Metaphoresis

This is how it sometimes feels in the backstage bowels of a concert hall that presents an upbeat, sophisticated view to the audience.  The colors are not true to life, nor does this represent how I was feeling.  I love the life of a concert musician!  It's just an attempt to (figuratively) contrast the work performers do with the experience the listeners/viewers have.  A metaphor for something...you fill in the blank!  Perhaps a concert transporting the listener to a location within the mind.  I think I'll coin another word - metaphoresis.

[iPhone 5s]

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How will autumn end this year?

Will autumn end with a bang, or with a whimper?

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Ouch!

A normal, sensible man would replace an electric shaver cutter and screen assembly before this level of erosion could take place.  The major gaps were noticed when it took revenge for its neglect by biting the face that feeds it.  Because any little thing can be the subject of a macro photo, I went to the trouble of positioning two off-camera flash units and tried some shots.  That is, after continuing to use the more or less intact side of the shaver for a few more days while waiting for replacement parts to arrive in the mail.



And with no particular connection to anything except her continuing insinuation into life and the heart, here is a pic of Ziva from yesterday.

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With some caffeine, I could do that!

A little dairy decoration, courtesy of the barista.  Camera and image manipulation: iPhone5s and Snapseed (a free app).  This will definitely not replace my professional camera gear, but it's fun, and can give very nice results with small, static subjects, for my taste.  Speaking of taste, the coffee was excellent.

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Dreary skies, cheerful Canada geese

A dreary day with overcast skies can be nice for photography, so I went bird hunting Sunday. I didn't time it very well; they stayed hidden for awhile. I got a nice look at a Redwing Blackbird on the wing, but couldn't get a shot, and then it kept its head hidden in a tree. So before I did any successful bird shooting, I played with an abstract of water reflections.

I heard the Canada Geese, and suddenly they did one quick fly-over.

A Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) was less shy, but stayed at high altitude.

This turtle on a log seemed to be looking up at the Vulture, but certainly was in no danger from that scavenger.

Crows are fast fliers. I didn't get a shot that really showed its eye, but I like the wing detail in this one.

A bit of tunneling was required to get in and out of the area I visited, probably a result of the very heavy rains we had recently.

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Makin' Tracks

Snow + asphalt + various types of vehicle tires.

[Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 "pancake" lens @ f/8]

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Abstract enjoyment from a soccer tosser

Why do I like this picture?

When I shoot soccer games, my goal is usually to catch players at moments of peak action while they are facing more or less in my direction. I want the faces to be clearly visible. Those are the "keepers" (in photographic terms, not goal keepers). Shots that only show the backs of players are generally "tossers". During breaks in the action, I'll turn my attention to getting candid portraits, bits of humorous goings on, and so forth. Every once in a while, I'll get a serendipitous composition that interests me for reasons other than athleticism or emotion. The one I'm about to show you may look as if it had little to do with organized soccer, aside from the uniforms, and it certainly doesn't look like a typical action shot.

Well, this was in fact shot during a recent game, and though the compressed perspective (telephoto lens) makes it appear that they are romping off into the rough, the ball is actually still within bounds on the level field. The girls are attempting to "save" it before it crosses the chalk line. I followed the action because I knew there was a chance there would be a stop and pivot right near the line. That didn't happen, but this photo resulted.

What I enjoy about the picture is a mix of a few somewhat abstract factors. Because of what we know about human locomotion, there's a clear sense of movement away from the viewer, toward the path. The path, through its curve, the perspective of narrowing and increasing blur with distance "catches" the movement directly into the frame and guides it up and to the right. I also like the placement of objects - the little tree neatly framed by the players, the path in the "right place", one player's arm to the left, one to the right. I even like the types of textures in different areas of the unkempt grass.

It might be meaningless to most folks, but as I said, I like it. And yes, even though they are actually on the field, I love the look of a spur of the moment game wandering casually off toward the pathway home.

