Crying over spilt coffee…

Seems like it’s going to be one of those days… I just spilled my coffee.  Fortunately for me, it wasn’t particularly hot (something I would normally complain about) and I spilled it almost totally on a pair of jeans that should have gone into the laundry yesterday anyhow.  So basically, no harm was done, except that I am short one coffee.

I have been fighting a creativity block lately.  And I don’t think that the act of spilling coffee is going to help unblock it.  But as I was sending my wet jeans down the laundry chute, it occurred to me that I am nothing without my coffee.  OK, so that is a bit on the dramatic side, but I do really love that first, second, third cup of coffee every day.  I like them well enough that I have taken quite a few photos of coffee. I will post some of those today.

Photographer and humorist Flash Rosenberg put it this way:  “I believe humans get a lot done, not because we’re smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee.”  I think I will go get another cup of coffee and toast her words of wisdom! And on my way to the kitchen, I will bestow a little pat of sympathy on our very relaxed and snoring pug who can’t make coffee…no thumbs, you know.

By an Unnoticed Breeze…

We have two old oak trees that stand at the end of our driveway.  It’s really an understatement for me to say that I love those trees.  I have taken many photos of them as I consider them works of art. 

Those oaks rain acorns down in the late summer and fall and in high winds drop small branches all over our drive.  When I’m feeling particularly fatalistic I wonder how long it will be before one of their more impressive branches drops blocking us in…or out.

Who knows how old those mighty oaks are?  But, their lives are finite, just like ours.  And the loss of a major branch may just herald the coming end of the tree’s long life.  It’s a sobering thought for me.  But just like people, the oak has a way of dealing with its mortality.

Thomas Carlyle said it best.  “When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.”

Pond Reflections…

We count ourselves among the luckiest people around to be able to live within easy walking distance of a pond (or what those of us from southern Ohio would call a lake).  It isn’t a very large pond by central Massachusetts standards and it’s not particularly deep, but we who live around it enjoy in our own ways. Some fish, some swim, some water-ski.  I like to just look at it.

The pond is different in every season and it changes from day to day so it is always interesting to look at.  I have found that it is often ruffled and wavy during the day and usually calms down in the evening.  So when I find it still and mirror-like during the day, I like to take advantage and get down there with my camera.

I love the quiet stillness of the smooth water.  It is somehow reassuring to me that even though the world is full of war and other man-made horrors, the water can be calm and smooth reflecting back the splendor of the nature that surrounds it. 

Standing and looking at the water, I think of the words of John Muir, "Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own.  Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you."

A Higher Education...

Around this time last year, Greg and I traveled around with our son Evan to look at the universities he was considering for his Master’s Degree.  I have to say this about college campus tours - we enjoy the heck out of them.

There was the plain pleasure of getting to travel and spend time with our son, but there was really more to it than that.  I felt a great urge at each campus we visited to submit transcripts myself…although for what purpose, I can’t imagine. And besides who the heck knows where my transcripts might be anyhow?  Most likely, they are buried deep down in some box somewhere…After all, I went to college before the advent of computers.

We visited four places:  University of Rhode Island, Syracuse University, University at Albany (SUNY) and Rutgers University because those are most of the schools in this area that offer a Masters in Library Science.  Each campus has a unique character and I loved photographing them.  Unfortunately, it was raining so hard the day we were at Rutgers, I was afraid for my camera and didn’t get any usable photos of the campus.  That is something I regret.  But I did manage a photo of the rain.

Evan ended up at Syracuse University and I ended up thinking what a plum job it would be just being able to travel around the country to take photos of college campuses.

Raining at Rutgers

The Hall of Languages, Syracuse University

Inside the SU Library

Syracuse University

University of Rhode Island

 

University at Albany

Inside the library at University at Albany

“There is much beauty here…”

Urban decay is defined as “a process by which a city or part of a city falls in to a state of disrepair.  Signs of urban decay include population loss, housing stock deterioration and increases in crime.”*

Rainer Maria Rilke said, “There is much beauty here, because everywhere there is much beauty.” 

The challenge is to find beauty in urban ruin.  Is there beauty in empty, boarded-up buildings, signs of poverty and ruin?  Is an abandoned and deteriorated area even a suitable photo subject? 

I think that Rilke is right.  There is beauty in urban decay as it speaks to the human condition and to the struggles we deal with perpetually.  I like to think of what these places once were…the lives and dreams that stood in them and passed through them.  And I like to think that maybe someday they may be reclaimed because resilience is definitely beautiful.

* http://www.quotesstar.com/themes/urban-decay-quotes.html

 Hardwick, Massachusetts

Albany, New York

Dayton, Ohio

Ware, Massachusetts

Got Graffiti?

Graffiti evokes strong feelings in people. Many feel that it is solely an act of vandalism and has no intrinsic value and many feel that it is art and an important form of self-expression. I do not condone vandalism but I find graffiti very interesting. What makes a person feel compelled to “tag” things in a seemingly random fashion? Is it gang-related or simply self-expression gone large?

The great photographer Alfred Stieglitz stated, “The goal of art was the vital expression of self.”  If what Mr. Stieglitz said is correct, then it follows that graffiti is art.

I have a small collection of graffiti in my photo files almost none of which are the large colorful displays one sees on train cars and city walls.  What attracts me are the simple words. Sometimes it is the pure angst.  A graffiti I found in Valencia, Spain says, “Estoy solo y solo estoy” (“I am alone and alone am I”).  One I found in Barre, Vermont simply asks, “got grief?”  Sometimes, it’s the naïve hope that moves me, like a couple found in Northampton, Massachusetts:  “Let us love us” and “Let’s recreate the world.”  Or just the plain randomness of “Wear a red hat I will too” makes me just wonder why.

Here is some of my graffiti collection…

One Thousand and Thirty-two words…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  I don’t disagree, but once in a while, every thousandth or so photo I take (that I decide not to send to the little garbage pail in my computer) needs a little something to help it along.  Maybe I like the image, but it just doesn’t “say” anything to me.  So I add six or ten or thirty-two words to make it feel just right.

 

Here are the words:

“Coffee falls into the stomach. Ideas begin to move. Things remembered arrive at full gallop.  The shafts of wit start up like sharp shooters. Similes arise.  The paper is covered with ink….”  Honore de Balzac

“Research tells us that 14 out of every 10 individuals likes chocolate.”  Sandra Boynton

“I base my fashion sense on what doesn’t itch.” Gilda Radner

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain…”  Henry Longsworth Longfellow