There’s only one thing harder than street photography, and that’s marriage. ― Leslie Dean Brown
Patterns and Textures
-
Patterns and Textures with morning light in Old Town -
Let Me Introduce John Strong
John and his Aspens in Autumn Tiles I noticed the other day that John Strong had mentioned he was going to be displaying his Aspens in Autumn tiles at the Larkspur Art Show. After reading about it I decided to make the trip down, meet him and check out his booth. So, Saturday morning I awoke to 34 degrees and our first frost of Fall 2014. This may be a cold day for the show but after checking the weather I grabbed my backpack and headed down. It’s only about a two hour drive to Larkspur and turned into a nice drive. Some traffic in Denver on the way back but it was worth it. John has a nice setup and he’s done a good job printing and mounting his images.
Like many of us in the blogging world, John and I had never met. I found his booth right away and introduced myself. It took him a few seconds to register who I was since he was not expecting me. I any conversation would be interrupted as customers came in and out, and I was correct. Since I had my camera I wandered around and let John greet his prospective customers. Working shows like this requires the interaction and a positive part of doing it. I like the idea of handcrafted items since so many things we purchase are mass produced in some factory. Yes, that includes the material we make our crafts out of. 🙂 And, there was some nice handcrafted merchandise for sale. Some were working on their craft while at their booths so you got to watch them. Plenty of food was available. There was booth with these jars of apple/maple syrup for toast or pancakes and offering samples. I could just eat it right out the jar. They had a slide setup for the kids with several of us adults attempting to sneak on. Sorry, John we did not get as much talk time as would have liked but we do have the opportunity to setup a meeting. I think you have good work and liked how your booth looked. Hope the day went well for you.
-
Sunday Morning
Street Clock It’s Sunday morning in Fort Collins. Start the day with meditation. Make and enjoy my latte. Watch sunrise from my window. Take a refreshing walk in Old Town. It’s 8:40. Temperature is 46 degrees. Streets are empty. My coat keeps me warm. Hands are in my coat pockets. Camera is around my neck. I breathe and stay present, accepting whatever image is given.
-
Early Morning Light
The alley in Old Town Fort Collins “The camera only facilitates the taking. The photographer must do the giving in order to transform and transcend ordinary reality. The problem is to transform without deforming. He must gain intensity in form and content by bringing a subjective order into an objective chaos.” -Ernst Haas
-
Blueberry scone and latte Not the only way to start the morning but it works.
-
Dark and Mysterious
One Light Portrait “There’s just something unsettling about studying your reflection. It’s not a matter of being dissatisfied with your face or of being embarrassed by your vanity. Maybe it’s that when you gaze into your own eyes, you don’t see what you wish to see—or glimpse something that you wish weren’t there.”
Dean Koontz, Deeply OddI again called upon the older guy to model for me as I played with some exposure and lighting effects. Shot this in the afternoon with window light only. I wanted to use the camera and flash to darken the background. I set the camera on manual at f2.0 and a shuter speed of 400th of a second. This darkened the background while I used off camera flash, set on manual, and powered at 1/64th to light only my face. It is through using myself I learn about flash and how to play with it. It takes longer to experiment. After I feel comfortable I can then use a different model. Black and white conversion was done in Silver Efex Pro.
-
Harvest is Coming
Corn is Standing Tall Had to a take a trip over to the small town of Windsor which has until recently been primarily a farming community. For me these short excursions are a good way to get out of town for periods of time and away from the bustle of the city. Fall is a time of year when we think about cooler mornings and heavy dew turning to frost. Canada geese will begin their noisy flying overhead and using my ponds as overnight rest stops. No need for a rooster with them around. Fall is also a time for picking blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, tomatoes, pumpkins, sweet corn, squash, onions and whatever else you planted. Just made myself hungry for vegetable soup.
Field corn, what you see in the above image is harvested a bit later than the other vegetables. It requires a low moisture content where it will be used as feed for cattle. Field corn is not generally regarded, in industrialized societies, as not desirable for human food without commercial pre-processing. The stalks and husks will be used as feed also.
-
Happy Monday
Late Afternoon Sunset This was taken on a late afternoon bicycle ride last week. One of the many things the city of Fort Collins offers are nice riding/walking paths and trails. Bicycling.com has Fort Collins ranked number 11 of the top 50 cities over 95,000 in population. It boasts of 310 miles of cycling networks and shared roads. That could take a while to cover especially if you stopped at each coffee and ice cream shop. Have a Happy Monday!
