Protestant Prayer Room Ceiling

At an internet cafe and they are closing the doors soon so keeping it short.
Two things:
One, this ceiling was painted in the 14th or 15th century (need to check my notes which aren't here) and these are apparently---so I am told by my guide---the original colors. The images have been restored in that dirt and a rusty layer have been peeled away (a small part of one corner of the ceiling has been left in the state the conservators found it to show the difference) but other than this cleaning process, the colors have not been enhanced. I am guessing lazurite (ultramarine) is the pigment for the blue as azurite (a copper carbonate) would have turned green (malachite, another copper carbonate that is more stable), much like it did in the Sistine Chapel.

Second, this image is a composite of eleven different shots I took laying down on the stone floor. It is a bit wobbly in parts but I am extrememly impressed with the power of Photoshop CS4. One benefit of stitching many images together is a larger overall image, thus in effect greater resolution because one can get in tighter to the subject and 'raster photograph' it.
I had to because I had no wide angle lens and could only get so far down on the floor...

Time and time again...

Time and timepieces seem to be a popular them in my photos here...the former, at least, occupies much of my contemplative time---sorry, couldn't resist---but seriously, when not regarding the rapidity of its passing relative to the quantity of what I feel I want to have accomplished in that duration, I love to have my mind boggled by consequences of its infinite nature. What supposedly imperceptible processes are occurring as we speak, write or do anything that would become immediately apparent when the element of time is compressed? I remember when I first saw a short film in school that used time lapse photography to demonstrate the quotidian activities of flowers that one might ignore if one only watched them for a few minutes...as they opened and closed, or, as in the case of sunflowers, how they change orientation to follow the our great star's path across the sky. I was astounded.

This image features the distinctive clock tower that watches (no pun intended) over the city of Graz from the Schloßberg (Castle Mountain). It was recently reopened after being veiled in scaffolding and tarps for more than a year to allow much needed restoration work. I grew up with images of this edifice in and out of the house and on the occasion of a voyage here, I never fail to visit what has always been---and continues to be in the form of a painting in my own home now---such a familiar sight to me. And so, Tuesday night it was hot chocolate in the "Skybar"...and a few shots of the tower in its night-lit splendor.

Ante Meridiem/Post Meridiem

This is the only sundial I have seen of its kind...one side performs as the morning dial and at noon, the sun crosses over to the other (afternoon) side. It is on one of the buildings in the Burg Strechau in the province of Styria, Austria. On my way to Graz yesterday, I thought I would stop in to have a look around as I had driven past the castle several times before. Rather interesting: housed in one of the buildings is an automobile collection, featuring quite a number of Steyr vehicles; preserved in the residential building is a notable 14th century Protestant prayer hall...notable because it is one of the only in Austria, a dominantly Catholic country...but perhaps more about it later if the photos I took of the exquisite ceiling turns out.

Pegmatite Patterns

At the Oceanview Mine today. Haven't been underground for quite some time. I love it. Getting my fingers onto some rocks is a preferred way of connecting to the Earth, indeed the Universe.

I studied pegmatites for my Master's degree---one field in the Northwest Territories, in particular, but many others as background to that study. Having grown up with John Sinkankas' "Gems & Minerals And How to Find Them" I always wished I lived near these deposits...now I do...and work/play in them on occasion.

In this image are divergent crystals of schorl, a tourmaline group mineral. Also in the view are garnet crystals (almandine), spodumene alteration products (purple clays), and, of course, the quartz, feldspars and mica that make up the matrix.

Nature creates some cool things...

Muse-ic

Just finished watching a movie called "August Rush". It is a fairy tale...and given what we have in the theatres today, it is a much needed one. Not to judge (really) others, but "August Rush" has such a positive message. Following the music...

The word contains the sound ˈmyüz...more recognizable as muse, defined as "a source of inspiration; especially : a guiding genius" (Merriam-Webster online).

I recently read a blog post---funny, now that I have started one, I have also started reading some---that decried the notion of "doing what you love" as a way to making money. I think the author missed the point. It is a way of getting the most out of life. If money is your music, then by all means, follow it.

