Because the calendar is a landscape medium, this picture actually appears in the calendar in landscape form with not much of the allium showing but the flower. It was originally taken in portrait orientation.
This picture of Sara is still untitled. For the story behind this image, click on the link below:
This picture was taken on the exact same day as the daisy picture. It currently is untitled.
“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Although this picture is named for the following quote from the enigmatic John Ruskin:
“Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity.”
But the story of this flower is actually more akin to the Tennessee Williams quote:
“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.”
This daisy grew in a most unlikely place in my yard. It grew in a little patch of dirt between my driveway and my back porch. It sprouted through the fence and away from the evergreen bush that dominates that little patch of ground. Its existence was unlikely, but nature finds a way.
This picture was also Jen’s birthday present.
This is actually the first picture to ever be debuted in the calendar. Every other picture that has ever been in the calendar has been published in some way shape or form before being in the calendar. Jill was the only person to ever see this picture before it was seen in the calendar.
There will be more details about this picture in a future entry when I start publishing my weekly photo projects. The most important thing to note about this picture is that it represents a traditional darkroom technique.
This is the only monthly picture in the calendar that is manipulated in Photoshop in a meaningful way. I could see how somebody could think that June is a Photoshop manipulation, but in the spirit of the way that I see things, it isn’t. But we will open up that can of worms on the morrow.
This picture was taken on one of my two trips to the Iowa State Fair. Interested in other State Fair pictures? Click on the link below:
The title comes from a line in William Carlos Williams’ Poem “The Rose is Obsolete”. I suppose in retrospect that title would have been better served for a picture of a rose.
The rose is obsolete
but each petal ends in
an edge, the double facet
cementing the grooved
columns of air–The edge
cuts without cutting
meets–nothing–renews
itself in metal or porcelain–whither? It ends–
But if it ends
the start is begun
so that to engage roses
becomes a geometry–Sharper, neater, more cutting
figured in majolica–
the broken plate
glazed with a roseSomewhere the sense
makes copper roses
steel roses–The rose carried weight of love
but love is at an end–of rosesIt is at the edge of the
petal that love waitsCrisp, worked to defeat
laboredness–fragile
plucked, moist, half-raised
cold, precise, touchingWhat
The place between the petal’s
edge and theFrom the petal’s edge a line starts
that being of steel
infinitely fine, infinitely
rigid penetrates
the Milky Way
without contact–lifting
from it–neither hanging
nor pushing–The fragility of the flower
unbruised
penetrates space
This picture was taken in Upper Ledges in one of their prairies. This picture was taken during the same photo sojourn as when I took Monica’s Childhood. A picture that was Monica’s favorite, but not the picture she selected for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
This picture was taken on the Lost Lake Trail. A place that is well documented to be one of my favorite photography retreats. I particularly enjoy taking frog photos in this locale.
This picture was selected by Jill for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest:
Although Jill liked the photo, its intent was completely lost on the judges. For the first time ever, the judges left their commentary on the back of the photos. I purposely amped up the digital noise in this image. The judges didn’t think that was on purpose or didn’t like it. Their commentary included suggestions for lowering the noise in the picture. That included using a lower ISO (which the picture was taken with a low ISO) and using a tripod (which the picture was taken with a tripod).
Oh well, it wasn’t the first time that a picture of mine was not understood/loved by photo contest judges. I do have a 3 year (going for 4 in 2010!) streak of the State Fair giving me the bird going.