Neither Snow, nor Rain...

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

I first came across these words in a 1981 song called "O Superman" by Laurie Anderson. Like many of the lyrics in that song---indeed, the album---are somewhat non sequitur, so this statement did not seem to be out of place. Having grown up in the hinterlands of Canada, I did not have the background to immediately associate this with the US Postal Service, but soon enough someone did mention it. It seemed like such a cool motto that I was surprised not to see more use made of it in the media. Twenty years after the release of Anderson's "Big Science" album, I wandered around a corner in New York City to see a grand Greek-styled building. I started to look at it from different angles to photograph it, or elements of it, and suddenly realized that I recognized the words across the facade just above the ornate Corinthian columns.

In the meantime, I had also learned that this was not the motto of the US Postal Service---the USPS does not actually have one---but an appropriate quote from Herodotus' Historia, added by the building's architects. This is apparently the most poetic of several translations of the Greek---certainly more so than the one other I have read---and originally referred to the relay messengers in the 5th century BC Persian's communication system.

Official motto or not...worthy words for any work ethic.

Waiting for the Light

Funny, sometimes, those little co-inkydinks (“coincidences” for those that did not see the same television show I did years ago…too many years to remember what show). Fiat Lux, "Let there be light", is the motto of my alma mater, alluding, of course, to knowledge as light. The University of Lethbridge in southern Alberta was a wonderful liberal arts university in one of Canada’s bible belts. I say “was” because I haven’t been there recently and certainly not for long enough to discern whether or not, or how much, the social climates have changed in Lethbridge, southern Alberta and/or the University. I enjoyed my years at the U of L and what ever did cause me negative feelings had nothing to do with the University. The battle was on the inside. That, however, is another story. The coincidence, by the way, is that I had chosen last night to post this image today and today I received a letter from the Alumni Association. Basically, the coincidence added a paragraph to this post...

This and last night's image are part of a series I took in New York City in the spring of 2001 with the Nikon 990 I had at the time. The notion of an idea or "a-ha!" moment represented by a little (or big) light bulb suddenly turning on is pretty much universal in the developed world. This image of a (probably) stressed professional seeking enlightenment when her world seemed upside down spoke to me. There is the "punny" aspect of that and then once you have had a chuckle, a poignancy settles in...

The big move is done and we are now settling in trying to put things in what seems to be proper places, etc. Took the time this evening to stroll down to the dock and watch the sun set over the small lake we now live next to. As an ex-pat Canadian, I have to say...I like palm trees in the sunset.

Weight of the World

I had just gotten my last post out and was starting on this one (trying to get ahead of the game...) when all of a sudden my internet connection was lost. “That time already?” Yes…moving time. We had canceled service at our old location and were supposed to have it reconnected at our new location the next day. Met the ATT service man there even, as I was unloading the car. “Should be set now!” he said. The move hadn’t quite progressed as much as I had hoped in terms of me getting my office set up again (Finally! This evening…). It turn out that I would not have gotten far anyway, as I met another ATT man the next day looking to establish which home was which address. The wonderfully friendly, chipper service man yesterday, it would seem, had terminated our neighbor’s telephone service and set her up with DSL. The ATT post for her apartment is cleverly situated in front of our home (on the far corner from her home, to boot), Now our neighbor didn’t realize that she had gained something in the deal because she doesn’t use internet, but the phone must have been unusually dead because ATT help was quick to correct the error, though allowing enough time for me to get myself in order and set up again.

Anyway...a few days ago, I remembered a certain thought about this image:

The image of someone with the weight of the world upon him and heading for a church seemed rather poignant. I leave it to the viewer to add perspective. I firmly believe religion to be individual activity, even in a so-called “gathering of two or more”.
However, having had that thought as I observed this scene, I remembered that there was indeed a certain man, to whom this very church was no strange place, that would, for at least a period of 13 days if never another day in his life, have indeed felt the weight of the world on his shoulders: John F. Kennedy.

