Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘ricky tims photography’

Aug 19

Understated

Sylvia Weir UnderstatedI’ve missed several photo challenges over the past few weeks–chalk it up to lots of time spent in the dentist’s chair and quite a bit of money. I did manage to get this photo done and uploaded.

I found this bird’s egg in the backyard driveway. This driveway is covered by a canopy of crepe myrtle trees that are over 100 years old. They drip flowers constantly for several months as well as their leaves. During a rain storm–of which we have many, the trunks expand and the bark peels off in huge strips.

Squirrels and pigeons and sometimes an owl and four nesting pairs of cardinals inhabit those trees. Sometimes I see a blue jay as well–and there are some tiny wrens in the front yard. My dogs can spot these creatures even though they are sitting quite still–and jumping up and barking attempt to chase them out of the yard.

Was this egg a hatchling? I could not see a nest overhead but then the canopy is thick creating shade in my backyard. Was it dropped by a squirrel as it enjoyed an after dinner snack?

I’ll never know–but I took the photo poised on a silver plated spoon in my breakfast room.

May 8

Wabi Sabi

I’ve missed several photo assignments–good ideas for an image were hiding somewhere–probably next to my two thimbles.

Wabi Sabi is finding beauty in something broken or in poor repair or otherwise useless. Calder Avenue has a mix of vintage and modern buildings–the peeling paint on this warehouse turned dry cleaner establishment seemed perfect.

Sylvia Weir Wabi Sabi

sylvia20weir20wabi20sabi201-m

Will you see this in a future art project? Probably not–but maybe I’ll use the colors and the proportions as inspiration.

 

Dec 21

Carpe Diem

i-xmzjfvx-m

Although I had two years of Latin in high school—a very useful thing in terms of words and learning other languages, this phrase was always a mystery to me.

Carp are a fish local to Wisconsin known for in-edibility with numerous extensive recipes with many ingredients–cooking it on a board with spices and sundries–and then tossing the fish in the dumpster and eating the board instead.

I wondered about why I should be reminded to eat a fish daily particularly if it was a carp.

In medical school, I learned that the carpal bones were part of the hand–and I learned some not to be repeated limericks to remember their order…some of those limericks were more salacious than others and I have relegated them to distant memory so that I might not embarrass family and friends by reciting them as I pointed to the appropriate portion of their hands—a favorite between lecture activity in medical school.

In much later years I learned it meant to ‘seize the day’, take advantage of opportunities presented, not thinking that tomorrow that same opportunity would present itself.

When I was twelve, I was given a Brownie camera as a birthday present. Film was dear as was processing and so each photo was chosen with care. I still have one of those photos with the crinkled edges. I interpreted it in fabric in later years as I mined the shoe box full of family photos that my mother kept for some reason in the bathroom buried underneath well-worn towels.

Imagery that tells a story or gives a sense of place are my favorite kinds of photos–not ones that are heavily photo-shopped or made with techniques making them suitable for a calendar or greeting card.

The photo above–a wet leaf on a paving stone set in Judith Baker Montano’s garden in mid November of this year with my shadow to the left—is that day’s Carpe Diem image.

Nov 8

Ominous

Sylvia Weir Ominous Week 44 challenge was something ominous. It seemed far to easy to find some nasty looking clouds except we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine the entire week. Since I was in Houston I decided to see if I could find something there.

I tried the lily pond which sadly had only three blossoms–the murky depths filled with algae looked somewhat scary but it is hard to focus on cloudy muddy water–and it just looked like a mess–and a poor shot.

Then looking at all the rebuilding, and huge cranes atop large buildings–how did they get them up there? Helicopter?

And what if that boom fell–wasn’t there one that fell in a city this past summer? What if it hit a large totally glass building and I was standing there looking up?

Maybe not so ominous but that was the best I could find.