Pre-School

Summer is over.  Not technically, but when I'm back in the classroom, it's over and fall starts.  There has been a spattering of trees turning colour, and late season flowers are in full bloom.  The Big Blue Stem looks great in the Sturtz Prarie.  The wedding photos have kept me pretty busy-working on the slideshow dvd, getting the right music, burning all the photos to disks after editing.  So any other photography has been a bit slow.  To use this last bit of summer, I've tried to ride (mountain bike and Harley) as much as possible.  Usually my old Canon Powershot is tucked in a jersey pocket.  So yesterday, I just stopped alongside the rd and made a few pictures of the thistles re-seeding themselves.  I love how they look during the summer-the bright blue flower pods, but now they're prepping for fall themselves.  Not a great shot, but I was happy to press the shutter again.

Tom and 'Lish

Another summer wedding.  I've found that it is a lot more fun to shoot weddings for people I know.....okay I'll admit, those are the only ones I have so far.  Weddings kinda scare me-I mean, you get one chance, and you can't screw up and those "moments" move quickly and you really can't get them back.  This wedding was in Fitchburg, south of Madison in a modern church.  Indoors, without flash is not the easiest, but I had bought the f1.8 80mm and f1.8 28mm just for this situation.  The high iso on my newer camera also helps.  In any regard, it went pretty well and the church design allowed me to move near the front and get some nice shots.  I tried to shoot documentary style for the rehearsal and wedding day, and there were tons on group shots to do also.  Editing on the 700+ pictures started during the weekend and now I'm fine tuning the best ones for a slideshow dvd.  I also tried some montage images which are below, just for fun.  Tom and 'Lish are a great fun couple and even though at times I felt like I was going at breakneck speed, it was fun and an honor to make their pictures.

Flower girl

Ready for the processional

Order & Pick-Up

Jackson Harbor is on the NE corner of Washington Island, a jumping off point (literally) for the Rock Island State Park.  It is home to a dozen slips with boats and two still viable commercial fishermen-eeking out a few dollars on whitefish or lawyer (burbot).  It also has a tiny maritime museum and a old trailer snack stand.
I couldn't resist making a picture of this stand with it's "order" and "pick-up" gulls and the most friendly woman taking orders.  The colors were devine and this place showed the years of wear working at this remote corner of Wisconsin.  I'm glad we have places like this.

Order and Pick-Up

Rail Yard, Rhinelander

We visited the old rail yard in Rhinelander during the SOA as one of our photo exercises-and interesting place.  I like old locations like this with history and usually my interest forces me to research it more after returning.  This spot had a huge old railroad car "garage" which was no longer in use.  I'm not sure how old it was, but the construction, using massive timbers was really impressive.  The sun was overhead, so it was tough to find just the right place to make pictures.  The one that follows was just an old door on the side of the bulding.  For me, anyway, I just had to take the shot.  I liked it in an abstract was also-the shapes and lines and just character.

Sliding Door

This next image was as we were leaving-Doug had his camera along and of course, we as his students, watched him and what he found interesting to make pictures of.  This streaming sky apeared late while we gathered and became an instant subject.  I don't know if my photograph is much different than anyone elses, but after seeing it, I enjoyed the way the powerlines and pole mimic the lines and shapes in the sky.

Abstracts from SOA

I thought I'd "release" some of the SOA photos a few at a time-maybe because some have a common theme, and perhaps I didn't want to post a bunch of pictures all at once.  One thought I've had, and sometimes it's a frustration, is I have not "settled down" with one common subject matter or even a style.  In discussing that at SOA, the conclusion was to not worry about it.  We also talked about A Body of Work...what does that mean?  Should I have a body of work yet?  Doug made a great point that over a period of time a body of work, or common themes seem to just happen.  In what we find interesting to make pictures of and in the decisions we make when pressing the shutter.  Some may complete themselves, while others never really go anywhere.  So there are times I love nature based subjects, sometimes people and many times the abstract.  I think the abstract comes from many years making jewelry-working exclusively with shape form and texture, so when I see a strong design, many times very minimal, I'm drawn to it. 
    So the two images below have been soaking in while writing and I realize they both are pretty strong in featuring the elements of art- line, shape, color, texture, form, space, value.  Maybe that's why they are growing on me?  Maybe that's why I pressed the shutter?

Homage to Ellsworth Kelly

Art Elements in Stainless Steel

Underworld

I'm not sure how I ended up here.  This was "Show me the face of god" exercise after all.  I headed for the river and the lily pads and reeds were all well and fine, but the darkness under the bridge is where I needed to explore.  Of course, there was a ton of graffitti painted here and grit and grime and dried mud.  Not Rhinelander's best side.  The old Huffy mountain  bike was just odd-no spokes (maybe rusted off years ago?) and dragged up on the shore like some dead animal skeleton.   I needed to make a couple pictures here and they had to be black and white.  Tricky white balance-so dark under here, but the bright sunlight doing it's best to break in from the sides.