Today, after a week of moving household, I look at it and there is yet another perspective. A house full of stuff isn’t nearly as heavy and I am indeed fortunate that most of the weight on my shoulders this past week consisted of only it.
Not only that, but on Saturday, Leila and I scrambled to get done, cleaned up and off to a fine anniversary dinner at The Melting Pot, the latter becoming dangerously close to becoming a tradition :-)

Eternity...or not.

I have driven past these dunes so many times and kept meaning to stop to wander in and do some photography, but I was either pushed for time or the weather wasn't great (too windy) or there was just plain too much dust being kicked up by dune buggies and others...or,or,or. One day though, we arrived just as a brief rain shower unloaded and moved northwest. The light was different from any I had seen there and that tipped that scales. We wandered up and over the dunes barefoot. Raindrops had created a rough surface, yet when one put full weight down, one's foot pushed through the 2 cm wet "crust" into the loose, warm sand below. The sultry air was laden with not only the moisture from above, but the evaporate escaping the sand as well.
Standing on top of one of the dunes far enough from the highway not to be able to see it, I could turn around and the sand seemed to continue forever---not really, but the impression of vastness was palpable. The thought about just how many sand grains there were in this pile helped the illusion along... I think "infinity" might have been a more proximate bit of vocabulary to my thoughts but the little gray cells produced "eternity".
I made a card titled such and showed it to a friend. Her reaction? "Oh no, I don't think I'd want to spend Eternity there. How desolate!" I distinctly heard my romantic bubble make a most discernible popping sound as all my notions about a title for this scene made a messy pile around my ankles. Blink. Marie was absolutely right...wrong word! Don't allow me to mislead you. I still recall very well the sensations of whatever connection I had at the time but I seem unable to find the movie title for them. Oh well, can't win 'em all...
Viewers for now will have to settle for the actual name of this 5 by 40+ mile [read: hardly infinite either] stretch of ancient Lake Coahuila beach sand: Imperial Sand Dunes, California.

No Potato...

I was about to leave and, from the cab of my truck, waved good bye to an acquaintance living and working on Last Chance Creek in the Yukon. He waved back, but rather strangely I thought...until I realized he was actually flagging me down. "Hey, I've just shut down the sluice to check up on something. Want to come down and have a closer look?" Within five seconds, give or take a few milliseconds, set park brake, turned off engine and slid down the slope to the steel giant that moments ago was gulping gravel and sloshing it down with water; it's bowels dis-aggregating the boulders, pebbles, sand and clay, finally running the slurry through the sluice boxes, which, like our intestines, trap the good stuff and let the waste right on through. My host jumped up onto the boxes and pulled up the grates to have a look. After only an hour on the first day of operation, the upper riffles were already laden with the yellow metal. After raking the riffles out a bit, two specimens of well-crystallized gold popped up and they were handed to me. Today's image subject is one of those crystals.

...

