Silent Sunday: July 12, 2015
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Formation
As I walk on the beach I often notice the pelicans flying above. I never tire of watching these pterodactyl-like birds. They are huge and graceful, soaring over the shoreline, often in formation with one or two or a dozen others. They exchange places seamlessly, the front fliers moving to the rear, always regaining their formation. (You can tell from my photos that the marine layer has been thick here…gray and damp, blocking the sun.)
Here’s a triad flying by in formation…
Looking low formations also came into view. These rock sculpture formations crop up now and then on the beach…this one was standing all alone and caught my eye.
A demonstration lesson by one of the SI participants had us exploring wind and air pressure through an experiment with a soap cap on a coke bottle. When we placed the bottle in warm water, a bubble formation appeared at the top!
And today we engaged in an activity that requires the formation of thoughts and responses to some provocative quotes from readings we have done. We still call it Chalk Talk even though we use markers on chart paper!
So, go on a search for formation. You might spy some that form naturally or they might be manmade. Be on the lookout for esoteric formations too–you might find evidence of the formation of thought or action or change!
You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)
I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #formation for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.
So grab your camera and find formation in your world this week. You can look indoors or out…or maybe combine with last week’s prompt of #makeart and create a formation of your own!
Doors
Sometimes it’s hard to find openings, ways to get in and get out.
Not all doors look like doors—heavy wooden slabs with handles to turn or pull to open and close. And they are not all found on traditional structures like houses and office buildings.
Sometimes the walls that hold you out are made of reeds growing along the shore,
and frame your view of the world. You are bound by your idea of wall instead of freed by the open door.
Other doors aren’t doors at all, they are signs warning you of the rules, enter at your own risk,
marking boundaries of beginning and ends.
Some doors are small, requiring you to duck low, risk the muck and slime
as you get a glimpse at the light on the other side.
Some doors are bridges to go over or under or through, marking sides, taking sides, allowing access to both sides.
There are doors on platforms, high enough to see above the fray, watchtowers of protection,
hope, and possibility.
Doors can be wide angles, opening to vistas
But you have to find them, recognize them
as openings
as doors
ways in and ways out.
Silent Sunday: July 5, 2015
Weekly Photo Challenge: #Make Art
Some days finding a photo to take and post is a challenge. Most of the photos I take are “found”–meaning that I don’t stage them other than moving around to get a better angle or to change the light. I seldom arrange things or stage a shot. But yesterday was different.
First, I was thinking about the idea of re-mediation, a concept being explored in the second make cycle of the CLMOOC. My photo-a-day prompt was shadow…and I had just gotten home from a full day at the Summer Institute. As a break from working on my #beachpeople documentary, I grabbed my camera and headed outside to look for a shadow opportunity. Nothing was grabbing my attention–the shadows I noticed seemed ordinary.
That’s when I decided to pick a dandelion puff. As I looked at it I wondered how I might photograph it in a different way. I thought about blowing on it…but couldn’t figure out how to hold it, blow on it, and photograph it at the same time…and where would I get shadow from that? Instead, I started holding the dandelion out to see how it cast its shadow. I tried the sidewalk, the side of the house, my car mirror, and the shiny paint of my car. I had to work to get the focal length of my lens right so some portion of the shot would be crisp. I took a number of shots.
When I headed back inside to study my work, I noticed some interesting images…but I wondered if I might re-mediate them in some way. I rejected my go-to apps and started to explore some that I seldom use. PicsArt caught my eye–could I transform this experiment into something that looked like art…rather than a photograph? (I do think photos are art–but I was looking for something that looked less like a photo and more like a painting or some other kind of art.)
Here’s what I started with–the original, unedited photo.
And here’s the art I made as I re-mediated the image.
I love the resulting image–the crispness of the near dandelion and the echo from the shadow. I might need to print this one and hang it in my house somewhere!
So, make some art! That might mean playing with some new editing apps, staging the perfect scene, or maybe even catching someone else making art like I did on today’s beachwalk! (Love catching #beachpeople in action!)
You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)
I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #makeart for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.
So grab your camera and make some art! You make the rules…and feel free to re-mediate and let your imagination run wild!
#beachpeople: a documentary
As I have worked to grow and stretch with my photography over the last few years, I discovered a genre of photography called street photography. The idea is to document the people and activity on the street. I haven’t studied much, but it seems that this photography comes out of cities…places where activity on the street is common, especially if you are paying attention.
This is a harder kind of photography for me, my natural inclination is to pay attention to nature and scenes rather than people and their activity. It’s also about feeling intrusive, taking pictures of people instead of things. I’ve read that many street photographers talk to their subjects and ask permission to take photos of them. And this makes sense to me…but also takes away some of the candid nature of capturing the action in the moment.
