Lucky to be here

As much as I love traveling and seeing exotic places, there is something to be said for staying in the same place—riding the same stretch of road, walking the same loop—through all seasons. You begin to really notice things.

It was hot here this weekend—100 degrees hot, but this evening, the breeze came in from the coast, like a breath of fresh air. Riding my bike home, appreciating the breeze like I had never felt one before, sitting up, riding no hands (something I just learned to do this winter), I was glad to feel a bit cold.

And then, the clouds started to put on quite a show. I never get tired of looking at clouds, as you may well know if you’ve been reading here for a while.

Battle Clouds

This was the view on my bike ride home from work yesterday. I call them “battle clouds” because they remind me of those epic skies from old battle paintings (where the sky mirrors the action in the scene). Unfortunately, I need to brush up on my art history because I can’t quite think of a specific artist that represents this. Does anyone out there know what I’m talking about?

The weather has really been beautiful this week—no rain, but sunshine, warm breezes, and beautiful skies. It’s amazing how much the weather affects my mood—I can be angry and disgruntled, but if I go outside into a breezy sunshine, I become someone new.

Sunday Morning Walk

I was happy to wake up and see sunlight this morning after a rainy last couple of days. I am getting so spoiled here in California—more than three days without sunshine, and I really start to get disappointed.

So, I was ready to take advantage of the weather this morning, and with even more encouragement from my rambunctious canine Lance (who will pace the house, sighing until I take him out), the two of us set out on a run/walk armed with my pocket-size digital camera.

I had no intention of photographing anything in particular, but unsurprisingly, I turned my camera to the clouds.

What is it about the sky and clouds that makes me so captivated? I think I will soon have to ban this word from my blog due to overuse, but the sky is another infinite landscape, and I think I am bound to photograph it my whole life. It is open and expansive and full of possibilities.

More clouds

More clouds for you today, taken with my Holga, like I talked about in this post. I seem to be obsessed with the sky—this morning, riding my bike to work, there were these two jet streams zooming upwards and crossing in the sky, and I was mesmerized.

Actually, I saw this interesting documentary about the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and they mentioned a gorgeous series he did on clouds. They are amazing.

I am putting all of my cloud photos, and other Holga photos of everyday things, in this pretty little album my cousins got me for my birthday last winter.

The album is very fancy—it has heavyweight organic-y paper and wax paper between the pages. I bought some black photo corners to go with the rustic look of the photos.

About Town

I’m just getting back into the swing of things after a wonderful, long relaxing weekend on the northern coast of California, Sea Ranch to be exact, where my boyfriend’s mom recently moved (the product of vacationing there every summer for more than 20 years and her retirement dream fulfilled). So much relaxing and cool sea breeze– it was an especially grumpy Monday morning back to work.

Hopefully I will get to printing some of the pictures I took there, but I thought I would share some pictures I finally printed from the spring first. I haven’t shared much black and white photography on this blog, but traditional darkroom b & w photo was my main art all through high school and college. I have gotten a little away from it, but I still love it.

In recent years, I have been most interested in experimental photography, which for me means photography focused more on trial and error conceptual results, often using non-standard equipment, and less focused on large fine prints. One example would be the pinhole photography I did quite a while ago, and also the photos I’m about to share now, which I took with a Holga Camera: an inexpensive, 120 size, simplified camera that is known for producing uncontrolled results with light leaks etc.

The camera feels like a plastic toy, has two light settings (sunny or cloudy), and four focusing settings illustrated with small pictures (mountain, group of people, three people, one person from shoulder up). I really like throwing my results up to chance. Just like with pinhole photography, it’s a miracle to me that I actually capture a photo.

Anyway, here are some photos around my neighborhood, taken with my Holga, I was very interested in sun and clouds that day: