White Foxglove

Foxglove white, 

Fresh as a maid in linen shift

Gathering strawberries.

None have made it home, it seems. 

Too sweet, too fragile, 

Only tender lips could care for them properly. 

Click to enlarge and enjoy the painterly texture.

Revealing Delicate Texture

Early spring woodlands present a texturized background of neutrals against which the early blooms of spring are showcased. I often find that this and other delicate texturing does not show well in photos. All the little edges get lost. To regain that element I use the Poster Edges filter in Photoshop.  This filter does two things: it bumps high-lights and low-lights a tad higher and lower respectively, and it finds all the edges, picking them out with a thin black line. Since I am mostly looking for painting references, I rather like the element of 'sketchiness' that is added. All of today's photos have been treated with the Poster Edges filter.

In the Georgia Watercolor show I visited a few weeks ago, one artists had made a painting of flowers in foliage, and we noticed there were rather large black outlines around all the leaves and flower shapes. I knew right away what the artist was doing, although I thought it was too heavy handed for close-up viewing. They were deepening all the edges so the painting would 'read' at a distance (across a large room). It worked too. From the doorway the shapes within the image were quite clear and the trick to make them so was not visible.

I rarely 'work' in black and white, but the exquisite textures in this shot were better enjoyed without color. Ripples on the right fractured the tree reflection into shingled rows.

Forsythia and the green snowballs of Viburnum against a wood line.

A lace-leaf Japanese Maple in freshly unfolded foliage beside a quiet woodland pond.

Blue phlox at pond's edge in the Japanese Garden. It's the poster filter that makes every blade of grass and Iris leaf visible.

Beautiful Bridges in Early Spring

Today's post is two bridges from Gibbs Gardens. As with the earlier landscape shots, you might think the park as empty, but it was actually quite busy. I just waited until the shot was clear. People were very courteous, pausing on the path if they thought they would walk into the shot. I love photo shoots. I slip into my own world and change the way I look at the world. I scan for value changes, special lighting, amazing color, interesting textures or edges.

In Monet's bridge, I loved the arching line and refreshing shade of aqua green in counterpoint with the emerald lawns and ruby maples that were just coming into leaf. By summer, the canopies of other trees will crowd it. Today it was simplicity.

In the woodland bridge, I loved the strong geometry of it settled at the feet of towering trees. The forest was still a muted netting of grays, pinks, and palest greens, allowing the fresh morning sunshine to warm the tiger's eye gem of bridge and pond.

Early Spring at Gibbs Gardens

I love the twiggy structure of tree and shrub. Early spring fills the canopies with hazy color, and that marvelous twiggy lace sparkles in the sunshine. This phase doesn't last long, and here I was with a balmy, sunny Saturday at just the right time: off to Gibbs Gardens for a photo shoot.

Though I often claim I am not a landscape photographer, the long scenes were irresistible this time.

Gibbs features a Daffodil festival, and this year (besides the millions that clothe hill tops and dales) they grew single cultivars in labeled buckets lining one of the walkways. It felt like browsing a flower market. Everyone with a cell phone was taking photos of their favorite flowers.

PS: these were all taken with the 100mm Macro lens, as I am too lazy to dig around switching lenses every few feet!

A Visit to Owen and Jane Jones

Today I joined Mary for a day of Plein Air painting (which we never got around to doing) at the property of one of our local art association members, Owen Jones. What a LOVELY visit. Besides touring the rambling home and property that clearly belonged to artists, Owen did show us his photography: black and white landscapes and portraits of indigenous people from around the world. His current photographic project, (a marriage of words and photos in a series of hand-made books) has been accepted into the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.  I was blown away.  

Owen has promised a few more outings this spring as the gardens unfold into summer.

I did manage to find time to get some flower photos. The best of the lot today was the Georgia native, Blood Root (Sanguinaria canadensis). Owen's wife, Jane, is a native plants enthusiast, so lots of wonderful discoveries to be made this spring, I hope.

Gold Leaf Among Jewels

I hunt reflections. Any painter will tell you that the colors in a reflection are richer and darker than they are in the landscape.  Last fall the lily ponds at Gibbs Gardens were surrounded by canopies of fall foliage and by reflection hunters. Photographers milled about, dreamily scanning the scenery, carefully placing a tripod, allowing each other the distance and quiet one would afford a pro golfer on the green.  We were all working off the same few ponds...but were we all looking for the same images? I wonder. It was a great day for reflection shots.

These two are from the same tourmaline-colored pond, shot almost one after the other. I have not done anything special to these colors...as you can see from the overexposed leaf tops on the floating mass. It looks like flakes of gold leaf floating up from the depths. I trust I'll learn a Photoshop chop or two one of these days that will allow me to tone down that glare.

