From the monthly archives:

September 2008

Humor and Abstraction – Accidental Art from an Orange

by Sheila Finkelstein on September 19, 2008

orange on a ceramic dish becomes and abstraction

A lady in the top photo with a very wide collar and a “blowfish” in the lower photo.  Neither was posed as such. The top photo was a random arrangement of art peels and the lower “simply” a half orange.  I was mainly interested in playing with the contrasts of the ceramic dish as background.

Have fun seeing whatever you do/will in the photographs.

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Juicy Navel Orange – Inside Views

by Sheila Finkelstein on September 18, 2008

navel orange first stage of peeling skin

navel orange more skin gone

navel orange sections awaiting eating

Expectancy? Exposure?

What Awaits?

A juicy, delicious orange,

Nothing more need be said.

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Full golden moon at Green Cay

Saturn Peach in ceramic dish

Today’s Picture to Ponder Photos
The upper photo is a very bright Full Moon, early in the evening, adorned with clouds and framed by trees in Green Cay Wetlands.

The lower is a cut Saturn, also known as Donut, Peach in a Ceramic Dish

These two may likely seem to be a strange combination of photographs. “What might be the theme?” you could be asking. The lower peach photo is part of a series I describe on the Photography and Transformation blog, per my intention to post fruit photos daily for a week.

My attraction to the peach photo here has nothing to do with the peach itself. When I view the image, I’m caught up in the almost abstract quality of it, when I don’t think about what the main object is. For me then, it’s simply the play and repetition of lines and textures, as well as, very subtly, colors.

The moon photo also has an abstract quality and feeling and given the colors and shapes are somewhat similar to those in the lower photo, I thought it would be interesting to put them together on one “wall”, our Picture to Ponder page.

Today’s Self-Reflecting Queries
Today, I invite you to look into your life to see:

1. where there may be situations, projects, people that you keep totally separate and distinct – compartmentalized.

2. Is anything, or anyone, standing out, as you look at this here?

3. What elements are there that brings this/these to mind now?

4. Is there any commonality with/among what you are noticing? If so, do you see a way in which putting them together might empower you, them or the situation?

5. If “yes”, I invite you to have fun creating something new.

My Story of the Day
leading to these queries:
There is really not much of a story today beyond the photos that caught my attention. As usual, the queries evolve as I wrote.

Actually the full moon photo was an unexpected one in that it was very late and almost dark when I started my Green Cay Wetlands walk. I almost left my camera in the car thinking it would be too dark to photograph. Then that voice in me that reminds me to ALWAYS take make camera, “You never know what will show up,” had me bring it along.

I was so glad I paid attention, for shortly after I started walking, I had one of the “on-rare-occasions” magical sighting, at least for me!

Have you ever experienced glancing up at the moon and seeing it as a HUGE globular, ball of light, which doesn’t last for very long? Although not huge this time, I did, as I was walking, see an extra large and very orange light beyond the trees.

I scurried to catch it, with my thankful-I-had-it camera, and “grabbed” what I could in photographs, mildly chastising myself for not having started walking from the opposite direction, where I would have seen more of the moon show earlier than I did.

Once again, I could dwell on possible missed opportunities or, more powerfully, be with those that did develop.

I’m sure additional queries could come from this for you. If that happens, certainly, be with and expand on whatever it is that comes up.

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Saturn Peach Views

by Sheila Finkelstein on September 15, 2008

shiny saturn peach in a dish

 

cut saturn peach in a dish

 

saturn peach cut spread out on background

Today’s fruit posting is the Saturn Peach (label in supermarket), also known as the Donut Peach, according to pages found on Google, because of its flat shape. Actually, I bought two of them, partially for what I saw as their almost “heart” shape, or so I thought, for photo subjects as well as eating. This peach is also said to be very sweet, tasty and juicy, none of which was my experience.

I had committed to posting a fruit a day and was disappointed when at a late hour I started photographing the peach. The first one I cut was somewhat rotted and bland in taste. I put it and the second, uncut, in the refrigerator letting my disappointment rule my behavior. I didn’t even bother to download the photos until two days later when I took the second peach out to photograph.

Before starting, I checked the first photos and was pleasantly surprised.  There was a glistening and lushness to the fruit in looking at it on the screen, an experience I did not have initially. I therefore went out on my patio, for the lighting, and happily started photographing, playing with backgrounds, more photographing, as well as cutting into the inside and grabbing more interesting photos.

Again, I discovered that the second peach also was rotted in part.  Between this fruit and the apple photos of last week, I could make it mean something, AND I won’t!  I did go back to the supermarket and did mention the poor quality of the fruit to them.  I did not attempt to return the two for credit.  I figured I got my money’s worth from the photo experience.

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Cantaloupe – Day 2 of Fruit

by Sheila Finkelstein on September 12, 2008

full canteloupe on a banana place mat

 

 

canteloupe cubes in a dish

Phases of a Cantaloupe Being Readied for Consumption

Time is running out for the day. I committed to one or more fruit photos per day this week and the cantaloupe, sitting in my photo folder called out. This particular cantaloupe is long gone. Earlier today the images were inspiring poetic thoughts. Not jotted down, they are gone. Maybe later.

The place mat on which the subject poses was made in India – 80% of it is from the banana plant. A cousin of mine who lives in India gifted me with this set. She knows I love my banana “tree” – which is actually an herb. In India, she shared with me, EVERY part of the banana plant is used in some way!

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grapes, broccoli and other vegetables on a time

Transitioning from the Vegetable theme to Fruit with mixture of grapes, broccoli, mushrooms and scallions to

photo drawing of berries in a ceramic dish

berries in a ceramic bowl.

In yesterday’s Picture to Ponder, I committed to posting at least one photo of fruit per day, for the next week. One of the subscribers wrote and asked if I had any grape photos she could use for the cover of a book she is writing. I do not have any current photos of grapes and I went back in my files to discover these photo/drawings.

Given I had not committed to their being new photo, I thought these would be great to also introduce new people to my work to my photo drawing art in my Cafe Press Gift shop. The top image can be found on ceramic tiles.

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Apple Inspires Completions – Picture to Ponder – Volume 4 – Issue 33

September 10, 2008

Today’s Picture to Ponder Photos
Sections of a dehydrating Gold Delicious Apple that had been in the refrigerator for some time.
Today, as I started clicking through photos in my MacIntosh’s iPhoto program to make a choice for feature photos, these apples caught my eye. It was the humor I saw in the sideways glance and winking [...]

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Rear View Perspectives – Varied

September 6, 2008

Rear View of a Little Blue Heron at Green Cay Wetlands
Humor for the weekend – At dusk yesterday, I took several photographs of this little blue heron. Because of poor lighting most of then did not turn out well. Then this one of the rear view of the bird came up on my [...]

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Fireflag Sunset at Green Cay Wetlands

September 5, 2008

Fireflag Leaves Silhouetted against Eastern Clouds Reflecting Sunset
I love the grace of the fireflag plant, both the flowers and leaves. In this photo I love the russet colors and the contrasts. To a peaceful weekend, all storms aside.

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Anhinga at Wakodahatchee Wetlands

September 5, 2008

Birds at Wakodahatchee Wetlands
 
 

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