Peak Magnolia

Magnolia season is peaking at the moment and there are many beautiful flowers to enjoy. Each one is a distinct individual, I think that is what makes them so fascinating. On this day, I chose to shoot in black and white because I happen to like the way that the waxy magnolia leaves render in monochrome. In my opinion, the photos look best when the central portion of the flower is in focus. Kind of like getting the eyes sharp in a portrait of a person. And, on top of everything, I'm working with a new camera, which is also a pleasure.

Tasting notes: Pentax K-3 iii Monochrome and 40 mm f/2.8 lens.  

Dreamy Wildflower

Over the years, I've tried various vintage and some downright weird lenses to add that certain je ne sais quoi to my photographs. Consequently, I now have in my possession a mini arsenal comprised of a couple of tilt-shift lenses, one or two mirror lenses, and a Helios-44. Etc. Recently, I picked up a copy of the Pentax Mirror Zoom 400-600 f/11 lens. It is a mirror lens with an adjustable focal length, something I didn't know existed. I used it to make this photograph of a wild flower. I was also shooting through the screen of our porch, which diffused the image even more.

A Shady Spot

When I bought my first home, I thought it would be cool to have a concrete table and bench set like this one in the backyard. Luckily, they were a little too unwieldy and out of my price range at the time. For what ever reason, though, these old things hold a certain fascination for me. I'm perfectly happy to visit this little shady area when I need to get out of the sun for a bit.  

The Delicate Phase

In general, magnolias tend to be messy trees, but when the flowers are new, they have a different, quite delicate character. Once they are fully open, they turn brown and fall apart quickly. They are similar to gardenias in that way.

The Value of Snapshots

When speaking to folks about my images, I often like to make light of my 'wall period'. When I declared an official end to this phase a number of years ago, I thought that meant I was totally done with walls. Fact is, I'm not. I still keep coming back to some of the compositions I made years ago. These little anomalies in the built environment that caught my attention at the time -- some of them still resonate with me. And I continue to photograph what attracts my attention, for whatever reason. I no longer feel the need to question that. And not everything has to be destined for the gallery wall. Or be monitized. More and more, I have come to appreciate the Japanese ethos of 'snapshot' photography.

 

Chaos Theory

I've heard some photographers claim that they try to compose in such a way as to organize the chaos of the visual field within their frame. To each their own, but sometimes I think the correct decision is to just embrace the chaos, let the unwieldy mess itself be the subject of the photograph.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler, regardless of your approach to chaos...

Transported

I have no idea if pomegranate trees are native to Italy, although I suspect they are. But when I saw the Southern sun striking this ornamental plant in a nearby garden, that is where I was transported. For a little while at least. As I wandered around the 7 acre plot that day, I travelled widely, and that was a very good thing. I'm no gardener, but I can understand at least part of what drives some folks to invest the time and effort.

🌞

For some reason, this image taken a year or so ago seems perfectly apt for today. Gray, gray, gray, gray gray. Like my mood this morning. It is raining. Full stop. Yet when I look at the weather app on my phone, I see a bright yellow happy sun. Sorry, but that just makes things worse.

An Impromptu Still Life

This little scene wasn't part of the program, just something that caught my attention out of the corner of an eye as I was passing. An impromptu still life, you might say. The natural earth tones of the gourds were not that interesting, to be honest, and, as I often do, I preferred the image in monochrome.

 

That Time In Istanbul

My first trip to Istanbul was sometime in the late nineties, or perhaps it was 2000. Before 9/11, in other words. My wife and I had no hesitation in walking around the city without a guide, and I felt comfortable showing the cabbies a wad of cash and trusting them not to overcharge for the ride. Turns out, many of them spoke German, so I was able to communicate reasonably well in a pinch. You just never know when you'll get a chance to practice your German language skills!

