Month: November 2021

82 Folders

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Cover photograph: “Single Black Bird at Dusk” January 2021

As I peruse my photographs made in 2021, I am currently at 82 folders (for creative photography only).
Each folder represents an outing with resultant works. Some are full, others not so much.
This year was a year to dive into bird portraiture, which is rewarding, sometimes very boring, and never easy.
“The Truth of the Matter” is that birds in the wild don’t like humans. Couple that with restrictive access and finding opportunity can be challenging. (Not to mention attaining focus on a moving target)

The Truth of the Matter – Birds are wary of us. Clean portraits are nice, but birds prefer to hide in bushes and trees behind cover.

Typical wild bird “cooperation”
Even with its imperfections, this is one of my favorites for the year. A dramatic moment for this little mouse.
Again, imagery full of “errors” in the birding-perfect-world-tradition, but one of my best.

There is always more to learn with this craft. It forces the artist to push past the “mistakes”. A camera is a powerful tool. It can turn down the light of the sun, blur realities and simply make the user “get up and go make something lovely.”
That is power.

1st Quarter Work Files:

One Trick Pony

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Fall descends in a gust
Winds narrating
The passage of ageless sparks

Wind created by wings
Many, becoming one
True to their calling

In the fall/winter, I am a one-trick-pony. Obsessed with murmurations and their relationship with the ending of day. They dance with the moon and get drunk with the reds of the eventide. It has been ten seasons that I have sought them out. They no longer number in the 100’s or 1000’s as that first year, but the call is still irresistible.
Multiple exposures on a single frame. (Nikon Z6) – Selective blur added





Don’t Leave

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There is a certain stubbornness in the air
Though sun falls faster and cold grabs the neck
In firm coercions to change, to die off a little

“Look, all the other trees have shed their coats
Why won’t you conform?
Go to sleep already”

Tree, so steady:
“Yet it is ninety degrees today
A time for basking and soaking

If I had legs, I’d go surfing
You may be around less
But this confusion
Does not come
Without a price

Soon enough.”

trees across the lake – Mission Trails, San Diego –

The Gathering

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A gathering of crows is called a murder.
I wonder why. There are many explanations.
The eating of human flesh after a battle seems appropriate.

A group of rhinos – Crash.
Apes- Shrewdness…ok!
Alligators – Congregation…a Sunday morning ritual?
Lemurs – Conspiracy….(or is that just the theory?)

More here: https://www.businessinsider.com/odd-names-for-groups-of-animals-2016-3#a-troop-or-barrel-of-monkeys-23

Composite stitching (multiple exposure photos). Available print: https://bluemarblephotography.smugmug.com/Composites/Birdscapes/i-7zjkvJt/A