Saturday, February 28, 2009

The “Local” Moai


I have always been fascinated with rocks of any kind. Being raised in New England, huge boulders deposited by retreating glaciers are a common sight. Our back yard had several that were larger than a VW Bug; we frequently used them for hiding places while playing hid and seek. So in every sense of the word, I was raised among the rocks.

So you might wonder why I became a forester as opposed to say a stone mason. Well, I also loved trees and fire; as a forester I was able to work with both. Fortunately, a career in forestry also gave me the opportunity to hike and climb on rocks of monstrous proportions, so in a sense I had the best of both worlds.

If I had a bucket list, it certainly would include a trip to the Easter Islands to hike among the giant Moai. The pictures I have seen of them are absolutely breathtaking but a picture only goes so far; there is no substitute for being there!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

More Hidden Treasures

These images are a few more "hidden treasures" from my abandoned Pullman rail car project . The more I review the entire collection, it makes me wonder if I should offer them to the local psychologists as an alternative for ink blots. Maybe I could derive a few dollars to reinvest at our local Starbucks.






The eye of the bat


The walking bat



The old warrior



Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Finding Hidden Treasures

This past summer during my daily bike ride, I would frequently pass this old Pullman rail car. In its day, this car would have been the pride of the rail line, but now it's little more than a pile of rusting metal and rotting wood. In many ways the old car has become an eye sore; most folks pass by and likely just ignore it.

One morning while passing by as the sun lit up the car's side I noticed the most incredible designs that were formed by the peeling paint. I returned several days later with camera and tripod and spent a good deal of time photographing the "mystical beings" that were formed by the paint and rust. Over the course of the next month, I returned to photograph each side of the car and made a couple of hundred images. Over the last few weeks, I edit the number of images down to a couple of dozen have choose the following as two of my favorite "mystical beasts".



Ugly Betty sitting in all here glory




The ice dancers




The archer slaying the two-headed beast

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Lurking In The Shadows


I have always been interested in photography; if my memory is correct, I received my first camera in 1965. At the time, I was the proud owner of a Kodak Instamatic ; the thing was build as solid as a brick. That's a good thing because the camera got dropped a lot! The quality of the pictures it produced were also reasonably good considering there was nothing to adjust; just frame and shoot. It's been a long time since life was ever that simple!

I have always been interested in black and white images, especially those with have areas of shadows or reflections. To me, the shadows or reflections add a sense of mystery or intrigue to the photo. In a sense, they are like a bonus, adding an "economic stimulus" so to speak to the photo.

I was headed home last week when I spotted the shadow cast by a sign onto the side of a church in my neighborhood. Over the past twenty-five years I have passed by this church countless times but it never has appeared so intriguing as on this afternoon.