Daily Practice 134/365

Title: "to morrow rise thou hot, and early"

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Images like this are the legacy of reading about Ruth Bernhard and her work. A heightened sense of the qualities of light, along with stronger observation resulting from this daily practice, "made" me see the reflected dawn on the wall of the neighbour's house. These images are not necessarily outstanding or world class, but serve as tiny devotionals or momento mori, of lessons learned.

Daily Practice 133/365

Title: "The amorous evening starre is rose"

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Although my intention has been to work on the forest project, I seem to be drawn recently to these intimate studies of the garden. The close focus combined with shallow depth of field bring a spiritual quality to these images, each begging to tell its story.

Daily Practice 132/365

Title: "From Gerhard to Morris"

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The vertical stripes and blurring made me think of two of my favourite painters. Morris Louis created these wonderful large canvases with poured paint, often consisting of vertical stripes. The blurriness made me think of what direction Gerhard Richter might take a Morris Louis painting to.

Daily Practice 131/365

Title: "Anticipation"

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Isolation from the crowd, eagerly reaching out. Dark deep tones. Organic shapes. Lush.

Daily Practice 130/365

Title: "Her body reflected all the freshness and splendor of the world"

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I have a plan to spend a week making "portraits" of the local forests with my digital P&S. I want to make images that capture the tranquility of the settings, that speak to why I have been constantly drawn to walk in the woods since I was a boy. It is a comfortable place to be alone, to let the mind quiet and thoughts to pass without notice. To consider the world as an upside down reflection of itself, with a flattened perspective on the still surface of the water. I like images such as this one because even when there is a demarkation between the "real" and the "reflected", there is still a strong ambiguity to the image. The reflection is like a photograph, with its framing constraints that fail to contain the entire height of the trees. A picture of a picture of a tranquil moment.

Daily Practice 129/365

Title: "Who is this approaching, up from the wilderness?"

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The affinity of poetry and photography fascinates me. Poets use words in combinations that amaze, delight and bring unexpected understanding to us. Photographers strive to make images that convey meanings beyond what is simply visible. This image was made just yards (meters) away from an extremely busy road that passes through the rain forest. Yet the power of the forest brings a tranquility that mutes the everyday world. I love the lush greens, the way the stream appears out of no where and carries on beyond the lower left corner of the image. This element in the composition is important for giving a sense of the magnitude of scale in this forest, that it envelopes one, is a place where one is easily lost in the best possible way.

Today when I went out, I debated taking a film camera but decided just to carry the little point and shoot digital. Looking at this image makes me want to do a series with this camera, as a counterpoint to a series I shot on film over the past couple of years. Those images also lent themselves nicely to pairing with lines from a poem, and can be seen here

Daily Practice 128/365

Title: "Still beating heart"

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Like Jennifer Bartlett, I went looking in the garden for an image, this time hoping to move further into abstraction. Selective focus brought two disparate elements together in the composition, the black and white abstracting the subject beyond specific recognition. I like the spatial relationship between the two areas in focus - as if they are exchanging polite small talk at a party. I also like the smoky black veins, as if one of the two is blushing as the conversation takes an unexpected turn.