Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Unlikely Picture

“The picture will have charm when each color is very unlike the one next to it.”
Leon Battista Alberti 1404-1472

Charming, no?




Sunday, January 29, 2012

Another Roadside Attraction

“Logic only gives man what he needs. Magic gives him what he wants.”
Tom Robbins from Another Roadside Attraction

The theme overs at Demie’s blog is “Another Roadside Attraction”. She invited other bloggers to join in, so here’s my version.

This roadside attraction is a mirror image of a mirror image. It’s a large oily puddle on a parking lot that I shot with my iPhone . To make a little magic, I flipped the scene upside down and added it to the top of the original.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Sea Plus

"Nature is what you see plus what you think about it."
John Sloan 1871-1951

So waddayathink?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Counterpoints

Photography is a bridge between science and art. It brings to science what it needs most, the artistic sense, and to art the proof that nothing can be imagined which cannot be matched in the counterpoints of nature.
Ernst Haas 1921-1986

Monday, January 23, 2012

Feeling Blue

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.”
Josh Billings 1818-1885

Times are hard. Yesterday the price of a first class stamp in the U.S. went up by a penny.  : (

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Remains of the Day

“Suddenly, as rare things will, it vanished.”
Robert Browning 1812-1889

Another cycle fades from light to dark.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Yellow Be Gone

“Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,/
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may!”
Thomas Middleton 1580-1627

This quote refers to a witch’s chant which she performs while stirring her witch’s brew.
I’m not a witch but I did mess with Mother Nature on this image (taken from a wedding I shot this past summer). I just desaturated the yellow in Photoshop. Turns out the “green” grass was really mostly yellow and now, thanks to my evil meddling, is gray.

To see the original shot, hover your cursor over the picture.

Image01

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Butt Ugly

“It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times.”
Mark Twain 1835-1910

How are those New Year’s resolutions coming along? Some nasty habits are tough to break. I hope you haven’t yet given up giving up.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sweet Grapes

“The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure,
the second of intoxication, the third of disgust”
Diogenes 412 BC-323 BC

I haven’t reached the third part yet. At least not lately.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Hoe Business

“The only difference between a pigeon and the American farmer today is that a pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere.”
Jim Hightower

Yes, that’s a John Deere tractor waiting patiently for a pigeon. The figure behind the tractor is actually a 18 foot tall painting by the artist John Cerney. He has a number of these larger than life size paintings planted in farms in and around Salinas, CA. They are meant to honor the hard working farm laborers who keep the whole farm economy going.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Pond Over the Pacific

“Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new.”
Saint Augustine 354-430

An early morning view of a bit of Big Sur

Monday, January 9, 2012

Field Work

“Being 'spiritual' simply means being willing to look into the nature of life, to ask questions and to wonder, and to listen. It also means seeing art everywhere.”
Quang Ho

And there are art forms pretty much everywhere. This ghostly spirit is a scarecrow protecting a field in Salinas.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

More Simplicity

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519

This is the underside of a sculpture called “California Bear” by Benny Bufano. Like many of his smooth granite sculptures, this piece has the form of an elegant projectile.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Simplicity

“Photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.”
Sam Abell

Simple.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Observation

"You can observe a lot by just watching."
Yogi Berra

A jigsaw piece of ocean color on the California coast

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fire Again

“Life is a flame that is always burning itself out, but it catches fire again every time a child is born”
George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

I am but a shadow of my former self but I feel all fired up. It’s a new year, we have a brand new granddaughter (born December 29th), and today’s my birthday. Hot times!