While visiting friends in Pennsylvania, the day this image was shot, we went to a drumming evening that our friends hosted. A young man and his father also joined in that evening; obviously for the first time. He was extremely frustrated at not being able to bang out a beat on the bongo...just couldn't do it. I laughed to myself---not at him, but at the fact that I couldn't either. I was having fun trying though, he wasn't. One of the more experienced drummers handed him a wooden box with a stick and showed him how to hit it with a beat and encouraged him to continue and the rest would just follow his lead. Well, he wasn't the best at that either BUT it was a beat clear enough that I could make it out and all of a sudden I could bang that bongo with some semblance of a beat. Talk about the blind leading the blind! What a wonderful evening!

No, I haven't decided that I need to become a musician. My beat isn't found in a metronome...mine is the sound of a shutter. When all I hear is the sound of my pulse, and when it is still enough to keep steady, the sound of the shutter, then I am following my muse.

Now I just need to get good enough to make some money ;-)...

Pennsylvania 01

Short one again today...

This peaceful scene is at a park just below the Blue Marsh Lake dam on the Tulpehocken River in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Friends took us on a bit of a county tour last Friday and this and the next few images are from that visit.

Enjoy!

Black & White...and a touch of sepia.

We arrived in DC in the late in the day and after having sat in the car most of the day, needed a bit of movement and thus made the Washington Mall the destination for an evening stroll. Besides taking in the views, our little adventure became an exercise in the temporary appropriation of inanimate objects to counter the lack of a tripod. I usually did not travel without one in the good old days but for some years now I have tried to board airplanes with only carry-on luggage---managed six weeks in Australia once (including a pair of hiking boots that I never ended up using)---but my only light tripod is ironically rather bulky for its weight and usefulness. Checked out some nice carbon fibre ones on this trip. Alas, no purchase yet.

With all of the light colored edifices and monuments in the vicinity of the Mall, brightly lit at night, it seemed like a natural to try some snapping a few images with the idea of turning them into black and white images. At the west end, farthest from the Smithsonian Metro station, is the Lincoln Memorial. On the way up the steps, we passed quite a number of school classes (don't these kids have bedtimes?...just kidding, it is a rather stunning time of day to visit the Mall) and I overheard one of the teachers advising her charges to pay heed to certain symbolic elements in the statue. I think she said something about Lincoln's hands but all I really got out of my inadvertent eavesdropping was the "pay attention" bit. So I did. I looked at the work in terms of posture, hands (right open, left held closed) gaze (straight ahead...and slightly down) but little of that revealed to me any insight regarding the sculptor's intentions. What I did notice was that the marble was significantly whiter than the building's gray limestone...deliberate, I am sure, and reminiscent, when viewed from the far end of the Reflecting Pool, of the filament in a white tungsten light bulb, imbuing the monument with an apparent luminosity rather than being lit. To interpret this as a metaphor portraying the 16th as a luminary among presidents is inescapable, intended or not.

However, it was not until I started working with the image that I thought about the photographic term black and white...grayscale is much more appropriate, not only in the accurate description of a non-colored image, but, in this case---and any actually---the subject material itself, though the expression shades of gray might find more recognition among those not initiated in the graphic arts.
Not to take away from this man's achievements, but Lincoln's presidency and the politics of the day had their share of gray areas as any other did or does or will. The most pressing issues of his time, and the motives and fuel for the Civil War, were anything but black and white. Black and white thinking on the other hand, is real...and the source of much conflict, both personal and interpersonal. Gray areas are often talked about as no-man's land...as no place one wanted to be. Yet, gray areas are a mix of black and white...regions in which black and white have common ground. We humans like boundaries, like the white picket fences around our house and property...we prefer definition, pigeon-holes, boxes. Why? Gray is easier once one lets go of fear. I know..easy to say.

Gypsy Woman (One & Too)

I could not access the website last night so today I am posting two images of a series I took of a marble sculpture in the Bendel Mansion (Stamford Museum). Rather liked this artwork.

Until next time...

Bendel Mansion Visitor

Another visitor to the Bendel Mansion at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center.

Short one again today...must say, the posting dates are a bit funny ("yesterday" is Sunday, but believe me, it was Monday when I pressed "Publish Post")...fun and games. An expression I might have to add to my word treasury after these past few days.

