I CANNOT BELEIVE THAT IT IS JULY ALREADY

CATCH OF THE DAY, 2010

This photograph is one that I thought was a good one, but the more I look at it, the less I think of it. I do not know if it is worthy. I have shown it, and I do not think anyone has given me any feedback.

GANESHA

GANESHA

There are multiple reasons for the name of this tree. Perhaps if you look closely you will see one or two of them. I took this image in 2010.

I am taking a break from photographing. I did not plan on not doing, but it is just happening. Instead, I am building a garden fence, and I am working in the garden. I am still conducting RAA business, and tending to the gallery.

A REWORKED PHOTOGRAPH

STONE LAGOON SURF, 2010

I do not recall if I shared this image in this blog before now. I reworked it in Lightroom 4, and I am happier with the tonal values - especially in the shadows.

STONE LAGOON SURF, 2010 PROCESSED WITH LR3

I don't know if you can see the differences on screen, but in print they show up.

At the point I am at as an artist, mostly dealing with subtitles. I find that the difference between a good photo and a great photo can be found in the small but important details in color, tone, and composition.

THIKSEY GOMPA

WINDOWS, THIKSEY GOMPA, LADAKH, 2008

This is a composition that I created with my camera while I was on a walking meditation. I was staying at the monastery, and it was evening time. I was free to wander around at my leisure. Everyone pretty much left me on my own, and so I was able to soak up the energy of that place.

Thiksey is right at an elevation of 11,000'. I was comfortable at that elevation, and so I was able to focus my attention on the essence of being.

The Monastery from Near the Village of Thiksey, Ladakh, 2008

 As this photograph shows, the monastery is located on a hill. My experience is that most of the Gompas in Ladakh are sited such as this one.

COLORFUL SKIES ON A RAINY DAY

A REWORKED MARSH PILINGS, 2010

I am gaining a tremendous amount of insight on how to work images. I fully appreciate the critiques at The Redwood Camera Club's meetings. I am learning from my associations with other photographers and friends.

The image above is one that I shared here before. I just finished making some changes to it, and I think it is now stronger than before.

NEW EXHIBIT AT THE RAA GALLERY

THE TWO IMAGES THAT I HAVE ON EXHIBIT AT THE RAA SUMMER SHOW, 603 F STREET, EUREKA  GALLERY OPEN WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY FROM NOON UNTIL FIVE

IMAGES OF WATER

ARCATA MARSH SUNSET, 2012

I simply forgot to enter anything into the Images of Water show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. I intended to enter this piece along with another selection or two - oh well.

I think that I have come along in my effort of freeing my ego from the attachments that I had placed on the value that judges place on my photographs. Perhaps by not entering something, I released myself from any expectations that I otherwise would have held. The trick for me is going to be to not project any fantasies about how my work would have done had I remembered to enter the juried show.

The above photograph is not a new comer to this blog. I am showing it again because I have worked on it some more, and I think it is now finished. I have not shown it yet, but I think I will hang it in the space I have at the Morris Graves. I do believe that I "nailed" the sky. 

CONTINUING THE EUREKA SERIES

WHAT I THINK IS THE TIMES-STANDARD BUILDING AT THE CORNER OF SIXTH AND G STREETS, EUREKA, 2012

This is part of my project to document as many of the downtown buildings as I can. This shot may not win me any prizes, but I think it does convey some of the building's essence.

LONELY LOOKING SKY

THE NINE-O-NINE, ARCATA, JUNE 2012

In my continuing theme on impermenance, I feel that I must acknowledge that there are varriables in the notion of what is perment and what is fleeting. Within a relatively short period of time this aircraft will no longer exist. Perhaps at that time ACV will no longer exist as an airport.

Whether the airport is gone then or not, the fog that develops there will still be forming, and the basic geography will be mostly the same. Add a thousand years to our timeline, and by then the geography will (by odds) have experienced at least one major earthquake. Depending on which nearby faults shift and when, the cross runway will have been split, the altitude of the airport will have changed, and a tsunami will have affected the local area with affects similar to that of the one that devastated Japan last year.

