be heron now

I didn't really think I would see him again but as I returned along the same shore line he was standing off the trail up in the bush. He flew off immediately but landed close by in the small marsh area the city created there. I was able to get very close to him this time but failed again to catch him on takeoff.


Bear with me while I dabble in colour and form for a moment. Yesterday a similar flower but this is much finer in the yellow fingertips design it has.


Purple, yellow, they go together don't they? Well I guess so.


Some people just love to paint their cars in odd colours. I liked the circle and the heart is a nice touch!


Do these colours go together? The shadow was sharp and the yellow wall very intense. Odd but I like it!


I guess I will have to shoot this again. It was too hard to tell what was actually being recorded on the little screen. Plus I want to step back one foot to get the rest of the sign, So why post the imperfection? Cuz, it ain't all that bad for a simple graphic shot and though my intentions are there it may never happen that I shoot it again.


Exit stage left. That is all I could think of as I saw the sign pointing to the right and the huge curtains for some monumental stage performance to come.


Nice light at the end of the day. I'm hooked on getting a good glacier shot sometime. Not yet but pretty nonetheless!

rare and sacred moments

Theoretically, the alley leads somewhere, the face appearing from its haze, destined to go there, and bring back the mirror reflection with the doleful gaze, who longs for her to take him out of the glass trap perception repetition maze, cornered by a wrong turn, they slammed the brakes on just in time.


The longer one studies this somewhat bland photo, the more the question 'what?' turns into 'Hunh'. It is very odd. I think I love those curtains, kind of feels like home.


First I saw a woman stop on her bicycle and peer down into the water for a few minutes, after she rode away I looked to see what she was staring at. Almost like a cardboard cutout it stood there without motion, a heron, I don't know for sure, The Great Blue Heron, of which there are not many left. I have seen them before in Creston, at the water land sanctuary or whatever, but this is the first time I have ever seen one in Nelson.


Of course as I fumbled about trying to get closer I scared it away, but he landed only a short distance off. This time I moved along the rocks very slowly, with no sudden motions. Within no time I was very close. I took this shot and in my haste, stumbled as I moved and it was off before I could even grabbed it in flight as I had hoped to do.


What, another flower? I know I know, it's so odd for me to shoot so many but I can't help it. They are colourful subjects, they don't object to having a camera stuck in their face, and they are patient as hell.


Some of these flowers are the little blue things that show up on the stems of the weeds lining the railroad tracks. The colour looked good in the gray overcast light and close-ups are fun!


I think the lure here is the face of the universe displayed in random patterns of colour and texture that manifest as flowers, or flow_ers, epitomizing eternal interconnected flow, incarnations, carnations flow-ers, 'A Carnation Is A Flower'!!!


Okay, awhile back, like maybe fifteen years ago, I photographed these meters. The graffiti on the wall then was something to do with sex, like you know, monitoring or metering your addiction to the drug 'sex', heh, or something like that. Anyway, another angle, a different year, different graffiti.

take me away

St. Francis of Assisi, lover of all creation, patron saint of animals and the environment, founded the Franciscan Order. He was a humble man who admonished material possessions to the point of wearing only a robe with a rope belt and giving away all he owned. The birds, it is said, loved him, as did most of those he encountered in his life. Yet even here, as overseer to the hospital for the old and infirm, he is secure from theft.


Funny that such an ugly(my opinion) statue venerating a man who admonished no possessions, would have to be bolted to the ground, in case someone decided to steal it. Damn the Vandals!


Infected with white crusty lines and powder the twist in the wind of the leaf on the vine plays pattern havoc with a device unable to record fast enough the motion in this waning light. Ever since Shambhala abstraction has provided a weird and peculiar fascination for me.

get out of the way

Today the door was closed and though it took me awhile to get the angle and framing right, Humphrey is still there, as mysterious as ever.


Ganesha, forging ahead with little jingle bells to warn the obstacles he is about to remove them.


When you run out of things to photograph it's nice to have kids to use as subject matter. Tyla sits and waits for a bus.


This one I framed beforehand and saw a place for a person to be. Then I asked Tyla to go down and sit where I directed her. This is good balance though other options are possible.


This one was Tyla's idea. She wanted a photo of her with the lakeside sign? So I obliged. It is actually kind of interesting if only for the oddity of the red bench, position wise.


These are strange flowers. They remind me of those goosh balls that kids have. They hardly seem real.


The people on the bench helped me to see the landscape through their eyes and appreciate it for what it is. When you live here all the time the scenery tends to blend into the background after awhile. It's nice to be reminded that the scenery here is awesome!

reflections of

Where's all the blue food? ...
George Carlin asked that question in the 70's, "There's NO blue food!" he reiterated emphatically. If you are anything like the teenagers who said no when I asked them if they'd heard it before, then go out and find some of George's recorded performances. Make sure you are good and stoned and have a soft place to lay down while cracking up.


Further proof, that it is possible to totally manipulate someone's eye movement within the frame. If your eye doesn't follow the shadow to the right side then you better open your eyes. I love the way the texture on the left holds you there but those vanishing lines keep nagging the eye to look away.


Once again direct eye movement manipulation with the purposeful framing. Funny thing this photo, the farther away from it, or the smaller the image on the screen in this case, then the more shopping cart shadow lines there are that appear.


There's a strange light source present in the round circle at the top left of the image. It gives this the necessary alien bug feel, although the bug isn't so alien as I had seen one earlier that looked remarkably like this, well except for the colour.


Speak of the devil . . . bug, because really I have an aversion to touching this one. Some of them have wings too and when they fly they sure don't look too coordinated, rather other planet-ish if you will. I kept a safe distance and used the close-up feature, this viewing screen thing is very cool, I like it.


