Irreverent

Irreverent. That's how I'm feeling tonight. Plus I didn't want to foist another Kiki shot on you too many days in a row, and I've been busy entering Free Study and doing some voting, and blah blah blah. I'm afraid to admit I'm dragging out from the archives my Emergency Shot. The one that you took and kind of liked, but there was always a better one that you posted instead. If you are feeling irreverent too, drop me a line!

Kiki, too

Kiki, too.

Edited to add:

You guys were absolutely right about the hands yesterday. I was kind of hoping you wouldn't notice! :)

Anyway, here is another bonus post. I was torn between the one yesterday and this one, mostly because of the hands, but decided I liked the symmetry in yesterday's shot even though the hands were soft. To prove I actually can focus on hands, I give you:

Kiki At Rest

This is my friend Kiki; you may have heard me mention her before...

You may have also seen her before here. Kiki is one of my favorite people, and also one of my favorite models because she is tireless in front of the camera!

Tomorrow you'll get to see her from a different angle.

Ablaze

Built a roaring fire in the fireplace tonight, to get an idea of what it might feel like to roast in Hell. That's because that's probably where I'm going after a certain episode today.

You see, I've been working all kinds of insane hours lately at my job. One of the side effects of spending inordinate amounts of time with the same people in the same office day after day after freaking day; with people that you didn't choose to be your friends, is that you begin to have malevolent thoughts about their safety and well-being. Another side effect is never, ever, being able to use the bathroom without someone barging right in on you. Sometimes they want to chat.

Now, I'm a friendly person and all, but some things should just be sacred. I don't want to hear about the weather, or your hangnail, or your papercut, or what you might have for lunch today, or anything else that flits across your mind and then pops out of your mouth at shall we say, private moments.

Today I was caught at a bad time by a woman who failed to adhere to the Code of Silence. Everyone knows, or should know, that you just don't start inane conversations with acquaintances in the bathroom. Blah-blah-blah's should be saved for the breakroom. Anyway, she was just a jibber-jabbering away, and finally I could take no more. I snapped. Rather impolitely, I asked her for some peace and quiet.

Upon exiting the private area and adjourning to the sink area to wash my hands, I see her roundish face with mouth open in an "O" of surprise. Then the lips pursed in a frown of disapproval. I met that frown of disapproval and raised it to a hard stare of silent rebuke that should have knocked her clear across the room and up against the wall like the victim of a poltergeist.

It did me no good. She flounced right by me with a sniff and then pranced her way back into the office; like I was the moron.

The moral of the story is this: if you don't drink anything during the day, you don't have to use the restroom and can avoid ugly scenes like the one described above.

Bonus shot:


Edited to add: People! There was nothing graphic to describe, as mfairbanks suggested. :)

And TonyV had it right - the first shot better suited my mood last night, but I agree the bonus one is better.

Thanks for the comments!

Courtship, Victorian Style

OK, my turn for a candle shot. This is a Victorian courtship candle holder.

A candle holder of this type was used as a timepiece by a young girl's father when her suitor came to visit. If the father liked the boy, he would place the wooden peg on a higher rung and put a long candle in the holder. If he disapproved, he'd put a short candle in the holder and then push the wooden peg down to a lower rung. When the candle had burned down to the top edge of the holder, it was a signal that the visit was over.

I've always imagined that young girls would secretly move the peg up a notch or two when their father wasn't looking, if they desired some extra time for good-byes....of course, there's no way to tell for sure now, is there?

Love Potion #6

Took this one today specially for Ben; after all, if you can't go around bragging that you "know" the guy who shot the photo on the very special Valentine's edition of Love Potion #6, what good is living life?

In other news...oops, there isn't any.

The Way Things Were

Sometimes I wish for a camera that takes pictures of The Way Things Were.

What I was going for here was to show the camera with the lens pointed at a subject in the present, but actually recording the subject the way it used to be. I know, it needs a little more work, but if you have any suggestions...I'm now accepting them in my in-box.

The shot on the LCD screen is a picture of the Hesper and the Luther Little, one of the few 4-masted schooners left in the State of Maine and at the time, docked in the harbor in Wiscasset, ME. The frame on the wall is the newspaper article detailing the removal of the rotten schooners from the harbor, and with it is a piece of wood and an iron nail from the Luther Little. When I was a kid in school, you could see these ships during recess from our playground. When the ships were taken away, residents could go to the town dump and gather scraps. My mom remembered how much I loved these ships, and framed pieces from both for me, along with an image of them as they looked when I was a child. This set is among my most treasured possessions.

