Today, a rainy Sunday full of thunderstorms, I'm drawn to this picture of elegant white roses.
The roses were a gift to myself; pretty casual, old-fashioned miniature roses from the floral section of the grocery store. The ivory you see here were all mixed up with peach and pale pink and shiny green leaves -- completely charming.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
New Photo!
A new photo to show you all today:
I live in a river valley full of old mill towns, so we have a number of these old metal truss bridges. The paint is a bit flaky and rusty (when the mills left, they took the economy and the bridge-painting budget with them) but the structure is still solid, and full of great angles and intersections.
Most of them are a pain in the neck to get close to on foot to take pictures of. As a result, this one is an impulse shot: pulling my camera out of my bag and shooting out the open car window. Not ideal, but I'll take the results. : )
I live in a river valley full of old mill towns, so we have a number of these old metal truss bridges. The paint is a bit flaky and rusty (when the mills left, they took the economy and the bridge-painting budget with them) but the structure is still solid, and full of great angles and intersections.Most of them are a pain in the neck to get close to on foot to take pictures of. As a result, this one is an impulse shot: pulling my camera out of my bag and shooting out the open car window. Not ideal, but I'll take the results. : )
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Gold Stars!
Thanks to MFIPC for featuring my photograph "Lush" in her Treasury west!
Here's a close up of the photo:
MFIPC stands for My Flat in Paris Couture and her shop has a sort of retro-glam feel to go with the name. I may just have to go rent Breakfast at Tiffany's after looking through it, so two Audrey Hepburn inspired items:
Here's a close up of the photo:MFIPC stands for My Flat in Paris Couture and her shop has a sort of retro-glam feel to go with the name. I may just have to go rent Breakfast at Tiffany's after looking through it, so two Audrey Hepburn inspired items:
Breakfast At Tiffanys My Paris Flat In London Blue Handbag
Breakfast At Tiffany's Blue Paris Eiffel Tower Audrey Hepburn Movie Party Invitations
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Parallax
About my name...
Small "p" parallax -- that is, not my shop -- is originally a scientific term that refers to the apparent movement of an object when viewed from two slightly different positions. Here's the Wikipedia article. But the best way I know how explain it is to show you:
Close one eye and hold up your index finger. Line it up with something across the room -- vertical is best, the edge of a door or window works great -- then, without moving your head or finger, switch eyes. (If you had your right eye closed, open it and shut your left instead) Suddenly your finger isn't lined up - it's as if it moved. It didn't of course, you just looked at it different.
I love the metaphor.
And now, I promise, I'm getting to the photography.
Anyone recognize it? Think before you scroll down. I can almost guarantee you've seen it before.
It's the Golden Gate Bridge, yep, that one
"According to Frommer's travel guide, the Golden Gate Bridge is "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world"[23] (although Frommers also bestows the "most photographed" honor on Tower Bridge in London, England).[24] " (Thank you, once again, wikipedia -- informative, and a bit snarky, catching Frommer's hyperbole)
Somewhere I have the same photograph as everyone else who's been to San Francisco with a camera. You know the one, even if you've never been near California, the bridge cuts left to right across the bay --with or without fog -- with the Marin Headlands in the back.
(Fisherman's Wharf, a tourist-y area a good photographing distance from the bridge actually has the spot to take it marked with a Kodak-yellow "Photo Spot" sign. There are a couple of these, apparently to help hapless tourists to take their vacation snapshots of Alcatraz -- not very photogenic -- and the sea lions -- even less photogenic)
Now, there's a chance someone else picked the exact same bit of the bridge, and focused exactly the same angle, with exactly the same light to cast exactly the same shadow. But, well, I doubt it. And that's what's so cool about the idea of parallax, and about photography. Everyone's seen that bridge, but you look at it a little bit different, and everything shifts.
People might not "ooh" and "ahh" when they see this photo. But they take a second to look at, tilt their heads, study it. That beautiful picture from the "photo spot" -- no-one studies it anymore, we've see it so many times we stop really looking. I doubt people stand at the "photo spot" and study the bridge very long. Which is a shame. Looking at a thing of beauty shouldn't be quite so perfunctory. Getting this not-so-dramatic, close up, angular, abstract, not-quite-recognizable picture, made me take a second look at the (maybe) most photographed bridge in the world.
Small "p" parallax -- that is, not my shop -- is originally a scientific term that refers to the apparent movement of an object when viewed from two slightly different positions. Here's the Wikipedia article. But the best way I know how explain it is to show you:
Close one eye and hold up your index finger. Line it up with something across the room -- vertical is best, the edge of a door or window works great -- then, without moving your head or finger, switch eyes. (If you had your right eye closed, open it and shut your left instead) Suddenly your finger isn't lined up - it's as if it moved. It didn't of course, you just looked at it different.
