Another year ahead!

As I do occasionally, I create posts for friends, who are special to me. This is one of those posts.

This one is for Gina V.

Because I just passed another year, the title of this blog has 2 meanings: I have found myself one more year forward and look forward to the one coming up.
The past year has had its ups and downs, as many do, but I like to base a year on the people I meet, more than anything. Events are one thing but meeting people who leave an impression are something entirely different. And while I have met quite a few people this year, meeting Gina has left quite an impression on me. I could list the reasons why but I won’t: she knows why, I think, and that is all that matters.

I consider the work included here some of my best work, either for personal reasons or because of feedback. The dates refer to the original date I took the photos.

So, Gina, these are for you….sort of a gift to you as I enjoy the entry of my next year on this planet. Enjoy!

Flame and glass (2004)

Fading Tree Peony (2008)

Chance Meeting (2008)

Dahlia – 5 Ways to Expression

Dahlia - Emerging

A few days ago, I was talking to my friend, Lotte Janus, whose “home” is the world (she never stays in one place very long but considers her “base” Ojai, CA). She comes from a very artistic family, with one person or another having acted, worked in photography, and so on.
We were talking about a photographic exhibit she saw recently near Bridgewater, NY, and the various styles of work exhibited. Then we started talking about my work because there were artists in the show whose stuff is as unique as mine. One of the comments she made was in regard to the adaptations I make for a single photo and, I believe, that her sister would be interested, also being a photographer.

So, feeling a trace of  “challenge,” I decided to take a recent photo and play with it. The photo I chose was one I took for the Denver Botanic Gardens project for my friend, Ross Shrigley, who I have been shooting for this season. The original photo is above. One of the reasons I chose this photo is that it is just slightly out of focus, which would be masked by each of the processes.
First, I shifted it to my “Electric” process and produced this:

The Jelly-Starfish Nebula

Please take a look at my website…….

It was updated this weekend and has several new pieces on it, as well as several panoramas, which is a new addition to the site:

http://www.sambissell.com/index.php

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Galen and Friends

Galen

A couple of weeks ago, I went back up to Timnath again and spent the bulk of the day with Ann. My intent was to take photographs of her horse, Galen, but the photographs turned out including so many other horses where Galen is boarded. I know virtually nothing about horses other than the fact that they are gorgeous creatures to photograph. I know a bit more now but I still have a lot to learn.

Galen and Ann

Ann explained Galen’s lineage but, for the life of me, I can’t remember all of the names and places his lineage runs back to, all I can tell you is that he has one impressive set of fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. (See Ann’s explanation in the comment to the post, below; for those of you who know horse lineage, I’m sure it would be as much of a treat to read as it was to hear her tell it!)

Musical Interlude II

Locust Tree Near Dawn

Coming and Going 2 (Anemone biarmiensis)

Respite 2

Another trip to DBG…my weekly sojourn to chronicle certain installations. The top and second photo were shot in Plant Asia, the third in Wildflower Treasures. I’m not actually chronicling these 2 gardens, I just like them because they are curated by my mentor, Mark Fusco.

Here’s the musical interlude for you: a choice of Bruce Cockburn’s Last Night of the World or his End of All Rivers. The first is a studio cut, the second is a live one….don’t watch the second one for the video, listen to it for the music because the video is not very good. End of All Rivers, an instrumental, is probably my favorite Bruce song for its overlay upon overlay…..it really is easy to imagine a massive river flowing down and, perhaps, over a waterfall, then down into a soft flowing stream at the end of its course, then into the ocean. If you choose this one, simply open it in a separate window and listen to it…it really is an amazing piece of music. Last Night of the World is a vocal that I asked my friend, Paul, to learn for what turned out to be an inauspicious occasion that I won’t go into here (or ever). Another gorgeous piece, though this one features Bruce’s buttery voice. (OK, I weaseled another piece in here….love those links!…another studio cut… the beuatiful Pacing The Cage.)
So, listen and view some photos from my recent visit to the Gardens.

You know, sometimes I can just be……………………….out there

Striations
In the last blog (Plugging a hole…), I pointed out that I had forgotten Anna in the previous blog to that (Recent Electrifications…).
One would think that after I had spent so much time writing the previous one (I tend to edit A LOT), that I would have remembered that i actually did remember to include in her the list of wordpressers I’m impressed with because of their photography (and prose).
Well, writing the second one just plugged her a bit more, I guess.

Darkness Falls - Timnath

Anyway, I spent the weekend with some folks I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. Paul and I went to college together back in……well, back there somewhere…..and he, his wife, Barb, and son, Rob, came out for the weekend from the Bay Area. We drove up through Longmont and saw another old college friend, continued on to Timnath, where they knew a terrific lady from back in the day, then back to Ft. Collins, where we spent the evening with another pair of college friends. Old home weekend.

In Timnath, which is a tiny spit of a town (Pop. 238 in the 2003 census, I believe), it was Founders Day with tents set up on Main Street, selling all sorts of homemade nick-nacks. Main Street in Timnath is all of about 2 blocks long, which would be expected for a population as massive as theirs is. Consequently, the choice of handmade goods was pretty slim…interesting but slim. The town itself is not short on character, though, with buildings that have stood the test of time and are still going strong…well, most of them anyway.

Recent Electrifications, including a few degrees of separation, and some HDR

Penstemons*

Been a bit idle here for a few days….well, since I put the piece up for Angel. She was sick for a few days and didn’t see it right away….that’s OK. The blog cheered her up quite a lot and put a bit of sunshine back in the apartment where she lives.
Anyway, I’ve been doing some other stuff…mostly research on neuro-liguistic programming and neuro-acoustic sound therapy. I’ve been using the sound therapies of Dr. Jeffrey Thompson for about 6 or 7 months and found them to be VERY beneficial; I highly recommend anyone to use his works, which are available at your local library (or can be ordered through it).

I can only do so much research before my eyes just burn out, though, and I need to take a break. I get up, maybe put some eye drops in my dry scratchy eyes and go out to the garden and get some air. To relax, I play with a photo. The stuff I do with my photography is, of course, work…and laborious, too. It’s a labor of love and anyone who works on their photography like I do enjoys what they are doing so it isn’t “work,” or “labor.” It’s love, pure and simple.

Landing

Take the work I discovered recently of Matt George. Matt is a photojournalist who obviously loves his work. Look around his site and see the vast range of subjects he uses and the depth to which he goes to study his subject. Then, when he processes his work, the end result is absolutely staggering. I wrote him and compared his work to Louis Trociolla, since it appeared as if uses HDR, which I recently “discovered.” I fairly certain I’ve mentioned Louis here before; his work explains itself as soon as you see it. So, Matt’s work reminded me of Louis’ work; Matt comes back and tells me he doesn’t use HDR but others have said the same thing about his work. Coulda fooled me! O, yeah, he did.