Trees

Here's a poem by Liz Waldner that I'd like to share. It's titled "On Moving Again":

This evening, walking along the long field
My eye was drawn to a living shimmer in the sky:
Three aspens alone alive in a world of almost motionless
Cottonwood and willow and Chinese elm trees.

The breeze that barely stirred the others
Sprang it free, spangling leaves like light on water,
An electric flutter, the secret energy
In the heart of the world revealed. Free.

An aspen leaf might believe itself inordinately busy
(especially comparatively) and certain therefore
It will expire prematurely, useless, stupid, failed.
From where I stood, it was the most beautiful thing to see.

My life could be similarly pleasing to God.
I guess this could be service enough for me.

--Liz Waldner

Our Home

If humankind continues to look at ourselves as intruders in Nature, as interlopers, we will never begin to take responsibility for our relationship with Earth. Only when we finally recognize ourselves as a natural part of the life of the planet will we cease to destroy what we are part of.

"Flower Power"

"Flower Power," an exhibit of my floral photography, opens tomorrow, September 2, at the Greenburgh Town Hall. The collection features two dozen closeup photos of a wide variety of blossoms, from iris and poppy to hibiscus and orchid, in yellows, oranges, pinks, blues, and more. Here is just a small sampling of the images I've chosen for the exhibit:

Greenburgh Town Hall is located at 177 Hillside Avenue, Greenburgh, NY. The building is open weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you have a chance, please stop by.

A Process

Over the weekend, I spent a few hours working with a particular photograph, to see if I could manipulate the file to create what I was envisioning in my imagination. The photograph I chose was one I took during a recent trip to Santa Barbara. The shot came to me serendipitously one afternoon: I was walking around to photograph the beautiful gardens when a hummingbird zipped right past and began to feed from a flower nearby. Here is the original shot:

The first thing I wanted to do was "focus" more closely on the hummer itself, so I cropped the image in from all sides. Because I was shooting at a very high ISO to try to capture the motion of this amazingly fast creature, the image is very grainy--though not apparent in the original, it is much more noticeable in the enlarged view. While I don't particularly mind the graininess, I do find the background quite distracting--the brick wall, especially the white/gray mortar between the bricks, pulls my eye away from the beauty of the hummingbird.

To attempt to eliminate the bright distracting pattern behind the bird, I began to copy and paste small portions of the red brick throughout the photo, starting with large bits and gradually decreasing the size of the portion as I moved closer to the bird and the blossoms. This took a very long time--perhaps those with more Photoshop expertise than I could do it more quickly and more expertly, as I was not fully satisfied with my work, given the unnatural pattern that resulted:

To try to "smooth out" the background, I began to play with special effects/filters. The first is "dry brush"--but it didn't do to the background what I wanted:

Next, I played with the "grain" filter--again, without the desired effect, though somewhat better than the first filter:

Moving on, I tried the "spatter" filter, but I wasn't happy with what it did to the hummingbird:

After that, I tried the "speckled" filter--and began to approach my vision for the background, but again, the subject ended up not to my liking:

A very interesting and pleasing effect came from the "pointillize" filter--perhaps a little light, but overall, I like the way it glows:

I continued to try other options. Here is the image through the "craquelure" filter--I like this one very much because it has a very substantial feel to it:

I also tried the "craquelure" effect in black and white--it has a certain appeal, and certainly a lot of texture:

Finally, my favorite by a very small margin over the "craquelure" effect--the image as seen through the "sponge" filter:

Do you agree with my choices?

Of course, there are many more filters (and infinite settings for each filter) that are available, so this is just a small sampling of what you might be able to do with some of your favorite images. Don't be afraid to play around! (But be sure to save your original image file in a safe place so that you can always go back to the beginning if you need to.)

What Counts

"What counts are the little differences. 'General ideas' mean nothing. Long live ... the details! A millimeter makes all the difference."

--Henri Cartier-Bresson

Sing to Me

"Prelude for Grains of Sand"

Beyond the harbor with its tackle and roped mats,

beyond the coastal shelf's lampshells and bladderwrack,

where beds of mussels clack,

where barnacles ad wentletrap crack the green hooks,

where cockle and quahog drift through dulse,

sea whip, urchin, blood star,

you sang to me, angel of unknowing, angel of nothing,

you sang me beyond song.

--Suji Kwock Kim

Why Photograph?

"The intensely felt subjective image is always the reason for making a first-rate picture."

--Frederick Sommer