Whoa! Clouds!

Clouds like this are still a rarity around here.  I see a rider on a serpent riding toward the sun. What do you see?

In bocca al lupo. m (no v)

A Peck of Peppers

Had to pick the peck of peppers.  I love my  garden!

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

New Skills

Christmas baking is underway and this house smells like gingerbread.  This is my first foray into rolled and cut cookies as well as (gulp) attempting to decorate them.  Practice with Royal icing is about to commence.  Thankfully these cookies are destined to be ornaments and not edibles.

It's always good to learn new skills.

Speaking of new skills, my two portfolios; Abitazione and Farms and Barns are going on sale this weekend at the Carmel Visual Arts Center in, well, Carmel.  These portfolios are sets of small to tiny photos contained in the above boxes.  It doesn't matter if they sell or not, I'm enjoying working on expanding the portfolios.  I've fallen intrigued with the small photo collection in a box format and will continue with these cherish-able photo findings.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Pansies

Deadheading pansies this chilly morning.  Pansies stay bright through the cold months as long as they get a regular deadheading to prevent them going to seed.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

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Morning Moonlight

Moonlight through the clouds this morning.  Another morning light.

My cat awoke me this morning and instead of going back to sleep like I wanted to, I found myself digging the tripod out of the trunk of my car and setting up outside the kitchen door taking shots of this light.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

More Morning Sun

Another morning sun catcher.

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Morning Light

It's always just about the light.  Morning in the kitchen, November light.

Mini Portfolios on sale in December in Carmel, Ca.

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Another Page

Another page...

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Portfolio Making

I have been attending a series of art photography workshops for the past several months. It's called FotoSaga and was started by the photographer Carol Henry.  We will be putting on an exhibition in Carmel in early December.  We are putting together portfolios of miniature photographs held in small boxes.  Above is a sampling of my portfolio entitled Abatizione (Home). It's in Italian to honor v.

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No Crystal Ball Available

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings and The Gathering Storm...Prophetic?  Ah, Life...

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It's a Cat Kind of Week

On the potting bench.

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Rest and Relaxation

This is how it's done. Relax on the softest, coziest pillows you can find.  Fortuna lives up to her name. Bella Fortuna!  She is not a chess player, btw.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Garden Chess

Playing chess in the garden on an Autumn afternoon...your move

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Red Sky

An incredible sunset during that beach shoot we did a couple of weeks ago.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

This morning

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Taking Wing...

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Atmosphere

A week ago the photography group I'm with headed out at sunset with the intention of shooting for "atmosphere". That's what these past few posts have been showing, my results.  We chose a place where the river meets the sea.  This one is "The Shallow End".  The next one is
Bordo di un Sogno.

The surface of the water as an abstract composition.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Sunset Walking

A man and his dog walking along at sunset.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

A River View

The reeds along the Carmel River

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Peaceful

A Willet at sunset.

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The Sky is Falling...

Do we heed the warnings?

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Beginning a new portfolio...

Beginning work on a new portfolio entitled "Home and Garden".  Mini photos to be presented in a small box.

And it is the "preserving season" around here.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

End of Summer

Labor Day Weekend.  End of Summer...

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Tabby Cat

My best buddy...

Groundless Roots: a melting pot story

I've joined a women's photography group.  The focus is on using photography as an art form. Our first assignment was "Origin".  I thought I'd go with the melting pot theme. Groundless Roots refers to our all having roots, or ancestors, but in a melting pot society many of our cultural roots have washed away. We have no passed down traditions. Sometimes, without them we can feel lost or disconnected.  I had a friend who was Chinese.  One evening she decided to prepare chicken for dinner.  We were young, both just having our first place of our own. She pulled out a neat, compact looking little cleaver and with just a few practiced chops she had that chicken in five pieces.  She ruefully said, "All the women in my family cut up a chicken the same way.  Even the cleaver is Chinese".  It was the first time that I realized my family had no traditions. No one taught anyone else how to do something "the way we've always done it".  It was my first feeling of having no roots, no cultural identity.

My friend felt tradition was a trap, it was stuffy, it somehow lessened her feeling of independence.  I think it is like knowing the rules so you know how to break them.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

A Break

Taking a break.

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Boxes

Continuing with the framed and captioned theme.  I've been looking at these boxes out in the field for a week now and have wanted to get a picture.  I used the photo merge in Photoshop to get the full panorama.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

An Experiment in Presentation

Another slightly different veiw of an earlier photo from this month. I attended a talk by Ted Oland the other evening and he was showing some of the various styles he's used for his work. I was struck by some of his images presented in a take on the 19th century engravings, so I thought I'd see how some of my work fares with this style. I like it.

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Revisiting Film

About a year ago I decided to try film photography and fell in love with it.  I especially enjoy working in the darkroom, which I do not have one of my own.  When my friends heard how much I was enjoying it they started sending me their old 35mm cameras.  The reason was always "you can't get film anymore, so if you like it you can have it".  I don't know what they think I use... So, these images I'm posting today are from a 45 year old Canon that had not been used and was kept, maybe, in a closet.  It has some issues. The seals are dried and the mirror appears to stick causing a reflection in some of the images, however I find some of the funkiness is interesting.  Out of 36 exposures I salvaged 4.  Not bad.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Lavendar Harvest

...with scissor and bee.

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By the Sea

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)