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Style, abstraction, geometry, light and shadow as subject

To be interesting to a wider audience, a photograph probably needs to say something about our world, or about the human experience, or our relationship to other animals, or about how our minds work. That is, there should be a connection to the viewer, which can take various forms.

The style of a work of art (however humble an attempt) can be difficult to describe or pin down. People become familiar with various styles depending upon where they live, whether and where they travel, how they spend their time. The familiar is comfortable, and lends itself to an easy connection between artist and viewer.

An unfamiliar style, if not so radical as to keep a person from really looking, can be an attractant and can add power to an image. Most of us are unlikely to develop a style so recognizably individual and so different from any predecessor that we could be said to have created something new. I certainly don't have that level of visual imagination.

Nonetheless, I think it is good to try to develop something that could be called style in my own work. I'm rather a generalist photographer; that is, I'm interested in a wide variety of subject matter. I enjoy doing portraits, covering events, creating landscapes, playing with architecture, shooting nature and wildlife, exploring the world of very small things, and more. Through it all, there may be one feature that supports all of my photos, at least the ones that I value the most. That is a pleasure in geometry, both the actual two dimensional shapes that appear in an image and the implied three dimensional structure. In the case of some action photos, the fourth dimension of time is also very much in evidence (to me), even though the picture doesn't actually move.

The solid shapes are made plain through light and shadow. Sometimes the play of light almost becomes the subject of the photo. Here is an example of that. I'm not sure how I would describe the style of this one, but I think it is a good representation of one way that I see the world. I hope that it says something to you, the viewer, no matter what that might be.

Maybe an abstraction of mystery and wonder, hunting for hidden causes? I think I'll dedicate it to James Clerk Maxwell!

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Another reason to sometimes use a cell phone camera

Here is another iPhone photo that illustrates how pocket cameras can be useful for more than record shots and funny portraits. Not only was I without any other camera when I spotted this possibility, it shows one advantage of a tiny digital sensor: depth of field from very near to very far with no jumping through hoops required. I could not have managed it with a larger camera unless I used a solid tripod, took a series of shots focused at various distances, and stacked (blended) them in Photoshop. With the little cell phone camera, all I had to do was get myself very close to some quite dirty pavement. Eww! But it was worth it. I like to play with abstract shapes made from overlooked corners of the architecture that's all around us.

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First street shadow of spring

While walking the dog on the second day of spring...

I spotted an odd little shadow play. It was because of the dog. I often look up at the sky, partly out of interest in cloud formations, and partly because of awareness that impending changes in the clouds will have a major impact on how the landscape (or cityscape) looks. But that's a photographer thing. I wasn't even carrying a camera, just walking the dog.

Except that of course I did have my iPhone, which has a very usable camera for certain types of photos.

But I was walking the dog, which meant watching where she was going, which meant often looking down. So I spotted this interesting play of shadows on the asphalt pavement, shadows of...

Shadows of what? Is that an armadillo or an insect crawling along? Actually, what we have here, or rather what was above my head, includes a utility pole with a step-down transformer and several power lines, a street lamp on an arm, and a few odds and ends. The shadows are very sharp because the sun was in a clear sky and quite near zenith. It only took a moment to grab the shot, so doggie didn't even have a chance to become impatient.

It it worth a second look? I enjoy it, maybe because it reminds me of how I used to look at the street as a small boy and spot all kinds of things that the adults might have wished I would ignore. Also, I guess I do like the abstract structure of shadow and light. And kid-style imaginings of creatures instead of just electrical utilities.

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Abstract art in action sports photos?

Today was a cool day for Raleigh, with the temperature a bit of a hindrance to athletes trying to warm up. It also led to cold stiff fingers for photographers, especially this one, who had a sore foot that prevented sprinting around the edge of the soccer field.

When photographing sports like soccer, the first aim would generally be to capture the moments of peak action. Shooting an exciting play at the right moment from a great angle is the photographer's dream. Although "fortune favors the prepared mind" (Louis Pasteur), no matter how well one knows a sport, anticipating moves will never guarantee being in exactly the right place to catch that great photo (but it may improve your chances).

