What are you lookin' at?

If you participated in the advertising hypathon that has become grey Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, you probably wanted to say to someone you encountered "Hey, what are you lookin' at?"

In photography, that look of surprise from human or beast frequently is just that.  A look of astonishment from your subject.  Here are three of my favorites.

I hope you have the time to enjoy the season, and that it will be full of good surprise moments!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Self-portraits???

Not being a real fan of the genre, I lack a true sense of understanding of self-portraiture.  There are photographers and artists I know who do self-portraiture as a form of expression, and they do it almost exclusively and quite beautifully.  Personally, it is much more satisfying to find and photograph the endless number of fascinating faces in the world.

If and when I do a self-portrait, it tends to be of an extremity, such as a hand or foot or leg, or of clothing I wear.  In line with that, here is a glimpse into what I wore at the Albuquerque Tango Festival the first weekend in November.

The first photograph was made by my husband, using an iPhone, in low hotel light, and full of grain.  Although cell phones generally have a pretty decent number of megapixels these days, you can certainly tell the difference between this and the shot below it.

Well-lit with multi-directional natural light, the shine of the heel's surface and patina of the red leather  strap are quite tangible.

That is about it as far as self-portraiture is concerned from this photographer.  Kudos to Luella Roberts (www.EnchantedLeather.etsy.com) for making the beautiful gloves.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Still life with fruit

The blog (the BLOB?) has returned after a weekend off, full of tango, that opened the month of November.

An ever-evolving and burgeoning body of work known as "still life" fills the artspace, and my blog is no exception.  I love photographing food, raw or prepared, and thus, you will once again be subjected to it in today's posting.

In New Mexico, where late frosts in spring and early frosts in the fall wreak havoc with fruit growers, a great fruit year that includes tons and tons of apricots and peaches seems to occur only every seven or eight years.   Those who have apples and pears have better luck, with good crops every two or three years.  2012 was one of the years where the crops overlapped, and everyone seemed to have more fruit than they needed.

The photograph below is courtesy of Victoria's apples.  The pears are from the Santa Fe Farmers' Market.

Although pomegranates are being grown in southern New Mexico, these probably came from a more distant location, still eminently photographable.

We are having a taste of winter, with a high yesterday of 29 and low temperature early this morning of -1.  Downhill skiers and boarders are salivating!  I will continue to eye the fruit!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image