Plenty of Photons To Work With

 

I thought my old eyes were pretty well calibrated to light, but I guess there's always more to learn. The morning light appeared dull and boring to my partially caffeinated senses, and I almost didn't bring a camera along. In actual fact, I was shooting HP5+ at f/8 and 1/125 s, which, while not a bright sunny day by any means, was still plenty of photons to work with. The woods offered any number of interesting views, and I'm glad I had the little Contax T with me after all.

Other People's Dogs

To be honest, I was pretty happy when I noticed this dog about to photobomb my shot. What is it about dogs, anyway? I guess we each have our own particular reasons for loving 'em. A few years ago we lost a beloved dog, and I'm still not ready for another. But at least there's other people's dogs to enjoy.

Tasting notes: Contax T, HP5+.

Finding Balance

Sometimes there's a building you'd like to photograph, and as you're composing, it becomes clear that none of the lines are square to each other. Gravity is taking its toll differently on different parts of the structure. So, I did my best to line up the camera as I framed up the shot. After developing the film, I had to crop a little to get a balanced composition. 

I hope you find balance this weekend, fellow traveler.

Tasting notes: Fujica G690 BL with the 100 mm f/3.5 lens. Expired film.

A Down To Earth Landscape

The big leaf magnolia is my favorite variety of magnolia, although, of course, I like 'em all. The name is definitely accurate, too, as the individual leaves on a mature plant can get as large as 40 cm in length. These trees tend to thrive beneath a larger canopy, protected from the wind. We recently planted a seedling in our yard, a nice incentive for me to stay healthy for the long term. 

Otherworldly Landscapes

Over the course of the past decade, I've accumulated a quite a stash of film, some of which is now going expired, some of which doesn't appeal to my tastes anymore. The question is what to do with it all? It would be a shame to just toss it into the bin. So, I've decided to do some experimentation with development, fixing -- chemistry in other words. Today's image is a hand colored negative, just the part of the film leader that is exposed as you are loading the camera. It looks like a landscape image of some sort. Who knows, this line of inquiry might lead to something interesting at some point. Better than binning the out of date hipster film stock though. Experimentation is just part of the process...

  

If Photographs Were Flowers

We all leave behind a photographic record. It is either a pile of junk for your survivors to go through or discard, or something more beautiful. I like to think of photographs like wildflowers. Common, yet still beautiful when we come across them on our journey. In the end, the petals drop. Colors fade. Maybe, someone collects them to be enjoyed a little bit longer before they turn into dust.

Incongruous

Not sure what was planted here, but whatever it is, it must be pretty valuable. Quite a bit of effort and expense to go through to keep the sun and birds at bay for some mundane crop. In the meantime, an interesting subject for photography. Perhaps evidence of... The incongruous is always interesting to photograph, I guess.

Mother's Day

It's kinda weird how things go sometimes. Yesterday, we were out and about in our local town. Lots of random folks wished my wife 'happy Mother's Day!'. Which is all well and good, since she's definitely a good mom. The weird part to me is the implicit assumption that all women of a certain age have had children. I wonder how folks who either don't want or can't have children feel when some random person wishes them HMD. 

Have a pleasant Sunday, all of y'all.

It Is All Part of the Practice

Color, like composition and the rest of art, is a practice. Words of wisdom, I know. But someone is creeping around the house this morning and I'm not in a good mood about it. 

Anyway, good luck with your practice today. 

Where The Ant Lions Live

No, this isn't a view of the cratered surface of the moon. Just a shady area I happened upon where a large group of ant lions had set up shop. Ant lions were common in Southern California and, as children, my brother and I enjoyed dropping live ants into the sandy cones and watching the ensuing carnage.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler.

 

That California Light

I took this photograph in San Francisco back in the day using a Canon Powershot G9. I really thought that little camera was the bee's knees! Looking at my images from that trip again, I think the engineers in Japan did a fine job calibrating the color response of the G9. As a native Californian, my eyeballs and brain are pretty attuned to the quality of the West Coast light, and I have to say I think my set of images is spot on.