This was a fun and interesting shot. My view of the bus bumper was just a reflection of my feet but I knew if I held the camera close to the ground then the new angle would perhaps get my head. Like the flag pole the other day I kept point and shooting until I got the framing right. Kind of a strange self portrait but hey, who said the person had to be recognizable. Oh and there's the source of the SHWO photo from the other day if anyone's noticing.

holy crossed

Like a gravestone discarded in the creek the block of concrete bears witness to devotion to the lord who once hung splayed on a cross. It started a influx of cross filled images and provided a small theme for the day.


Cheap to steal a rainbow from a garden hose spraying mist but the air filled with molecules of water takes on a texture that doesn't feel wet only sticky.


It's the purple and yellow together, and about the only time I really like the colour yellow. Curved to draw the eyes into the frame even the plain can be pleasant.


Here the graffiti reminds me of the cross pointing to god although the designated R3 zone makes for an odd juxtaposition.


And again a cross in the rusted metal speaks of finding some resolution to the roads that join in the night and head in different directions by morning.

formless, . . .

. . it can enter where there are no gaps or space.




The penis like object is merely a drip of paint running down the side of the stone where the ground has been sprayed orange for some construction purpose. Such a strange colour, brings attention to it for sure.


Right nearby, the rush of Anderson Creek as it finally spills out to the lake. The slow shutter speed makes for an interesting halo effect.


The Nelson Rowing Club members launching a boat into the water. Why anyone would want to work up a sweat while travelling in a boat I don't know, I prefer to relax myself, but I'm sure not a workout kind of guy, heh. Must be kind of like zen though, once one gets into the rhythm of it.


The red maple leaf. Just like the flag. I love the yellow veins. It started the flag theme which generated a couple of other photos.


There is a huge Canadian flag at the mall. I stood at the pole and shot straight up. Without being able to frame it took me a few tries to get the position right then I only had to wait for the wind and a bit of luck. There is a curve in one of the lines in this that I really like. The best adjective I can think to describe it is swoop. I use it often when drawing, it's like a free flowing arc that finds its own radius, huh?


I spent a long time on this photo. Mostly because I knew exactly what I wanted right from the start and was able to practice until the wind caught the flag just right. It's shot straight into the puddle then flipped, a technique I often use for the abstract results and the vanishing point that goes in the wrong way, or something like that.


Suspended above a small blue circle that represents the eye of the artist the anomaly rising from the flat screen perspective spells out the visual cue necessary to reveal that, sometimes all is not as it seems, show me the meaning!

possession

I love that flag, with the Native blocking out the leaves to imply true ownership of the land belongs to no one. Contrasted by a metaphor for wealth and luxury and downright disregard for the land, the discarded computer parts take up residence in a corner of a room, watched over by the spirit who guards mother earth from the profusion of pollution.


Images within images reflecting perspective rarely seen. Like being suspended in a moment, the split in the presented image is a simultaneous look forward and back. All curved to remind that the sense of time while linear in conception is circular in manifestation.


It's a captured voyeuristic moment. With the balance of weight on one foot she floats suspended like a fairy nymph flittering about the streets and drawing eyes with the allure only flesh and skimpy clothing provides.


He stands in the doorframe, observing the antics of the slinky dame with the wild hat. I love this manikin shot. The shadow in the poster really gives this some depth. I'll have to return and see what it's like with the door closed.

world at the fingertips

Today has some significance as far as calendric reference goes, my mother died 25 years ago on this day, I moved to Nelson 20 years ago on this day, I got together with my daughter's mother for the first time on this day 11 years ago. There are other stories around this day too but they involve heavy amounts of alcohol and drugs and are a bit hazy at best.

acid flow


When I was more normal the next day, after indulging in some mind altering substances, the scene kept playing out the elements in random order. Whenever I squeezed my eyes tight all I could see were small oblong shapes mixing and gelling together the way plasma turns into blood cells right before the eyes staring deep into the skin. I knew right then how the image would begin and it dictated its own form from that point on. I kept remembering the spiral in the 160 million year old fossil I saw and tried to incorporate that as the stream and direction of the flow.

cubic circles

demanding irrefutable proof
the skeptic hovers on the edge
of the halluncinogenic trip
into the ever shifting world
of colour

unable to explain adequately
all that is occurring
both inside and out
the useless attempt has been made before
with the end result always the same

there is no way to explain
all the inner workings of the brain

based on the metaphors that made the most sense over the years
and combined with the fantasy world of dream
conjured from imagination
and stories and pictures
when the attachment to the ground
was released by a tree trunk
absorbing the essence of all it contacts
the density and profusion of air particles changed

stretched like long tubes
the circles became three dimensional
within the three dimensional world they existed
and the texture and viscosity
of the world of vision
changed to an ocean of dry water
resisting movement with a slowed eerie effect

from the center of the pulsation
that was the brain having a thought
an aura emanated energy
and all those who wandered near
were caught in the cartoon playground
of surreal tangibility
and unreal energy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The chalk drawing in the kiosk area would likely last awhile, but on this gray and rainy day it wasn't going to be there long. I always like seeing other people's metaphors of aliens come to life. Funny how we feed each other the same idea over and over until like the greek gods of mythology the truth becomes masked in elaboration and flourish and no one believes it anymore.

out of the dust

breaking down borders of colour and race
and place of birth
the physical sign
from the alien part of the mind
that all is a-ok
and the world is in good hands
is simply a ridiculous cop-out notion
that one has no control
over the motion of the stars
when in effect all manifestation of elements conjugating
are challenges to inertia to get a move on
fully immersed in the continual spin
that is merely another guy twirling a plastic world
on the palm of his hand

the yogic center of all universes
begins within the shell we started with
and ends with the re-integration
of everything tubular into the round hole
that leaks out to the other side
everything that isn't sound