Photography – Page 17 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

The Peace of Flowers

The world is a busy place, sucking you dry. Newspapers are filled with news, from bombing Syria and worries about being bombed in return, to disgust that Congress has allowed the killing of hibernating bears and wolf cubs in their dens. It makes me wonder what the world is coming to . . . and what people think. Yes, I live in an isolated part of the world, one which is relatively safe, but it doesn’t keep me isolated unless I turn off the news. This is where the walk in the woods, in the fields, and exploring the natural world outside the artifice of man beckons. As California is now in the midst of a bloom unseen in years, I am out there nearly every day, taking in the blooms, the colors of the hillsides, and listening to the birdsong and buzz of bees. It brings a peace.

Pale

Clover? Buckwheat?

Curly

Heart

Rose-Tipped

Weed

Allium

As someone who is getting older, I frequently think of death. People – friends, colleagues, family – have died in the recent years. All my earliest childhood friends are gone. Death is something to be considered in this day and age of every baby must be born, regardless, and everyone must be put on life support, regardless. There is something disrespectful about the quality of life all this means. Keeping people alive by artificial means reaches a point, an ethical point, where it is ridiculous. Killing wolf cubs and hibernating bears for sport is equally unethical. Our destruction of the natural world boggles the mind, and the immediacy of pleasure or self-righteousness fails to address a longer viewpoint: what are we leaving behind? Plundered resources, extinct animals, and warehouses of people on life support. Equally, we kill others with impunity. In 40 to 50 years, the earth’s population will double, and we will be in even more dire straits than we are in now. Even within our own lifetimes we see the destruction, but deny it.

And so, flowers. One part of the natural world, fragrant, beautiful, evanescent. If they disappear? What next?

Friday Morning

Spring Break ends today. I go back to work tomorrow. Friday, a friend came over around sunrise, and we headed out to the local open space, Wildwood, which encircles the city where I live. It’s a wonderful place, especially in spring when the flowers bloom. As I have said before, California has had a drought for the past 6 years, but this year our rainy season was phenomenal (by desert standards). The result is that things are green and growing, instead of the dreary brown, brown, brown. The fields and hills are covered with a lot of wildflowers, in yellow and purples primarily, with so many different ones it is hard to remember all their names. Some, though, include wild morning glory, mountain sunflower, allium, fiddleneck, red stem filaree, lupine, lacey phacelia, and blue dicks.

First Day of Spring Break

Well, probably officially the second day of Spring Break! I spent Friday doing all the things I usually do on Friday mornings – cleaning, organizing, grocery shopping, and so on.

Today, I got up early, determined to finish up a couple of rolls of film. When I ran out of film, I was sort of cursing the fact I hadn’t another roll with me, or a decent digital camera. All I had was my phone, but it did an okay job. In general, I don’t really like the pictures from cell phones – mine is a Galaxy S5 – but you can get a decent shot or two. I think they tend to overdo the sharpening or whatever they do.

I headed out around 7:00 to a local open space, Wildwood. I took the Moonrise Trail, but veered to the right rather than the left as the path was crazy muddy. It was definitely a delight! Sunflowers, lupine, morning glory, mustard, allium, and others I recognize but don’t know the names. In particular, the image “Tiny Pink Flowers” was a bit of a favorite – these flowers are about 1/4 inch across – less than .5 cm, I am sure.

Mucking in the Muck

Here in the U.S., “mucking” means “to play about in something” and “muck” mostly means “mud.” I think it may mean other things in other parts of the world, such as all the debris in a barn. So, here I am referring to mud, glorious mud!

We have been in the midst of a 6-year drought in California; this year, with heavy precipitation, the snowpack in the northern mountains is more than it has been in 22 years, but with warmer weather, the snow may melt. Then what? We do not have good water storage in much of the state, as in cities like Los Angeles, the water is drained to the sea. Where I live, we don’t get snow (but can admire it on the distant mountains). We get rain (when we get it). It has been a regular rain for the season for the past two months, and this week promises another two or three storms.

Thus, our skies are dark and grey, and the roads are a mess. So are the trails everywhere. You can see footprints and paw prints and bike tracks. It’s not a good time to go along cliffs as the potential of a landslide is pretty serious. The ground becomes saturated and slips. Houses along the ocean cliffs have been known to tumble. Sadly, people are also killed because of the slippage, or seriously injured. Just a few weeks ago, a colleague slipped and fell, and though I do not know the details, I wonder if this is what happened. I’ve lost a couple of other friends the same way, on local trails. Another friend fell and was seriously injured, but has made a good recovery considering all the metal in his back.

But the lure of the outdoors is there – the smell in the air of new growth, the light, the rush of water in usually dry creeks, the songs of birds and croaking of ravens and the screeches of the hawks. It is all there to be savored and enjoyed, quietly, listening.

I took my old beat up Nikon FM2N with me, and a roll of Provia 100, and a 28mm lens from 1970 or so. It does close ups, too. I am looking forward to seeing what comes from the roll, as it was dreary outside, and the light in the late afternoon was not good. I also brought my phone with me, partly for a potential emergency – hiking alone – but also to capture an image or two that might be worthwhile. So, above, is a picture taken last night before I turned to go home. The rains bring new growth, the first of which is this lovely white-flowered wild cucumber.

New Year, New Focus

I’ve done watercolor off and on since I was a teenager, back before the dinosaurs disappeared, but I have never made it a resolution to spend time – a lot of time – mastering it. Rather, the approach I have had has been sporadic and amateurish. Now, I want to be the “serious student” I never was . . . and while I think I am off to a good start, the real question which lies ahead is how well will I integrate painting into my work life? I’ve managed to integrate both sumi-e and photography into my life, but I began both of those long before I ended up working 10-hour days.

There are a lot of good books about “how to” watercolor, and I have looked through and purchased a number of them. As well, there are a number of good YouTube channels with talented artists, with whom you get to cruise along with as they produce a painting. For me, this visual is what gets me all the time. While books show you step-by-step photos, some in color, some in black and white, there is absolutely nothing like the video of beginning-to-end, with commentary as the painting develops.

I still plan on pursuing photography – in fact, I have a 365 project planned, with different subjects on a monthly basis. While I am shifting my focus away from photography as my primary creative outlet, I really want to master watercolor and drawing, and to do so, I need to spend more time doing it rather than thinking about doing it.

So, Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you have new intentions to keep you happy and creative in your life!