Eight years ago, I curated a major exhibit on gold and in an interview before the exhibit opened was asked, "If you could be a mineral, what mineral what it be?" I found that tantamount to the more frequent question as to what my favorite mineral is except that it more directly, perhaps philosophically, begged the question "why". Prior to that, I was unsure whether or not I had a favorite mineral, expressing instead an affection for all minerals and their diversity. Reflection caused me to admit that perhaps I do have a favorite mineral: gold. There are perhaps many reasons why; perhaps most amusing to me is the fact that the first months of my embryonic life were spent on a gold placer claim in the Yukon. I could also point to gold’s aesthetic nature and the value that humans have placed on gold, thus joining the millions, if not billions of past, present and more than likely future humans. But the most profound answer came from replying to "What mineral would I be?"
The first funeral I ever attended was that of an elderly friend and fellow mineral collector. During the ceremony a small collection of minerals was passed around allowing those gathered to reflect on the specimens and their relevance to my friend's heavily mineral-influenced life.
What struck me at the time is that the mineral that best mirrored his life was absent---gold. Like gold, this man's character was not easily tarnished; he was patient, fair and giving, and by anyone’s definition, of "golden" character.
It is gold's nature, the fact that it can be beaten and drawn without breaking and its virtual immunity to chemical corruption that make gold so endearing.
While gold has undeniably corrupted humanity throughout history, it has also brought out the best in the human race. With the admirable qualities that gold embodies, it is not gold that is the root of all evil; it is the lust for gold. (I know, the expression is actually about money, but gold has since the early days of commerce been money, and still is...just ask the increasing throng of pundits pontificating about the collapse of fiat currency). Nonetheless, even the latter has inspired humans to achieve amazing feats: from the Klondike miners that had to endure incredible hardships to reach the goldfields; to the creators of some of the world's greatest masterpieces; and to the Olympic athletes, who push the limits of human capability in "going for the gold", represented not only by gold medals but often by lucrative endorsements.

Plus, with a specific gravity of 19.3, it is just cool to have a good size nugget sitting in the palm of your hand :-)

...

Photo tech stuff: Necessity truly is the mother of invention...single tensor light with white letter paper diffuser (bond or not?...can't remember), Al foil reflector and the specimen was sitting on my Zune's viewing screen. Studio: My mom's desk in the basement. Rather pleasing to get away with it...

Purple Passion

In early August of this year, a friend invited me to photodocument a mining operation near Wickenburg, Arizona. The mine was originally operated for lead, silver and a bit of gold, but the current owners are after something entirely different...what the early miners would have called waste rock. The Purple Passion mine, as it is now called, is the source for a rather unique assemblage of fluorescent minerals. Fluorescence, as mentioned in an earlier post, is named after the mineral fluorite. It is a type of luminescence emitted by a material that when subjected to ultraviolet (UV) radiation---electromagnetic radiation off the blue end of the visible light spectrum---seems to glow in the dark. The fluorescence of most fluorescent minerals needs to be observed in the dark.

In this image, I photographed one of the miners standing in front of a rock wall at night (not underground, but under the stars), shining a UV lamp onto the rock face. Part of the "speckly effect surrounding the man is actually digital noise as I shot this image at the equivalent of ISO 25000 (most point and shoot cameras operate in the 200-400 ISO range). I thought it looked kind of neat, not to mention ridiculously difficult for me at this stage to remove, so I left it in.

I had been fluorescent collecting once before---for little bluish-white specs of scheelite in eastern Washington---but this was something else all together. Everything around you just glowed a brilliant orange, blue-purple, white and green, and shades in between. I even found two fluorescent materials that skittered away as I rolled over the boulder they were under...scorpions glow bright grayish-green.

Challenges

Definitely the theme this week. I have found that in the past 5 to 10 years out of the last 20, attending shows has been more about meeting up with people and catching up on newsy bits in the gem and mineral world and , of course, perusing the exhibits and dealers' stocks. This Denver---people in the mineral, gem, fossil biz more than often measure time in shows, "Yeah, I remember those came out about three Tucsons ago."---the challenge was also getting all the image processing finished after the day's photography was done (by Jeff, not me). Some late nights. Oh well, in the words of Warren Zevon, "I'll sleep when I'm dead..."

