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Photos 2005

Start the year off fresh

When I first saw one of these signs I thought they were advertising a company that did Thought Cleansing, whatever that was.

In any event, I think a brisk thought cleansing is a pretty good new years' wish for all of you. See you next year!

I must have travelling on my mind

I can't hear an airplane flying by without looking up to see where it is.

Frost

Last week Miz Becky and I took a walk in Carkeek Park to get some late afternoon pre-solstice sun and see the end of the salmon run. Part of the park is in a pretty deep ravine, and down at the bottom of the ravine the morning fog had been collecting and freezing on the picnic tables for the last few icy weeks.

The ice crystals were beautiful in the cold evening light.

White brick always looks good

Scowl

Again with the stalking around at night

Morning Aurora

Chair in a tree!

Seriously, what else could I have called this?

The year in review

For a depressingly complete review of this year's comedy of politics, I recommend Arianna Huffington's 2005: Things I Want To Forget.

A scary pig for the holidays

Because nothing celebrates the two traditions we follow in this household quite like a scary pig.

More lurking

Fortunately our neighborhood is well supplied with this vintage of American cars, so there are plenty of models to shoot. Still haven't had anyone chase me down the street yet, which is a good thing.

What's he building in there?

This one's a little more abstract

But I still think it fits.

Lurking

And here we go

A few days of sketches for this latest Film Noir project. Some work better than others, but they're all interesting to me for one reason or another.

Ooops.

Some photos are all about the dumb joke.

Turning

Rusty shows her distinguished profile

Afternoon light in the house

Plenty of leaves left in the fountain

The hidden story behind this photo is that I saw it from about 15 feet away, and as I was getting close enough to shoot it, I nearly slipped and killed myself on the scunge-covered concrete surface surrounding the fountain.

The lengths I go to bring you beautiful photos, I tell you.

The city abstracts itself in front of my eyes

Kind of a coy look

Night in the city

Still turning a few weeks ago

More from my imaginary film noir

I've started taking pictures on my walk home from the bus, which this time of year is of course in the dark. Hopefully I won't get picked up by the police, but if I do, at least I'll have a couple of pictures up here showing what I'm trying to do.

Film noir still

I can't shake the feeling it's reaching for me

Those clouds are pretty nice in black and white, too.

Nice tribute

Most of our local busses have this sticker on, you guessed it, the left hand seats in the front row. Nicely done, Metro. They also have a page on their Rosa Parks tribute.

It just keeps getting better

Miz Becky and I agree that perhaps next year we should carve pumpkins weeks before hallowe'en so they're at the right state of zombie decrepitude when trick-or-treaters come 'round.

Spectacular clouds at the end of November

And more edges

Edges

Have a seat

Brush painting

This doesn't really show well at this size online -- it looks fantastic at 12 x 18 inches -- but it gives me something to hang this thought on.

After I printed this photo, the afternoon of the day I shot it, I wrote this in the Photography conference on the WELL:

All right, I've had the 5d for a week, shooting a lot (the last shot of today was photo #458 with the camera) but I hadn't printed anything yet.

So I converted one of today's images to black and white, fussed with it a bit, and now it's slowly spooling out on the piezo printer at 12" x 18".

I'm a pretty good printer in the darkroom. My first photo teacher had been an assistant at the Ansel Adams workshops, and she was definitely all about the craft.

I've used a lot of great lenses and fine grained film, carefully shot (middle apertures for maximum sharpness) and developed (calibrated tmax 100 in some fine grained developers).

I say all of this to give some weight to this statement: I have *never* gotten prints like this from another 35mm form factor camera. Incredibly fine branches on this tree are crystal clear. The usual piezography quality of lots of detail in shadows and highlights are in full force here. Edges are crisp. The whole thing is grain free at 12 x 18.

And it was so easy to do. I shot this photo around 10:00 this morning. I downloaded it to the computer this afternoon. I printed a couple of proofs on smaller paper, had dinner, came back and looked at them. Then I kicked the final print off on nice German rag paper.

