may peonies spring
bright puffs to float you away
to the home right here
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Tag: 35mm
All photographs tagged here have been taken with a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Lens
Peony Leisure
Peony Leisure — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1250 
Heaven Scent
Heaven Scent — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1000 flowering lilac
our fragrant welcome to spring
atonement breathingInterested in buying? Purchase
The April Fool
The April Fool — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/320 The April Fool tramples his path
Running roughshod through this world
Joyous conceit
Close-minded and haughtily assured
Gilded, unperturbedDazzled masses froth over such trappings
The success, the power, the sprawling paper card manse propped up on the hill
How do I get mine?
Follow the April Fool
For he knows not he knows nothingInterested in buying? Purchase
Autumn Intonation
Autumn Intonation — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1250 Autumn colors burn with such righteous intensity it’s as if we can breathe it in and hear its glow serenade at the core of our heart. The last golden ember of a great fire poised for transcendence. As a symphony to all senses it plays true to a cultivated soul. It’s a paradox, of course, nature revealing the esoteric mystery of life’s fated dance with death while veiled in a golden cloak of unspeakable beauty. The death of life colored in celebration for its promised rebirth. Autumn intones this ministry to the world. A miraculous offering made for those with the keen sense to receive.
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Walled Off
Walled Off — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/160 And now for something completely different. I made my way to Batsto Village on Sunday. Autumn peak is still a ways out, but the short jaunt made for a solid photowalk regardless. Temperatures were warm with mostly masked park goers aplenty. It was one of those dress for all seasons kind of days. Toasty in the sun, cool in the shade. As my friends played about with their tiny humans, I meandered listlessly about the old iron works village. Some noticeable changes since my photowalk in 2014, including the loss of some large maple trees. Such is the passage of time.
I spent ten minutes with my camera making photos of a building I once described as a weird barn-esque pseudo covered bridge type building sided in evenly spaced, repetitive wood slats. The leading lines speak to me. There is an old, weathered door with a rusted iron loop which once made part of a locking mechanism. Above is the photograph, treated in sepia to lend visual to the structure’s age. I’m not certain what to call this kind of photography? Street? Architectural? Nonsense? I suspect this is one of those photos I enjoy but doesn’t land well with the masses. But that’s OK!
Music and the world lost an icon and virtuoso today. Rest easy, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen. The stardust of the riff master has returned to the universe.
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Born of the Purple
Born of the Purple — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/13 Last night’s sunset was a certified banger. A powered up sky show raining down pastel hues upon the green land in every direction. The pinks and purples filtering down from the 360 degree sky dome looked the work of angels. A moment in time to take your breath away and leaves your heart to skip a beat. Without question one of the best sunsets of 2020. A stunner, full stop.
Of course I was home cooking. Instead of getting bent and pouty, the sky faeries shared with me a boon. My front yard purple coneflowers were straight glamor posing in heaven’s pastel glow. The ethereal infusion amplifying the already magnificent colors of these flowering beauties. Excited and inspired, I dashed inside, opened my camera bag, and swapped my 14mm lens for my 35mm. With aperture set wide open at f/1.4, I squatted close to my subject and went to town making frames of my echinacea friends.
This had me amped. Ignoring the missed landscape potential, I popped off shots left and right. My muse looked a wonder under this light and she knew it. So I set about making frames with the intense glow of sunset backlighting the whole scene. It was sublime. One of those flow moments where time sits still—fostering maximum internal focus and presence.
A brief word on the not so intentional making of this photograph. There is another happy accident worth mentioning here: It does not take a keen observer to note this picture is out of focus. Low on light I had a sluggish shutter speed set at 1/13 of a second. As a general rule it’s a safe bet to keep your shutter speed denominator north of your focal length. In this case, sitting over 1/35 or so would be the play. That said, I am of a mind the lack of focus plays right into the strength of the scene. With light cast from a usually unseen parallel universe bleeding into our world if only for a moment. It adds something of a fishbowl effect and it is the perfect accoutrement to the tableau. It conveys the mood in a far truer way than I could have intentioned. Too often we do not see the world as it is. Sometimes sharp focus leaves us blind.
