A Certain part of Town (Three Photographs)

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I’ve been wandering the streets when I can to capture the things that catch my eye. I was on my way to lunch when I took these in a well off, if not the toniest part of town (the latter make it difficult by having no sidewalks or parking, but I’ll get there). It’s a part of town that has “new” in it preceding a British name, and the area photographed here reminded me of New England, a sort of reiteration of an iteration. Nice homes, friendly people who stopped to talk, overall a worthwhile experience for my camera and I.

The Most Important Thing in Birding is Birds (Three Photographs)

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I hear birding is having a renaissance. I am hoping that the recent scarcity of interesting birds will not discourage people. The heat, the rain and some forest management seems to have scared off a significant number of birds in the two reserves I visit most. The other day, apart from distant gulls, chickadees high up in the trees, a skittish robin and few loud geese there were none of the more exotic birds, even the normal music of the birds was muted. Moreover in places where we see many dozens of squirrels and chipmunks, we saw one. I am hoping this is temporary and as the weather settles down things will return to normal.

Looking Like I Feel on Rainy Days (Two Photographs)

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Last year we had a bit of drought, this year almost half of the year has had precipitation. This flower looks like a person raging, which is how I feel when I get a day I can go out and do something interesting and the weather thinks otherwise. We have had a few good days recently and I hope it continues because no wants me looking like this flower again 🙂

Looking Back at Brutalism (Two Photographs)

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The architectural expression “brutalism” comes from Le Courboiser’s love of “brut” meaning raw and specifically raw concrete. Some called it late 60’s mid 70‘s modern. I always associated it with Leaders who wanted to look strong. The first photo is of a recently renovated federal building that used to be an insurance company. The inside has mosaics and other brash ornamentation that is a wonder to look at, completely at odds with the exterior you see here. The second is part of an old hospital and this part of the building seems to have been bolted on in an expansion of the building. Exteriors can be deceiving but certainly an interesting photographic subject.

 

Nobody Buys Black and White Postcards… (Two Photographs)

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In antique shops they sell old black and white postcards, sometimes used. But on the postcard racks in tourist shops I have not seen black and white postcards for some time. I have seen some greeting cards and some clearly colorized black and white postcards, but no scenic black and whites. One can guess they began disappearing when color was cost effective. In my view many of the more scenic postcards would look better in black and white.

A Red Admiral Butterfly (Two Photographs)

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Walking in nature reserves, the thing I notice most is movement and out of place color. Often the movement means that whatever it was is getting away from me. Sometimes it gives me a hint as to where to look to find a subject. This butterfly and I startled each other, I backed off and it flew into a tree. These are the photographs I took when it landed. In cases like this a long hand-held lens helps. Long because of the distance and handheld because a tripod would have been awkward to adjust for the height.

Color (Three Photographs)

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There has been a long-standing debate between those in favor of color photography and those in favor of black and white. To my mind each has a place and as noted in an earlier post, sometimes the same photo in black and white is a completely different image. From my perspective I want to get impact and both tone and color can have impact. The crucial thing I struggle with is when to use one or the other. I call that healthy and creative.