My eyes love the wet on wet water color blending of yellow ochre, red violet, and tea green.
Ochre, a warm and earthy color, lies between yellow and brown on the color wheel. This clay-like hue suggests natural pigments and rustic tones, with shades like yellow ochre and brownish-yellow. It’s great for adding a grounded, timeless feel to designs, perfect for evoking a natural, inviting atmosphere.
But…yellow ochre seems to reach out and touch my soul…especially during the autumn.
Red-violet is a vibrant, bold shade blending red and violet. Located between red and purple on the color wheel, it exudes energy and creativity.
Tea Green is a light pastel shade of Green. It has high lightness and low saturation and is a pastel color. Tea Green is a warm color.
Unlike other bright or deep colors, ochre combines easily with a wide range of hues. It goes very well with neutral tones such as white, beige or light grey, but can also dialogue with more intense colors such as navy blue, olive green, or even accents of burgundy red for a bolder effect.
Texture is the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance
Texture in photography is a visual representation of how something feels, whether it is rough or smooth or soft or prickly. The cues we use to determine texture as we look at a subject (or scene) are variations in color, shadow, line, shape, and depth.
Water is fluid, soft, and yielding
Can we actually “sense” water as it touches our skin?
It turns out, the answer is no — at least not technically because our bodies don’t have sensors specifically for detecting liquids. Rather, we rely on a conglomeration of other sensors to inform us when we’re wet.
To identify liquids, we tap into visual stimuli and tactile sensations. For example, you see the smooth flow of water rushing over your hands in the sink and feel the sensation of droplets hitting your face during a shower. But the most important cue that humans use to sense water through the skin is temperature.
I think I now know why wet socks are extremely uncomfortable. Is it the combined sense of sock texture and water temperature? Have you ever wondered if laundered clothes left in the dryer are still damp or are they just cold to the touch?
Thank you Anne for this invitation to “show how us your images where texture plays an integral part.”
Every life is a point of view directed upon the universe. Strictly speaking, what one life sees no other can. Every individual, . . . is an organ, for which there can be no substitute, constructed for the apprehension of truth . . . Without the development, the perpetual change and the inexhaustible series of adventures which constitute life, the universe, or absolutely valid truth, would remain unknown . . . Reality happens to be like a landscape, possessed of an infinite number of perspectives, all equally veracious and authentic. The sole false perspective is that which claims to be the only one there is. ~José Ortega y Gasset
One of the magical things about photography is the transformation that takes place when you photograph something. Something that inherently has very little going for it, in terms of interest you take in it, can become infinitely more interesting when rendered as a photograph. ~ Grant Mudford
…our ordinary vision is limited, and…our conventional consensus of reality is not the only version of reality.
The complex multidimensionality of the modern world no doubt contributes to the constructive habit of the mind that, in its attempt to provide meaning, continually rearranges the world to fit individual needs. The failure to recognize the constructive nature of the mind can be a major obstacle to artistry and creativity. Conversely, understanding the constructive nature of the mind and reality can lead the way to Great Understanding in the art of photography and in the art of living. ~Philippe L Gross & S.I. Shapiro, Tao of Photography
It is interesting how there are quotes that – like old friends – wander throughout life with us offering bits of wisdom here and there. Leya for this Lens-Artists invitation.
“Show me, then. Convince me. Roll back the rock. Return … . All of her. Gift her back to me, all sewn up and pretty and dark-eyed again. That’s all I ask. Is that too much? No more whining from me, no more weeping, no more complaints. A heavenly stitch, that’s all I ask. And bring back … too, for …, for me, for …, for …, for …, for … for all of us. And while you’re at it, bring back … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and … and every other one under this hot murdering sun. Is that too much to ask for? Is it?”*
This week Wandering Dawgs looks back into lens-artists’ history to July 3, 2012 – John’s challenge #151: On the Water – and invites photographers to “show anything on the water.”
The magical moment of seeing a wasp dance on water was one of the images posted for John’s On the Water challenge.
Being on water are moments of energy …
and quiet reflection
Thank you Beth for your invitation to review and reflect on past moments of time “on the water.”
April’s calendar … April, a month of increasing memorial days eclipsing birthdays.
When from the neighbouring garden the perfume-laden air Saturates my soul with memories, Rises the thought of the beloved plum-tree Blooming under the eaves of the house which is gone. ~ The Sarashina Diary
April is my mother’s birthday as well as her memorial month. April … a month of revisiting moments … reacquainting with an amazing woman … a person.
When we were together, within our mother-daughter roles, were we strangers hidden behind our labels?
April is my great-granddaughter’s birthday. A month of celebration … of joy …. of cuddly soft buddies … of new beginnings
Playing alone. ~Ryoken (Trans: K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)
The memory of that moment … the question … the room suddenly dark … a cloud bank covering the sun …
“Why do you ask questions when you know I will lie?”
