenly I am looking around for just anything I can snap a shot of without getting out of the car. And while taking this photo through the bullet proof glass I am asking myself is this even legal to do. Is it looking like I am casing the joint.

Day 34 - Another Look

Even the day before was not a photo I had taken that day or even that week. It was a photo I had not post processed - the lessor of many photos I had taken on a day when they all seemed to work so well. And this one required cloning out an object. Good practice I told myself. How often have I "tossed" a picture because of one thing that should not be in the frame. So I did it. And isn't this whole exercise about learning?

Day 33 - Mirror

Truth is I was very busy last week. I have been working on refreshing and repairing the rental unit. And part of that is moving things out the previous tenant left behind. I think these two sconces and the mirror behind them were a couple tenants ago. Maybe three. It is a lovely beveled mirror I never could get myself to toss. If nothing else it made a wonderful photographic study when I was taking a ten minute break from tiling the entry/mud room of the rental. Mirrors and what they reflect are an interesting study.

Day 32 - my own kind of hat

When you are busy and you cannot throw photo gear into the car and devote a day to capturing the right image you can wander aimlessly around your own house and look for something to capture. Frankly I didn't even want to devote the time to set up a still life. It was find something, take a few shots and get back to work. Only at the end of the day was there time to post process a few of what I found to be treasures. This was taken in my entry/mud room as was the photo below.

Day 31 - Welcoming Committee

Maybe there is something to be said for limited time. This week has certainly gotten me out of my comfort zone. The Welcoming Committee is perhaps my favorite shot of the week. And it and the hats fit into my portraits without faces on going challenge. Or in this case self-portraits. The Welcoming Committee says a lot about me.

Day 30 - The Guardian at the Studio Door

The Guardian is another self-portrait. I found the gargoyle at some flea market. I think there were once two. They would have stood at either side of a fire place and held up the mantel. He now holds up a small half moon plate where I deposit keys and pocket rockets and other offerings. At some point I graced him with a necklace also found at some flea market. I have a house god I need to photograph one day. And a carved santo sits by my hats in the entry. I even have a kitchen witch who has watched over many a kitchen so it fits that I have a guardian for my studio.

Day 29 - Lunacy

The week began with the full wolf moon and my continuing search for the definitive full moon picture. Not there yet. But does any artist be they painters, sculptors, writers, musicians or photographers reach their goal?

Closed for Repairs

Manchester, England Central Library

The Manchester Central Library opened in 1934 and in 2008 major problems were discovered with the structure and asbestos used in its construction. It was closed in 2010 and is undergoing refurbishment and expansion currently. Its extensive collections are being stored in Winsford Rock Salt Mine.

Closed for Repairs

Shut

no admittance

while repairs are being made.

Moved

all the books gone

hidden away in the salt mines.

Safe?

the dead sea scrolls?

the library of Alexandria?

Closed

like modern minds

to all beyond a 10 second sound byte?

Repaired

Not razed like the old

open soon to receptive minds.

J. Binford-Bell

St Peter's Square, Manchester England

Visual Prompt provided by Tess Kincaid of The Mag

Week four of the 365 Day Challenge

Day 22
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

After two weeks of focusing on still life composition I gave myself a week to be random but began with an orchid picture which was not that far from a still life. But I saw a flow of time in these flowers and was drawn to the subtle colors.

Day 23
Winter Diamonds

Winter photography is not easy. The same conditions that formed these crystals fogged the camera lens and chilled my finger tips. I wear fingerless gloves for photography in the winter but some days this winter have been too cold for even that. But back at the computer I noticed that the same things I looked for in a still life composition I am selecting in outdoor closeups.

Day 24
Cast off leaves of my Crown of Thorns

Back in the studio I was trying to clean up some of the created clutter from my still life explorations and noticed the leaves around the base of my Crown of Thorns. The plant goes through a regular shed process and I find myself often reluctant to cast them away as the dried flowers and leaves are often as beautiful as the plant itself. The shapes and colors drew me to record them.

Day 25

My butterfly amaryllis has been blooming for a week and for the whole week I have been trying to capture it. It blooms in pairs and is a very large flower with lots of depth. In other words, it is a challenge. The composition of the plant does not lend itself to a pleasing composition in the photograph. Vicious cropping was used to come up with the above picture.

Day 26
The road back from Raton

Friday I had to go to Raton. Camera always goes with me especially since on US 64 east there are buffalo and antelope - sometimes. Not that day. Which left me with one of my more enduring photographic challenges - how to capture the vast emptiness of the plains. Note to self: Some subjects we are good at capturing and some require work. I have convinced myself it takes a special lens I do not have. And sometimes it is just looking at it in a different way. This time black and white seemed to speak of loneliness.

Day 27
Rain clouds forming

Montana is big sky country. The ring of mountains usually makes the expanse of sky in New Mexico high country look smaller. However on this particular day with rain clouds moving in it seemed vast. I had to pull over on the side of the road and confuse the tourists to take this shot.

Week four was a mish mash of subjects but for week five I am considering practicing photographing vistas. Obviously I need more work in that area.