spring in a parking lot

After spending much of my time in my home garden this spring cultivating new ground for a vegetable garden and building a protective fence of harvested bamboo from the edge of the property, I am getting back to posting new images taken this spring. Although it doesn’t feel much like spring today in Pennsylvania with temperatures reaching 91F today.  But the tomatoes are enjoying the heat and I am hoping for a nice crop of heirlooms later this summer.

I’ve seen several posts from fellow photographers on the west coast of dogwoods in bloom, so I thought I might also post a dogwood I found this spring, Cornus florida ‘Cherokee Chief’ in a parking lot.  The amazing red bracts caught my attention from over 200ft away as they popped against the fresh green lawn on the hill behind it.  This was one of those moments when I know I’ve found something special. Maybe not a spectacular image, but something that resonates with my creative spirit that will influence my life and my art.

something different

Recently I’ve been looking at the local landscape a little differently…  looking for a new project or focus to spark some new energy and creativity.  It’s so easy for me to find macro images, very intimate landscapes, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.  But it’s harder to find something different: different than a broad garden shot describing the planting scheme or layout of the land, different than a plant combination emphasizing texture or color contrasts, different than the soft play of light I so easily seem to find. Today I found very harsh light and remembered the possibilities of using harsh light in the stark landscapes of Death Valley.  I was fortunate to have learned some of these ways of seeing from some of the best black and white photographers of the west last fall.  And today those teachings came back to me as I was looking at this tree against the strong architecture of a campus building.  Maybe not a project, but definitely a lesson worth remembering and practicing for future possibilities.

finding beauty

Today I decided to revisit a plant I photographed last week; the turkish filbert had the female flowers out today along with the male catkins!  I have a few good captures I’ll post later on my website.  But close by another plant caught my attention… not because it was in spring bloom, but because all the ingredients to capture a fleeting moment were just right.  Needles on a dead branch of Pinus uncinata, damaged from the difficult winter we had here in Philadelphia, were radiating a warm glow against the blue sky.  Other branches were also broken, needles past this stage of luminosity and a much drabber brown.  But this branch was at just the right phase of compartmentalizing off, giving me the opportunity to capture the fleeting beautiful burnt orange color… finding beauty in this moment of a conifer’s decline.

shadows

I’ve been unable to make new images for several weeks.  Not for a lack of motivation…  tonight was a beautiful sunset with bright purple, orange and red and we’ve had several amazing ice and snow events.  No, the reason I’ve not been able to photograph is I’ve been waiting on my new eyeglasses; the toric lenses are giving the optician some troubles and I’m getting a lesson in patience.  When I photograph up close, I focus manually.  And since I’ve been in the suburbs of Philadelphia this winter, I’ve been limited to the more intimate landscape.  The image for this post was made last year after an epic snowfall.  I really like the contrast of the tree trunk with the tree’s shadows on the snow.  The way the snow melts around the tree trunk is also an amazing piece of science in the wonders of nature.  As the temperatures start to nudge well above freezing this week I am promised those eyeglasses… just in time to see some signs of late winter flowers?

inspirations

Today I am appreciating friends of mine made during the Death Valley Workshop with Bruce Barnbaum, Jack Dykinga and Jay Dusard last October.  We are collaborating on a print share among our small group of friends and I am seeing some of their work from the workshop for the first time this week.  I am inspired by their images.  We all traveled the same roads, visited the same sights, and yet all came back with very different images.  Artist bring themselves to their image making, and these photographers are artists.  As David DuChemin recently commented on Twitter, “Vision comes from shooting from the heart, from making images more about how you feel than what you see.”

