Category: photography

if it’s just about the photography experience

Sudden is Life

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In general.
Nothing changes. Everything changes.
Everything stays the same. Nothing stays the same.
Everything happens for a reason.
Except time and chance.

Since May, I’ve lost most of the mobility in my right arm. “Frozen shoulder” they call it, with rotator cuff issues. The pain teaches me limitations. Limitations are ignored while sleeping, so in pain I wake up throughout the night. The evidence of most painkillers’ association with memory/cognitive decline keeps me away from those. So, it’s ginger tea or turmeric. Physical therapy is “thawing” out the issue. My Orthopedic Doc will likely shoot me up with cortisone to speed up the process.
With that, I recognize what a blessed world I live in. I get to go see doctors who will help me. We see a disease that would have killed countless millions 100 years ago and we fight it. There seems to be an “expectation of perfection” in society these days, from all sides. All of us are fallible and yet sides are drawn? Like it or not, we are not divided. My body is made from the same earth/cosmos born material as everyone elses. We all share this.
We all share the same moon. We are all part of the same river. The water in our bodies once supported fish in a great ocean.
Like it or not, we are all one.

Cover Photo; “Blue Forest Starlings” – Available Print: https://bluemarblephotography.smugmug.com/Photographs/Black-Birds-Crows-Swallows/i-cqhr3fn/A

Studio Dumping:
After years of exhibitions, it’s time to clear out the studio. These prints are poster mounted to keep costs down to move them out of the studio. Drop me a line if interested.

Red Sky Falling

on By

The incidence of the angle to the sun
Relative to the distance
The minor variance
Affecting the whole of our world

Glancing at Venus
Conversing with the moon
Behind the cloud
The red of sun
Splashed for ambience

We’re entering
The dark sector
Of revolution and rotation
A cosmic wonder

My thought
“Days are getting shorter”
Is an insult
To the reality of this grandeur

I’ve been so busy with “stuff” and have had few opportunities to create images. My heart fell when I witnessed such a beautiful sight last night. The moon and Venus (or Mercury?) claiming a stupendous “good night” to the day’s end. I could only appreciate it in passing. Responsibilities. Soon the blackbirds will return to the lake in their murmurations. I must make time for this.

©2021 Mark Steven Wade – Available Prints

Red Sky Closing

The Hunt

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Back country service roads can lead to perilous areas where moving forward is sketchy. At the same time, conditions may occur where one cannot stop to look ahead. Momentum is required to traverse the conditions ahead. Trusting learned instincts is paramount to success in these moments.
Once through the danger, there may be some damage. Perhaps the oil pan was compromised/scratched, or maybe the suspension was strained. The “other side” hopefully delivers its treasures and the relative pain is worthy. Sometimes all is failed and documented for future references. Learning is the reward of perceptible failure.

Project:
Bird photography for inspiration.
Incorporate standard bird photography restrictions:
Detail
Focus on the eye
Get in plane (their level)
Composition (duh)
More blah blah blah

Of course there are gear, software, editing and tech issues. More opportunities for failure…..learning.

Then What?
Always, then what?
That will never be found in a lens, camera body or editing software.

Bunny Love

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Little rabbit
Lives in the dirt
Little rabbit
Has no shirt….or
Is named Bert or Gert
Appears quite pert
Loves to eat vert?

Yeah
All those rhymes

A facebook friend asked if I make photos of rabbits (she loves bunnies). Mostly I don’t. So I made her this manipulation.

Here’s what it feels like to walk the woods:

Is Too Far A Waste of Time?

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Perhaps I have ADHD, ADD, WXYZ, or something, I don’t know. We know that when we endeavor into an artistic genre, we will aim at “traditional.” Once that is known (fully or otherwise) sometimes we ask ourselves, “what can I do with this? It’s nice, but how do I make it my own?” Our thinking drifts in and out of ideas. So how do we work it out?
For me, the first step is to take it too far. Sometime that works, sometimes not. When I first started using intentional camera movements in my work, I was elated! My assistant reviewed some of my work and honestly stated, ” it hurts my eyes.” With that, I came to understand that something new and exhilarating to me is meaningless if it does not convey a meaningful message to the viewer.
It was not failure, it was learning and with learning comes maturity.
So here we are again. The decision to gear up for bird photography in February has brought me here. Processing a color image, save, process a B&W rendering, save, process a B&W image and remove the colors that make the water go to black. Stack that black image over the color and reveal the color through masking.
Kitsch? Perhaps. But I will embrace kitsch if it leads me to new knowledge. Anyway, it makes for an interesting desktop background.
During this process of editing and video creation I have come to remember why I love photography so much. A few hours spent outside of myself. No cares of the world bearing down on me. Looking for beauty and story. What a lovely privilege. Watching and appreciating nature is a treasure to the heart.
In all of that discovery, I see the direction to go. To explore and work. To fail and succeed. To live.

Finding the Light

It is the telling
That wears us out
So we run to places
Where semblances
Of light
Still reside

The gold of morning
Gives us hope.
There is no talking here
Only instinct
And the basic will
To survive.

A place for flight
And grace
Strength and weakness.
It waits for no one
And moves through us all.

An unending story
Waiting to unfold
Waiting
To be told.