Oct 252013
 

Paint №3{click image to view large}

While our cat Sassafras was at her “spa” for grooming, I went out walking with my camera in the Andersonville area of Chicago. It’s a colorful Swedish neighborhood, with unusual shops and restaurants, outdoor seating and huge urns filled with flowers in bloom. Surely I could find something to photograph.

For some reason, though, I felt overwhelmed and couldn’t “see” anything. So, I decided to travel the alleys where it might be quieter with less distraction.

About a half-hour into that exploration, I (finally!) came across a garage door of peeling paint, each rectangular panel filled with fascinating patterns in green and orange. This image is one of my favorites.

Nikon D300; 1/250 sec @ f11, ISO 200 (handheld);
18-200 mm f/3.5–5.6 @ 70mm (105mm EFL); focus distance 1.0m

Nov 122012
 

{click image to view larger}

The past few days, feeling a lack of focus, I decided to revisit exercises in the basic elements of form: color, texture, pattern, light.  This was discovered in an alley on a “texture day”.

The acid test is whether you, the viewer, can actually “feel” the texture through your eyes? Or does the image instead reference an idea of what the subject is supposed to feel like? (It might be easier to evaluate at the largest size.) I’d be curious to hear, either way.

Nikon D300; 1/90 sec @ f11, ISO 1600 (handheld);
70-300 mm f/4.5–5.6 @ 70mm (1050mm EFL); focus distance 1.88m

May 312012
 

{click image to view large}

Just the other day…there was an apartment building fire in our neighborhood. Passing the cleanup efforts, I saw this on the inside wall of an open dumpster.

Nikon D300; 1/125 sec @ f11, ISO 2000 (handheld);
70-300 mm f/4.5–5.6 @ 95mm (142mm EFL); focus distance 5.62m

Sep 202010
 

Peeling paint in pastel hues.

 

№1
{click image to view large}

Nikon D300; f/8.0 @ 1/125sec, ISO 2500 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 35mm (52mm EFL); subject distance .5m

Peeling paint in muted hues.

 

№2
{click image to view large}

Nikon D300; f/8.0 @ 1/125sec, ISO 2000 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 95mm (142mm EFL); subject distance .71m