Month: March 2015

Stand Apart

Photography 101 has its challenges. Monday’s pop of color was no different.

I took another sunrise photo and thought that’d be it:

IMG_2082

And then inspiration struck as I was cleaning out my supply cabinet and found a hoard of forgotten pencils – and just in time for standardized testing, too!

Color Pop Pencils Horizontal

                      Stand Apart
                        by J.E.

People always say to be yourself until you do, then 
you find that everybody lied to you: "Your hair is 
too short, too long, too bright, too dark; your 
music's too loud, too goth, too punk, too rock; your 
art is too something; why can't you just be 
normal like us? You're so fake, focused on the 
external; fit back in the box in our monochrome 
world where no one stands out, no sensitivities 
curdled."

So we hide ourselves away behind a facade of what
passes for normal; believing we're flawed we put on 
a show for the world to behold while the things that 
make us us grow withered and cold. In a world that 
sees in charcoal grey and midnight black we see in 
bright neon hues and refuse to go back to the way 
things were before. Choosing rather to wrestle our
innermost demons, we risk and dare all to be the 
yellow pencil.

Color Pop Pencils Vertical

Personally, I like the first pencil photograph best; what do you think?

Photo101

Photo Theme: Mystery

I struggled finding a subject that hinted at mystery using shadows and the so-called Golden Hour for dramatic effect.

Eventually I hit upon two possibilities.

What mysteries do you see?

IMG_2046

IMG_2043

Photo101

The Ripples They Cause

Word of the Week certainly fits the mold of a regular feature.

Last week’s word was discovery. This week’s word is . . .

LOSS

Late last week, my sister posted to my Facebook:

Days Bakery ClosingTruly the end of an era, people are wondering who will supply their dinner rolls and cookies with frosted faces and donuts and cakes and – most importantly – lebkuchen.

However, all is not lost. There are rumors the bakery will be bought – property, machines, expertise – and the tradition continue. In addition, I received a parcel:

Parcel PostThree Lebkuchen! Thanks, Mom!

I’m not as desperate financially able as the woman who cleared out her freezer and ordered fifty dozen lebkuchen.

FIFTY DOZEN

At ten dollars per dozen, that’s quite a bit of dough.

Pun intended.

Then there’s the loss the world is talking about:

Sir Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry Pratchett

I doubt there’s anything I can say here that hasn’t been said elsewhere.

I have no story of how I met him or saw him or received an autographed book as a gift. Nevertheless, he influenced my life in ways few authors have. In those terms, he’s part of my Triad:

Dante

Tolkien

Pratchett

His books have been out since the early eighties, but I only discovered the Disc in 2008 or so with the Hogfather DVD American release. Having loved the film, I tracked down the book; looking back, it may not be the best introduction to Discworld, but I was hooked. Soon most extra money went to purchasing more of Pratchett’s works, and I found myself emotionally invested in Rincewind and Granny Weatherwax and Gythia Ogg and Havelock Vetinari and Sam Vines and Moist von Lipwig and DEATH.

As Iain Sutherland wrote on the change.org petition that DEATH return Sir Terry:

Terry Pratchett turned Death from a figure of hate into a much loved and sometimes welcomed character. No-one else cared about you Death.

You owe him!

I’ve never cried about the death of a celebrity or other public figure . . . until now.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was crying not as much for Sir Terry, but for the end of the Disc.

Does that make me selfish?

I’ll never understand why I’m such a selfish man.

Sir Terry’s death also makes me angry.

Angry for the loss of literary wonder.

Angry at the Alzheimer’s that took him far too early.

Angry at the unfairness of it all.

Another petitioner on change.org wrote

It is like when you lose that relative who you didn’t know very well, but they helped you get through some really tough time and you always meant to call or write, and now it’s too late.

It’s times like these that make us wonder what makes it all worthwhile. Sir Terry had the answer:

“I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there 
in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"

Death thought about it.

CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.”

When it comes down to it, I just don’t know what to say. So I’ll read instead, savoring every line and turn of phrase and share the ones that speak to me. Because although Sir Terry is gone,

No one is actually dead until the ripples 
they cause in the world die away.

May Sir Terry’s ripples go on forever.

The Horses are Coming

Railroad Tracks

Can you hear the locomotive
Over wooden trestles running?
Now and then its whistle plaintive
Names the letter Q. Now coming
Ever closer, see the native
Coal-steam rising and billowing, 
Towering and authoritative.

Photo101

The title for this post comes from “Dog Days are Over” by Florence and the Machine:

The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run

Here Comes the Sun

The recent time change seems to have affected me more this year than any other year.

My colleagues tell me it’s because I’m getting older.

“Just wait ’til you’re our age!” they say.

But the benefit to the change is I can see things like this:

Morning Sunrise M1315

The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth 
all the effort. ~ Sir Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

The Color of the Season

Winter in eastern North Carolina comes in one color: brown.

Winter rains transform open ground into a morass of dirt and mud, covered by the winter winds with a blanket of dead leaves and pine straw, leaving barren trees standing as skeletal sentinels waiting for spring’s resurrection.

In this scene of seasonal tedium I discovered a hint of things to come:

Pinecone

Our assignment was this:

Capture the natural world with your camera: document a moment outside, big or small. From a panorama snapped during your morning hike to a close-up of a leaf in your yard, we invite you to document this wondrous world around us.

Can’t go outside? Photograph something — furniture, architecture, etc. — that looks or feels organic, or mimics the shapes and movements of nature.

Today’s Tip: Exploring the outdoors, with camera in hand, is an opportunity to look for natural lines that lead our eyes to different parts of a frame. Envision the bend of a stream, or the curve of a petal: how can you use these lines in your composition? If you see strong vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines, can you play with the orientation to create a more dynamic composition? Can you apply — or break — the “Rule of Thirds“?

I find a sort of beauty in the asymmetrical radial lines of the pine cone against the horizontal wood grain.

I’m also kind of proud; this is the first time I can recall producing any sort of natural soft focus in the background.

What do you think?

Photo101

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