hanging on

Many people around the world feel that winter has taken them on a most unwanted roller coaster ride - whether the conditions include snow, ice, rain, flooding, more flooding, drought, wind, or a combination - the winter of extremes has hit hard.  And the hits keep coming.  It has left some hanging on for dear life, wondering what is coming next.

These trees reflect the extreme conditions in which they have existed for probably hundreds of years.  They hang on because that is in their nature.  It is the way of nature.

The first survivor in the group is a bristlecone pine in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.  The image was made using Kodachrome 25 slide/transparency film, one of my favorites, and scanned.

A digital image of a Ponderosa pine in El Malpais National Monument

Finally, another slide made with Fujichrome Velvia film, of a Monterey cypress near Carmel, California. 

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Valentine's Day, part deux

You know me well enough by now that you also are aware of the fact that almost anything you give me will often be photographed in some fashion, and that some of those photographs will appear on my Monday blog.  So this morning, I lift my glass to Cristina and Ben who brought a lovely flower arrangement when they came for brunch last week.

Despite their size and perhaps because of it, the Gerber daisies are the most delicate, and I knew they would need to be photographed first.  Here they are in all their glory.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

A rose is a rose

I am an avid collector of quotations.  Despite having one notebook and an exploding folder packed with sheets and pieces of paper full of depth and pith, I find more every day.  The brilliance and absurdity of human beings can both be found in the written equivalents of sound bites.  No one was better at structuring brevity than Gertrude Stein.  One of my favorites is ""There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been answer. That's the answer."

She is also known for another snippet "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" from Sacred Emily, written in 1913.  The problem with concise and absolute statements is they beg deeper analysis.  A rose is a rose and each is the same at its core, but like humans, each has many facets.
 

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

As I write, millions upon millions of Americans are munching on epic amounts of nachos, chips, buffalo wings, pizza, and assorted other snacks, and washing them down with a variety of mostly "adult" beverages.  It is, after all, Superbowl Sunday.  There are quite a few Americans who are doing other things, including working to provide the pizzas and wings, not to mention security for the big game.  For us, it is pretty much like any other day - doing some preemptive laundry before the snowy week ahead (when there will be less solar gain) and working with photographs and wool.   The extent of our participation will be to check out the game commercials on YouTube tomorrow.

February is that limbo time of year when the ground is still frozen and the only evidence of spring waiting in the wings is wind.  Thus, many people choose to explore warmer climates.  Here are some shots from the island of Santorini, Greece, scanned from slides, full of warmth, color, and complexity, in the event you are in need.

This shot reminds me of an architectural model.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image