WARBIRDS REVISITED

I LIKE THE SKY, ARCATA, JUNE 2012

I think the sky in this photograph is the important element. It is, after all, what supports the aircraft. The sky is the constant. This aircraft is about seventy years old, and there will  come a time when it will no longer fly in these skies. Perhaps it is important to understand these things about impermanence.  I am about the same age as this bomber, and I can see that the time is coming where I will not soar as I once did, and I think I am all right with that.

We all realize that there are different time-lines for various creations. There are insects that only live a few short days. Some birds and small mammals live short lives. We outlive our dogs and cats. Mechanical devices by-and-large, can be kept in working condition as long as someone maintains them, but once they are abandoned they become trash, and rapidly decompose. Fernbridge has the potential to last centuries, but like the great temples of Greece and Rome, it too will sucumb to wind, rain, acid rain, floods, and perhaps intentional destruction.

All I am saying is that there are lessons in all this, and these exercises are for me a way to keep my awareness of the passage of my time.

WARBIRDS IN THE FOG

A B-17 AND A B-24, ON THE RAMP AT ACV, 2006

I was attempting to capture the foggy morning essence of the dawn. I would have liked it to be a bit denser, but that only happens when you do not want fog at the airport. I shot these shots in jpg, and I am paying the price in that there is limited workability to these digital negatives.

OLD BIRDS

NINE-0-NINE, ARCATA, 2006

I took this as part of a series one foggy morning six years ago. This is the plane that I got to fly in about twenty years ago - a flight of a lifetime.

This aircraft and a B-24 are at ACV through Friday morning. They are worth seeing.

MINUS 2.3 FOOT TIDE AT TRINIDAD THIS MORNING

A COUPLE OF EXPOSED CRITTERS NEAR GRANDMOTHER ROCK, TRINIDAD, 2012

Lisa and I went to Trinidad Beach to experience the very low tide this morning at seven. It was a treat to be able to walk out on to the beach farther then we ever had before. There were a lot of stranded critters on the sand and the rocks. I do not know if ones like the sun star above were stressed or not.

THE LAST OF THIS SERIES ON FERNBRIDGE (I THINK)

REFLECTIONS OF FERNBRIDGE, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

I worked on this image several times. Each time that I do, I think that I am finished, but when I come back, as I did just a few minutes ago, I see more to do. I will confess that I thought I had it right a couple of days ago, and I printed a black and white variation of this photograph.

I will be taking a short break from this blog, and should post again come Sunday.

DEALING WITH FORM AND COLOR

HAVING FUN WITH FORM AND COLOR, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

This particular image is one of those that needed a few days to simmer before I was willing to consider it as a part of this body of work (the actual print looks much better then this low-end jpg). I used the 17mm TS lens, and had the rise up all the way. I used "live view" with this shot (I almost always use live view with this lens). Live view helps me compose the shot, but the main reason for using it is that the I can magnify the image on the LCD for critical focusing. I also check the depth-of-field in the magnify mode, and by using my new poor-man's Hoodman.

I am not yet sure how this image conveys the essence of Fernbridge. Since it is an unnatural view that does not mimic the normal human vision, and I cannot come up with a description of how it affects me, I think then, that it  is a successful  visual statement.

CONTINUING ON A THEME

FEELING THE STRENGTH AND STAMINA, BUTTRESS DETAIL, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

 

 

I am beginning to acquire some emotional sense of what it is that this structure is capable of evoking in my consciousness. Its mass gives it a presence, its form gives it beauty, and its design gives it grace. All of these elements work together creating aspects that tickle my senses and give to me a sense that defies my abilities as a writer. All I can do is attempt to interperet my feelings and preceptions via my visual medium with these photographs.

This leads me to the conclusion that, at least for now, I am incapable of creating a single image that fully conveys what I experience with this bridge. I think that to convey the message that I must consider this as a body of work.

The above image is a composite of three images. I used the 17mm TS lens at ASA 50.

STILL WORKING ON IT

THE BRIDGE OVER CALM WATERS, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

This is another one of those images that will require some time to simmer on the back burner. It was challenging in that I took the shot right into the brightest part of the foggy sky. I wish for more detail in the clouds. This exposure was the darkest of the three (I normally shoot a bracket of three images - one at one stop under; another at the camera's recommended exposure, and one at one stop over exposed). With this type of sky, I find that the under exposed negative gives me the best sky detail, and that there is enough detail in the shadows that can be brought out. My buddy Hal taught me that!

FINDING THAT ESSENCE

BUTTRESS, FERNBRIDGE, MAY 2012

I still do not know if I am capturing the essence of the bridge. Perhaps "the essence" is to be found in the entire body of work. I think that there will be one image that "most effectively" captures the essence or soul of the bridge, but I wonder if it does take a body of work to more fully convey the many aspects and moods of the structure and of the place.

This photograph is a composite of multiple images that were combined into one, and then it was cropped. The initial panorama was vertical, and I decided that there was considerably more foreground than I liked to see, so I cropped about a  third off of the bottom.

EARLY MORNING PHOTOGRAPHY

FERNBRIDGE ESSENCE, 2012

I took this image this morning. I took quite a few more as well. I have not done a lot of work on it yet, and I am still allowing this  and the rest to simmer for awhile before I even think of printing any. I think I will share several others in the coming days.

The Redwood Camera Club chose the bridge as their annual project. I am working with a small group of photographers that is directing their energies and attention on discovering the essence of this structure. Hopefully, I am on task.

MORE MOODS, MEMORIES, AND MANIFESTATIONS

LAMY CHURCH IN EARTH TONES, November 2008

Manifestations of this church keep coming into my visual awareness. I am working on creating an image of this little church that somehow conveys something other than a record shot of a building. This church has a history, and within the greater history are many forgotten stories. I am sure that there were weddings, funerals, christenings, confessions, baptisms, sermons, songs and prayers in this now seemingly abandoned house of God.  Most of the memories of those events are now gone. Perhaps a few people are still around that can relate some of the stories, but by-and-large, the recollections of the happenings of the parishioners of the Lamy Church are all lost in time.

The last time I photographed the church there was some evidence that someone was attempting to maintain the building. I hope that they succeed.

MOODS AND EMOTIONS

GHOSTS TRAINS OF LAMY, 2010

Photography is all about light. That has been the rule since the beginning. Light is about mood, and that too, for me, has been the rule. I am affected by light in much of what I do. My vision as an artist is about form, mood, color, brightness and darkness, and the overall but unspoken emotions that a particular scene brings to my awareness. Or does my awareness bring the mood?

When I took this photograph, I was deeply connected to what I was seeing and feeling. I was drawn to the Lamy Station because it was close and handy to where I was staying. I was also drawn because of my love of trains, and by my habit of photographing older buildings and structures.

I brought my personal history along with me, and that coupled with what I was seeing allowed for me the opportunity to interpret the place, the lighting, the aesthetics, and the mood into compositions. It was not until the past few days that I was able to bring all those elements together in an image that I think conveys what I wish to say about that day and that place and about myself.

This process brings to me a sort of "full-circle" completion. Working with this image, I am drawn back in time and space Lamy, New Mexico on May 6, 2010. I then bring that connection into the present, and allow for some magic to occur.

I think this is what most artist do with their creations. I am sure that what I experience is completely different than what others see and feel, but I think that they do see, feel and react. If so I succeeded.