Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: square format

  • Standard Orbit

    Standard Orbit

    35mm square format photograph of large hydrangea hanging baskets lining a greenhouse corridor within Longwood Gardens conservatory.
    Standard Orbit — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/2500

    The Longwood Gardens conservatory is a sight to behold. The crowning jewel atop acres of grounds fit for any court. It stands anachronistic of a place and time far more European in nature.

    Within the conservatory, under the eaves and broad glass panes spanning the angled rooftops with ease, light pours in from above and all sides; filling the open spaces to funnel the outside in. Packed within this elegantly manufactured nature is an impressive amount of growing life. Flowers of every color and type make their meticulously manicured presence felt backlit by an endless sea of green. From wall to ceiling everything is grown to perfection. There is deep experience here, and its experience shows off with a studied ease.

    It is a display for the senses. A panoply of light, sight, color, and smell conducted in well choreographed step. The entire design working its way from one simulated climate to the next. All interconnected with well grown corridors. Old growth holds sway here, and they serve as natural portals between zones. It is here I encountered the majestic hanging baskets bursting with hydrangea paced about 20 feet apart. A satellite welcome, a floral chandelier locked in standard orbit guiding me about this aged greenhouse manse. A natural footman speaking to the legacy of its Du Pont past.

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  • The Grind

    The Grind

    14mm square format photo depicts a fiery sunset over the lake framed between the contrasted silhouettes of two small pine trees.
    The Grind — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/13

    Tectonic forces do their work. Ploughing their inescapable hell slowly and without discrimination. They grind—hard. Such is their subtlety as to be motionless to the eye though with a power as immutable as gravity. It goes to work on you at all times. The all seeing eye. Without cease or respite it weighs heavy its jagged white-hot indiscriminate hand, wearing body and mind down to dust. It pulverizes all identity and form until it spits you out as something unrecognizable, something—else. Were you crushed and cast out or transformed and made whole in the friction?

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  • Peace and Pilings

    Peace and Pilings

    14mm square format photo of a potent pastel sunset reflecting over a glassy Cedar Run creek. Two vertical pilings mark the mid ground.
    Peace and Pilings — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Mark the horizon to find your way. Where two uprights cleave your life in thirds. Pastels flare to set the world anew afore darkness pulls it under. Serenity finds the seeker. Framed in peace and pilings. Draped in sheer joy. Reflecting hope and purpose. The mirrored worlds are yours.

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  • Green Sight

    Green Sight

    35mm square format photo of a lilac blossom. Shot wide open at f/1.4, it features soft focus and smooth bokeh, cross processed to a green hue.
    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 wide open square format photo of a blooming lilac in high key light surrounded by bokeh.
    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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  • The Collector

    The Collector

    100mm square format macro photo of a honey bee pollenating a Black-eyed Susan flower blossom.
    The Collector — 100mm | f/4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/125

    Honey bees! Working, buzzing, collecting. Pollen clinging and clumping in large, impressive blobs stuck about their legs. Dutiful, the bees worked over one flower head after another, nonstop in their quest for pollen. They did not seem to mind my presence much, either. Showing no ill will toward my camera intrusion. Though getting tack sharp focus was not the easiest considering they never slow nor settle.

    But seriously, I cannot believe I have honey bees. There must have been dozens milling about the flowers strewn about my property. I never remember seeing this many honey bees in an entire season, let alone on a single day, and I have been photographic my yard extensively since 2012. My little black and yellow buds were doing their best work on my other little black and yellow buds, my Black-eyed Susan blossoms. It was awesome to watch.

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  • A Window to Winter

    A Window to Winter

    Square format 14mm photo of fresh snow atop pine trees at sunset.
    A Window to Winter — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Somehow I made it through the entirety of 2018 without making a single photo trip to Stafford Forge. I know it was a down year for photo output, but sheesh. At least I am checking it off my list early in 2019, am I right? With fresh mid-January snowfall it was the perfect destination to capture the final light of day.

    The pines were magical. Cotton ball snow resting easy atop pine boughs as far as the eye could see. Fresh powder and a last gasp of golden pink light set a dramatic stage. More than the photography it was invigorating to stand outside in crisp, bracing air; taking in the unmistakable air of fresh fallen snow. There’s nothing quite like it. A true tonic for the soul.

    I was out shooting and catching up with Jonathan Carr—who turned 39 today, happy birthday, man—and we couldn’t help note how similar the whole tableau was to March 2015. A similar snow fell across the region and the skies broke right in time for a power play golden hour into sunset. I made three great shots that day, and you can seem them here, here, and here. That kind of setup never gets old, and I will take more of that, please.

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  • Adornment

    Adornment

    Black and white hemlock pine cone macro photo in square format.
    Adornment — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/320

    You know the grind. You feel it. It weighs heavy as you mire through life’s ebbs and flows. You cherish the highs and bury the lows. It’s in the space between you grind for purpose. Two steps forward. Two steps back. Captured in inescapable reality, caught in the throes of a fated cosmic dance.

    You adorn your triumph and bury your loss. Unobserved to others the loss is still as real. No less massive, no less an equal equal force in the intwined gravitational balance. Only buried, left to rot and consume. Of course this is life. An impartial duality to remind you of inherent vitality sprinkled with uncertainty. The fearsome dive to the depths releases you to relish the inevitable rise to new heights. Actions need balance. Yet the weight of it all will pull you back to the grind. Working. Churning. Struggling. Steadfast to best understand what it all means. You’re tired. It is in these moments where you are best to open up; to show your full self warts and all. Let the world see you as you are, adorned with hope, fear, and the grinding middle ground we all feel.

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  • Pinky Peony

    Pinky Peony

    Square format pink peony blossom photo with bokeh.
    Pink Peony — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1000

    I’m not one for literal titles yet here I am. Strange things, man, they happen. In their death throes now, my peonies had their proverbial moment in the sun in late May. Pink and glorious, oversized bulbous blossoms beautified my shrub bed with their bounty. Tissue paper petals bunched together in a gift package of pink, ready to welcome a newborn child. Hardly long for this world they bring a respite of joy to eager viewers keen to seek them out. Many people I know laude the coming of the peony, and I am happy to count myself among their rank.

    On another note, does anyone have a trick to keep these things from bending under their own weight? Not long after bloom the flower heads take on the oppressed posture of a people suffering under the yolk of a tyrant. It’s unbecoming of their beauty and power. My peonies could use some support, you guys. It is clear The Man (me) has got them down.

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