Some people begin their day with prayer. I begin with the secular sunrise.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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Lately, I’ve been betwixt and between, moody, unhinged. The only subject I have shot every day has been the sky. During the growing season, I shoot flowers and plants every day. It is an anchor that moors me in the creative harbor. I know where I belong. So, as the growing season ends here in New England, I find myself not only without a mooring, but without a harbor.
In trying to find one, I noticed one thing. I shoot the skies now, every day. I may go off in search of other subjects as well, but I start my day with skies and, sometimes, end my day with them as well.
A meteorologist is needed to explain this phenomenon but I have noticed that during the summer, the skies are not nearly as dramatic with morning or evening clouds as in the fall and winter.
Perhaps they can explain it or would tell me I am wrong. It is simply that I have not been looking up, they might say.
So, Singular Sensation- Winter Edition, shall be skies.
As the days shorten here in New England, looking up shall be my habit. My winter harbor. My mooring.
Y’know…I feel better already.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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I listened to an interview with the writer, Sherman Alexie, the other day and he talked about artists living in the “in-between”. In his case, he identifies this as the territory of truths inbetween being an indigenous Native American but an immigrant to the colonists’ culture that took power.
Blew me down, this idea. Not only this explanation of his own “in-between” status but attributing it to the territory of every artist.
So, I got out my wide angle lens and put it on the ground and shot upward to show the spaces in-between the dessicated Queen Anne’s Lace along the pond, a territory of truths that is mine for some (as yet) unknown reason.
This is a perfect thought to end this series, don’t you think?
©Pat Coakley 2009
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By now, it’s clear that getting beautiful silhouette shots of dying Queen Anne’s Lace is like shooting fish in a barrel. You show up at dawn with your camera and you are guaranteed of something good.
And, this morning, I did just that and once again could have wowed with another silhouette shot because the dawn was foggy and mysterious but I decided to work a bit harder.
It is not as mysterious or conventionally beautiful, but in its own unique way, definitely Fall.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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Once more with feeling…and a little spectacular reflection of the sunrise on the pond didn’t hurt either.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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This is the third image of a week long series about how the end of the growing season does not mean the end of a photographer’s growth. In fact, the challenges of photographing nature, past peak, can make a good photographer even better. My focus shall be the Queen Anne’s Lace. Here is the first in the Series. Second.
Arriving early in the morning, just before sunrise, helps create a mood that enhances the ethereal beauty of a tangle of Queen Anne stems and their bare blossom heads.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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This is the second image of a week long series about how the end of the growing season does not mean the end of a photographer’s growth. In fact, the challenges of photographing nature, past peak, can make a good photographer even better. My focus shall be the Queen Anne’s Lace. Here is the first in the Series.
Growing season officially comes to an end tonight. The National Weather Service has issued a New England wide frost. We’ve had one frost warning prior but that was for “northern” areas.
Tonight, though, we’re going down to the low 30’s and I’ll be out cutting every flower visible to the human eye before it does.
I am also going to begin a series on “Just Because Growing Season Ends, Doesn’t Mean You Do”. In other words, take advantage of this transition period between Fall and Winter and become a better photographer. The end of growing season is the beginning of experimental season for nature’s photographers.
Take photographs of things past bloom, decaying, plants and flowers that no longer beckon you (and the rest of the world) to take a photograph. Work on your composition. Lighting. Focus. Use nature to reveal itself. Be part of the revelation.
I have chosen my favorite Queen Anne Lace by Beaver Pond to study. Each day this week, I am going to post another photograph of this plant, it’s white lacy blooms of June and July long gone.
But, fascinating they still are. I just have to work harder, that’s all, to show it to you.
©Pat Coakley
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Three minutes either way, this shot is not there. Oh you’ll get a sunrise photo, alright, if you took it two minutes, three minutes, even five minutes later, but it’ll look like every other one you’ve ever seen.
I wouldn’t kid you. I timed it.
Rule #27: You have to arrive early and wait.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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It was Boston Garden, a windy Boston Garden, near the Arlington Street entrance.
The statue of George Washington on his horse was the subject of the tourist photographs and there I was amidst the banks of flowering bushes that border the paths through the garden.
I was so far inside the shrub with my camera, I resembled that lawn ornament of the lady’s wide backside as she bends over doing her gardening.
Rule #26: Bend Over. You may not look good to the passing stranger, but, really, tell the truth. How many photos of George Washington look this good?
©Pat Coakley 2009
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Rule #25: Flash, sometimes you gotta use it. You just have to, so stop moaning.
But, whatever you do, remember to take the batteries out of the flash unit after the shoot or be prepared to totally ruin your $400 dollar flash and have to buy another one. Warranty doesn’t cover operator stupidity otherwise translated as leaving the batteries in too long and when they leak all over everything that’s important the unit no longer works and cannot be fixed for under the price of a brand new one.
Yep, hard won advice from the trenches.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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