Magpie Tales 279 - Spirals in My Mind

Visual Prompt Provided by The Mag

Thoughts

in the dark of the night

spiraling up 

from the depth of sleep

pulling my mind

into

consciousness.

Worries

spiraling out of control

climbing higher

with increasing thoughts of doom

chasing sleep

away.

Staircase

of dread climbing ever higher

hamster wheel thinking

spiraling in my mind

higher

faster.

Jacqui Binford-Bell

July 2015

Week 28 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 190

Photography is all about light. It is about recording light. First on photographic plates and then on film and now a digital memory card. And to me the best images are about light. As in the photograph above which shows the light edging the clouds. Or below where the light is just beginning to illuminate the iris blowing in the shadows of a building.

Day 191

Light and shadow is an important part of my attraction to the four deck chairs below. That really shows up in a black and white photograph which is all about light and dark.

Day 192

Capturing my black labradoodle as something other than a black blob is all about catching the light dancing off her coat. It helps that she is silvering out.

Day 193

Light is essential to the photograph below. It is about light in my opinion. But many viewers of this image have interpreted based on their faith. One was sure I had to be praying when I took the shot. Actually focusing. Though if you are into the chop wood/carry water forms of meditation I was at least meditating. Taking a photograph in marginal light requires a stillness within yourself.

Day 194

Day 195

Taking a photograph of something white is almost as difficult as something black. Too much light and not enough shadow and you "blow out" the image. The subtle shadows in the depths of the peony make the image work.

Day 196

I was attracted to the contrast of the delicate flower lying on the rough stone, the difference in texture, the soft petals and the hard lichen. But the shadows cast by the flower and the plant it fell from makes the photo.

Magpie 278 - Headed Out

Headed Out
Image provided by Magpie Tales

Lament of the Engineer's Wife

Her bed shook

When the trains

 rolled past

wheels clicked over the rails

 whistles blew at the crossing

But she slept on.

The trains came

three times

during the night.

She would fall asleep 

to the rumble of the 9:45

its lonely whistle calling her dreams.

The midnight train

always in sync

with his grandfather's clock

which stood in the hall.

her basal mind

 registered both.

When the 3:25

train did not come

she was instantly awake

knowing the turn it failed to make.

Dressed in widow's black

she headed out down the track.

Again.

Jacqui Binford-Bell

July 2015

Note: I have lived in small towns near the tracks and the only trains which ever woke me in the night were those that did not come.

Week 27 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 183

Summer. There is a fullness about the earth and a warmth in the sun which even the frequent rains do not diminish. And the sense of light is somehow different than even a cloudless winter sky. I was once again drawn to the wooden chairs on the patio. And their shadows. In this morning light they seemed to be warming up for loungers with mugs of coffee. I wanted to put down my camera and linger.

Day 184

There is a balcony above the cobblestone patio and the lounge chairs. It is of another era though built at the same time. It opens an expansive view the wooden chairs do not share. But it is right they are on the garden level. And the balcony is on the drinks level.

Day 185

Feel like Georgia O'Keeffe with another poppy creation. I do not paint them. Somehow paint cannot capture them like digital photography. Still looking for the penultimate depiction. This is very close. But there are more days in the season to practice.

Day 186

It has been a rainy summer which adds the dimension of dew and rain drops to photographs of simple flowers. I love this peony just opening to the sun this last week. Our humidity is generally in the single digits but today I checked and it was 88%. Hard to tell the dew from the mist from the rain.

Day 187

And everything is going bonkers growing. The grasses are so very high and all the flowers seem to be blooming at once. Hard for a photographer to narrow their focus.

Day 188

Rain adds to the streams and to the ponds. And when the sun is out before the clouds come in the water sparkles as if it just fell.

Day 189

Or seems to reflect all the green around it. I am generally not a green palate person but it is hard not to appreciate all the green after several years of drought.

Invisible Rules

Bathers by George Tooker
Visual prompt by Magpie Tales: Mag 277

Rules

the careful pas de deux

of strangers

navigating 

the beach.

Lines

drawn in the sand

polite society 

should know

not to cross.

Warnings

delivered by frigid stare

making it clear

surf yes, showers no.

Invisible lines

set by cultural rules

polite animals

do not need warning.

J. Binford-Bell

July 2012

1. In ballet, a pas de deux (French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be found in many well-known ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle.

Magpie Tale 276 - Evening Watch

Midsummer Night's Melancholy by Michael Sowa
Photographic prompt by Magpie Tales: May 276

Evening Watch

Listening

after a long day 

alone

For the sound of their people

returning

from a day at the beach.

Waiting

for their humans

silently

As the long day

lengthens

into night in a strange house.

J. Binford-Bell

July 2015

Week 26 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 176

Wish I could say this week had a theme but I cannot. Beyond the fact that it was summer. And it was not yet the height of tourist season. I could get out with my camera and visit the spots I like to photograph before they got crowded. And this year it was a green summer. I debated getting my camera a rain coat and included a plastic bag in the camera equipment.

The wet conditions created frequent morning fog as captured in Day 176. I am still debating how to post process fog photographs. I do like them in black and white a lot.

Day 177

The frequent rain storms also gave some lovely clouds to capture. This is looking to the southeast out my studio door. I love the horizon line with trees on the right but I frequently have to crop or clone out tops of neighboring houses. Yes, I live close to the back country but so do other people.

Day 178

Another nice thing about summer is the tractors are out. In in my neighborhood that can mean you will see a collection of oldies and goodies kept under tarps in the winter. I have photographed this old red tractor more than once, but never head on. I was attracted to the bundle of baling wire on the front. I can see the driver stopping and gathering up the offending wire and wrapping it to the grill before continuing on with clearing of the irrigation ditches. Probably not going straight to the trash. You never know when you might need a piece of baling wire. Who knows how long this bundle of wire has been there - added and subtracted.

Day 179
Eagle Nest Lake looking east

There is a lot of debate over just how long the drought has existed in the west in general and northern New Mexico specifically. Or if it is over. It seems to depend upon how long you have lived here. I know people celebrating the rising level of Eagle Nest Lake. And I was happy to see how far up it had come from 42% capacity low. But I also know in the photograph all the foreground green was once water. And I know the lake is a storage area for irrigation water owned by ranches down stream. As long as the rains continue downstream the lake gets to keep most. The State Engineer's office closely monitors water and water usage and water rights.

I took this picture before a series of rain storms which dumped between 2 and 4 inches of rain on already saturated ground. Poor Cimarron Canyon got too much and the road was flooded because of avalanches and fallen rocks. It was closed for two days. I think we got to keep a lot of water in the lake then. Not all because you cannot kill the Cimarron River and its fish. It is home of some rare trout Fish and Game are trying to re-establish.

Day 180
Shirley Poppies

Photography can be educational and not just about f-stops. I frequently take pictures because of color and form and the light, then come home and research what it is I photographed. Easy to just say poppies for the above photograph, but they are not just poppies. They are Shirley Poppies. They have a smaller seed pod in the center and bloom earlier than my oriental poppies which are just beginning to bloom.

Day 181

Another picture of Eagle Nest Lake. This one from the north parking area of the state park. More water means more reflections. And more rain this year means more new green grass and more yellow wildflowers on the banks and the hills. Even the conifers on the hills are a different green, more blue, as they take advantage of the rains to sprout new growth.

The photograph below shows the bright green of the new foliage on the aspens mixed in with the pines. And it show now snow on the mountains around Black Lake. Summer is here. Is the drought over? Or is this just a brief respite before it returns? We are all hoping for the former.

Day 182