Back in the days of establishing and building a new mineral museum---about a decade ago, there were about two years when I slept no more than four hours out of every twenty-four. It was exciting, high-adrenalin stuff; hard work and hard play. Some days, the brain just needed cleansing and going for a walk or bike ride was just another excuse for having time to cogitate on matters generally perceived to be urgent. Photography allows me to block all invasive thoughts and be present in my surroundings, so, as needed, I would leave the office for an hour or so, grab a 36 roll of Velvia (how convenient to have one of Vancouver's major photo suppliers across the street in Downtown) and give myself a challenge to shoot any theme that came to mind before I left: trees, architecture, textures, building stone geology, or even a movie set (at the time, one of the few things I could guarantee any visitor to the city to witness on any given day).
I was researching something a while ago on the internet and came across www.dpreview.com and noticed a tab called "Challenges" (see first post). I had a quick look and it seems that certain people related to the site (I am not sure exactly how) issue challenges (also not sure why) to the site's users to enter photographs reflecting given themes. I do not believe there are prizes or anything, but I browsed the list of themes open to entries and saw "Summer 2009". I had just started the blog and decided to send in the kayaker image I used. I went through the other images after the submission date had passed and voted on them (one is appropriately not permitted to vote on one's own entry), then glanced at the new themes and spied "Juxtaposition". "Ohhh, I have such an image..."
Well, life got busy (hah! "Got?") and the site did not enter my thoughts until an email popped onto my Blackberry's screen proclaiming that my image had placed 11th out of 185 in the "Juxtaposition" theme. I have to admit to feeling rather chuffed about it; not out of any real competitiveness, but at a time of going public of sorts with photography, such recognition by peers is pleasing.

...

Approaching Rathlin Island, just off Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast, on the fast track ferry (read "refitted fishing boat") one is struck by the juxtaposition of the black 65 million-year old basalt flows overlaying the white chalk (limestone) cliffs. The erosion of these geological formations has resulted in truly "salt and pepper" beaches made of black and white cobbles. ...Oh, the thinks you can think* when encountering such thinkable things: black & white, yin & yang...but one thing stands out in my memory. The proximity to one another of each geological unit, yet the rigidity of their separateness; then contrasted with the infinite possibilities of pattern presented by individuals who left the order and became more rounded through travel. Rather reflects the human experience, no?

I know it's Sunday...just making up for a week of limited posts :-)

* With reverence to Dr. Theodore Seuss Guisel.

Time...again

Not much to comment about today, except that it has been a wonderful day. We arrived at the hotel at 03:30 this morning and got to bed at 04:06. A few hours sleep later it was up and at 'em at the Denver show. I love going the gem & mineral shows. Mostly because going affords me the opportunity to meet a large number of the people I call friends; people that also have a common passion in minerals, fossils, gems or "objets naturelles" in general (adding the French just seems to highlight the notion that a number of objects perhaps more commonly deemed as items of only "natural science interest", especially minerals, are collected by more than a few purely as natural works of art).

Being show time, that brings up the theme of time again. There tends to be a palpable lack of it compared to what one usually requires in order to get "things" done, so my postings may deviate from the daily...but they will be in my thoughts :-)

More tonight from Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park...

Flow

I need to reread Mihaly Csikczentmihalyi's book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" but my recollection is that one of the author's basic premises is that happy people do what they love. He describes flow as "a state of consciousness so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity." The result is "optimal experience", which Csikczentmihalyi asserts is a key element in sustained happiness. People tend to allow themselves to be engrossed in what they are doing when it is something they do for its own sake; when they are doing what they would want to do if they could be doing anything. For most, that is something other than what they do for a living; hence the plethora of job-related jokes intended to make those that share these moments of "humor" believe they have found a ray of respite in an otherwise dreary environment. I believe the author's contention is right on the mark and reflected in the expressions or "nuggets of wisdom" all-too-rarely shared or passed over with the briefest of nods when read on the header of one's daytimer (non-pda versions). "Do what you love, the money will follow"...also the name of a book I believe, but serves as a good example. The simple truth is that people will naturally do their best at doing what they really love to do to keep themselves occupied. I suppose one should add the caveat that sitting on the couch watching television is questionable in terms of an "occupation"; I think what we are talking about is some sort of productivity. Optimal experience also has something to do with achievement.

