A Theory

My friend Jane and I were talking the other day about starting a new photography group with the idea of shooting with a particular concept or theory in mind. The initial idea was to shoot with a song (or songs) in our heads, with the end result being a collaborative book. Choose a song and try to think, "what does it look like?" I think this is such a rich idea, but I started thinking about more possible themes, and more books. What it would look like if we chose a theme like stillness, bliss or mornings? There are so many ideas we could play with. Maybe 'song' could be just one book. What do you think?

I have songs for each of these pictures. Can you come up with any?

Spring, in Earnest

It was unseasonably warm in Central Ohio yesterday, giving us the opportunity to make serious headway in cleaning out our gardens and doing a little wandering. My weeping cherry just exploded with blossoms in one day, and today's rain washed all the blossoms to the ground. Ah well, you take the good with the bad and look forward to many warm days ahead. After such a long winter, sleeping with the windows open feels like some magical, unreal dream. It's like going from a black and white television to a color one ... you can't help but be mesmerized.

White Friday

Pictures and words each have powers all their own, each diifferent. They conjure memories and cause us to reflect on things both conceptual and corporeal.

The bottom picture is of one lilly among many that I bought for my husband's surprise birthday party last week. It's brought me immense pleasure that my house has smelled like lillies all week. This image will always remind me of the kind friendships, good food, and warm laughter that surrounded my husband on this special day. A gift I'll never forget.

Purple Thursday

Thursday feels purple, don't you think? Lavender, eggplant, periwinkle, violet ... whatever you call it, it manages to come off as both elegant and quirky at the same time. This is for my friend, David, who's current favorite color is purple.

Monday and Tuesday

Since I didn't post Green Monday and Yellow Tuesday shots, I'd thought I'd share two now. I simply cannot wait to plant my herbs this year!

Pink Wednesday

I've been doing Spring Colors Week here, and thought I'd post some Pink Wednesday pictures for you.  The top one I shot at a banquet hall when I was waiting to do a group photo of a work team. The previous day, the banquet hall held a funeral celebration of sorts. I do not know who passed, but I thought the lonely, abandoned rose was poignant in its context. It reminds me of this song.

Even More HDR

Before I was married, my next door neighbor was this wonderful man named Ted.  We still enjoy a fond friendship, even if much of it takes place over email. Today, after browsing through my entire Flickr photostream, he sent me this magnificent poem about my photography. Isn't it amazing when you
meet people who really get it?

Buildings and plants
and textures and tiles
and vines all twine
in my mind
along with city walls
bricked and mortared
with crumbled signage
of ages past
and cusps of
rusted locks and colored rocks
enmeshed in lichens
and mosses
and bursting plants and pods
thrust upwards and out to the light.

~ Edward Beardshear

More HDR

Hi friends, I started playing with a few other recent shots ... I'm a bit addicted to the rich colors you get with HDR. The first picture makes me think it should go with an article about train accidents. The truth is, the area around railroad tracks are littered with all sorts of spooky things, as though it's some post-apocalyptic landscape. While the top pictures were taken earlier this week, the bottom one was taken today. Yep, we went from Spring back to Winter.

HDR is Back

You know when you drive by a place several times that seems intriguing, each time vowing the next time you're going to stop? Well, that was my attitude to a new HDR function in PhotoShop CS5, and I finally stopped and played with it. It takes experimenting, but I'm a little excited that you can take an absolutely boring picture and turn it into something interesting. If you want to get into even more, try listening to a train song while you're working on it.