Dude, There's A Bird On Your Head

 

"He never forgot anything, 

but he never bothered to arrange his memories."

 

~John Steinbeck

Cannery Row

 

Yep, that's John Steinbeck with a seagull on his head. The statue is in Monterey, California, in the Cannery Row district of the town. I photographed this duo, October 17th, 2018, but this is the first time posting it on my blog... I think. I may have posted it previously, but not in this context. The context I am referring to here, is working with one photograph, different styles, such as black and white, color and sepia. In this case I liked the black and white style a lot more than the others. Steinbeck looks more realistic, just weathered. Like an old man sitting very still with a bird on his head, but the color version gives all of the photograph's secrets away. The sepia was nice, but made the picture feel depressing somehow, rather than quirky. I think I have would rather not dwell too much in sad images. I am still learning to not be stressed out constantly and it's getting better, so why mess with things? Right? The last couple weeks have felt like they were a couple weeks, with is a strange feeling in and of itself. It's almost as if time is righting itself.

 

 

~Carly

Working With Light

"There are darknesses in life and there are lights, 

and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights."

~Bram Stoker

Dracula

I was in a restaurant the other day and saw this pretty light. It was in the middle of the day, but the light photographed as if I had taken it in a completely dark room. I loved it. I need to experiment more with lighting I think. Anyway, the lighting situation reminds me of our current political climate. There is a light. But then everything around it seems to swallow it up and thrust it into darkness.

 A 24 hour news cycle doesn't always jive with the position of the sun... does it? It can be a hot, clear, August day, and yet when I hear about North Korea successfully launching a missile or Donald Trump's latest hateful musing, I suddenly feel a winter chill down my spine! What season will we be in, when we find ourselves on the last day of the world?

 I think about the surreal beauty of the morning of September 11th, 2001, with it's clear blue sky, and mild temperatures. It was a day that you muse to yourself that nothing bad could possibly happen. Then it did. Except it seems like we have forgotten about that day. We have gotten used to pain or maybe we have gotten good at ignoring how it felt to be an American that day. I don't know which. Truth is, it's probably different for everyone.

But...

Did the darkness swallow the light?

Did the light lie to us, when it swallowed the darkness?

Where it begins and where it ends is a mystery.

Maybe we are better off not knowing much about tomorrow. Maybe some days are like the light in the picture. There is a little light, in the middle of some darkness, but the light is shining anyway. It isn't giving up because there is darkness surrounding it. If I chose to not see the light, that's on me. I can't fault the light.

The light will shine, with, or without me.

Mood: Introspective

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 169~ Natural Black And White + Shades Of Gray

"The choice in politics isn't usually between black and white. It's between two horrible shades of gray."

~Lord Thorneycroft

Yesterday I posted my series of color photographs from my annual autumn jaunt to Pacific Grove, and today I am sharing my favorite ones from the total work. The Black & White set. I enjoy looking for lighting opportunities that allow for monochromatic or nearly monochromatic capture. B/W is my favorite, but I love natural scenes that depict a range of a single color. It's not always easy to find what I am looking for, but when the weather forecast mentioned partly cloudy conditions, I tried to get to Pacific Grove before the low fog burned off completely. It was all in the timing, and cooperation from the butterflies of course. They were kind to me yesterday! I love the silhouette of the butterflies, and the leaves. Do I see a butterfly? Or is that a hummingbird? There are some interesting shapes in Black and White.



Shades of gray wherever I go
The more I find out the less I know
Black and White is how it should be
But shades of gray are the colors I see.

~Billy Joel

 

Shades and Silhouettes capture my imagination, unless I am seeing shadiness or mere silhouettes in politics. It's not a new thing you say? Well, you are right it isn't. But I know that in my lifetime it has never been as bad as it is right now. As I type this, a major storm is baring down on the Eastern seaboard. There are folks I love and care about in it's path. Friends who blog along side me and folks I blogged with in the old AOL Journal days. It's weighing heavy on me. The weather folks are predicting unprecedented occurrences, and they are dubbing the storm... "Frankenstorm." Are the experts calling it that to ease nerves, or is that exactly what it is? But putting the frivolous question of true characterization aside, lets ask the most pertinent question...

Why wasn't the subject of Global Warming, or Climate Change for the faint of heart, mentioned during the 3 presidential and 1 vice presidential debate? It's unconscionable!

We are on our own.

Good Luck.

~Me

Note: I am off on a LONG photo jaunt today. I will be getting home very late, so I post tomorrow's entry later than usual, but stay tuned, I will be there.

Today's Link...

JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/10/apadf6-168.html