I'm not sure what all of this means. I doubt I'll use the 5d to shoot on the street (it's still too big for me to feel comfortable using it that way, and I still love the texture of tri-x for that work). But for anything else... I think I've crossed over completely, now.

The back stairs

Storage

Hey look, I found more sandstone

Despite yesterday's "real time" interlude, photographically, we're still on Lummi for a few more days.

What am I thankful for? Well, this morning's sunrise, for starters.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the USA, and happy late November to everyone else.

A bit of halo

Miz Becky, part-time angel.

Don't let her fool you

Sure, Anneke looks cute, but don't forget she's also a wee demon.

Morning light again

Passing through

Happy lichen

A bit of white

Drying out for the winter

In the greenhouse

They were still getting tomatoes out at the end of October. Yum.

The sky was on fire over the Cascades this morning

Yum, Tuscan black kale

At the previously mentioned Nettles Farm.

Well, good morning.

On Lummi Island we stayed at the Willows Inn, a fantastic bed and breakfast/delicious dinner sort of place -- they get most of their produce locally, either from their own small farm (photos coming) or from other local farmers.

And occasionally one of the neighbors wanders by to check things out.

Rusty and I hung out this afternoon

How about a bit more red?

Not sure what these are called

But I'm sure Miz Becky will be able to tell us.

A last holdout

To everyone's surprise, the weather seemed to cooperate, mostly. It poured at night, and some in the afternoons, but we got some good weather each day.

Breakfast

Weekend before last we took a long weekend and stayed on Whidbey and Lummi islands up in the San Juans, north of Seattle. Naturally I ended up with a few pictures to share. Eighteen or so, actually, which means I'll be spreading that weekend out over nearly three weeks of posts. Time, you know, eet eez a funny thing.

Urban mycology

Deep forest? No, this toadstool was outside of my office, next to the street. I liked this photo better in black and white but unfortunately you don't get the effect of the bright red cap.

Update: Predictably, popular demand kicked in. Apparently many of you want to see the original color image, too.

Get the chandelier!*

Early morning fog on the street

OK, I can see the files from here

Caution

The punch

This sequence requires a bit of explanation... JT (maybe? J something, anyway; Stacy probably remembers) was kidding me about always being around, taking pictures, and we started to evolve this Sean Penn story where he would kick my ass in front of the rest of the crew and develop a reputation for being a hardass. Of course, we needed some photographic evidence.

Direction

There's Stacy again, in the middle, giving some notes.

Waiting

If I remember correctly, this guy didn't actually make it into the film, but he was there at the rehearsal, looking pensive.

Early

My old friend Stacy, there on the left, recently pinged me out of the blue, which reminded me how nice it always is to hear from friends you haven't heard from in a while. And it also reminded me of the photos I shot on the set of her short film, back in 1998.

So, a short walk down memory lane for the next few days while I remember how much I liked these photos, and how much fun we had hanging out together in the midst of craziness both software and cinematic.

Someone's lurking mysteriously

OK, so it's actually the brown cat, not the black one, but what the hey. Happy Hallowe'en.

Home

La via

Light

Shadows 2

Shadows 1

My favorite shrub

This is my official favorite of the shrubs at the new house. In the spring, just after we moved in, it had a wonderful sweet-spicy smell that immediately made me homesick. And now, as you can see, it's putting on a pretty decent display of fall colors.

Opinions vary as to what it is. Azalea? Rhododendron? Something else entirely? Nobody's quite sure.

On a nerd note, this is from the shiny new Canon 5d. Check out the close-up for a sample of how many damn pixels this thing really has, and how crisp it is.

Same sunrise, even more outrageous colors

Not too far from reality, really. There I was, standing on the lanai in my pajamas, shooting frame after frame, until I started getting too damn cold to hold the camera straight.

Nice sunrise last week

Stray banana leaves from a couple of years ago