Just Passing By ...

A photo of some stairs on the grounds where I live. I don't walk on any of them, given my knee arthritis. But I sure love taking pix of them in various weather and times of day as I pass by. I especially love the patterns the shadows make. And in this particular photo, that almost X shape created by the shadows and railings. I'll be showing this and quite a few other stairs pix in my photo exhibit in two weeks.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****

At a loss for words ....

I really don't know what to say about this photo. Except that it will be in the exhibit on July 24th. It has the sort of "feel" I am often drawn to. Barren, yet not. Then there's those erratic patterns formed by the bare vines. This sort of sight moves me at a very non-verbal level. I spoke in my second post here (titled "End of the Romance") of the Japanese aesthetic of beauty -- wabi sabi. (Nothing's permanent, nothing's complete, and nothing's perfect.) That's what I'd say this sort of scene evokes for me.

Click here to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog. And for posts previous to those below, please see listing in the right-hand sidebar. (Clicking on the bottom post listed will list even older posts, and so on.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****

LADY BUG, LADY BUG, FLY AWAY HOME ....

The above pic is one of two close-ups of lady bugs I will choose between for my up-coming exhibit. Between this one and the next, this is better balanced visually, I'd say. And I'm a sucker for fuchsia, as well as lovin' the lady's shiny back, so lean towards the above one. Here's the other:


I like the detail on the lady in this one; the legs are clear and so on. I've cropped and re-cropped this photo so many times I've lost count. It's a bigger photo with more of those little white flowers around the lady bug with slightly murky lighting over the left side (still is in the above crop). But I do love this little lady!

Only reason I won't show both is that I can only show so many pix, in toto. The amount I'm planning on exhibiting may already be a bit overwhelming. So, which love will win out? Of color or the lady? Does it matter? This isn't a "lady or the tiger" choice, after all. LOL!

Click here to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog. And for posts previous to those below, please see listing in the right-hand sidebar. (Clicking on the bottom post listed will list even older posts, and so on.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****

A View from Down Here

This was taken on the grounds of the retirement community where I live. A friend tapped me on the shoulder and said, almost whispering, to look behind, up at the sky. You can barely see it in this photo, but that cloud closest to the building top in the middle had rainbow colors to it. Yes, it would have been lovely to capture that rainbow cloud, but I'm quite content with the photo as a whole.

Going back to yesterday's post this pic is definitely "representational." Yet in its simplicity it almost becomes abstract. It also contains a contrast I love looking at and often try to capture decent pix of: architecture with nature.

This is a definite for my up-coming photo exhibit. (BTW, once all the exhibit photos I want to post here are up, this blog will continue. As if you were concerned! LOL! I could never take another pic and still go on endlessly with and about photos from the thousands on my computer.)

Click here to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog. And for posts previous to those below, please see listing in the right-hand sidebar. (Clicking on the bottom post listed will list even older posts, and so on.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****

ONE SOURCE

The one above will defintely be in my photo exhibit later this month. When I came across it in the selection process I realized it's one of the earlier photos in which I began to "find" and be attracted to abstract forms as I cropped it in different sizes and ways.

Here's one much earlier one, titled "Subrosa" (probably not to be in the Exhibit):


"Subrosa" is from a much larger photo of pale pink roses. I became fascinated by the shadows in one corner of the pic.

At any rate, the pic at the top of this post is still one of my earliest forays toward the abstract. At least in photography, as during the years (decades ago) when I was painting and drawing I produced a lot of abstracts. Or is a better term, non-representational art? Photos I'll post later will wander even further from any true "representation." (Or see the post "Still Feeling Wet Behind the Ears..." for a very recent example.) In fact I'm considering having a little contest at the exhibit -- prize, one free 4 X 6 pic -- in which folk try to guess just what the source for one particular abstract picture was.

Click here to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog. And for posts previous to those below, please see listing in the right-hand sidebar. (Clicking on the bottom post listed will list even older posts, and so on.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****

"Will You Walk Into My Parlour...?"

Here's another pic I'm probably exhibiting in my show on July 24th, titled "Will You Walk Into My Parlour...".

Have no idea how others might react to this one, as I've not shared it in any way yet. However, I enjoy it because at least to me it's an atypical view of an open epithelium bloom. Any other pix of them I've seen --including my own -- have been "face on." Which makes sense as they are such spectacular blooms to look at. But I was sort of forced to consider this profile. The only unobstructed view of it was from the stair side. And before I took any more chances by going further down the steps (with my cane, camera, and arthritic knees!) I noticed how cool it looked from the side. A bit like a spider -- the title for the pic is a quote from that famous poem about a spider tempting a fly. Omigosh, in a way that bloom was like a spider, tempting me into the danger of taking a face-on photo of it. :-D

It also doesn't hurt that it's a gorgeous bright red, perfect for wishing you all a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Click here to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog. And for posts previous to those below, please see listing in the right-hand sidebar. (Clicking on the bottom post listed will list even older posts, and so on.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****

HEADLIGHTS

This photo, too, will be in my July 24th exhibit here in the retirement community where I live.

I try to avoid cropping a photo to any shape other than the usual vertical or horizontal rectangle in the proportion of 640 X 480 or 480 X 640 pixels. (I do actually use a 680 X 480 or 480 X 640 size as I find it the best for posting to the web and attaching to emails, and even on my own desktop. Though Adobe does also always have the original 2736 X 3648 pixels uncropped, unedited size, too.) I can print out any square or other non-480 X 640 or 640 X 480 proportion photo on my own printer with no problem. However, when I submit for printing online their auto-system does it's own re-cropping -- sometimes in disastrous ways -- of anything other than 640 X 480 or 480 X 640 pixels proportions. However, the website's prices are far better than what it costs me to print myself. Especially in large quantities and when they have special sales -- which, of course, I watch closely for. So I only crop differently when the photo absolutely demands and seems worth it. The above Headlights cried out to me for this long crop. In fact, it just did not work in any other proportions. I'll have to print it out myself. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our art! LOL!

Comment from my editor's eye: I wish the stamens in the blooms' centers were in better contrast. However, the overall "twin star" shape of the blooms captivates me. So I live with the slightly unclear centers. I think this unclarity is due to my camera's difficulty -- or more probably its techno-phobe user's :-D -- with white or very bright color. I did try tweaking it a bit in one of my photo editing programs that is often good at improving contrast, but it did not help. At least not without negatively impacting the overall quality of the picture.

Click here to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog. And for posts previous to those below, please see listing in the right-hand sidebar. (Clicking on the bottom post listed will list even older posts, and so on.)

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****