More Contemplative

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning and as I stood drinking coffee and looking into the woods outside I thought more about the quality of the light showing in the leaves.

And the beauty within the color and shape.

And suddenly the irritation of the mosquitos and the spider webs in the face, getting sand and bits of fallen leaves in my shoes. And the very fact that “the images wouldn’t be commercially viable” (Ding!) fell completely away.

And I was outside finding even more beauty than I’d already seen through the window.

I once heard the actress Jessica Lange (probably on NPR, don’t let them gut the funding) discuss how for her, her work was about the experience and not connected to it’s quality or how it affected the audience. And at the time I thought (in my very judgmental way) how incredibly self indulgent and hollow the thought was.

But maybe I’m catching on to something. BTW, I’m told that using the Active D lighting setting will help reduce the blow out on the highlights. I’m learning a little more on that too.

Mon voyage poursuit…

Stuck in Commercial-land

I’ve been feeling like I’ve been stuck in Commercialism forever.

I’m feeling like even my nature shots have a commercial quality to them and I’m really getting bored with the whole thing. So… I’ve started trying to re-trace some of my past and have been playing with the concept of “Contemplative Photography”.

Sort of a Buddhist / Mindful way that finds beauty in the mundane and close at hand with little interest in technical perfection.

And quite obviously it can’t and won’t be my only endeavor over the next few months. But I think it will be worth re-visiting on an ongoing basis over the next few months.

Let me know what you think, is this a valid use of energy or is it just an excuse to take snapshots?

Mon voyage poursuit…

Of course it’s raining…

There can be such beauty in a summer rain.

and such hope of what’s to come.

Mon voyage poursuit…

Long Distance Driving

(This shot is from last fall but I love it so I’m going to use it here)
I have a love/hate thing with long distance driving. There is the joy of the open road with the music playing loud and the time of quite thought but the absolute exhaustion upon completion.
I returned my sisters’ youngest boy to her yesterday after a week’s visit with my kids (More activity points than I care to count)
         
(Drag Race shot courtesy of Steven Chapman : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=27703350#!/media/set/?set=a.148934395183421.39569.100002005838820
 by meeting her (roughly) half way between our home in GR and hers in St. Louis, MO. (No I don’t know which is more conservative but it makes me wonder why I’m not?), 12 hours round trip (with lots of road construction thrown in for fun). The ride there with my nephew (17) was all conversation and music, fun and high energy. The ride back alone was really quiet with a lot of introspective thought. And when I finally pulled my flat ass out of the seat and walked into the house I felt like my mind was clear of the last 6 month’s worth of questions.
Mon voyage poursuit…

Alex is Visiting

My Nephew Alex is in town and staying the week with us.

So we went for an hour or so in the studio (primarily to check out the stobe pack that had just come back from repair - It still isn't fixed!!!)

This time Alex got a chance to shoot,

And then, boys being boys they staged the shots they wanted to do:

 

The speedotron goes back again on Monday!!!!!

Giant Asparagus???

One of the joys of moving anywhere is in the finding of new things and phenomena. The most dead and boring place on the planet will provide you with at least some beauty if you will only take the time to find it.

And in that vein, the Giant Asparagus (At least that’s what it looks like and it’s now over 6 feet tall) growing in the woods and along the road

Is in Bloom:

Who-da Thunk?

Cooking with Pamela

I spent last evening doing cooking shots with Pamela Medford Conley for her cooking blog www.cookingnuggets.com .

It turns out she knows all of my Michigan cousins and we had a really good time talking about photography and family while she cooked and I shot.

Oh, and the food completely explained why she's doing a blog....

The woman can cook!!!





Writers write and Photographers photograph

So not everything is going to be wonderful but I've had my eye on the forest of flags in front of AMWAY headquarters.

I was wanting to work more with the flags backlight but I was over taken by events.

Happy day after the 4th...

Summer Time

This is Charley, or "the pinhead" as she is affectionately known within our family. She is a constant reminder to “Live in the Moment”. I’ve been asked about the manipulation of color in this shot. There is none, the colors appear as they were (although the bottom of the pool is a really deep blue).