Stamford Museum and Nature Center

Greetings from Connecticut!
The Universe is just awesome..in the truest meaning of the word. Learned something last night about the formation of the elements (which I shall undoubtedly write about in the future...it's just too cool), observed Jupiter and three of its satellites, and peeked at the Andromeda galaxy.
The Stamford Museum and Nature Center is a delightful and wonderfully eclectic complex; among its assets are an observatory and planetarium, the Heckscher [Educational] Farm, a museum housed in the Bendel Mansion, and nature trails.
Very enjoyable way to spend a day...or two :-)

Dunbar Dusk

Short one today.
Monday, we supped out at "the lake". Sausages just taste better roasted over a fire in the outdoors :-)
Twice this year I've made the trip to the cabin...not nearly enough.
On the road all next week, so posts may be sparse, if any...camera will be along, of course!

Cycles

Cycles are quite fascinating, especially as everything in existence is part of one or another. The non-linear relationship of things is for me the most interesting aspect of the Buddhist perspective of the universe and its goings-on, especially as it applies to the transient nature of being; that there is no beginning or end to matter. Birth is not the beginning of life as death is not the end; these are merely changes taking place, just as they are throughout that "life". Living entities are temporal manifestations of energy, not at all separate from the rest of what makes up the universe. Physics chimes in with its own version of this as the Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that the total amount of energy in a closed system remains constant. The corollary to this is that anything created is at the expense of something else.

The vegetables that we ate---very yummy ones, to be sure---while I was visiting my parents over the last few days grew in the garden's soil. That growth "used" up some part of the soil, thereby creating a much tastier medium for humans to ingest nutrients (would it not indeed be less than sublime to have to retrieve our nutrition directly from the soil?). Without putting something back, eventually the soil runs out. Well, that's what I was thinking about as I observed the compost bin and my father tilling back into the earth the plant material that did not become food on the table.

Now one might point out the the garden plus dining table hardly construe a closed system. However, the garden and, indeed, we the consumers of the produce are part of the Universe, and the Universe, even in its infinity and if we can conceive that nothing exists outside the Universe, is a closed system.

We---and it remains to be seen just who or what all of "we" consist of---are in this together.

The Columbia River Wetlands

Today's image is as current as I have made so far...I took the photo today as my parents and I went for a bit of a walk.

The house I grew up in---or at least during my public school years---has a view over what we called the Wilmer Sloughs back then; these are part of what since have been made a protected wildlife management site and named the Columbia River Wetlands.

Many memories here: my brother and I, one frosty early May when he and I turned 11 and 12, respectively...or so...camped on one of the islands. We spent a chilly night in the tent and silently paddled around the sloughs during the next day...only to be interrupted by a Fish & Wildlife official, who arrived on his noisy air-prop boat (like the ones used in the Everglades) to inform us that we were disturbing the geese???. Our parents had watched events unfold---indeed our entire camping trip---through the telescope in the living room. Such adventures are not possible now...but it's all good. Hiking is still allowed, the birding is great; these, the longest continuous wetlands remaining in North America, are a real treasure.

More Perspective

Remember the story about the four or five blindfolded (or blind) people standing around an elephant? Each reaches out and touches the elephant and is asked to describe "elephant"...cut it short, the answers vary considerably.

Walking up the many steps to the White Dagoba on Jade Flowery Islet in Beijing's Beihai Park, one crosses several halls. Today's image does not fully capture the image I saw of the artisan working on the ornate door frame but approximates it enough that my memory fills in the rest. Fine for me, I know.

While producing the frame for it, I showed it to another person, who commented that it looked like someone trying to break into a safe... Pop! There goes another bubble. Man! that perspective will get you every time.

...

It also dawned on me that I have not spelled out what I am trying to do here. Without goals, one tends to drift along, so I basically wanted to get going and make sure I was working with Photoshop on a regular basis and practising on as many different images as I could. Avoiding procrastination, as it were...or at least the rut of doing similar images all the time (i.e. gem & mineral). My goal is to try to do one image every weekday until the end of the year and take it from there. Travel (and therefore access to internet) might impede that once in a while, but one image every weekday is the general idea.

Fashion Show in a Beijing Street

Wandering around Beijing for several days before attending a conference, I happened upon a public fashion show or festival of some kind. Obviously, I wasn't the only person whose attention was caught...

Short one today...trying to get ready for the airport.