Well, I'm not about to post a killer action shot from the game I shot this afternoon, but I do want to show one that demonstrates the confluence of both preparedness and luck. I like it as an abstract image, as one with some human interest, and almost secondarily as an example of snagging sports action.

This was a corner kick, so I knew it was coming. I hobbled to a spot that gave an unobstructed view of the flag, hoping that no other player would move in front of the kick as it happened. I made sure the safety was off my hair trigger response circuits, and was lucky enough to capture the ball not only in-frame, but separated from the pole. Here's where serendipity really helped: the player's right shin guard came off with the impact of the kick, and was frozen between her shoe and the flag pole. It made an almost perfect symmetry with the ball. And the second happenstance: the spectator glancing back at the play with her body in an interesting walking posture.

As for the kicker, all four of her limbs are just where I would want to place them if I were painting the scene free-hand, and the curve of her back adds to the dynamism. Even the chalk lines, the flag pole, and the fence posts and rails in the background add to what I see as an abstract unity, with the two human bodies forming the focus.

So, in the end, this can be seen as just another mediocre soccer shot - cluttered background, not an exciting or unusual play - but I'm glad I caught it, and I think I will probably enjoy looking at it from time to time. Please give it a second look and let me know what you think.

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Approaches to photography

There are always multiple approaches possible when photographing a subject. That should go without saying, but I've already said it, so let's move on. Thinking through goals and ideas before beginning is often a good way to work, but even when you do that, remember that what seems best before you actually complete it may be superseded by something better that you couldn't anticipate. Or maybe you could have, but just didn't. Don't be embarrassed, just...move on.

Another fruitful approach is to just shoot and see what happens. Become one with your camera. Enter a zone of total immersion and allow the flow to carry you along. Don't take pictures, don't even make pictures, just be the image. Shoot from the hip. Okay, this has gone far enough. In all seriousness, I do think that fooling around without being quite sure what you are hoping to capture is - once in a while - a perfectly reasonable way to revitalize your creative impulses. Also remember, though, that thinking through the process, both artistic and technical, is an important skill that needs practice.

So, I tried to take some of my own advice today. I drove off in the late afternoon light. I had decided that a certain barn might look good at that time of day. Here is a basic, almost head-on shot with a "normal" perspective. It was actually done after the photo below it, when I was surprised to see that the cloud cover had almost completely disappeared in a short time. I've reversed the order for presentation because this one is so much less interesting. A portfolio should begin with one of your best creations, but this is just a blog, of ideas as much as of images. Also, I should mention that I never do well at judging my new photos the day that I make them. I always have to live with them for awhile before I can decide anything beyond the obvious characteristics. Well, here they are, out in the open, so you can help me with my judgment!

The atmospheric front was moving in from the northwest, and the heavy cloud cover rapidly began to clear. I was scrambling to set up this shot (level the camera, focus, shift the lens upward to cover more sky and less ground, set exposure) when I heard a small plane. I saw it come out of the clouds just as the shutter opened. Serendipity! I like it (so far).

I saw possibilities in the way the setting sun was throwing golden light on the building and the side of the tree, in spite of the sky to the south still being blue.

A different approach: get closer to the tree to really show off the side-lit texture of the bark.

Back to the barn. Focus on details and abstract the shapes into two dimensions instead of an implied three.

Take it further by heightening the color saturation:

Back to the old building with a similar approach.

Oh, and I can't forget about the horses! Here are two quite similar shots, but note the differences in composition as I changed my position.

And two approaches to a more comprehensive view.

Realizing that the western sky itself would not be providing much of a light show, I spent the minutes approaching sunset toying with the light playing on the remains of the windows of the shack.

A second version, giving equal billing to the magnificent tree.

Content with what I'd gotten for the day, and with fingers too frozen to operate the controls any longer (lack of proper clothing on my part), I drove off into the sunset.