Today's image also has something to do with flow...a fair bit, actually. The green crystals on this specimen are fluorite, which gets its name from the Latin fluere, "to flow", in allusion to this mineral's use as a flux. Chemically, this mineral is calcium fluoride, the latter meaning that this compound has the element fluorine in it. "Fluorine" and, by extension, "fluoride" are in turn derived from the name of this mineral, as is the word "fluorescence". Materials that produce visible light when excited by ultraviolet radiation are said to fluoresce and this property was first discovered in fluorite crystals.
Oddly---or perhaps not---flowstone is not related at all to fluorite but rather to the rocks seen in last Friday's image...but that is another story entirely...and there aren't any light bulbs named after it.

Time in the World

Geology is the only discipline I know that gives one the kind of sense of time that really helps put the world and what is happening in it in the most real perspective. I often say I like to look at what is going on as though I was standing on Mars. It makes so many things here seem very small...which they are. The only constant in the world is change. One of my favorite lines in Desiderata advises us to accept that the universe is unfolding as it should. Studying geology has given me a greater appreciation of that line. Not that we shouldn't look out for our environment, after all it is our environment and we are adapted to live in it. If we change it too much, we might just not be able to survive in it. I have no fear that the planet is in danger, but I give us humans lesser odds. Then again, why should we be different from any other organism that has ever existed, exists today or will exist? But I digress.
My real thought behind this was something that struck me when I visited Mammoth Hot Springs again this summer. Yes, geologists have an insight into the mechanisms of the Earth but also an appreciation for how slowly, compared to our lives, they move. There are obvious exceptions...say volcanic eruptions, for example. Nonetheless, I was amazed at how much a place as "timeless" as these hot springs had changed since I was here in 2003! New pools were flourishing; others dried up. It made the whole hot spring system seem more alive to me.

Photographically speaking, this image became another small adventure that began with the thought "Man, I wish I had a wide angle lens". So, I shot several images to cover the range that "I wished I could" and stitched them together...nothing particularly new as I had used the technique in CorelDraw for producing more interesting backgrounds for exhibits, but this time it seemed fresh because there existed a different purpose. I love finding alternative solutions to doing something conventionally. I don't know why...it just pleases me.

Up and Down

This image was taken minutes after yesterday's. I had done what I felt I needed to. I had looked up at the huge antennae, up at the sky they were attempting to penetrate and wondered many up thoughts. As I started back to the vehicle, I was given a not so gentle reminder about something...the other direction. I almost came a cropper when I stepped on the frost-covered railroad ties. Aside from being reminded of the health-related aspects of watching where one is going, it also struck me that perhaps these ties were making their presence known for another reason. I cannot remember when I first heard or thought of this but there is often a benefit in looking the other direction when all attention is focused in another. A brief scan at the least; one never knows what one might be missing. It is part of being more aware of one's surroundings.
Had I glanced down, when the obvious stars (again, pardon the pun) of the show commanded looking up, I might have had the opportunity to photograph an intricate and interesting pattern without a streaky footprint across it. After looking around I found this tie and the design it had as a result of the intense weathering. The frost gives it a strange, almost translucent quality. The juxtaposition of the ballast, tie and frost was also a cool twist on the rock, wood and water (albeit frozen) theme from what I usually think of when contemplating these three elements in a landscape image...I'm down with it.
Sorry ;-)

Perspectives of One Fine Morning at the VLA.

Day two and still at it :-)

The VLA (Very Large Array) near Socorro, New Mexico (closer, actually, to the town of Magdalena, but few other than mineral collectors would know where that is) is one of---if not the---Earth's largest radio telescopes for making observations in deep space. It has been popularized to quite an extent in literature and film, perhaps most notably (recently) in the movie "Contact" starring Jodie Foster, and has a bit of a cult following, if you will. In fact, I know someone who officially changed his surname to "Socorro" in honor of this installation. "Normal" people might consider this as appropriate as he does, but for perhaps different reasons...the same reason actually, but there is, as there always is, a matter of perspective. Glass half full, half empty..."Thou Shalt Not Steal", but Robin Hood's OK by us...that sort of thing.