Were my questions searching for grain of truth that would return my bliss of ignorance?” Yet, how can that be? As I in those moments was like Humpty Dumpty who will never ever be put back together again?
The question, “why ask when you know I will lie” was a darker betrayal to layers of betrayals.
Yet, today I ask, many years later, “Why do others … reporters, bankers, leaders, public officials, the betrayed ask questions when they know the response will be a lie?”
Why do they listen to the lies … film the lies … and then, over and over again share the lies obsessively to justify, rationalize, deny, or sardonically illustrate the untruths?
Yet, a greater question that is increasingly significant to me, “Why am I siting here listening to this public cycle of questions, lies, and rationalizations?”
Could it be that there is an American trauma of loss created by lies that repeatedly search for healing through the media?
Am I driven to search fortruths motivated with an unspoken hope that has the power of a mustard seed to build mountains that see beyond the lies and distractions to a democracy is not broken … forever and ever? Or is democracy also like Humpty Dumpty … never ever put back together again?
Yet, to be honest, I must admit … blushingly … I did enjoy the snarky in Jimmy Kimmel Live, Trump Attacks the Pope, Thinks He’s Jesus & Bashes Springsteen in HIs Most Bananas Posing Spree Yet.
I fear any respect for the Presidency of the United States will never ever be put back together again as it is cracked beyond cracked.
Seeing begins with respect, but wonder is the fuel which sustains vision. ~Steven J Meyers
Autodidact … an interesting word … au·to·di·dact – mid 16th century (as autodidacton ): via Latin from Greek autodidaktos ‘self-taught’, from autos ‘self’ + didaskein ‘teach’ – a self-taught person.
I find resonance with this word as there is an ease of self learning outside a classroom which invites an open exploration that is absent, for me, within a teacher-student relationship. Yet, there is an importance to always keep in mind as noted by The Dalai Lama, “… Autodidact … many many mistakes …”
Autodidact … a journey of self learning … entirely self-directed … creating their own study plans and follow them until they’ve achieved their goal defines the blogging study course I undertook in 2018 … A Photo Study – a 52-week photography learning journey of the basic elements of eight visual compositions, one of which included contemplative photography
Then…a shower thought…maybe that one triple A+ image really only arises after 10,000 intentional shutter releases. Can you just image being present to, thinking through, and connected with each transient moment 10,000 times? In reality this would be like setting out on a journey of 10,000 steps knowing that one will never reach the destination.
Yet, what is an important part of a 10,000 endeavor? To create a triple A+ image? Or to undertake a photo study journey accompanied by fun, education, knowledge, experience, and exploration? I’ll go with the fun of creating and opening myself to the beauty of Mother Earth so this photo study blog journey is an encouragement to – not create a triple A+ image – be more intentionally present with each click of the shutter.
…the creative mind of a photographer is like a piece of unexposed film. It contains no preformed images but is always active, open, receptive, and ready to receive and record an image. ~Minor White cited: W Rowe, Zen and the Magic of Photography
It was a sunny day … sitting in a pocket park … waiting for my husband … writing a letter to my Great Aunt with the intention to periodically pause writing, close my eyes, lift my head, open my eyes, and then visually acknowledging the first thing I saw …
Lucky shot … maybe or maybe not … but looking back it was a profound moment to be intentionally open to what I saw … an eye.
If something happens from pure good luck, it seemingly came out of nowhere, based only on fate and not on anything you did to make it happen.
The three grounds within this black and white image begins with the play of light and shadow at the bottom of the page. The shadowed lines on the left side of the image brings the eye to the tree and human figure in the mid ground and then to the trees in the background.
The spot light on the bathroom counter was the eye catcher for me. The toothbrush holder and its shadow defines the foreground. The tissue box sits within the middle ground while its reflection in the mirror creates the background.
Since warm colors seem to be closer than cold colors could one of my dawn images offer an exploration of how color may come into play creating the three grounds. I see the foreground defined by the black horizon while the morning’s sun light as well as the orange in the sky creating the middle ground as the sky’s blue at the top of the image brings us to the background.
I find it interesting that most Chinese landscapes contain three individual vertical plans to represent depth within paintings. The foreground usually consists of “earthly bound” objects like people, animals, buildings, and forest. The middle plane often represents emptiness in the form of clouds, mist or water. The background plane often includes “heavenly” elements such as hills and mountains as well as sky. The Chinese landscape painters did not use perspective as we paint it in representational art (or see it via the one-point perspective lens of a camera), but instead showed depth with the three planes. In each one of these planes negative space – emptiness – plays a key compositional role.*
a meditative journey 
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