[ 20 ] Summer Class Shots - 4 >>> Final Photos

These photographs are the 'last of the summer wine', so to speak. The first two photos were taken during my class at the Cincinnati Art Academy, and the rest of the photos were uploaded as part of a ten week internet online class --- The Art of Digital Photography. Luckily, both classes were taken before the terrifically hot weather set in over our area of the country. I'm really looking forward to the cooler fall weather ahead when I can get out and walk wherever I want without battling high heat and even higher humidity.

The Sanctuary of St. Anthony Friary, Cincinnati, OH

Upper Section of the Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH

White Balance Study

Macro Shot of Working Bee Emerging from a Hosta Bloom

Macro Shot of Pigeon, Fountain Square, Downtown Cincinnati, OH

Macro Triptych

[ 19 ] Summer Class Shots - 3

These four images were basically non-serious 'exercizes' in photo manipulation using Photoshop to create visual fantasies. I enjoy working this way once in awhile, but I'd much rather work more realistically, where while still manipulating the images in PS, I'm creating them with more subtle, less noticeable effects. However, these four images were fun to create, and they helped the student and child in me to play with the power and the possibilities built into the software. I must admit the fantasy aspect of creating one's own world from the already existing one is alluring, but the powers you are given are limited. Sooner or later one must return and face reality. I guess I'm still reflecting on the superpower theme mentioned in the previous post.

(Remember to click the images to see enlarged views.)

7th Street in Crisis, Cincinnati, OH
One shot used to make this image. Of course, lots of warping and other tricks. A rather ordinary and undistinguished shot otherwise.

Entertainer on Stiltz
Three images combined; the two figures were photographed at a local park celebration near my home and then transported to downtown Cincinnati.

Lurker in the Windows
One background image taken in downtown Cincinnati and 8 images of myself taken a few years ago during a self-portrait photography class (7 face shots and one shadowed image of my hands).

Cold Future
Four images used: a building along the Kentucky banks of the Ohio River across from downtown Cincinnati; ice dripping from power lines in front of my house; ice coated clothespins from my neighbor's backyard; the side of my ice covered car makes a fine sky background.

[ 18 ] Summer Class Shots - 2

As a photographer, walking the streets in downtown Cincinnati and it's surrounding neighborboods provides me with endless visual inspiration. Sometimes entire buildings draw my attention; however, more often than not, I find myself attracted to simple, interesting architectural shapes and details. Selecting the best images from an afternoon's photoshoot and tossing out those that don't please me gives me a sense of control that doesn't exist in other areas of my life. Processing the images gives me additional pleasure as well. Working with things -- manmade, sturdy, ordered -- sometimes helps me to balance myself in the midst of so much disorder and chaos I see around me and prepares me for what I will be hearing later on the 6 o'clock news. Stopping time with my camera gives me a break from what really matters and allows me to later return to 'one' moment to contemplate more carefully what really was (is) going on in my life. Stopping time! I never thought of it this way before. I've often wondered what it would be like to have real superpowers. Stopping time! . . . now that's pretty good for starters, isn't it?

Downtown Diptych, Cincinnati, OH

US Bank Detail, Cincinnati, OH

Mt. Adams, Cincinnati, OH

[ 17 ] A Very Good Read

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

From The Washington Post's Book World review: "Death, it turns out, is not proud.
The narrator of The Book Thief is many things -- sardonic, wry, darkly humorous, compassionate -- but not especially proud. As author Marcus Zusak channels him, Death -- who doesn't carry a scythe but gets a kick out of the idea -- is as afraid of humans as humans are of him."

[ 16 ] Summer Class Shots - 1

Along Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH

This summer I've taken a couple of classes to keep myself busy. One was an online photography class and the other was a Photoshop class designed for digital photographers offered at The Cincinnati Art Academy. Each class got me out of the house and 'into the field' to grab new shots. I'll be posting more over the next few days.

Atop the Post-Times Star Building, Cincinnati, OH


Stairs to the Purple People Pedestrian Bridge, Cincinnati, OH

[ 15 ] Our World is Broken

Our world is broken in all sorts of ways. Nations are waging war with one another over land, freedom, power, religion. We are killing one another for all kinds of reasons. Nations are unwilling to turn the tide and become civil with one another, totally unwilling to forgive one another, totally unwilling to set aside past and present violence in order to find new ways of starting over. Individuals too are finding themselves in so much pain and mental oppression, mental depression. Some are giving up altogether, unable to cling to or touch whatever hope is left for them, if indeed there is any hope left at all. Some of us have become lost in unknown lands where we don’t have any way to turn to find a way back to the Eden-like dream we once thought possible. A few spiral so far into despair and depression that revenge and suicide become odd perversions of resolution and hope. I know that I’m exaggerating just about everything right now because I find myself so emotionally bent, but, then again, am I really over-exaggerating, or am I just feeling a short-lived sadness for the moment only, praying that tomorrow will drift into view and make everything magically safe again?

I am shaken to the core with what has happened on the Virginia Tech campus this past Monday, April 16, 2007. 33 dead, 1 killer, 32 victims. It seems so wasteful. The entire world is mourning on some level, surely our nation is mourning, families are mourning, loved ones, friends are mourning. The media has already become a circus, competing for answers as well as ratings, prematurely pointing fingers, yes, pointing fingers as if being able to blame another person or some institution will solve everything and perfectly heal what is happening to our nation and to ourselves. If we can just find someone or something to bear the burden of blame, then everything will aright itself and the rest of us can once again not feel guilty. If it were only this easy. But it’s never this easy, is it?

I’m hoping that we never find the definitive source for blame for what has happened because deep down I believe that all of us, each and every one of us bears some burden of responsibility for what has happened on the Virginia Tech campus, beginning especially with myself. All together we have helped sculpt the world we see around us, and we have influenced the actions of those with whom we cohabit. I say this with complete confidence even though I don’t have the answers or solutions myself.

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning, a routine checkup. All went well. Afterwards I drove to Frisch’s and ordered a comfortable breakfast of scrambled eggs, ham, decaf. When running errands, I always travel with a book to read in case I have to wait in traffic or, in this case, for my food order to arrive. Tears began to well up as I started to read. I was embarrassed to be seen this way publicly so I didn’t allow myself to sob my guts out as I would have if I had been in the privacy of my own home. Yesterday’s tragedy became even more poignant because this past weekend I had started reading Jodi Picoult’s newest book, Nineteen Minutes, a novel with themes reminiscent of the tragedy at Columbine High School several years ago. It’s no coincidence. There are no coincidences right now. All things in my life are converging for a reason. I’m taking this as some kind of personal sign, a revelation of sorts, a call to reexamine my own journey and to begin sorting through my own deeply planted ideas about life and death and all that happens in between. In fact, I need to sort through EVERYTHING. I think we all do this now and then just as a matter course, but tragedy tends to jolt us more immediately into this inner dialogue that becomes both scary and necessary.

This afternoon, after working on a website which I am close to finishing, I needed to be outside in the sunshine with my camera. It was the wrong time of day for getting really good shots, but that didn’t matter. I just needed to get away from the news and from being alone with my thoughts. I took over a hundred pictures, an easy thing to do in this digital age, and here are three-plus shots that I want to share here on the blog. One of them is a self portrait that shows me looking in all directions, and the two other ones illustrate order, human-made order. I’m supposing that’s what I needed to find amidst all this tragic chaos around me.

[ 14 ] Nature's Mantra . . .

persistence . . . . . persistence . . . . . persistence