For more info on these ships, go here (scroll down to Item #6) and also here which has more pictures of the ships, and also shows the playground where I used to go to school.

Enjoy!

My Left Foot

My Left Foot

It's a Jeep Thing II

This is a shot that I've wanted to re-do for awhile. My very first challenge ever on DPC was Black and White, and I did something similar which scored abysmally. Good thing I didn't take it to heart, huh? Yes, it's a toy Jeep. It's perched on a twig and sets on a fieldstone from one of the old stone walls here on the farm. It wasn't hard to find a fresh twig to work with, and the stone is the same one, I think, as I use it in the fireplace hearth. It's a keychain that I think a lot of, since it was given to me upon the purchase of my very own real Jeep Wrangler. It's a little thing, but it means a lot.

The One I Didn't Risk Jail For

The only picture I took today that did not absolutely stink. It's a mural of Waterplace Park in Providence. I did learn one thing, though, I've gotta get up earlier in the morning if I want to get the light right on a particular (different) building I've had my eye on. Today was a disaster of epic proportions in blown-out skies, mistaken identities, and risk of jail.

So I'm downtown today, feeling jaunty and brimming with what I think are great ideas. I'm doing my jaunty walk - the one with the bouncy step. Apparently that's what news photographers do, because I was hounded in Kennedy Plaza. From homeless man: "Are you a news photographer?" "No, sorry, just a hobbyist." He follows up, "But you look like a news photographer." Reminding myself that a personal goal is to do more Man On The Street shots this year, I ask him, "Can I take your picture, then?" He's horrified, "No way, Lady, I don't want to be on the news." Homeless man wanders off, out of camera range.

Disappointed, and no longer jaunty, I scowl at my tripod which is being finicky. Unnoticed by me, a crowd gathers. Now I've got a lady with ice skates hanging over her shoulder asking me, "What'cha taking pictures for?" I tell her, "Just testing out some concepts on this building." She moves closer, peering intently at my LCD screen, "What's so special about that building that it's going to be on the news?" At this point, the frown I can no longer hold back crosses my mind as well as my face. "Sorry, I'm not a news photographer - just pursuing a personal project today." She replies skeptically, "I don't know why you are being so secretive. After all, whatever you are doing is going to be the news anyway."

What is it with these people? So now I've got 20 shots of a building that really stink because the sky behind it is blown out, with a group of thrill seekers constantly walking in front of my shot because they think they will see themselves in the news.

Thinking that tomorrow is another day, I start driving home. I see 5 Jeeps in a line on the highway in front of me, with me being the 6th. What fun would it be to have a shot of that? Reach into the camera bag, fumble with On switch, break speed limit to get in place for a perfect composition, miss exit for home in the process, raise camera in front of me and snap the shutter. What the heck - I can't see -- spots in my eyes - Doh! The flash was on! Yep, super duper wattage bounce flash has just blinded me reflecting off the inside of the windshield. Review pic as I'm exiting highway to turn around...one bright white light-spot and several dirty specks. (Note to self: must wash Jeep before attempting this again.)

As I'm turning around for home, I see a huge pillar of smoke that looks like it could be a fire. No sirens. Could it be that I actually will get a shot for the news today? I gun the engine and head for the fire. Turns out it was just the RI Resource Recovery Center, which is some industrial plant. Nothing newsworthy here. Oh, but wait, what is that SUV over there? A cop? Not to worry - I'm just creeping along looking for a good camera angle of the plant. Wait - it's the environmental police? Yes, it would seem so. So I turn around again, thinking that I'll ask him if I can take a picture of him monitoring the emissions from the plant. Just for practice, you see, for the next time a stranger approaches. To my dismay, he passes me in the oncoming lane. Nooooo - I will not miss another photo opportunity today. I turn around - yes, again, in hot pursuit of the environmental police. Now I really am speeding, this is not good. Where in the world has Waldo gone? I look to the left, and then to the right, and then check the rear-view. No E-cop. At this point, I finally consider the wisdom of chasing down a cop. Mental rundown of friends able and willing to bail me out of jail, nope, nada. The only person I can realistically call to bail me out of jail today is my brother. Realizing that he wouldn't have time to drive the 14-15 hour roundtrip and still get back home in time for work, I do, at last, give up. This was my random act of kindness for all the audio-savvy radio listeners in central Maine; yes, your beloved morning music show will go on as scheduled.

