(Sunlight and shadows on snow in black & white.)
Simple style is like white light. It is complex, but its complexity is not obvious.
~ Anatole France
Photography
(Overlooking Lake Haiyaha. Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Photo © 2009 by Robin)
I am I plus my surroundings; and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.
~ Jose Ortega y Gasset
(On the road to Estes Park. Photo © 2009 by Robin)
We are not going around in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral.
~ Hermann Hesse
(Symbol in the trees. Photo © 2009 by Robin)
Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.
~ Edward Weston
(Pair of tangerines. 2007.)
Osh over at Deaf Pagan Crossroads emailed me with a request for the color orange. Here ya go, Osh. Orange, in all its glory. Well… maybe not all. But some of its glory.
I don’t know why I put off orange for so long. It’s not as if I hate the color or anything. In fact, I’m quite fond of it, especially this time of year. (To be honest, the real reason I put off orange was because it takes me a ridiculously long time to put these things together and I haven’t had much in the way of spare time now that I’m not forced to rest because of pain/illness.)
(Guy in orange jacket. 2007.)
As I was going through my photographs looking for orange (a color that’s not at all difficult to spot!), I was surprised to find that orange likes to hang around with other colors more often than not.
(Orange in a rainbow. 2008. © Robin)
(Spots of orange in fall foliage. Pennsylvania. 2007.)
Oh sure, it occasionally stands out all by itself…
(Mini-pumpkin before the cats mangled it. 2007.)
(Bigger pumpkins. 2007.)
(Biggest pumpkin. 2007)
But in most of my photos orange is buddying up to some other color or colors.
(Orange and yellow flowers. 2008)
(Airdock. May 2006. © Robin)
I made a bit of a blip in the old blog earlier today so I thought I’d remedy the situation with a new post (although I have to admit it turned out to be an entertaining mistake). Besides, I’m resting and bored with resting.
M and I live near the oldest airship base in the United States. The Goodyear Blimp makes the rounds around here frequently, especially in the spring and fall. In May of 2006, when all of the following photos were taken, Goodyear had a new blimp to name and we happened to be around one day when they were doing touch and go’s. I mention this because of the “Hello My Name Is” tag on the airdock.
(Hauling the blimp. May 2006. © Robin)
It takes a few good men and/or women to move the blimp around when it’s on the ground.
(My feet at the beach. November 2007. © Robin)
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Stevo has been wondering: Where are the feet photos in the blogosphere?
Well, here they are again: My feet. I wonder how well my feet posts will compete with each other in terms of getting the most hits.
One of my favorite feelings in the world is that of my feet in the sand. Mud is good too, but sand is best. Snow isn’t so bad either, now that I think about it. But my feet can’t take a lengthy excursion barefoot in the snow.
This photo reminds me that it might be nice to get a pedicure, even in the midst of winter when my toes rarely make a naked appearance anywhere (mostly in the shower/bath and on the yoga mat these days). My feet could use a little spoiling. They’ve been working hard lately, putting in a lot of mileage in an effort to meet my 2008 walking goal of 1,000 miles.
I almost forgot: The music.
(Raindrops on pink petunias. 2007)
More pink here, if you please. ~ Franz Liszt
I hadn’t intended to make pink the next color in the color series, but I was reminded via email that the Race for the Cure in Cleveland is coming up soon. It usually takes place in October, but they moved it to mid-September this year. I suspect that’s because it’s been cold, rainy and/or snowy, and windy on race day over the past few years. There’s a better chance for good weather (no snow) in mid-September.
M and I usually participate in the 5k Race for the Cure. We won’t be doing it this year because we’ll be heading back east that weekend to pick up the rest of our stuff (finish the move home), and have one more visit with family and friends before we get completely settled back into the routines of life, work, and home.
In addition to the Race for the Cure, the color pink reminds me of spring, little girls, cotton candy, bubble gum and the London Financial Times (the pages are a stand-out shade of pink (salmon) that I found odd when I first saw the Financial Times while riding the Tube because I never would have associated pink with financial news).
(Spring blossoms. 2007)
(Raindrops on a flower petal. Photo by Robin. 2007)
My one and only color request is for the color purple.
I thought purple would be easy because it just so happens purple is my favorite color. That should mean that I have lots and lots of photos of purple. Right?
Wrong. Purple is rarer than I thought. It’s not that I can’t find it anywhere, but it’s not nearly as abundant in life as the greens, reds, yellows, blues, and browns. Even the grays put in more appearances than purple. Perhaps that’s what makes it so special — its rarity.
(Lilacs. Photo by Robin. 2007)
(Birds at the Cleveland Zoo. Photo by Robin. 2007)
Being an American, I’m going to use the spelling I grew up with: Gray. It’s the American English variant of grey and one that I’m used to. I find it interesting that the spellchecker keeps underlining grey as if it’s spelled wrong. You can tell an American programmed it.
Gray has been described as an elegant neutral color. It’s conservative, cool, and is sometimes seen as cloudy or gloomy. In my description of The Blues I wrote that I thought the blues should be called the grays because that’s how depression feels to me: Gray.
(Storm clouds, getting ready to weep. Photo by Robin. 2007)
Gray, like black, is often used as a color of mourning. It reminds me of the mourning dove, who happens to be a gray bird, and its plaintive song.
Gray is the color of sorrow.
(Gray day in the Bogs. Photo by Robin. 2006)
In the corporate world, gray suits are almost standard issue uniforms. Dark or charcoal gray is considered sophisticated and mysterious, whereas lighter grays are somewhat similar to white. Gray is conservative and old-school.
(Note about format: I know my posts, especially the color series, are heavy on photos and that makes for slow going when it comes to loading if you don’t have a speedy internet connection. I’ve decided to try using the “more” feature. So, you know, click on that blue stuff down there that says “Continue reading A touch of gray/grey” to continue reading this post. Some of my readers are savvy enough to know that, but I know of one or two who might need a little help, being fairly new to the internet, blogging and all that jazz. And for those who care, I added links to the color series on the sidebar.)
Bountiful Healing 