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Trance Only

Here's a little tableau that I pass fairly regularly. It has gradually changed as the objects weather. What you're seeing, aside from the obvious, is a metal sign wrapped around a cylindrical gate post. A paper combining printed and hand written material has been glued to the sign and partially removed.

The reason I decided to pause and record the scene today was that I'd been thinking (again) about pareidolia, our tendency to see patterns in what may be random. We create our own meaning in these patterns, even imagining human faces in cratered surfaces, weathered paint, and so forth.

Now there clearly is a face in the poster-on-sign in my photo. Something I find fascinating about some styles of poster art is that with skill, a few simple lines of solid black on a plain background can immediately convey the feeling of a three dimensional person, complete with expression. My suspicion is that part of the reason this can be done so successfully is precisely because we are "wired" to want to see faces, and further to want to read their mood as well as we can. This is a skill that has evolved to a high level in humans!

To return to my little photo abstraction, I had the notion that the person was fixated on a goal, but also that her (?) stare was somewhat trancelike. From there, it was impossible for me not to read the "ENTRANCE ONLY" sign as "TRANCE ONLY". It was a simple matter of composing with my little Canon G10 so that only the desired portion of the word was in the frame. I chose my angle to center a tall tree within the slit of background on the right, because I'm always looking for patterns to connect my foreground, midground and background. Tree>path of leaves>similarly shaped letters on the sign. Note, too, the LY>LY connecting the sign and poster. Okay, those are surely examples of my own tendency to look for and find patterns and meaning! If this photograph has any worthwhile symbolism, I'll have to take at least partial credit for it, because I don't think it was intended by the worker who mounted the sign, nor even by the "vandal" (or graffiti artist) who added the pasted paper.

One other detail. See how the A has been punctured and fractured? Do you see anything interesting or significant in the shadows cast by the fragments? If so, that's your own pareidolia! Please use the comments section below to let us know what you see.

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A quick photo-walk through "downtown" New Bern, NC

Yesterday afternoon, after settling into a hotel near the waterfront in New Bern, North Carolina (mouth of the Neuse River), I went out for a little walk to see how many interesting things I could find to photograph in a short while. The sky was dull and colorless, but in other respects the conditions were lovely. I felt that the light would be good for many subjects other than broad landscapes or riverscapes. Sometimes I like to settle into a subject, immerse myself in it and explore all the possibilities I can think of. This was not such an occasion!

The first attraction I encountered was a grouping of flowers planted on the "river walk".

Here is the context:

Just a few steps away, I noticed this tiny butterfly, wingspan about 25 mm (no more than an inch). I wished I had a macro lens with me, as it wasn't in a great hurry to fly away and would probably have allowed to approach closer than I could focus with the rig I had. This shot was made with a 24-105 zoom at maximum magnification.

As I examined this flower, a beautiful fly landed, with just the right color contrast!

There was no significant color in the water, so I tried this black and white graphical approach:

I found this family of friendly bear cubs, and set off in search of other sculpted bears, which abound in New Bern.

The nearness of the coastline keeps the climate moderate in fall, and apparently flowers of many kinds do well later than they do in Raleigh.

What a great self-satisfied expression on this fellow!

City Hall is a charming and interesting building, with two bears above the entrance.

Before I could approach for a good look, though, I had to pause for this guy in the style of a cigar store totem.

A patriotic bruin now sits at the foot of the steps, while the guards above bare their teeth and stick out their tongues.

 Baron Christopher De Graffenried, who founded New Bern, NC in 1710. He was born, as you might perhaps have guessed, in Bern Switzerland. Quite a peruke on his noggin!

Spanish moss in the churchyard! We are in what state, North Carolina? I wish there had been a blue sky to contrast with the golden weather vane.

I didn't have a long lens for "real" bird photography, but this scene was fun for me.

Dedicated to the men and women of the U.S. Navy, Sailor Bear is natty.

A portion of a street mural, used for a kind of "found object" abstract image.

And another attempt to find interesting shapes and textures in plain view.

As I headed back to the hotel, I was greeted by one more example of public art!

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