And that is the longest story ever for why you only get a crap picture (of someone else's artwork, no less) today.

Sincerely yours,

A1275

Pucker Up!

Don't mess with success, that's today's motto.

Tomorrow's motto: avoid overkill, because even sunshine burns if you get too much.

This Could Have Been Mine

Just jokes, baby, just jokes.

Many thanks to my tennis partner Paul, who agreed to be silly for me. For those interested, Paul is a happily married man who in no way ever could have been mine, other than as a fearless tennis partner. We play on the same USTA Mixed Doubles team. His normal USTA partner is my pal Kiki, who you may have seen mentioned before either here or on DPC. Kiki likes to tease him that he's "cheating" on her with me in the Friday night league. He takes it all in good fun, which is the intention.

This is in follow-up to yesterday's post, which got a heck of a lot of great comments - thank you, everyone! I see the formula now...

In addition to this one, we have a little bonus pic, since I feel it only fair to show you what Paul really looks like:





Perhaps his smile might have been a bit brighter if we had actually won (we lost 6-4, 1-6, timed match tiebreak 2-7); however, it's not a given. The thing I like best about Paul is his tireless cheerfulness, and the fact that he doesn't throw fits on the court when I've blown an easy overhead. 'Natch, I had to liquor him up a little bit to get him to agree to let me post the silly picture, but all's fair in love and PAD, right?

In addition to tonight's shots, we have a few of a very special lime, which is to be featured in another future posting. Let's just say that at the end of the evening, Paul wanted to take the lime home. 'Nuff said.

This Could Have Been Yours

Posted upon request. Just remember, be careful what you ask for...

Shakti Gawain has a great insight in her book "Creative Visualization" about intention. She asks, "If you could have it, would you actually take it?"

Read more here.

Pointless

Thought it would be fun today to have a shot that was complete and utter nonsense, simply for the sheer joy in being creative and (hopefully) entertaining. I first had this idea during the Visual Puns challenge, but lost track of the entry deadline and missed out.

It was actually kind of fun coming up with the iambic pentameter for this one. Although if you were going to be strict about it, there are only supposed to be five iambic "feet" (yes, five; that's one more than four, or four to the next level, if you prefer) of two syllables each. Since I have an extra syllable in this modest little beginning of a verse, that's called a feminine ending. Probably the most famous line of iambic pentameter is, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." That one has a feminine ending too, and I figured if a feminine ending is good enough for Shakespeare, then it's good enough for me. But really, isn't all this blather about 5 or 10 of this or that just much ado about nothing? It's pointless! :)

Lately, I'm finding that there can be quite a delightful distraction in certain pointless exercises.

Someone recently thought to let me know that she thought I could be considered both sensible and sassy. Now that girl, she has a good point....

Dead & Rotten

"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you were dead & rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing." -- Benjamin Franklin

Today is Benjamin Franklin's birthday. He is a personal hero of mine. Although he was just a simple (human) man with many faults, he made his mark on the lives of others and managed to found a country along the way.

"What is so important to you, that you would risk your life to preserve it?"

Trainees at a Franklin Planner seminar are asked this very question first thing in the morning. I went to one about 10 years ago, and we were all asked to imagine walking across a steel I-beam suspended between the (then) two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Most participants (myself included) immediately thought of those that we loved, and values that we cherished. We were asked to write those things down, and save it for later.

Then the instructor talked of Benjamin Franklin. Ben had a personal program of self-development, which he called his Book of Virtues. They consisted of 13 "virtues" that were important for a man to have good character. Every three months, he would pick a "virtue" and resolve to practice an example of it in his daily life.

Finally, the instructor asked us to review the things on our list -- those things that were so important to us that we would risk our lives to preserve them. Were we currently paying enough attention to the things that we'd said were our highest priorities?