Mark Waits http://www.markwaitsphotography.com/

Chuck Kimmerle http://www.chuckkimmerle.com/

Alexenander Ehhalt http://www.alexander-ehhalt.com/content/index_ger.html

Eric Black http://www.ericpeterblackimages.com/EPB_Images/Welcome.html

Photo above: one of the ancient bristlecone pines in the Schulman Grove at sunset

my best images of 2010

A lot of photographers are posting their top 10 images of the year 2010 this week, so I thought I would jump on the bandwagon too.   Besides, it’s another chance to practice editing skills!  Of course I still have some 2010 images to process; and I’m sure others do too, but here are the top 10 I have ready to date.  Enjoy!

looking again

Over and over again I am surprised at what I learn during the editing process.  I see new possibilities and missed opportunities that I’ll hopefully see more clearly next time I’m in the field.  So as much work as going through your images is… and it certainly is a lot of work for me since I don’t usually have large blocks of time to devote to the digital darkroom, organizing, processing and exporting… the self critique is invaluable to my education as a photographer.  I see how I framed the original image and can still see how I might have framed it differently, remembering the light and other elements I intentionally removed from the frame.  I can often still feel the temperature, the wind and sounds at the time I pressed the shutter.  Revisiting and looking again brings back those memories, often focusing my intent, but timing is everything for me.  I need to be away from the images and the experiences just long enough so the experience does not prejudice my ranking of those images in the grander scheme of my work.

Image of pine forest rebirth in Yosemite National Park, November 2010

December

With the winter solstice, full moon, lunar eclipse last night, and a cold running through the office… no wonder I’m feeling under the weather today.  Sorry I didn’t get any photographs of the big event, but it was amazing to see none the less.  I hope you too woke up long enough to witness one of nature’s wonders last night.  I’m hoping we get some snowfall soon so I’m able to add to my winter images… it’s harder to find exciting material to photograph in the ‘brown’ of winter in Pennsylvania.  December has always been the hardest month for me to be inspired by the season… no ice, no water, always overcast, no contrasts… just shades of brown.

Yes, the mahonia are in bloom and some of the other winter bloomers are hoping for warmer days and sunshine.  But as a photographer, this is the time of year I find new trees, new forms and dances among the bare branches.  I add them to my mental database, watch and ponder the best conditions to capture their grace.  The only thing keeping me inside lately is the strong winds we’ve had almost every day this month.  But with the shortest day of the year now behind us, we have longer days, brighter light and maybe a little snow to look forward to for the rest of the winter.  December is restorative…  time to enjoy the quietness of this time of year and let the creative process slow and wander.  For it’s during these times we can more easily reflect and embrace what is truly important to each of us as human beings and as artists.

being a photographer

I am thinking tonight about how lucky we all are to have our sight.  Photographers use more than just their physical sight to “see” a photograph.  But tonight I am thinking about this because my father is having eye surgery Tuesday to correct a blown retina after cataract surgery.  A visual artist who may or may not get his full sight back.

It takes a lot of emotional courage to be an artist. Remembering this, I picked up a favorite book again tonight, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland, and found this quote to share… “In the ideal – that is to say, real – artist, fears not only continue to exist, they exist side by side with the desires that complement them, perhaps drive them, certainly feed them.  Naive passion, which promotes work done in ignorance of obstacles, becomes – with courage – informed passion, which promotes work done in full acceptance of those obstacles.”

The photo above is of aspen trees on the shore of Grant Lake in the Eastern Sierras. Clicking the thumbnail will bring up a larger image for closer viewing.

editing skills

I was going through my images from the trip west ranking them for processing and realized the best images are from when I was allowing myself to trust what I saw rather than trying to make an image of something I thought might be interesting.  I guess this is one of the lessons of editing, a task I rather dislike but am beginning to value.  I’ve certainly taken images and not known how to process them until later; I needed some additional digital darkroom skills. But I’ve come to realize that if I keep my mind open during the editing process, and take time to look at past images, patterns and concepts appear and sometimes I see something I couldn’t quite understand earlier.  What continues to surprise me is that I need some time away from the actual image making in the field to be able to really edit well.

The image of the cottonwood above is from Bishop, CA when I was scouting for petroglyphs before sunset.  But this tree and its pattern caught my attention and I’m glad I stopped to photograph it!  Be certain to click on the image above to view it larger.  This blog template does not allow very large thumbnails.