Lady Liberty

Pardon the poor quality.  It’s a snapshot from a cruise ship that was in motion.  This just seemed somewhat fitting for the 10th anniversary weekend of the disaster in NYC.

In fact, start here, then click through the “next day” links. Might be worth it, if you’re into that kind of stuff. An example:

Tree at night, handheld

An omen if I ever saw one.

Not sure what it’s an omen of, though. Perhaps of returning home. Perhaps the death march that is chasing a child through Disneyland proper. Perhaps my mood, when reality sinks back in.

An Omen

Not this time.

Hibiscus in Morning Light

On the road to Denali

I kinda liked it at the time – especially the wisp of cloud and the lower clouds on “normal” sized mountains (by some standards). I’m not so sure now, though. I can see how the HDR effect did pull in a great deal of detail in the foreground & effectively salvaged that, but the sky… It hurts to look at it now.

It’s strange in this case – I never noticed the gradation of the blues in the large size. Looked totally normal. If this were blown up to 16″x20″, it might be fine. But in smaller, web-presentation sizes… well, it’s painful.

So yes, the more I look at it, the less I like it. I think that most people have the same reaction – it’s easily the most viewed photograph of the last month by Flickr standards.

Behind a waterfall

Part of my growth in photography (such as it is) has been of late: I no longer take pictures of any old thing, but instead I look for a purpose. There can be many different reasons – “I was here” (as a snapshot), or “this was neat/beautiful.” But as I get older and experience more, I find myself letting many of the beautiful things slide. They’re no less beautiful, I’ve just seen them before. As such, they hold less interest for me.

The pool in Kauai had a waterfall. It was neat – but then again, it was a rather small waterfall. You could get inside, and that was interesting – but it was somewhat dirty, and not much to see. From the outside, it was just a wall of water. People were constantly moving in & out, and angles weren’t that interesting.

Because I was drawn to it, I knew I would make some photographs. My goals: to remind my daughter what it was like, and to imprint a memory on myself about why this pool was special relative to all others. So thus began the search for an intimate, unusual view. Something that would stand out in my mind.

Although the photograph associated with this post isn’t really that good on any artistic level, it meets my purpose for shooting in this case. It’s wet, as you are in the cave. The view is unusual – from behind the waterfall. You’re close to the water that is falling – intimately close, in fact. There are people nearby – a little girl taking photos of everything with her camera (that was cute!), her mother with her, people lounging in the sun in the distance, and the building where the magic man made magical drinks that relax mommy and daddy.

Although no award-winner, I consider it a success.

Frond

I love California – I think colors are brighter there.  Maybe it’s just that area, though – near Carlsbad and Oceanside. Nothing too remarkable about this image, other than I really like how the greens & blues offset each other.

Grampa, eating

My grandfather has been recovering for just over a year from a nasty car crash – shattered hip, concussion, and a whole bunch of ailments.  He’ll probably never walk again without a walker, but the fact that he’s alive after this (at 89!) is pretty amazing.

His hands aren’t as strong as they used to be, but they’re not frail.  Just thinner, and only the slightest hint of a tremor. Though the meal we shared with him was plain, bagel and avocado, he enjoyed it greatly.

Just returned from a trip up north, to Fairbanks.  Snapped this out the car window on the road home:

Clouds on the Way Home

Photo note: single shot, through the window, post-processed to remove phone lines & applied a Kodachrome 64 filter (Nik’s Color Efex).

More about the trip can be read about here and here (pardon, they’re personal links). Don’t forget about the Downhill Stream of Consciousness, either: pics from the road are there.

Cream in my Coffee

Reflecting back, I’m noticing that I seem drawn to taking pictures of my coffee. I’m sure I could dig in deep and psycoanalyze the reasons, but in the end I think it’s one of my main joys in life. I’ll pass on the booze, the rich and sweet foods, the travel – so long as I can have a leisurely cup of coffee, I’m in heaven.

The caption image to the right is doubtlessly my signature coffee image. Stolen worldwide and still driving most traffic to my Flickr stream. Earlier last week you might have seen another cup of coffee. Saturday morning, it was this:

Latte, technically

It’s interesting that the only fully successful image (in my mind) is my first. I really like the last image, but it’s really a portrait of a cup, not coffee. I suppose this

really requires more thought…