Delight and Awe

The good thing about the overload of photo editing that I have to do is that, every once in awhile, I find some real gems to view and contemplate. Take this view of my son, Adrian, for example. The picture is nearing 25  years old yet, when I review it, I am reminded of the human capacity to experience delight and awe in the simplest of personal discoveries. 

Viewings such as these make me want to give things away, unburden myself, and break the habitual droning in my life. How else can one prepare for such delightful surprises?

Big Sale, part I

On Saturday Pam and I went to downtown Sarasota at the farmers' market to get some peppers and watch dogs sniff butt and tow their masters and mistresses. Afterwards, we stopped by Womens' Exchange to see the Big Sale, 75% off on select items. Justice (below) was a little too big for my kitchen apothecary. So I unzipped the trusty little Kodak camera bag which hangs on my belt and started checking price stickers.

Oh, you don't know how I wrestled with myself over this blindfolded woman. Appearing to me on January 24, 2009, she seemed to be a good omen needful of rescuing and exhibition somewhere in my cluttered workroom.

I think that's a load of Orange Peppers she has in the basket.

Roasted Peppers give me the shivers.

Big Sale shelves started to look like a nest full of hungry birds.

Big Sale. Ceramics for plants. Small ticket items.

Not sure if I'd use the five-holer for roses or breadsticks.

Big Sale, part II

I began to enjoy the asymmetry of the shelf displays. The items were perused, handled, settled back down on the shelf, slightly askew. That imbalance seemed to give the viewfinder more opportunities to frame the subjects. 

I could have spent hours in Womens' Exchange photographing a raft of everyday items primed for new ownership via the price sticker. But it was Saturday and we had other work to do.

These three alone escaped the burden of the price sticker.

I'm really confused about the difference between cherubs and angels vs mothers and babies.

I like the statue, but tell me, what is happening here? I mean

in addition to the Big Sale price sticker?

These elegant fellows almost made it to my book shelves, but they reminded me of

"hear no evil, see no evil" a little too much.

I'll bet they are gone when I get back there tomorrow.

I had to sneak in another self portrait when I saw this mirror.

As far as I know this is the real me: Big Sale Ger.

Iconic Relief

I found another great source for viewing good photography on the World Wide Web. Google account holders can find hot links to photographer's web sites via a group called Photo Fridays. Each Friday the members of the group are given a brief challenge to submit photos that reflect that challenge. This week's challenge: Iconic.

I made a quick sweep of my iphoto files, going back 6 months, looking for imagery that might fit the challenge. Awk! It was a  good challenge to stir the photographer's gray matter; I only found three images that fit.

Barack Obama showed up at my wife's birthday party in November. 

Our friends were happy to pose with his doppleganging cut-out.

Here's a XXX traffic boy and a bicycle wheel that seemed to symbolically register the great cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam.

And one last iconic visual stared me in the face as we prepared to return to the States from France in September.

Now back to the good photography via Google. When a member of a photo group submits a photo reflecting the challenge, they can post a hot link to the site where the photo was posted. Hence, a long hot list of posting photographers' sites appear only one click away from a delightful series of stimulating photographs.

Progenitor Frog

A decade ago I needed to change my life. The rise of computing and stock photography houses made photos very inexpensive for local agencies.  I couldn't produce imagery that cheaply.

I needed a transformation. Maybe a new career. But what? Eventually, Nature helped me decide to get involved in living my metaphor. 

When I walked out the door one morning I found a batch of freshly laid frog eggs surrounded by frog semen in the shallow end of my swimming pool. What could be a better metaphor for a transformation? 

I cleaned out several 5 gallon buckets and began raising tadpoles. Of course, the tadpoles turned to frogs and before I knew it I had raised 5,000 frogs. I became Progenitor Frog of Merrimac Drive.

Most of those frogs were released into a nearby transformation pond. My transformation? I quickly found seven years worth of contract work producing nautical charts at home on my computers. Ribbit!

Sarasota Beaches

Almost every one you meet around Sarasota, Florida is from someplace else. And sooner rather than later you will find most of them at the beach taking in the sun, the white sands and the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

Sunsets are always a draw at the beach (read December Archives, at the right). The placid waters of the Gulf infuse sun bathers and swimmers with a true sense of calm. Strollers, runners and bicyclers run the water's edge at all times of day. Plainly, the Gulf is rejuvenating.

Believe it or not, Sarasota is getting younger. Hahahaha. That's just a perceptual facet of aging, Ger! No, it does seem to have younger residents. Twenty-five years ago I recall we had to drive 50 miles to Tampa just to see young people. Now we've got our own.

The housing market is temporarily down in Florida, but I'm betting Sarasota will remain a tourist mecca in the future. And tourists become immigrants who want to live here for the sun, the sand and the Gulf of Mexico. 

My Blue Phase

My photographic point of view has changed drastically since the middle 1960's when I published my first nude studies in Good Photography and Salon Photography Magazines.

Attitudes toward photographic nudes have swung with the national politic; photographic nudes always being more acceptable to the public during liberal times. 

Sensing the return of sunnier days, I believe it's time to review a few of my early photoshop manipulations that portray the human condition sans cloth. These manipulations are part of the Anima series

Waiting

Rabiana

Gesture 1

Amatao (I love)