Category: Places

Fallen bloom

The morning of the anniversary of my birth I walked out onto the porch and noticed this tiny (30 mm) birthday cake.

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Leica R8/DMR, 15 mm Super Elmar

The shamrock dropped a bloom on the rotting cedar. It appeared as both a beautiful object and appropriate seasonal event. Attempting to capture, in a photograph, my thoughts and feelings upon encountering this tiny specimen proved elusive (as it so often does). The light changing by the minute. Which lens? How close? What’s the subject trying to say? Which point of view reveals the poem? Why can’t I find the message? These questions did not come consciously to mind; they rather occur non verbally while looking, focusing, moving, changing cameras and lenses, and points of view.

For me these transitional events, summer to fall, water becoming solid, aging, ice becoming liquid, hyper awareness of life in the process of change, hold magical potential; yet this idea seems difficult to express in a still photograph. 3 lenses, 2 cameras; and I don’t know if I’ve achieved anything near what I saw, thought or felt.

Leica M8, 65 mm Elmar on Visoflex

Leica R8/DMR, 100 mm Apo Macro Elmarit

Real love loves reality

Our parents’ ashes
rest in that great chalice, Lake
Michigan, reflected

now in my dear sister’s Shades

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M8, 50 mm Summilux Asph

Jean-Luc Godard said, “When you photograph a face, you photograph the soul behind it.” Can this be true? Some times; perhaps.

Lovers at the edge

how differently
we each perceive moments which
modify our lives

9/11

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Leica M8, 65 mm Elmar, Visoflex III with Right Angle Finder

Right angle viewfinders, on both the Visoflex and R8, present me with both a fresh point of view and an unobtrusive, candid approach. And we all need fresh points of view.

When the light, lines, forms and tones beckon

When a photographer sits down with a cup of coffee, and sees light, lines, forms and tones come together in harmony with the focal length of the lens on the camera, and distance from the subject, it’s awfully difficult not to raise the courage and the camera to capture the image.

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Even when caught by the stranger’s eyes; I attempt, with my own expression, to communicate, “Oh well. I simply had to because I knew the scene would look so very beautiful as a photograph. Trust me.”

Leica M8, 50 mm Summilux asph

Visitor at the front door

We couldn’t hear his knock. The crane fly simply clung to the window waiting for me to notice that he had interest in a portrait session. After a few shots I took the SD card to the computer to review the proofs. When I returned (for possible reshoots) the visitor had vanished; leaving no forwarding contact information. Wikipedia says, “…most crane fly species exist as adults only to mate and die.” Perhaps this one wanted to be remembered.

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Leica R8/DMR, 100 Apo Macro Elmarit

Miksang and flow

In an eMail Alan Magayne-Roshak said of my August 24th blog post, “I love it.  It’s easy to get lost in it (in a good way). This reminds me of a David Vestal column where he quoted Picasso as saying, “I don’t seek, I find.” ( The column is at home; I hope I got it correct.) I would say this is a “miksang” photograph.”

After searching the term (beyond the wikipedia link Alan provided) I took it as a compliment; and felt surprise in finding that miksang has taken hold, as a sort of “school” of photography, around the world. Miksang: a Tibetan word meaning “good eye” based on the Dharma Art teachings of Chögyam Trungpa, in which the artist’s eye perceives in perfect harmony with a contemplative mind. This type of visual perception, when applied to the practice of photography, produces a particular sort of photograph. Miksang photographs tend to bring the observer back into the author’s original state of contemplation; behaving, in my opinion, in ways similar to haiku.

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi posited that people feel most happy while working within a similar state; which he referred to as a state of flow.

While I have no idea if these photographs qualify as miksang; I certainly felt in a state of contemplative flow as I made them; and believe they do invite the viewer’s eye/mind to return to that state.

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love marks on paper
heat becomes a memory
beach remains in notes

Leica R8/DMR, 65 mm Elmar on R bellows

Refreshing our Point of View

Ann and I have a tradition of not working on our birthday. The BD person chooses where and how we will spend the day. Ann chose Mauthe Lake as one of several destinations for her birthday. Knowing we’d have a few hours of leisure I packed up rarely used M gear including: the Visoflex with both eye level prism and right angle view hood, and the 135 Elmar (for the M8 of course). Lying on the beach using the right angle viewfinder provided a perfect contemplative photographic afternoon; as well as a very refreshing point of view. And the exercise reminded me how very discreet this combination can seem as we don’t appear to be looking “directly at” the subject.

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For contrast we see (below) similar subjects with a (for today) less interesting point of view.

“Hwy 51 runs right by

Luckily both Seth and I prefer two lane black top over the Interstate. So we took Hwy 51 to and from the ABANA Conference in Memphis. The photographs seen below were created on the way home “…up Wisconsin way…” in Historic Cairo, IL (which has the highest child poverty in Illinois); at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. And a slide show with more photographs from Hwy 51.

“…my baby’s door
Highway 51 runs right by my baby’s door
If I don’t get the girl I’m loving

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Won’t go down to Highway 51 no more.

Well, I know that highway like I know my hand
Yes, I know that highway like I know the back of my hand
Running from up Wisconsin way down to no man’s land.

Well, if I should die before my time should come
And if I should die before my time should come
Won’t you bury my body out on the Highway 51.

Highway 51 runs right by my baby’s door
I said, Highway 51 runs right by my baby’s door
If I don’t get the girl I’m loving
Won’t go down to Highway 51 no more.”
—lyrics © Bob Dylan

Beale Street 25 years later

Twenty five plus years ago I spent a day on Beale Street, the “home of the blues and birthplace of rock’n’roll.” At 39 it felt real. Musicians were on the street and in the clubs. Earlier this month, while attending the ABANA Conference in Memphis, Seth and I spent an evening on the street and it felt a lot more like a bizarre carnival. Every establishment had a hawker yelling out the reasons to enter their establishment. The musicians on every other corner were gone. There was a new little park with a stage where one could “do your thing” and it was surrounded by junk tents. Hustlers were selling Elvis’ drivers license for $45, laminated and appearing never used. Some decent blues could still be heard in a couple clubs; but the street ambiance of 25 years ago has disappeared; or so it seemed to my now 64 year old memory bank. View a slide show of additional Beale Street images.

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M8, 35mm Summilux Asph

Evening demonstrations at ABANA Conference

June 2nd, after the first day of photographing the 2010 ABANA Conference Gallery items, we strolled through the demonstrator’s tents; where metal met fire to become functional and decorative objects. Additional images from this stroll can be seen in a short slide show here.

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Leica M8, 50mm Summilux Asph