The Daily Photograph™

Spring is a real hard time to make photographs

The Sun angle is wrong, the trees have no leaves, the hills are still brown. But, with a couple of plastic ice-tea tumblers and a crystal tea-light holder, you can make a little magic.

For those wondering: 50mm, f5.6 1/500 in the afternoon sun. And that’s more crinkled paper under it all.

It’s a pile on the floor

I was nearly at a loss for today’s photograph, until I recalled what an old friend once told me. He said, “When I don’t know what to draw, I wad up some paper and draw that. After awhile something comes to mind. It’s bound to.”

So, I made a photograph of wadded paper. We’ll see what comes of it.

I have long held that Hal Blaine is God Of Drums.
Blue Bear challenges that.

Sometimes cottonwoods need to be coaxed into Spring.

Spring seems to be a bit slow this year, but the trees are trying hard.

I’m not sure this is a cliche

But it ought to be. Bare branches (with or without the snow) against a clear sky are to me some of the most natural sights to be found. Our ancestors grew to humanhood in the forest and the forest remains, in our deepest brain, the arch-type of both the best and the worst of places to be. It’s comforting under an overspread tree, it’s frightening amidst choking dense trunks at twilight.

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I’ve slacked off posting new sketches here, as I learn more about how WordPress works, and I work to fill Christmas orders. I will do better. Also, I have a bit of a voice problem today, and so will forgo the usual audio presentation, for now.
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These are the homely tools

For bringing more than mere sustenance. In truth, we don’t really need to cook our food, for the most part. Okay, dried beans and rice need the touch of boiling water, but we don’t need Chili Verde con Carne y Frijoles, do we? Nor do we need Ginger Fried Rice. We need calories and proteins and certain minerals. Anything we do, beyond filling the need, to dress it up, is mere art, decoration, recreation. There is a school of thought that says the culinary is the original art, the first attempt at rising above the mundane, to achieve a place among the Gods.

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Be that as it may, cooking utensils present a challenge to the photographer in that they are often metallic, shiny, and have narrow lines. The whisk and the strainer were placed here specifically to test my ability to keep the foreground at the front. I think I did pretty well, but I see that I would have done better to have wiped off the toaster.

When is black and white better than color?

A: When the color gets in the way.

This photograph has spectacular color, straight out of the camera with no darkroom magic applied, but the gesture of the sky was obscured, the rush and scurry of the clouds was lost, amidst all the flash and spectacle. With color, this is just another sunset. It’s better this way.

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BW, as it’s called in short-hand-speak, is a difficult discipline. To be consistently successful, one must learn to see not only with the color sense shut off, but must understand the various colored filters and how they effect the light as it connects with the film. The scene must be embraced for it’s tone and not for it’s hue. My friend, Anna Lee Keefer, is a black&white photographer of sensibility and subtly, who creates with great intent. You can see some of her stuff, in collaboration with Ian Talbot, here.

The Entry Bowl is very precious

To Blue Bear. When it’s not holding the entries to the Thanksgiving Prize Drawing, it’s his to drink from what and when he will. Meantime, the deadline to enter the drawing is getting ever closer. Midnight, MST, Friday. As they say, if you don’t enter, you can’t win.

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I’ll announce the winner on Monday (probably just before Monday Night Football) and I’ll notify the winner directly by e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter Direct Message, as appropriate. The winner has to get back to me within 24 hours of notification, or the prize will go to the next in line.

We hit 10 below last night

Here in Casper. And we’ve spent the day huddled indoors, gathered by the trusty stove.

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There is still time to enter to win the Thanksgiving Prize. Just leave a comment here, or retweet (you can use the button above) with my @WalterHawn handle & the URL for any page on the site. Entries close at Midnight, MST, Friday.