At the time, my answer was, "No." Today, things are different. Today, and every day, I wake up and think about the things that are really matter to me. My family, my friends, my career, and my personal goals. Each day I "make time" for the things that are important to me. This PAD project is a good example of that - I want to record the things that that mean something to me. I want to be a better photographer, and learn and grow in my technical skills and develop my creative eye. No matter how busy I get, I want to make time for my family and actually act in all sorts of little ways to let them know how much I value those relationships. I want to be a good friend to those who've chosen me to be a part of their lives. I want to strive to be a better person; more thoughtful and patient with others, and maybe just leave a bit of merriment behind. A sense of humor is an important thing, no?

So, while today's shot might have little visual impact as far as stunning images are concerned, I just wanted to celebrate the things that are important in my life. I hope you don't mind.

Tomorrow I'll be back to my regular, irreverent self.

Knobless

All the doors in my house open and close like this. No knobs, except one on the front door so I can lock it like a real person.

This particular latch is the one to my back door. Can you see where the draft comes in?

There are fancier ones in the front rooms, but I like the simplicity of this one. I'm keeping it simple these days!

Can't Find the Button

I have discovered something tonight. Much to my dismay, my software editing program lacks a "Make Me Beautiful" button. So here I am with wonky lighting and whacked skin tones. But hey - at least my nose doesn't look giant, right?

Hand Hewn

Hand hewn beam in my cellar. I had to crawl over the washing machine and squeeze in behind the dryer to get up close...nasty cobwebs everywhere up there on the ceiling!

This is one of the beams original to the house. The vertical lines are the axe marks made by the builder almost 300 hundred years ago, and the brown marks are where the old square-head nails have ruined the wood over time.

I may try this again another day, after spiders are gone!

Mahogany Man

Mahogany Man, carved by Unknown Soldier.

This is a wood carving that I got from my grandfather, who received it as a gift from a man whose life he had saved during WWII. He always kept in his living room on a shelf, and one day noticed me admiring it. "You know," he said, "I got that from a man who wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for me." He never ever did get into the details, including proffering the name of the man who did the carving. I'd beg as a kid to hear war stories, but he just wouldn't talk about it.

Awhile ago, and back when my grandfather was still alive, I had a collection of African masks that totally horrified my mother and occupied an entire wall in my townhouse. Ever a Yank, Gramp offered to trade the object of my admiration for another suitable "knick-knack." Off I went to scour the antique stores, and we finally settled on a proper transaction. My Gramp was generous to a fault, but believed in teaching us the value of things and the importance of working for what you wanted.

The carving is made from a solid piece of mahogany, and is very heavy. It means a lot to me, because now Grampy Dike is gone. Now, before you snicker, you should know that I come from a long line of fine Irish stock and "Dike" is an old-timey Irish/English nickname for Richard. His name was Richard F., and there was an old joke in town that the "F" stood for "Fear Not."

My grandfather can best be described as was written in the Washington Record (1935, page 47)(yearbook of Washington Academy in East Machias, ME):

Heard in English class:
Hatfield: "Richard, have you written your theme on the ball game?"
Richard: "No."
Hatfield: "You have three minutes to write it in."
Richard pondered away for about two minutes and passed in his paper. It read as follows -- "Rain. No game."

Yep, that's my Grampy Dike. A man of few words, with a succint wit and dry humor, but always able to meet the demands of any assignment.

Untitled.

Untitled

Just Walk Away...

Invariably in life, there are days when we come across a pile of crap. Here's to just walking away....

This is a project that I've had in my head for quite awhile, but only tonight has it come to fruition. This series was shot at the Roger Williams Park Zoo late last fall, and even as the action was taking place I resolved to someday make a triptych out of it. Sometimes it takes three pictures to be worth 1,000 words.

I thought my poor little head would explode trying to figure out the math for the correct dimensions, and savvy triptych-makers will probably notice lots of scale errors, but it was fun to play around tonight with my little photo story anyway.

My favorite shot is the one in the middle, where the elephant appears to recoil in horror at the stench.

I've learned a lot from this elephant,

A1275

There Are Some Bouys Who Enter a Woman's Life...

... and screw it up forever. Mr. X has done that for me, but not forever, just periodically.

A cheesy play on words, but bear with me.

I should preface this with the explanation that Mr. X hates to have his picture taken, and the identity will remain secret to protect the not-so-innocent. Mr. X and I have been good friends for a long time. We've flirted with each other regularly, but have too much of a history and blah blah blah who cares about the rest.

