Peonies At Sunset

 

If I call this portrait "Moonrise over Hernandez" I minimize down to about 2% the number of people who might have the foggiest clue what I'm talking about.  So I'll call it, "Peonies at Sunset."

For the curious, the legend around the making of the famous "Moonrise over Hernandez" portrait creation process has it that Ansel Adams created that iconic image with an old fashioned 8x10 view camera.  He was in his car driving and saw the sun setting. He literally jumped out of his car, set up his 8x10 camera with hand coated 8x10 glass plates, estimated in his head what the light exposure was (aka no light meter at all) and he created it in just minutes.  The sun set. It got very dark.  He packed up his camera and drove away.

Now that is exemplary image making at it's finest.

I wish my story was as exciting.  But mine goes like this... I had just finished a lovely dinner.  Saw the beautiful sun light setting inside my front porch aka temporary studio.  For one moment I had to decide, was I going to continue toward my relaxing chair and new books that had just arrived in the mail or was I going to dash around like a crazy person and make a floral portrait happen?  Well, you guessed it.  

Two fortunate things had made it easier. (1)  I had just cut the peonies from our backyard garden and put them in a vase minutes before.  (2) The white backdrop had been set up two weeks ago, literally, waiting for the right light, a floral arrangement and my being home to make a portrait.

I just had to quickly get my camera equipment, tripod, reflector light, table cover and tabletop surface and maximize all the technology of my digital equipment with years of shooting experience to put it together as quick as I could before the light changed.  

Hopefully Ansel is smiling down on me tonight!  

Weathered Abstract

I'd almost like to have a Guess What This Is contest.

This is actually a red wood door that is intentionally installed out in the woods so we can watch it weather.  It is standing in the woods in a position that invites one to ask "Does the door open up into the woods or Close the door to the woods?"

Lawn Art That's Pretty as a Postcard

I cannot tell you where this is located because everyone would drive there.

Suffice to say, this humble little home is well loved and well decorated and I'm happy to be able
to see it and photograph it.

It's pretty as a postcard, if I may say so myself.

Ode to Rain Soaked

Memorial Weekends are notorious for spring rain storms and this one was no exception. 

I love the documentary storytelling capabilities that present themselves when I document what is hung up on the clothes line during my visits to the cabin.

In Transition

There is one moment in time when the leaf falls and is temporarily poised on a pine tree branch.

Those are the photographs that I love to capture. 

When I know that, like many of us in this life, we are in transition.  We've been at Point A and are on our way to Point B.  But that middle transition time is both gentle and yet a moment of risk-taking.