landscape photography

lens-artists: pick a favorite quote and illustrate it

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.

the waiting room – the hot murdering sun

“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?”*

become aware of the suffering within war

*cited: Colum McCann, Apeirogon

lens-artists: framing your shots: exploring the foreground, middle ground, and background

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.*

This was fun, thank you Patti

*cited: The Luminous Landscape

the waiting room

Were there someone

in the world

who feels as I feel,

we would talk all night

in this grass hut. ~Ryokan (Trans: K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind)

As I watch the eastern horizon’s transition from the black of night to first light’s opaque colors and then to sunrise’s pastels, I find myself asking,” “What is it that you are waiting for? Or, are you, unknowingly, waiting for someone?”

The morning news filters into my consciousness, blinding me to what is now, and another cycle of searching and editing of words … sentences … meaning begins an undeclared battle with internalized others; fragmented, abstract, vague, absent others.

a dove-grey morning of mourning


It was a perfect morning – a dove-gray sky with the amazing saturation of reds, oranges, and yellows … a braking car, a Pepsi truck, Target’s target …


A dove-gray morning that felt like 31 degrees with its 3 mph SSE breeze and 51% precipitation.


A dove-gray morning with the chilly tickle of the breeze upon my face as I walked sure footed in barefoot shoes and freed from hip and knee arthritic pain … a temporary release from the imprisonments of fading health.


A dove-gray morning with blooming trees filled with Spring’s whites and purple blossoms that seemingly woke during the night as I slumbered.


A dove-grey morning that carried the silent memories of fog horns, condensed-covered windows, pajama breakfasts with melting buttered waffles, maple syrup, bacon, rich dark coffee, unique scent of the newspaper, and the medley of sounds — crunchy folded newspaper, laughter, and voices of morning kitchen reunions from slumber to wakie-wakieness.


A gray-dove morning with unknown and unheard sounds of explosions as drones fill the sky; fear-filled, pain-filled screams intermixing with crumbling buildings … lives forever traumatized … all deafened by distance voices filling the air, “keep blowing them away” – “keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy.”

A gray-dove morning with a 9 year old bully in his ill-fitting Sunday clothes at the helm.

A gray-dove morning where more than 1,900 people have been killed and at least 20,000 injured in Iran.” …”more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced nearly 1 million, 20% of the country’s entire population, creating a humanitarian crisis.”

A dove-grey morning of mourning

lens-artists: unusual crop

Contemplative and landscape photographs submitted in response to Ritva’s lens-artist challenge: encouraging photographers to deliberately defy traditional framing conventions.

Photographing what is … the morning’s light

landscape images cropped with a focus on negative space.

the field outside my window…

Outside my window looking eastward is a field …once a hay field that silently told stories of seasonal changes. My favorite was during time of haying as it awakened childhood memories of harvesting … especially of those times of baling.

All of this ended when the construction of a new housing development began with dust and noise and then the absence of the hawk soaring through the late afternoon sky. After that it became a time of remembering when I was 7, and the sense of okay-ness to wander over to work sites accompanied with childhood curiosity, “what ya doin’?” during the beginning stages of construction.

Then … the clock towers ... of importance, of course, was the building of the tower right across the street and questions about possible blocking of the eastern horizon’s dawn. So a shift from my year long photo project from …

the morning’s sun north to south – south to north travels to a focus on a section of the horizon – away from the clock tower which began to look like a prison guard tower.

Yet, this morning as I pulled the drapes open with joyful anticipation suddenly silenced by …

lens-artists: last chance

This week artists Tina (Travels and Trifles) invites artists to share “those images you’ve loved over the past 12 months, but have not yet shared.”

Reviewing photographs created over the year confirmed that the majority of images posted on WordPress were part of a skyscape project, Dawning … beginning anew.

Each image within the photo book Dawning … beginning anew is a telling of the sun’s seasonal movements along the eastern horizon and the circular messages of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The most dynamic is the ongoing changes, moment-to-moment … the multiple variables that paint the sky’s canvas.

So with this in mind, I decided to share the healing moments within the circular process of grief’s darkness to a renewal of life found within each dawn’s first light to its sun rise on this day … Winter Solstice.

summer solstice

The images above begin with the transition from today’s first light to dawn and then the beginning of winter solstice.

Winter Solstice messages the triumph of light over darkness, tells of the gradual return of longer days and stories the promise of renewed life.

For me the cherished moments … the aweness within the art of photography is seeing the world through a camera’s lens and hearing the click of the shutter. The rest is just a delightful dance with possibilities and a constant reminder, “you can’t make a bad photograph good, but you can make a good photograph bad.”

May your holiday be filled with the gifts of freedom within peace, joy, and love.

brenda