If we add a million years to our timeline we may see that the North Pacific Current would have shifted. If and when that happens the local geography will have radically changed because of the movement along the San Andreas Fault. The climate at what is now ACV will likely be different. I wonder if there would be life as we know it. Would there still be aircraft, and would there be anyone or any record of the events of WWII.

CONTINUING ON THE THEME OF IMPERMANANCE

INTERIOR OF BURNED OUT SNAG, ARCATA, 2007

This image was taken from inside a burned out old-growth redwood snag not far from our place. I first photographed this particular snag in the mid nineteen-eighties. Back then I used my old four-by-five view camera, and shot it all in black and white. When I took this image the snag was still fairly massive in its size. When they logged out back two years ago a tree was dropped on top of this snag, and most of it was beaten back into the earth.

SNAG, ARCATA COMMUNITY FOREST, 2011

I think that this validates my point about the impermanence of all thing great and small. I do not have much else to say about the subject today. I am very content in the knowledge that my experience with this snag provides me.

FIRETRUCK REPOSE

FIRETRUCK AT SAMOA, 2010

I am still pondering the notion of sharing one's history. I think most of us that live lives of relative comfort have the time to reflect. I think it is especially true of those of us in my age group. We, for the most part, have raised our families, had our careers, and in general have more opportunities to ponder our life's stories.

I think that some of us value our past endeavors enough so that we become part of the type of historical groups that reflect our earlier lives or dreams. I am certain that those WWII bombers still fly because of the passion of those whose intent was to preserve the aircraft. I associate with a group that maintains old railroad artifacts, rolling stock and buildings. Those folks invest a lot of time and energy into the maintenance and restoration of their railroad related relics.

I am pondering the notion that my participation with these artifacts somehow bring to life a somewhat idealized concept of my youth and my dreams of my youth. When I photograph historic buildings, structures, aircraft, and heavy equipment I do experience a sort of time travel. I place my attention on a subject that in some manner takes me back in time to the haunts and desires of my youthful years. In essence I build a shrine to my dreams, visions, history, and adventures each time I complete a photograph, and exhibit it in a gallery.

I think it goes beyond "living in my past". I think too that I am validating who it is that I have become. Yes, my history includes the fact that I worked on the railroad, served in the army, raised a family, built a house and so on, but it also reflects who it is that I am now. I take the common thread that runs through my story. I almost always photographed in the style that I photograph today. It is with that thread of photography that I may tell my story. I acknowledge that that is what I am doing. I am sharing my passions, and my story as best as I can through my photographs.

CHANGING HISTORY

THE LIBERATOR AT ACV, JUNE 2012

I suppose that all of us have at least considered what it would be like to go back in time an make some alterations. I have, and I wish I could. There are memories that I have that I hold dear. Some of these memories that I treasure are ones that I did not fully appreciate when they occurred. It was only after the passage of time that I started remembering certain events in my life with new-found affection. In my mind's eye I paint over the trials and tribulations of certain events, and see them with a completely different set of emotions.

I think of many of the midnight shifts where I spent the nights switching out railroad cars in the Southern Pacific rail yard in Bakersfield. Most of those nights I would have preferred to be home in bed, but instead I was working in the dark amongst dangerous moving objects. What I did in those days was to go out and earn an income for my family. I worked hard at my job, and was well paid. I moved on and worked in train service, and eventually in engine service. I worked on the road all over southern California. In those days I seldom took time to appreciate that I was working with classic locomotives in an historical and important place. I just knew the day-to-day issues of employment.

It was only after I left the employment of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, and a decade or two passed, that I started to see those shifts in the yard, and those runs over the Tehachapi Mountains as being somewhat romantic. In my mind's eye I realized that what I did then now seems like it would be fun.

The same is true for my military service. I cursed my luck and the Army during my time spent in South Korea. I was freezing on a missile base in the dead of winter and I would rather have been anywhere else. Now I wax nostalgic, thinking of the many adventures I had while there.

The above photograph makes me think of these things. If you look at yesterday's posting, you will see the same image. In today's version of this photograph, I "paint" a slightly rosier picture of the scene. I removed some elements that I think distract from the essence of what I wish to convey visually in this image, and like some elements of my history, I chose to look at what I want to see for myself, and to share with you.