So, I have been exploring this idea of street photography on my own terms, in my own place. I started to capture interesting moments and interesting people on my beachwalks and hashtagging those photos with #beachpeople. I love the variety of #beachpeople I come across. They are interesting and diverse. Some are obviously tourists visiting from other places–across the county and across the world. And some are natives, the beach is their place.
As this week’s make cycle in the CLMOOC comes to an end, I’ve been considering what the idea of re-mediation means for me…and what my make might be. And I started thinking about this collection of #beachpeople images. I decided to I would take these still images and create a documentary-of-sorts.
That took some doing. I considered using animoto and just tossing my photos in and letting animoto do the work. But I felt constrained by the 30 second free movie and the lack of editorial control. So I decided on iMovie–I’ve fiddled with it before (here and here)…but that also meant if I didn’t want to use the overly familiar iMovie music, I would have to figure out how to access open source music. I found this track called Folka Dot Tie by Mr Crispy–The Rat Room that created the sort of mood I was looking for and went to work.
As the mother of a filmmaker, I know what I want things to look like…but not necessarily how to do those things myself. I did discover some options that I didn’t know about as I positioned the photos and got them to move. And after spending hours getting to this point, I’m going to let this be good enough for now. I hope this re-mediation captures the variety and character of this small subset of #beachpeople, documenting just a few of the many reasons I treasure my beachwalks…and enjoy viewing the world through my lens.
I’d love to know what you think when you take a peek at my #beachpeople
One Word from Sophia, it’s Destiny!
Sometimes you know at first sight that you were destined to meet. That happened to me today.
The SDAWP Summer Institute (SI) is in full swing, which means my head is full and my schedule is packed. There is lots of reading and writing and thinking and talking going on…and I love it. Today at lunch I had a few minutes to myself, so I headed off to the coffee shop to treat myself to a latte. When I walked in and saw that there was no line, I immediately thought–jackpot! I can take a few minutes and walk through the bookstore, just to look.
Coffee in hand, I headed toward the children’s book section. And there it was…
I couldn’t resist.
One Word from Sophia by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail grabbed me and wouldn’t let go!
I was drawn in by this brilliant little girl who knows what she wants…and has a plan to get it.
Sophia’s birthday was coming up, and she had five things on her mind–One True Desire and four problems.
This girl is a student of rhetoric and knows how to make an argument. She knows her audience and how to tailor her reasoning and evidence (love the variety and types!) to convince. And she takes her feedback as information essential for revision and iteration.
I don’t want to spoil the story by giving away all the details here…but if you are a teacher of writing, of argument, of debate…or just love a great story…you will want to read and study and probably even own this book!
And there’s more…rich vocabulary, compelling characters, and a surprising ending. And this is not a book just for children. I can see community college instructors using this book in their composition classes and kindergarten teachers too. And you don’t have to be a teacher…this is a book for readers and definitely for writers.
I think this will be a relationship that will endure…right now, it’s love at first sight!
Here’s Jim talking about the story:
Documenting Light: July’s Photo-a-Day Challenge
July is the heart of summer. Long days, warm nights, all filled with light. Morning light, light at dawn, midday and afternoon light, the dwindling light of sunset and twilight, and the glow of lights at night. July is a month to capture light.
Nature is painting for us, day after day,, pictures of infinite beauty.
John Ruskin
And inspired by the work of Paccarik Orue, I find myself thinking about documentary photography—photography that celebrates place, people, culture, and customs that uncovers and illuminates beauty that others may miss or dismiss.
Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s light shining somewhere nearby.
Ruth Renkel
So let’s explore the light of July, in all its variety and glory and document the places and people we experience.
Light can be gentle, dangerous, dream-like, bare, living, dead, misty, clear, hot, dark, violet, springlike, falling, straight, sensual, limited, poisonous, calm and soft.
Sven Nykvist
The harsh man-made lights at the end of the pier,
midday light illuminating a wave and its surfer,
filtered light through the windows of your house for the cats to discover (that’s Jack!),
and looking up into the clear blue sky at wild fair rides.
Lingering seems most at home in the late afternoon. Other words belong to other times. But lingering (like dawdling and dallying) works best when the day is slipping away, and we don’t care.