The lesson—missing out on a thing does not mean we lose a thing. Instead it gifts opportunity to see a thing in a different, more diffuse and loving light. We work with what we’ve got, and that is where we create the real magic to capture our forever.
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Green Sight
Green Sight — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/6400 Were I to see into the future would I make this photograph?
Would we do anything were we to see it beforehand? More so, would we have in our possession the power to stop ourselves? When and where would we even want to?
Does our seeing a thing stop us from tracking it? Does our knowing a thing irrevocably change its course? Does its future sprout a new one?
How can we know when our future is here? When the heart lifts and the gifts are easy, and you well know a place you’d swear you knew before.
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Love and Lilacs
Love and Lilacs — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5000 Today marks 43 days at home. Am I hanging in there? Yes. Am I a people starved, in need of hugging and loving, and belly laughs with friends? Also yes. I wrote yesterday how all this time home has reconnected me to my macro flower photography roots. A blessing in all the isolated madness. Well this weekend my lilacs took their first step out onto the springtime stage. They are prepping for their proper debut this week. Before I trim them up to bring their unmistakable scent inside I will get my photo fill.
Instead of the 100mm macro lens I went with my beloved 35mm. It’s a versatile lens, one that affords landscapes, portraits, and even a floral still life. It’s the lens you take along if you can only have one. She’s a show off, too; striking sharpness wide open. Allowing the photographer to execute dramatic bokeh balanced against areas of sharp focus. It’s a dream to shoot and super fast. All I had to do was frame up a pleasing composition in decent sunlight and let the glass do the rest.
Love and lilacs. Lilacs and love. Pink and purple pastel beauties surpassed in sweetness only by their unmistakable perfume. Dating back to the ancient world purple marked out royalty. It wasn’t long before they cornered the market in total. In many cases outlawing its wearing to non-royals. And the Byzantine’s, well they were flat out obsessed with the color. To the block quote:
The reason for purple’s regal reputation comes down to a simple case of supply and demand. For centuries, the purple dye trade was centered in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre in modern day Lebanon. The Phoenicians’ “Tyrian purple” came from a species of sea snail now known as Bolinus brandaris, and it was so exceedingly rare that it became worth its weight in gold. To harvest it, dye-makers had to crack open the snail’s shell, extract a purple-producing mucus and expose it to sunlight for a precise amount of time. It took as many as 250,000 mollusks to yield just one ounce of usable dye, but the result was a vibrant and long-lasting shade of purple.” — History.com
Thanks to nature purple is for the people; no reserved for the privileged few who managed the singular feat of being born of a certain line. Mother Nature loves all, blind to class and caste, and bestows her regal colors across the lands of even her most humble denizens. Love and lilacs always win and her purple is ours to behold.
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Our Light Fades
Our Light Fades — 35mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100 It’s been a week. Life is a series of give and take, and right now it is hellbent on dealing blows and stripping away happiness. It is a dark time. In light of my struggles I wish you well in your escape from the shadows.
Light kneeling before dark, while cold and uncertain, is the appropriate segue today, December, 21, 2019. Yes, it is to the winter solstice I refer. Documented above, photographed in 35mm, we meet with its final light of day. Captured at 4:35 p.m., at the Cedar Run Dock Road boat ramp staring west across Little Egg Harbor, the sun embarks on its longest journey through darkness. Long will it labor until its shadowed path brings us first light. A rebirth to our celestial cycle will illuminate dreams cast upon a distant horizon.
This photograph was simple in its execution. Shot handheld at a focal length of 35mm. This casual approach fit well with the stillness of the bay water. Calm and sublime. It was only my second frame of my total shoot—I made many more exposures at 14mm—yet its minimalism and stillness speaks to me. Wanting to key in on forms and color, I substantially reduced clarity and texture in post processing. This introduces softness and comfort to the scene. I suspect this is my own feelings crying out for softness and comfort. As it is life informs art as art informs life.
Enjoy the solstice, and happy holidays everyone.
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