If you read yesterday's post, you might recall that it was a tough day. Today, I decided that what was at the top of the priority list was a bit of amusement. In order to check this A1 item off my To-Do list, I sent a quick e-mail to said Mr. X: "I just remembered something about you that made me smile." In short order, my telephone rang with a request for details. (He got them, but not you folks!) Within a few minutes, I had a blush reminiscent of tropical sunburn, and had to get a glass of water to steady myself. Checked off A1 item, went on to the much more boring A2 item and continued on with my day.

Imagine my delight a few hours later, when I got a response: "I can't concentrate." I think it's important to have an effect on people.

The moral of this story is that no matter how ugly and bad a day looks to be from a Franklin Planner, a little flirting can do wonders for your mental outlook. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Still smiling,

--A1275

Edited to add: I should probably say a bit about the shot. There is a cool store in Wiscasset, ME that has a bunch of these for sale. I had to make three trips to catch the right cloudy day to avoid shadows, and then added a posterizing effect because I thought it was way cool and I wanted to. A "true" original can be found here.

Colgate Smile

Truth be told, I have no idea whether Michelle uses now, or has ever used in the past, Colgate toothpaste. I just thought it would make a good title. She's a natural in front of the camera, huh?

No long story today, I'm afraid. The computers went down at work today and I'm far too cranky to be witty. Having discovered that shiraz has had a deleterious effect on my vocabulary, methinks it's best to have to a go at a bit of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" in search of improvement.

Pigeons in the Park

My cousin Michelle, in downtown Providence. We had a great day roaming the streets for photo ops, and then a nice long lunch at Ri-Ra's.

This didn't turn out quite like I thought. Go to park, get shots of pigeons flying around Michelle. As it happened, a man and his young son were feeding the pigeons, so they refused to fly about on cue, instead being more interested in bread. Bread! Imagine it.

The little boy was busy throwing bread around willy-nilly, and then discovered the delightful past-time of throwing bread at me. In between dodging flying bits of bread and gently (or not so gently, depending on whether you are a pigeon or not) trying to get the @#$% pigeons to fly about (while Michelle waited patiently for me to shout "Smile!") the shutter got clicked here.

What Michelle failed to tell me prior to my explaining the whole pigeon idea was that she really didn't like pigeons very much, and I was under threat the whole time of "They better not drop anything on me!"

Michelle escaped unscathed from unsavory droppings, and the little guy never did actually hit me with any bread.

Hooked

So I was a little late today - less than an hour to spare!

This is my grandfather's wood hook, suspended on a ceiling hook in my house.

Today I shot several uninteresting photos of my hand, candle toppers, what extra virgin olive oil looks like when you mix it with milk, and even a couple of my tongue. I was going for texture. Believe me when I tell you that this shot is way better than the one of my tongue!

What you may not know is that I live in 1/2 of a giant farmhouse that is almost 300 years old. Yep, built before the American Revolution. My half of the farmhouse has a giant fireplace with an old beehive oven on the side, similar to what you would see in an old musuem. There is also quite a large stone hearth. In the olden days, they used to suspend two sturdy hooks from the ceiling before the fireplace. The fireplace was kept going 24/7 as it was used for cooking and baking as well as for heat. In the summer, they would hang their their herbs to dry from the hooks. In the winter, they would suspend a wooden dowel between the hooks and hang quilts before the fire to warm them up before going to bed. Other times, they would hang fresh kill (pig or deer, etc.) before the fire to bleed out on the stone hearth and smoke the meat in order to preserve it (no refrigerators back then).

When the house was refurbished about 60 years ago, only one of the hooks in the ceiling could be saved. In the summer, I do still use the ceiling hook to hang herbs from the garden to dry, but since winter came to town I've been hanging my grandfather's wood hook. He worked in the woods for many years, and used the hook to wrestle logs into place so they could be skidded out of the woods by tractor, and then onto a log truck to the paper mill. He also used it when hauling the lumber used to build the house where I spent many a happy holiday over the years. Have you ever picked up an object that just felt right in your hands? This wood hook just feels good when I hold it, smooth and warm, and worn just perfectly in all the right places. It makes me smile to see it, hanging there and ready for use once more.

For my Grampa.

Magic Window - Unfinished Idea - Need Help

This is actually a mural painted on a building in downtown Providence. I shot it with the idea that I could bring it home, overlay some modern window panes on it, maybe some fancy curtains and hand drawing them back, and have the effect of a "magic window" that looks back out into the past.

