ABSTRACTION

"Abstraction" was in my recent exhibit. I "found" it in the shadows of that favorite stand of striped leaves on our grounds. I really enjoy watching these blooms go from a graceful spear head, to all those little buds, to glorious big flowery globes. (From using a quick google image search I believe they may be some sort of haemanthus.)

Here's a photo of one of them just past full bloom. It's one of my oldest and not a great pic but it gives you an idea of what they look like if you're not familiar with the type. I see them around here also in blue and in purple:


And here's a recent, somewhat better pic of this flower in various stages of opening, titled "Answering the Sun":


Which is exactly what I'm about to do once I check my emails ... answer the call of the sun. Even though it's a hazy day, this sort of lightly veiled light can sometimes make for good pix.

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”)****

MAY I JOIN YOU?

"May I Join You?" is one of a few pix in my exhibit that folk kept asking if I'd "posed." Nope. I don't do that. There's more than enough wonderful and/or funny stuff out there without me having to think ahead or make any effort other than to get my camera out. (I do occasionally shade a shot, or lift a heavy-headed bloom with my cane, or hold back obstructing foliage, but that's all.)

Although this photo was taken over a year ago, I can clearly recall glancing up at the stair edge as I was leaving one of our back gardens. And there was that lone (is it?) geranium bloom, just asking to be acknowledged. I have a habit formed early on of not only looking all around me, up - down - sideways, but stopping to look behind me as I walk. Sometimes just the change of angle reveals a possible interesting shot.

Yet even with all this looking I'm frequently surprised at what the camera caught that I did not even see "live." I wonder how much this might have to do with the difference between 3D and 2D, and how that changes perception. At any rate, I'm delighted by the surprises that show up on my computer screen. Though in the case of the photo above, what I initially saw is what I got. Albeit, with some nice stripes of sunlight I'd not noticed. :-)

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”)****

FOLLOW ME, CHILDREN!

This one -- "Follow Me, Children! -- was also in my exhibit. As I just now started to type (is that more correctly put "keyboarded" these days? LOL) that it's of one of my favorite sort of flora here, I realized I have a lot of favorites. And that makes me feel gratitude, a momentary but very welcome lift from those sticky blues I mentioned yesterday.

But back to the above, which was taken maybe one long block away from where I live. I do adore fiddle head ferns, in any stage of their growth. And this pic above shows their various stages. Except for the more mature tree-like form, which we have on our grounds. Here's a photo of its fronds.


I keep taking pix of not only this fiddle head fern, but that fountain/lady. It's a challenging area to take pix in. Not so much for the variety of flora, but because of distracting equipment, pipes, and building windows and such. Not to mention I can't climb in close for better angles due to my knee problems, but have to do what I can pretty much from the sidewalk. However, I keep trying. This pic almost makes it -- just a wee bit too much wall space behind that lady lifting her skirts away from the fountain water.

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”)****

FOR A BLUE LADY

"For A Blue Lady" was in my exhibit on July 24th. It's one of those I doubt will ever generate much response from others. However, it's one I really like. I've always been a sucker for color and this color gets me for some reason. Especially where it shades into purple as in the upper left. Of course, this blue is completely computer generated. The full photo of this coral/pink rainy rose just did not grab me until I cropped it way down and began fooling with the color.

However, none of this matters much to me today. I'm posting this simply because it expresses my mood -- deeply blue.

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”)****

READY FOR COMPANY

This pic, titled "Ready for Company," was taken on the grounds of the retirement community where I live. It's another of my favorite sights around here, as I wait (and wait and wait) for our faithful and over-worked elevator. Yes, we have only one elevator for a busy community of well over 200 residents, plus staff, visitors, deliveries, movings in and out, etc. It's rather a miracle it keeps on keepin' on. LOL, like many of us living here.

A word (and probably more :-D) on titling pix. I just spent quite some time last night titling all those without one that were in my recent exhibit. One of the orders made that day was for a considerable number of those pix, with the request that I title all of them. It's not a bad idea practically speaking, as I will recall a title rather readily but never remember the number given a pic by my computer program. So a title makes locating a photo for printing a great deal easier.

However, I've also had discussions with a fellow resident about whether one should title a photo. If in doing so we aren't attempting to control the viewer's reactions, or to explain the photo. I've come across this latter in various artists I knew in New York City. As if to explain any art is to somehow demean it. Whether it's even possible to explain some art is another question. I find it challenging to say the least to explain metaphorical/imagistic poetry to most non-poetry folk.

Suffice it to say titles for pix were a definite "no-no" in my fellow resident's eyes. Well, my reaction to that suggestion was that we are attempting to "control" a viewer's responses from the moment we pick up our camera. From that second we start mentally framing a shot, we've made a choice about what to share. If we never showed anyone our pix, well, then this whole discussion would be moot. But we do share them and are aware we do even if we don't think about sharing when snapping pix. And we in turn are "controlled" (read: influenced) by others beforehand and after -- by their artistic values and their responses.

Then I made the point that my titles simply highlight something particular about the shot I would like noticed, or share a joke. That I do not believe I can determine a person's total response, even if I tried. No way. Especially as my pix, just like my poems, keep unfolding for me, too. In fact, I'm delighted when someone expresses a view on a pic I'd not noted. (I have this same feeling about my poetry.) And added that titles offer people a way into the picture and where they go then is up to them. None of these responses helped. I could tell I'd been titled "Controlling." 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”)****

From bud to bloom ...

This pic did not make the cut for my July 24th exhibit but only because I simply could not share all I would have liked to. I'm fascinated by the shapes of these orchid buds. I have numerous shots of them, arcing in front of various other flora, or shadows as in the one above. I also enjoy the shiny texture some of them have, as in this (less successful) pic:


I remember the first time I spotted buds like these. Newly moved to California from a life-time in New York city I'd not ever seen the vast majority of the flora here in bud form. I took photos and almost breathlessly waited to see what the buds would become. I hooted with delight when they opened into orchids that look like little mouths opening for the dentist or sharing in a big belly laugh, like these:


They might be saying "Leave them laughing!" In any event, from bud to bloom these sorts of orchids make me smile.

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 thankful post ...

This untitled photo was not in my July 24th exhibit, but was on the flyer. It garnered some really nice comments just from that small exposure. I thought of it today as I had a dream about my mother last night and her favorite color was yellow. So, this is in grateful memory of Mama.

This rose was one of several yellow ones in various stages of growth that I took pix of that day. The light was just right. No longer directly on that side of the gardens inside our front gate. Yet still bright enough for good focus. At least for the automatic settings on my little camera. :-D

One of our residents maintains a large section of that garden. (It's beneath a fabulous tree, which I'm sure I'll be posting pix of here, too.) She keeps it filled with potted blooms of the season. So there's an always morphing array of flora for me to photo. What fun! Thanks, Benny. In fact, I should probably take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the residents who work in our grounds' gardens. Administration hires professionals for lawn mowing and the pruning of trees and such. But everything else is handled, one way or another, by residents.

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”)****