a year's last light
december 31, 2005
wiggins pass, fl

a happy new year!    grant that i
may bring no tear to any eye
when this new year in time shall end.
let it be said i've played the friend,
have lived and loved and labored here,
and made of it a happy year.
      --edgar guest

nikon d100, nikon 80-400 vr @ 270mm, 1/160, f/18

"silent night..."
hickory bay
christmas eve, 2005

"silent night, holy night,
all is calm, all is bright."
      -- fr. joseph mohr

one of my two christmas wishes came true today:  i spent the afternoon on the water, paddling aimlessly, exploring my favorite bird haunts and simply enjoying the sweet afternoon sunshine. it felt good to relax.

on the way home, crossing hickory bay a good 20 minutes after sundown, the slick water bloomed into a monet of tangerines and fuschias and indigos as the most average sunset erupted into tall rays of saturated color reflected on its surface. magic, pure magic.

i floated and captured a few frames and thought about christmas eve and light and hope and the simple gift of a holy sunset.

peace on earth, good will toward men.

nikon d100, nikon 12-24 @ 12mm, 1/2, f/16, handheld

rushing
bushkill falls creek, pa

"if we limit our vision to the real world, we will forever be fighting on the minus side of things, working only too make our photographs equal to what we see out there, but no better."
      --galen rowell

one of the things i like to unveil in my compositions is juxtapositions: contrasts, sitting side by side. dark water, bright leaves. fluid water, static tree trunk.

recently, i was explaining the mechanics of automatic focus to a young photographer: how digital cameras seek out regions of contrast and are able to "lock" focus quickly on such areas. as i rambled through this concept, it occurred to me that perhaps the human brain is not so unlike a digital camera. our eyes scan a scene or an image and areas of contrast grab our visual senses in a locked embrace.

contrast is the range of tones between pure white and pure black. contrast can be used to evoke sensory responses. for instance, low contrast images have a wide range and appear soft to the eye, while high contrast images have a small range and appear stark.

contrasting colors can also be used to convey character or compositional tension. an unusual use of this technique is found in the 1982 film "one from the heart", where director francis ford coppola tinted a character in a single hue and the background in full color, and vice versa and used the effect of solid black backgrounds to create extreme contrast edges in a character's shape.

an interesting example of the mind's ability to interpret contrast is found in the article, "truth no longer black and white".  three elements, illumination, reflectance and transparency, determine whether an object appears light or dark in the human brain.

dr. bart anderson, a perception researcher, says, ""the edge between a light and dark object is critical when we try to figure out how light or dark an object is. by altering the direction and magnitude of the contrast between a dark and light area of a stimulus we can alter the transparency element."  which in turn, dramatically alters our perception of the object.

not so unlike a camera, the very tool we use to translate our own perceptions.

nikon d100, nikon 24-120 vr @ 48mm, 1/5, f/11

christmas wishes
december 11, 2005
bonita springs, fl

"out in the harbor
the ships come in, it's christmastime.
the kids all holler carols 'cross the water
stars that shine
all that i want, all that i want."
        --the weepies, "all that i want " from  happiness

nearly overnight, it has become the season of lights and festive hurry and holiday music and smiling when i get to say "happy holidays!" to every stranger and friend i see.

this year's christmas tree - a chubby little fraser fir - is adorned with brand spanking new ornaments. last year's disappeared in a rogue gust of wind that toppled the tree. in one long exhalation of nature, ornaments i'd treasured for decades were broken into thousands of shiny pieces. like several others in 2005, it was a lesson in letting go.

through the past year, friends have blessed me with new ornaments that now hang as precious treasures. hearts and stars and shiny things that whisper peace and love and joy. teardrop glass balls with hand painted scenes of friends in a hot tub under alaskan winter skies. christmas glitter octopus babes, dreamy mermaids and lighthouses in delicious colors. i have only to walk by the tree and with a simple glance i begin to smile widely.

and so i've continued my tradition to find one new ornament each december and hang it on the tree with one hopeful christmas wish, a moment to be remembered all the next christmases in the years to come when it gets hung again.

this year's was found by chance - it was peeking out from behind several big boxes on a store shelf.  one brief glance and it became a member of my newest ornament family without hesitation. i hung it with the wish it so proudly displays.

"all that i want, all that i want"   hope in our hearts. love in our eyes. peace in the world.

nikon d100, nikon 80-400 vr @ 270mm, 3 seconds, f/16