Down by the water

After dinner I went down to the marina and worked on some more images for my marina series. I love water and keep trying to get water images with some motion and mystery in them. The wind was quite strong this afternoon, so there was good movement in the water even if I didn't move the camera. I like these two water images. The last image I am posting shows the marina structure, some boats, and the water with reflections of the sun. I really like the combination of vertical lines with horizontal bands of color and lots of variety in the strokes.

A sunny day at the golf course

On the way to Wyandotte County Lake (see previous blog post "A cloudy day at the lake"), I stopped at The National golf course here in Parkville and was looking for anything interesting. This scene stopped me right away. I think it is just a great composition, with the trees and their shadows plus the curved golf path neatly dividing the image. It would be simple to just drive by and not notice, but when I am really "looking" at the world around me I do see the possibility for a nice image.

A cloudy day at the lake

On "tax day" I needed to drive about 20 miles to pick up our completed tax forms, so I packed the camera in the car and planned to take some pictures along the way. It was a sunny day and I got some shooting done at a local golf course before heading to Wyandotte County Lake. Unfortunately, clouds moved in as I was driving around the lake, and I thought I might not get anything good. But I parked and walked along the edge of the lake and found these great brown cattails still standing after a long winter. The gray sky works well. Reflected in the water, it is fairly ambiguous whether the white stuff is water, snow or ice. I always like the ambiguity. It lets the viewer see their own story when they look at it.

Not a wasted trip after all...

So I was driving 25 miles to the other side of town trying to find a big palm tree I had seen at Costco the week before. Turned out they were sold out so it looked like it would be a wasted trip, but on the way home I took a different route and crossed the Missouri River on a bridge I hadn't been over before. As I crossed the bridge I saw a small park on the rivers edge (Sugar Creek Park), so I turned around and went back. I'm working on a series of photos of bridges and viaducts. I like these two shots. I love how the blue sky is reflected in water late in the day. This is why I try to always have my camera in the car. You just never know when you'll find beauty.

What's in a name?

When I first set up my blog account, I didn't have a name picked out for my blog. Uninspired... so I let it percolate for a few days. I was watching a video of Bob Dylan live at Newport in 1964 on PBS one night, and was mesmerized listening to him sing "Chimes of Freedom" (you can catch it on You Tube). There are so many great poetic lines in that song, but my favorite is the refrain "an' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing". It set my mind off in a new poetic direction for several hours, and the words "shards of beauty" kept coming to me.

You know when your muse is whispering in your ear you better listen, or else she goes away for awhile. So, my blog is "Shards of Beauty". I do love the words and I love the idea. I feel its connection to my photographic work and the artistic process of abstracting the essence from the original scene.

Anyway, welcome to my blog! I am posting a photo I captured last night at sunset down by the Missouri River here in Parkville. Sunset in front of me, the full moon rising behind me. Reminded me of the Navajo Nightway ceremonial. "Beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty above me, beauty below me... I walk in beauty."