Remember what it felt like to fly free?
The Not So Friendly Skies
Category: photography
Channeling Renoir (and Manet)
One can keep going to the garden and take the same kind of pictures. Overviews of flowerbeds with a wide angle lens. Macro photographs of bees. And you can come up with some incredible pictures. Here’s the deal, whatever you do. The most important thing that you can do to make a good picture is understand light. That’s it. Photography, after all, captures light reflected from objects. Or light emanating from light sources. Direct lighting. Diffused lighting. Specular lighting. Harsh. Soft. Color temperature. The angle of light in the scene. Background, side, foreground lighting. Light is always there, in every picture that you take. You might as well learn to work with it.
What does this little blurb have to do with these pictures? Well, you can use a combination of diffused lighting and strong back lighting to create pictures that evoke the feel of an impressionist painting. Are these pictures the next van Gogh, Renoir or Manet painting that takes the world by storm. No. Though when I look at them, I feel the beauty that they saw, and know there is still much to be learned. About flowers. About light. About art. About life.
And what lens did I use for these photographs? Not a macro lens. Not a wide angle lens. I was looking for birds, you see, and I saw flowers instead. Yes, that incredible Sony 200-600mm lens.
That Analog Pop
Vinyl sounds great, but those pops! I guess it’s the price to pay when listening to something that sounds a little less clinical.
It’s interesting to see what segments in the music are used by the youtube AI.
Nothing Says Summer
Like a sunflower.
Insects at Rest
Butterflies and other things in the heat of summer.
Thank You, Brandon Sanderson!
For giving us such great books to fill our minds (and hearts) with wonder. For the words that provide inspiration every day:
“The most important words a man can say are, “I will do better.” These are not the most important words any man can say. I am a man, and they are what I needed to say.
The ancient code of the Knights Radiant says “journey before destination.” Some may call it a simple platitude, but it is far more. A journey will have pain and failure. It is not only the steps forward that we must accept. It is the stumbles. The trials. The knowledge that we will fail. That we will hurt those around us.
But if we stop, if we accept the person we are when we fall, the journey ends. That failure becomes our destination. To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one.
Huntley Meadows
I’ve taken a lot of pictures of birds, animals, insects and water drops at this small suburban sanctuary in Alexandria Virginia. Here is a short video featuring swallows and an egret. Pictures from this visit were posted a few days ago.
Ashitaka and San
One of my favorite movies is the GREAT animated film, “Princess Mononoke” by the acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Hand drawn animation at its finest, with a story for the ages (the environment, personal responsibility) – it is a masterwork that is not to be missed. The film features a fantastic soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi. The tune “Ashitaka and San” is peerless. And here is the music, acting as the accompaniment to a short vacation video I made almost eight years ago.
Lotus Flowers
Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna, Virginia is a beautiful sanctuary near Wolf Trap Farm Park (itself a wonderful performance venue). It was closed for several months due to the pandemic, but has since opened to the public. A great place for a walk, with gently rolling trails, three small ponds, flowers in the spring and summer months.
Magic Mushrooms
No, not “magic” mushrooms but mushrooms of different colors, sizes and even shapes. Below the forest canopy at Huntley Meadows, they thrive. At least at this time of the year.