I love the metaphor.
And now, I promise, I'm getting to the photography.
Anyone recognize it? Think before you scroll down. I can almost guarantee you've seen it before.
It's the Golden Gate Bridge, yep, that one
"According to Frommer's travel guide, the Golden Gate Bridge is "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world"[23] (although Frommers also bestows the "most photographed" honor on Tower Bridge in London, England).[24] " (Thank you, once again, wikipedia -- informative, and a bit snarky, catching Frommer's hyperbole)
Somewhere I have the same photograph as everyone else who's been to San Francisco with a camera. You know the one, even if you've never been near California, the bridge cuts left to right across the bay --with or without fog -- with the Marin Headlands in the back.
(Fisherman's Wharf, a tourist-y area a good photographing distance from the bridge actually has the spot to take it marked with a Kodak-yellow "Photo Spot" sign. There are a couple of these, apparently to help hapless tourists to take their vacation snapshots of Alcatraz -- not very photogenic -- and the sea lions -- even less photogenic)
Now, there's a chance someone else picked the exact same bit of the bridge, and focused exactly the same angle, with exactly the same light to cast exactly the same shadow. But, well, I doubt it. And that's what's so cool about the idea of parallax, and about photography. Everyone's seen that bridge, but you look at it a little bit different, and everything shifts.
People might not "ooh" and "ahh" when they see this photo. But they take a second to look at, tilt their heads, study it. That beautiful picture from the "photo spot" -- no-one studies it anymore, we've see it so many times we stop really looking. I doubt people stand at the "photo spot" and study the bridge very long. Which is a shame. Looking at a thing of beauty shouldn't be quite so perfunctory. Getting this not-so-dramatic, close up, angular, abstract, not-quite-recognizable picture, made me take a second look at the (maybe) most photographed bridge in the world.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
New-Old-New....
A couple of new/old pictures to share tonight. These are actually from a couple of months ago, but I'm just now getting to doing anything with them.
They're from a Cape Cod harbor, on one of the first warm-enough-to-be-outside days of the year. In the summer, this harbor is full of tourists, but pretty empty at that time of year. A few walkers, and a few folks working on their boats.
The boats were an odd mix, some sleek and shiny pleasure boats, a few old and rusty fishers, and some charter fishing boats in between.
The colors, shapes and textures were great though. I'm really happy with how some of these came out .... except, it turns out my camera was set to low resolution, so no big enlargements. Drat! Just ACEO's
Friday, June 27, 2008
New, and new!
I just added a new photograph in my Etsy Shop
Ripple Effect
Ripple EffectI spent ages sitting by the edge of a pond with my camera out (come to think of it, not a place to sit), trying to time it just right to get the leaf just floating on the surface of the water as it rippled out. It's a bit melancholy, but so serene.
And in other news, I'm diversifying. I've just opened up a shop with Cafe Press to try out cards etc. of my images. I'm still setting it up, but you can find Ripple Effect there too!
____________oOo____________
And in other news, I'm diversifying. I've just opened up a shop with Cafe Press to try out cards etc. of my images. I'm still setting it up, but you can find Ripple Effect there too!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Colors .... and Black and White
Beautiful new treasury....
... including my tulips
MadrinPhotography curated this summer bouquet. Mandrin is a fellow etsy photographer (and jewelry maker) Her photography focuses on nature themes. These two black and whites are my favorites:
Hosta
Clematis II
I work mostly in color, but its amazing how sometimes taking out the color, adds so much to a photograph.
In the first one, the silvery tones highlight the beautiful curves of the leaves and the lines of the stems and veins.
In the second, there's something I can't quite put my finger on about the composition and the contrast of the white flower against the dark leaf, that brings to mind the old botanical illustrations.
... including my tulipsMadrinPhotography curated this summer bouquet. Mandrin is a fellow etsy photographer (and jewelry maker) Her photography focuses on nature themes. These two black and whites are my favorites:
HostaClematis III work mostly in color, but its amazing how sometimes taking out the color, adds so much to a photograph.
In the first one, the silvery tones highlight the beautiful curves of the leaves and the lines of the stems and veins.
In the second, there's something I can't quite put my finger on about the composition and the contrast of the white flower against the dark leaf, that brings to mind the old botanical illustrations.
For a long time, I didn't understand why you would want to take all the beautiful colors of the world and reduce them to grays. But, done right, black and white is both beautiful, and photographically important. Composing a photograph, is mostly about deciding what to include and what to leave out, focusing on one set of visual information by leaving everything else out. Black and white focuses attention on line, shape, texture, composition that we would have missed if the eye was distracted by a bright color.
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