Jim Richardson
Here’s some prompts to get us started this month:
1. Home
2. Shadow
3. Outside
4. Color
5. Bright
6. Undercover
7. Discover
8. Warm
9. Night
10. Dawdling
11. Misty
12. Clear
13. Dangerous
14. Bare
15. Violet
16. Dead
17. Gentle
18. Falling
19. Dream-like
20. Straight
21. Hot
22. Living
23. Sensual
24. Limited
25. Poisonous
26. Dallying
27. Soft
28. Calm
29. Lingering
30. Fear
31. Care
So let’s explore the light of summer and document the people and places and things we encounter. Our challenge will allow us to learn from each other as we shoot our own photos and study the photos others shoot. Every day of the month includes a word prompt to inspire and challenge you to document the spaces you inhabit as you explore the light. You are welcome to follow them in order, mix them up, or throw in a new word prompt for the rest of us to try. You can post every day, once a week, or even sporadically throughout the month…whatever works in your life. Be sure to share and tag your photos with #sdawpphotovoices so we can find them! You can share on Twitter (follow me @kd0602), on Instagram (@kd0602), in the CLMOOC community on G+, on Flickr, or even link back to my blog here.
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
Maori proverb
And don’t forget to play around with nighttime light too!
Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star.
Lucy Maud Montgomery
What light will you see and document through your lens?
Silent Sunday: June 28, 2015
Musings
I am definitely drawn to photograph some images over and over again. Anyone who reads my blog regularly will recognize the beach where I walk regularly. There is an endless supply of seagulls, surfers, sunsets, hang gliders, and more. And I am drawn to photograph them again and again, trying new angles, different light, close ups and vistas. But is the beach my muse?
Yesterday after a long and busy week keeping me mostly indoors and mostly away from my camera, I just felt the urge to go outside and take some photos. I was exhausted, my brain full after finishing our first full week in the SDAWP Invitational Summer Institute AND still trying to keep up with and participate in the CLMOOC, and yet I could feel my camera calling.
My husband was in the kitchen performing his culinary magic, the cats lounging nearby (never wanting him beyond their line of sight), so I grabbed my camera and heading into the backyard.
I noticed the lavender first. It’s not growing as well as I would like, but that didn’t stop me from learning in to get close to this beauty.
I love playing with macro, the way the lens focuses in on the near and blurs out the background. The afternoon sun allowed the vibrance of the greens and purples to come through. As I looked down I noticed a succulent in a pot that I hadn’t paid any attention to before. I got low–on my knees–and tucked in under the scented geraniums to get close enough. I’m remembering that succulents use those small leaves to conserve water, a great adaptation for an environment like this one where water is scarce…and water restrictions are limiting our elective watering too.
I continued to wander, aiming my lens at whatever caught my eye. I unlatched the gate and headed toward the front yard. There are usually dandelions there–much to my husband’s chagrin…and my delight. I noticed this yellow bloom.
and then later, played with the image with the sketch app.
And this later stage dandelion, with most of its seeds blown away caught my eye. I found myself thinking about wishes and how we often make wishes on a dandelion puff just before we blow the seeds away. Do those wishes take root or do they float away beyond our reach?
I like the idea that there are still a few wishes left hanging here…and posted this on a friend’s Facebook page to send her birthday wishes last night. Later, I played with Waterlogue, a watercolor app just to see what effect it might have.
But as I continue to think about this idea of muse, I find myself rejecting the idea that the dandelion is the muse. I do and have taken plenty of dandelion photos. But I think that the muse, for me, is the camera itself.
With a camera in my hand, my senses are heightened. I notice my surroundings–with my eyes and my ears…all my senses seem to fire. And even when I don’t capture an amazing photo, I feel like I see more, hear more, am more present in the moment.
And, as I seek an interesting photo, I find myself looking beyond the beautiful. Those golden sunset moments are pretty reliable…and I think I will never tire of them, but I am also seeking images that make me think, that help me see beyond the surface and find the beauty in what I might have dismissed as ugly, disposable, a nuisance…
which reminds me as an educator and a human being that we all need to look past the obvious, make a connection and get under the surface to see what we haven’t noticed before. This dandelion plant caught my eye and drew me into the dry remnants of the puff, the lone seed hanging on, the bud getting ready to reveal the brilliant yellow flower that doesn’t even hint at becoming a puffy seed ball. It would be easy to yank this week out and toss it into the green waste (and my husband might when he heads out to mow the lawn), but I’m glad I got to lean in, look closely and discover some of the wonders I might have otherwise missed.
I feel lucky to have my camera as my muse…and even without looking through my lens, it’s teaching me to pay attention, look closely, and connect to better understand myself and my world…and better yet, give me insights into the experiences of others as well. I may not walk in the shoes of the people I encounter, but by listening carefully, looking closely, and opening my heart, I can do my part to be inclusive, accepting, and strive to understand beyond my own experiences.
How does your muse influence you?
Thinking Through My Lens 