Transparency... or Not

This is an example of an early twenty-first century digital camera photograph. Can you tell what brand of 'sauce' was applied? Or did my minor tweaks render it 'over seasoned'? This image was posted to my now defunct Flickr stream back in the day. Good ole Flickr, still a good place to go to investigate the properties of photographs created by different cameras and lenses. By looking at a lot of images you sometimes can form an opinion. Sometimes.

Photography Special Sauce

Sometimes it seems like a big part of photography is a quest to discover some kind of special 'sauce' that can be ladled over one's flavorless photographs to make them stand out from the other desiccated offerings being served up on the fine art buffet. Something delicious to dress up the overcooked tilapia that are one's images. Frankly, I've got no real complaint with this approach. Mea culpa. Plus, tilapia is awesome. Transforming plants into a hunk of protein. Yes, please! And, after all, sauces are the basis of humankind's most sophisticated cuisines.

A popular sauce these days is the so-called 'digicam' aesthetic. Is this the next beurre blanc, or merely a slice of melted Velveeta? 

Tasting notes: Nikon D50, Nikkor-F 24mm lens. 

The Magnificent Magnolia

I find the magnolia a subject of endless fascination and I never tire of photographing them. I have dozens of photographs similar to this one, and fully intend to accumulate many, many more before I leave the scene. Magnolias are native to the Deep South, but it seems that many people cut down the ones in their yard, replacing them with non-native species. Ugh. Anyway, the first flowers are starting to appear now and they will continue into early June. 

Local Color

My wife and I both noticed this place as we were driving through town. We parked around the corner and I got out to make a few photographs. I'm so glad I did. I'm trying to get in the habit of not driving by. Cuz, if I'm lucky, I'm not likely to drive past this place again.

Something Seen

We took a wrong turn and came upon a narrow street with a series of primitive houses. Although most stood empty, it looked like some were still lived in.

Town and Gown

We made a short road trip to attend the opening of a friend's exhibition yesterday at a large university art gallery. About ten minutes away from the venue, just outside of the campus, I noticed this old house adorned with old school metal awnings. They just don't make them like that any longer. It is could use a little work, but the neatly trimmed landscaping shows that the home is still cared for.

Good light to you this weekend, fellow traveler. 

Horizons

Compared to Texas and California, other places I've lived before, clear views of the horizon here in the Deep South are less common, it seems to me anyway. It's too lush down here, too many trees and too much kudzu. That being the case, farm land can provide more wide open views of the landscape, and this is one vista point I return to from time to time across the seasons to photograph.  

A Path Never Before Taken

The other day we took a different path, a new route to us, and came across a small pond we did not know existed. It was quite surprising how a large body of water could hide in plane sight like that. It was a very blustery day and the water was brown owing to the heavy rains. I don't mind the monochrome version of this image. If I look with attention, I can tell that the water was turbid.

The Streets of SF

The 'Streets of San Francisco' was a television show that my father used to enjoy way back in the day. As there was only one little screen in the house, the whole family got to watch. Out of nostalgia, I checked out an episode on Youtube, and the main impression was the excruciatingly slow pacing compared to modern television programs.

The Powershot G9 is a slow camera by modern standards, but I really enjoyed using it as a travel and general walk about camera back in the aughties. These old digicams and their funky colors are popular again among the generation of kids born at the turn of the century. That purple-ish blob is a jacaranda plant by the way.

 

You're Not Going Back...

This is a photograph from about 20 years ago. Looks like it was taken near Salem, Ala., a small town on the way to somewhere else. Not sure quite why I framed it up this way, but I bet I had my reasons. What caught my attention when I saw this photograph in my archive of old images was the purple and blue tones in the shadows. A more modern camera would certainly do a better job, but you know what, Christenberry shot plenty of his work on Instamatics and old polaroids, and they're in museums. Plus, I'm not going back anytime soon.