Unfortunately, whenever you overlay window panes it ruins the composition of the scene, and I haven't figured out how do the whole curtain thing without the same problem. My final idea was to have a silhouette of someone (in the front) looking at the scene, but that's not working out so well, either. So now I'm asking for help: how would you do it? What can I do to make this a "magic window"?

Derek's Veggie Puff

My nephew Derek, with a veggie puff. This one made me laugh when I saw it, even harder than actually watching him trying to get it in his mouth instead of his nose. The veggie puff actually did get consumed, along with a few others, in typical kiddie fashion. What a mess to clean up!

The background in this was a cabinet with minor clutter and the veggie puff container. I couldn't move the high chair because that ruined the lighting, so I whipped out dodge/burn from my bag of tricks and basically burned the crap out of it. Looking now, I see I may have gone a little crazy on the top hand, but I'm pretending that it just looks like a shadow rather than editing gone awry. The hard part was to get the eyelashes on that side to stand out against the burned background.

I, of course, eat every meal like it was my last and never , ever miss the mouth in favor of the nose anymore....

Turk's Head Building, Providence, RI (1913)

This one almost got me killed. Have you ever found yourself in a "back up two steps, a little to the left, back up a few more steps, no, more to the right, back up a little more, arch your back to get the right angle" kind of moment? I wasn't paying attention and only the screech of tires from an approaching vehicle woke me up just in time to leap out of the way of oncoming traffic. Phew! Disaster averted, and got the shot as well. Today's title is actually a link, you can click on it to get an idea what the actual intersection looks like.

The Turk's Head building stands at the intersection of Westminster and Weybosset Streets in Providence, RI. The shape of the building is actually more of a triangle, what you see here is just the front. (The shape supposedly follows the track of an old Indian path.)

Rumors of secret societies on this location abound, with mysterious men entering and departing at odd times. Local legend has it that a guy named Jacob Whitman once owned a house on that location, and on his porch he had a huge carving of a Turk's head. The neighborhood came to be known as "Turk's Head." After he died, the name still stuck. When they designed this commercial building, they included a Turk's head in deference to the legend.

Westminster Street in Providence, RI

Westminster Street is real eye candy - lots of interesting architecture from the late 1800's to early 1900's.

Went down there yesterday to see if there were any interesting City Life II pictures. Being a holiday, everyone must have been having their general frolic somewhere else. One lady on the street corner selling CD's or something saw me with my camera slung around my neck (clutching on furiously as not a super great street), pointed to it and said,"Hey, what are you doing with that?" I guess it wasn't obvious. She was scary-looking so I just smiled and walked on. As my poor lone figure retreated in the distance, she called out, "Lady! Make me famous!" Now I'm kicking myself because she probably would have made a great subject, and I was just too willied-out to notice properly at the time.

Note to self: Get Over It. That lady was eyeing you because she wanted to be photographed, not because she wanted to rob you and then beat you up.

It's snowing furiously here today. First day back to work for monster OT (tax season) and I'll likely be late because I'll be stopping for snow pictures....

Have a great day, everybody! I"ll be back late tonight to see what you guys came up with and comment like a lady insane.

PS If I'm lucky enough to receive a comment from you, please don't be discouraged if it doesn't appear immediately. It's by design, sweetcheeks, to foil those Viagra advertisers who don't have the same discerning eye as you....

Ode to William Blake

O Rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

--"The Sick Rose" by William Blake

I, A1275, do solemnly swear that I took the picture and then found the poem. It was just too good, I'm weak as water and couldn't resist.

Has been hanging in my dining room to dry for far too long. I can't even remember who gave it to me, for cripe's sakes. Gonna snap the head off this sucker and throw it in the glass jar of other dead rose petals. When I get a sufficient number, I'm going to do something cool with them -- like maybe make some potpourri or whatever else might stink pretty.

It was another infrared experiment with a posterizing effect added afterward.

View From My Window I - Winter

An apple tree. In the spring it's just beautiful with loads of apple blossoms. In the fall we get herds of deer grazing underneath it. In the winter it looks kind of creepy at night. I could bore you with the details of Infrared, bracketed exposures and gradient transparency fades, but that would take the mystery right out of it now, wouldn't it?





I hope you like it, since I'm planning on doing a seasonal series on this.

Day 1 down, 364 to go!