{ 0 comments }
Posts tagged as:
black and white
” Ya, we homesteaded for ten years..”, the man on the scaffolding told me as he nailed the quarried slate shingles to the side of his house. The statement didn’t surprise me one bit, given how the property itself stood out from its neighbors: no finely manicured lawn here, but a magical profusion of perennials, shrubs and berry bushes (red raspberry, black and red currant) where it used to be, and the whole place such a wonderful work in progress.
What did surprise me were the black currant bushes – laden with berries – the first I’d ever seen in New England. They had been banned for nearly a century in the US, a suspected vector for a fungus that significantly impacted the commercial viability of the Eastern White Pine. That ban was lifted in NY state in 2003, and Vermont also has no restrictions on their cultivation. I’ve been a believer in organic black currants for some time now, for the myriad of health benefits, especially for eyes.
A note on the processing: the photo was taken under a bright midday sun, not the best of circumstances for the nuances of color or light. It seemed to work best in post-processing as an INFRARED or this one, OLD POLAR.
{ 0 comments }
Mike was one of my oldest and dearest friends, going back to undergraduate days at the University of Vermont. He passed away December 10, 2017, some thirty years after a diving accident left him a quadriplegic. But he hardly missed a beat, and continued to live a rich and full life in the midst of a wonderful community of friends and family, all the while writing and playing music and teaching at East Carolina University. You can hear him talk about his life in an interview from 2010 with Mark Helpsmeet of Northern Spirit Radio here.
A song we wrote, Lonely Surfer Boy from Vermont – recorded by the Ultra Brothers here, (turn it up! and try it in mono) – had some legs but, uh, never cracked the Billboard charts.
I hope you’re enjoying the Celestial Music, my friend. We miss you here.
{ 0 comments }
There’s almost too much going on in this photo; with the bright afternoon sunlight careening around all the architectural details, everything seems to be vying for attention.
I prefer softer light for these type of shots – perhaps a high overcast day as on the previous post – but nothing remotely close to that was going to happen here until the sun came off the building, probably a couple hours out. And I was in transit.
Such are the realities of serendipitous shooting. But this one is growing on me.
{ 0 comments }
One last image here for 2016 – one that’s been percolating for the past few days. Not so much a summation of the past year, but more about the way forward into the next.
It surprised me that after looking at all the images that I gravitated to this one: fiery, passionate, fierce, and decidedly not from the flowery old school. But then again, waging peace calls for every bit of talent, skill and discipline we can muster – separately as individuals and together as communities – day in and day out.
I want to thank Andrea and her family, who, like lighthouse keepers of yore, keep this flame burning bright, right there on a main road in Old Lyme. And a special thanks for lighting it up a little early for me tonight.
Happy New Year to all, and may 2017 bring you some pleasant surprises!!
{ 0 comments }
