Categories
Out and About

Horse in Profile

I find something relaxing about taking photographs of horses. There’s no talking and very little effort expended to get them to pose. I tend to watch them for some time, just trying to get a sense of how they are moving in their stalls. I often wonder what they are thinking, as they look out. […]

Categories
Musings

Making time

How to find time every day for photography, in seven easy steps: Open Calendar app. Create 1-hour meeting: “Take pictures”. Set up reminder for 15 minutes before meeting. Set event to repeat each workday for entire month. Don’t schedule anything else for those times.(if I must schedule something for that time, immediately reschedule “Take pictures” […]

Categories
Musings

Photographic Legacy

John D’Arcy was a wealthy landowner who built this castle ca. 1818, just outside the town he founded. He and his family lived in it for about twenty years. After he died, his son inherited the castle and lived there until the family went bankrupt about a decade later. New owners. Renovations. Yet more new […]

Categories
Create

Study of Flowers

I continue to be inspired by Mapplethorpe’s photographs of flowers. The quiet puttering around as I set up and move lights is a pleasure. The way the process encourages me to study the flowers and to see things I would otherwise miss. It’s quiet and contemplative in an otherwise noisy world. Anyway, I’ve updated the […]

Categories
Out and About

Late Winter Storm

It was a miserable day. Cold and windy, and then cold, windy, and snowy. Stores closed early because the “winter storm warning.” Most people wisely chose to stay home, warm and dry. A perfect day, it seemed to me, to go for a hike. Thick leaden clouds and blowing snow created a sort of post-apocalyptic […]

Categories
Postcards

Postcard Archive: January 2022

COVID continues to disrupt lives and shape our experiences. I wonder how this student and his friends would be playing in the snow if times were different. It was a particularly cold January evening as a student, carrying his dinner, wandered back to eat alone in his dorm room. The snow only added to the […]

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Create

Lure of Shadows

I find something peaceful about these photographs. Looking at them recalls for me the days spent wandering alone. Now and then, when I was close to the road or near one of the trails, I would see other people. I might even hear them. But head north west, toward the San Andres mountains and soon […]

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Create

Just a Flower

Sometimes, for me, it is enough that a photograph is just what it purports to be. It doesn’t conceal some meaning or tell a story, doesn’t point to the photographer’s social agenda, and doesn’t reveal the photographer’s psychological anguish. It isn’t reportage or social commentary or documentary photography. This, e.g., is a photograph of a […]

Categories
Musings

Effort and Value

Recently I heard a comment attributed to Todd Rundgren about the direct relationship between effort and value.1 Something to the effect: “Effort increases value.” The people talking understood Rundgren’s point to be: the harder you work at making a [piece of art] and the more effectively you convey that effort to the audience, the more […]

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Create

Flora

Robert Mapplethorpe Flora is a lovely book that highlights the subtle and varied beauty of flowers. And while we can read all sorts of meaning into his photos, meaning most often it seems shaped by what somebody thinks of Mapplethorpe the photographer, in the end they are just beautiful photographs. I don’t think every photograph […]