Perspective is also something I like playing with in photography. I was one of those people that smiled and nodded then the class was instructed to see the room from the position of standing on one's desk in Dead Poet's Society. The first kiss of the sun on this landscape is subtly evident once one's eyes are bored with the image's main focus and wander down the railroad track.

We spent Thanksgiving in Magdalena and were on our way home to California when the sun was threatening to pop up over the horizon as we neared the VLA. Sensing the imminent PO (photographic opportunity), I encouraged my wife to develop a lead foot for the accelerator, then at the crudely calculated distance away from the target zone, the brake pedal. I hopped out and ran for the fence...no time to mess with digging the tripod out...and nearly did a classic freeze your facial skin on the frosty metal as I propped the camera to get what I wanted. f16 required a 3rd of second...hence the less than razor sharp focus on the antenna and immediate surroundings. I was nonetheless pleased with what I could see at the time on the D-70's viewing screen, because the technical aspects often take second place to "being there". When I am truly "doing photography" I am not "taking pictures", I am using the camera to fully engage myself to what I am seeing. Much as donning headphones and closing one's eyes allows one to much better listen to---rather than just hear---the music, a camera (pardon the pun) focuses one's attention on what one can see through it. In manipulating the camera, I often achieve, at least in part, in recording not just what I see, but how I see it. I cannot drive by or stand in front of this facility without contemplating the enormity and distances of the universe. Those elements are, at least for me, captured in this image and I am reminded of those thoughts when I view this photograph.

The Deep End

Well...(I wonder how many new blogs start with that word.)...for quite some time I have been thinking about sending friends an email with a selected photo from my archives to...to do what? Share them, for one. What else are you going to do with thousands of images in slide pages or on a drive? Who knows, someone might actually find a "real" use for an image. :-)

The big reason is that I have a huge backlog of images to process and I am still learning how to use PhotoShop at more than a novice level. I've even recently gotten the notion into my head that I actually am starting to know what I am doing, but I love the discoveries I am making at least weekly when I find a new way to do something, or that a particular thing can even be done.
That and it is a way to share some thoughts with whoever cares along the way.

So why a blog? Why not stick to the original idea of sending out an email to a short list of friends and family? Leila and I just saw Julie-Julia and one thought struck me as I watched...a blog requires a certain amount of commitment. I've been procrastinating about this for ages...life is busy. Newsflash...it is not going to get less busy.

OK...on with the show.
Today's image is one of two kayakers that paddled their way through my viewfinder as I was grabbing some shots of a very fine morning at Lake MacDonald in west Glacier National Park. We were on our way back to California after having spent a week with my family in Canada, and 5 days along the West Coast getting there. I had slept under the stars (and a few clouds that made their presence known via heavier-than-dew droplets at about 3 am) and woke up to this surreal setting.
Why is it my first image? I happened to find www.dpreview.com while looking for something and ended up seeing the "Challenges" section. I still have no idea what the "Challenges" are about yet, but one of them had the theme "Summer 2009". Heck, why not submit an image? Which one? Well, on the topic of commitment, I had promised the couple who so thoughtfully provided me with a wonderful subject in what was already a "surreal setting" to send them a copy of the photo I had taken. I finally honored that commitment yesterday by processing that image for the Challenge, then sending the couple a copy. Then, today, I received such a nice response from them. Made my day. In the email they also asked where one could find out more about my photography...not easy as most of my work lies stored, but what is "out there" hangs on a few walls, adorns a few magazine covers and more pages inside, and, earlier this year, most of an auction catalogue. "Time to get this thing in motion."

At risk of making this post too long, I do also wish to acknowledge the encouragement and inspiration of my friend, Ted Grussing, whose gorgeous images I have had the privilege of receiving every weekday since last fall. Check his work out at www.tedgrussing.com and at www.tedandcorky.com.

With that, until tomorrow,
Mark