After the Snow Geese stippled our little Honda with their version of a Pollack drip painting, I waited a while before heading to the car wash, thinking it would be a waste of resources when the rain would just wipe the body clean within a day or two. But, faithful to Northwestern climate patterns, the…
The Red-Winged Way
The Red-Wing Blackbird The wild red-wing black- bird croaks frog- like though more shrill as the beads of his head blaze over the swamp and the odors of the swamp vodka to his nostrils ~ William Carlos Williams I notice spring birds before spring buds … and just the other day, the Red-winged Blackbirds were…
She’s a Hum Dum Dinger Pigeon
A little Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) courtship play … photographed on the Seattle waterfront, in the magic hour of a winter evening. Music by Jimmie Davis – in the public domain Photographed with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 + Lumix 100-300mm (micro four thirds) • Edited in iMovie
Post Processing, Realism + Conceptualism: A Postscript
Long-billed Curlew photographed at sunset, on the dunes at Morro Strand State Beach in California. These thoughts are an extension of the discussion that began under my piece on post-processing. Thanks to my blogging friends who shared their methodologies and perspectives, initiating some thought-provoking explorations of realism in photography. I heard a lecture recently where…
How Much Post-Processing Do You Do?
A friend linked to this story in her Facebook feed today: Why do Photo Contest Winners Look Like Movie Posters? Post-processing is obviously not a new topic … and it’s one that’s been evolving alongside digital photography and darkroom skills. This particular piece questions the lighting on the winning image in the World Press contest,…
Countdown to Liftoff
This photo series shows the calm before the Snow Goose storm … and the ripple effect that sends thousands of geese into the air within seconds, at just the slightest provocation. They may call out, sending audio waves through the flock before erupting into goose mayhem. Or, they may fall unexpectedly silent for a split…
Studies in Ghost Geese
The first time I witnessed a blast of Snow Geese I described it this way: The sound of flocking snow geese is sometimes described as a “cacophony,” a “symphony,” a “storm” — a “baying of hounds,” a “noise blizzard.” The sound, in fact, varies. There’s a comfortable warbling of goose grumbles and calls as the…
Rafts of Dreaming Birds
I stepped out of a mist and I knew I am. I am what I am. And then I thought, ‘But what have I been before?’ And then I found that I had been in a mist, not knowing to differentiate myself from things; I was just one thing among many things.” ~ Carl Jung,…
Fellow Prisoners of Splendor
“In a world older and more complete than ours, [animals] move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time,…
Mondo Maple
For perspective, Hugh’s shoe in this photo is about 12 inches. I photographed the fallen leaf in our local green space, Discovery Park. It wasn’t until I started looking at world-record maple leaves that I realize this particular one — although not a record setter — is in the ballpark (or tree park) of some…
