Monday, January 31, 2011

The Kiss of Innocence

The Kiss

I really like this photograph for many reasons. First of course, is that the subjects are my grandchildren John and his cousin Laurin. The second reason is that I think it is a fairly good image. The third reason that I like this photograph is that I can tell that John is blissfully receiving the affection.  I think that this embrace is one wherein the recipient of the kiss is feeling for perhaps the first time the affection of someone other than his immediate family.

I am reminded of the time when I was eight years old, and my next door neighbor, a girl named Debbie, held my head on her lap. I felt like I was hypnotized, and I did not dare move for fear that I would break the spell that held me in that lap. It was a new sensation for me, and it was one of the defining moments of childhood innocence for me.

I really don't know what these two were experiencing, but I cannot help but feel that they have a special bond. I know it sure makes me happy to be a grandfather and a photographer.


Thursday, January 27, 2011

Seeing in Black and White

Pilings at the Arcata Marsh

I was selecting some photographs to enter in a show, and came across this image. I think I took it in late December. I processed it in color, but decided to look at it in black and white. I liked the mood that doing so created, and decided to print it.  It was fun to process the image after the conversion in Lightroom. There are many more options available for my processing in the digital darkroom than what I had in the wet lab. I think that I now can develop the image to my vision more so than ever before. This allows more room for me to interpret the image to that of my vision.

I think I let go of my black and white eyesight somewhere around 1994, and focused on color ever since. Now it is all falling back into place. I am recognizing that there is a very important place for black and white photography in my portfolio. I intend to do more.

Pilings at the Arcata Marsh December 2010

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Say I Am You

Ganesha


I worked with local musician and storyteller, Seabury Gould on  a video project to promote his new CD Let that musician finish this poem, Poetry of Rumi. It was a fun project to do. We shot two videos at Prairie Creek State Park, and the location was right at the base of a wonderful grove of trees that I like to call the "elephant trees".  This was fun in that we were able to record Fortune's Wheel on location. I think we got away with doing a live recording because there was little to no wind, and very few other people. We would have had more difficulty during the summer season. For Say That I Am You we played a boom box, and Seabury lip-synced the words. For the flute he actually played along with the CD. That was really fun because the sound of the flute carried around the meadow, and I think a few other folks were treated to the sounds of the flute as it floated across the meadow.

Here is a link to my YouTube site and to these videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thomasbethune?feature=mhum



Thursday, January 20, 2011

Surf's Up

Surf Breaking on the North Jetty (click on image for larger view)

I forgot about this photo until the other day when I was looking through the computer for photos of surf breaking on rocks (I am working on  a music video for a friend, and needed something like this shot for the project).

Lisa saw it and urged me to print it. I took this last March when Marc Chaton and I were out photographing the North Jetty. I was still using the Sony R1 in those days.

It does look really nice as a print too.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Low Winter Ambitions

The Arcata Creamery Building 2011

This has been a slow time for me. I am getting out and doing some photography, but not as often as I normally do. Perhaps the very rainy weather in December cooled my ambitions, but now that there are more clear days I would think that I would be getting out there.

Blue Sky


I took this photograph about two weeks ago. I just got to playing with it in Lightroom. I stumbled on a method of removing the color (blue) from the sky to achieve a color-on-black and white look. I really am drawn to the sky, and I think the gray works.

I have been printing, and I framed several new pieces recently. I think I have a couple of shows coming up soon, and I will post information about them here and on Face Book when I have the dates.