A New Years Blessing for 2013

As 2012 moves into its final hours under dreary skies and cold winds, this lovely Japanese Maple from Gibbs Gardens warms the heart. I cannot help but think of carrot cake, pumpkin custard, or apple pie with this image.

If these are flavors that you love, take them not for granted. You may be among the last of a generation to  hold dear flavors and textures that require love to bring them together. Today there are too many 'communications' battling for attention. So many (I nearly said 'most' but have no stats to back that up--just observation) people own several 'smart' devices and are addicted to each. Mass production and distribution has made all food (or items purporting to be food) fast so that we need not trouble ourselves with the preparation of fresh food.

So today I am thankful beyond measure for an amazing bounty of flavors from which to entertain my tongue, and for fresh foods to nourish the body and to challenge my creativity. I am thankful as well for Friends who have thoughtful, interesting minds made rich by reading, thinking, and by the great fortune of growing up in an era when the mind was still too beautiful to waste.

In the spirit of “Auld Lang Syne” (for the sake of the old days) 

may you accomplish portions of your bucket list, 

release yourself from fearful personal fictions, 

share with those who can appreciate, 

and enjoy all that really matters in 2013 and beyond. 

Of Honey and Truffles

Far below the flaming canopies of Autumn,
The humble plants of  shaded glen ferment
into the honey and truffles
of ripened wine.

Ferns stand gilded with spore. 

Slender stems blush from exposure
To the frosty eye of night.

Mop-head hydrangeas,
Their blooms toasted like campfire marshmallows, 

Sag under the weight of summer blue.

Violet stains their leaf and bloom, 

Overly spiced were it not for the sweet caramel of age.

Lace-caps have cast off 

all but the last essential rose-stained petals--

Heads held high and elegantly balanced--

Ballerinas in their last arabesque.

Canon EOSRebel 3Ti, 100 MM Macro Lens, 2012

Clematis on a Frosty Morning

Clematis virginiana is a native plant for North Carolina. In October I found it clambering along the fences in the rural area of Wayah Creek in the western area of the state. By October it has gone to seed in frothy, tangled orbs of thread.

Out in the crisp, bright air of morning I was rambling up and down the road near the cabin. A particularly pretty lichen-encrusted fence post was home to this clematis in it's wine and green foliage. The sun, already high in the sky, was barely peeping over the neighboring mountain, casting the woods along the sliver of pasture into a frosty glare. Everything glittered. Staring into the pasture I could pick out the oranges of dried grasses and fall trees.

Much later I realized there was a soda can in the grass, but despite being litter, I kind of like it there. It helps to harmonize the fractured oranges of the distant haze...and it serves as a small comment on life in America: soda cans tossed in the ditch, people focused on getting somewhere fast, revving on sugar and indifferent to the rich tapestry flying past the window. I guess that's why I love being out and about with the camera. It makes me slow down. I encounter and appreciate so much more of the landscape and of this marvelous Earth when I am out hunting for beauty.

The original of this image is very soft on the focus due to low-light lens limitations and my own lack of awareness at the time. Since I am always shooting for painting references, the use of post processing filters doesn't bother me. It actually helps me see the image in a more painterly way. It is remarkable how differently an image 'feels' inside my head when it breaks away from relentless realism of journalistic photography.

Nikon CoolPix 5700

Ferns: Reflections on Maurice Ravel's 'Gaspard de la Nuit'

Frosted Ferns

We gather at the edge of night

 And don our best -- 

Gossamer skins in wine and spice. 

They reveal a bit too much of our elfin curves, 

 But we cannot care. 

 Frost has stolen our summer will. 

The Keeper comes 

 Commanding us to follow. 

Languidly, 

 Deliciously, 

 We spill into sleep, 

 Beautiful 

 Sleep. 

Gaspard de la Nuit is also the title of a composition for piano by Maurice Ravel. The title translates as 'Treasurer of the Night'. While the piano work was inspired by three poems by French poet Aloysius Bertrand, my thoughts above were inspired by this photo of pond-side ferns and the memory of Ravel's hauntingly beautiful music. It conjures moonlight, glassy water rippling at the slightest breeze, stolen moments, mystery, delicacy, the intoxicating aroma of night Jasmine.

I first heard this piece performed by solo pianist Steven Hall way back in 1978. Many were the evenings I spent curled into a late night ball in the center of the unlit concert hall. On stage, a spotlight, a black piano, a madman pouring his focus through the instrument, chasing poetry through the strings, wringing every sweetness, every breathless note from the stream of eloquence.

If you would like to listen to the composition, here is a You Tube performance of the piece by Argentine pianist, Martha Argerich. Born in 1941, she continues to book performances with today's maestros.
20 minutes in three movements.



Canon EOS Rebel 3Ti, 100 MM macro lens, 2012