Bike Bones

Underworld

Zen and the Art of My Photography

Zen.
Spending a week soaking in "Zen and the Art of Photography" has left me with more questions about my work and what Zen is than I could have thought.  Doug would would be pleased with that struggle I know for sure. (smile).   For myself, I am left with few answers, but more awareness.  Maybe that is the entire point of Zen and everything we were exposed to this week.  Contradiction is at the heart of Zen.  Rooted in action and focus but also non-action, clarity and reflection as well. (Did I just write that?)

"Show me the face of God."
This was one of the final exercises.  No kids, no pets.  No problem.  My mind hadn't gone that direction.  I looked near the river and found nature there.  Found man's destruction there also.  I think it's hard to find the face of God.... I believe it is to be revealed and I think it will take time for that photograph to show itself to me.
A great quote from the week:
"We don't see things as they are- We see them as we are." -Anais Nin

I realized the photograph that follows is the one I kept going back to while thinking about my "Zen week." The moment I saw this, I knew I had to make a picture of it.   It's an abstract- no pretty landscape or flower, but everything is here I connect to.  The dark rectangular shadows needed to be there.  The torn edge.  The uniformness of the screen. The composition.  The loose strands gradually pulling away and escaping. I doubt few besides myself will think much of the image, and even though I'm sharing it, I need to not worry about that.  "Don't listen to that voice."( as Doug would comment).
  So I didn't.

Profile in Screen Door

Beauty?

Exercise one today was to find the worst possible place we could think of and make a picture there.  Someplace were we would normally totally ignore as not worthy of our time.  I had noticed the schools tennis courts the first day here and of course walked by while looking for places to shoot (okay, I said "shoot").  I walked around in this bare bones court-not even a net here and found these small holes-some filled with water, some trying to start life with weeds growing in them.  I'm sure the security camers wondered what the guy was doing crawling around on his belly with a camera glued to his face.
I actually liked this exercise when finished, but then I do like abstracts and these interested me.

1/4Cup with Rust

1/4 Cup with Life

Metaphors

Today we had an '"assignment" or exercise while in a garden, to try and make pictures there of metaphors.  Not easy, I can admit.  Photographing flowers is alright, and I do make my share of those-sometimes to get them out of the way I know.  I walked around this lady's yard and it was full of flowers and decorations-just a huge place.  I had to just soak it in first, to try and see what was really there.  Light was okay.  These three flowers were the first thing I noticed as Doug talked of the exercise, and I just thought about life and death-maybe too easy, but it was right there.

Life/Death/Living

 

 

Again-oh suprise, a fern!  I know, I just connect with them in some strange way-maybe because I crawl around in the woods and swamps all the time.  I like their shape and tenacity.  This lone fern looks captured by the fence and maybe defying it also.

Captured

This last picture I made was as we were walking down the street to leave-I had noticed "diggers hotline" spray paint and pin flags marking power lines right through parts of the garden-so something was going to getripped up here.  I thought the shadows of the wildflowers on the blacktop and tar told a story about "progress" in a way.

Progress?

Focus

So one of our exercises was to photograph "the whole thing"....a scene or an area,  and then keep paringing it down, down, down to the most important elements.   I took a hike out into a swamp where some of the painters were working and I found an easel, box of scattered oil paint and a pallet waiting for the painter to come back.  I just kept moving in, pretty much ignoring the huge towering red pines above and focused on the color of the oil paint.  A quick switch to a close-up lens and I was able to get really close on the texture and color of the paint.  Simple, abstract, but I liked it anyway.

School of Arts-2010

"Zen and the Art of Photography" is the name of my class this time around here at the School of Arts.  It's a bit different than some of the other classes I've had-some meditation, some writing and a lot of small photography exercises to try and bring our personalities into our work.  I didn't shoot much that I was real happy with-you know, "keeper" photos, but still, it was good to make pictures again.  Funny, but I sometimes seem to gravitate toward small nature subjects, and in the next minute am drawn to abstract designs or forms.  Oh well. ....maybe that is good, maybe not.  We also did a study in light and took portraits of everyone in the class-with bright overhead light.  The one below was a favorite.  I love black and white but still am not happy with how digital converts color to BW.  My laptop here doesn't have a good "convert to black and white" in photoshop like my home computer, so it has been a bit more of a struggle.

Hobart stove conduit