What Draws You Back Again and Again?

I recently visited Fonthill, the concrete and tile home of anthropologist and collector Henry Chapman Mercer. The folks here are adamant about no pictures on their tours…Don’t even try to sneak a cell phone picture. And I was once accosted outside and grilled about my intentions when I was taking a photo outside while using a tripod.  When a photographer friend of mine was offering a workshop there, I HAD to go back with the camera. The place is a complete visual feast…overwhelming in all there is to look at.

In our few hours in this special place, I kept coming back to this little nook above the fireplace with the skull tucked in. When I first spotted it, the light was much too harsh to get a nice shot…but I wandered back through the room several times, waiting for the light to soften. Then there are the processing decisions…color or black and white?

What makes an image evocative and compelling to you? What draws you back again and again trying to see the same image from a new angle and with a new set of eyes?

If I can get just one good shot: The Blacksmith

It has been a long time since I have posted a photoblog…and a long time since I shot today’s photo. At Christmas time here in Pennsylvania they re-enact George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River with his troops. Only this year, the water level was too high and moving too swiftly, so there was no re-enactment. In addition to the costumed soldiers who do the crossing, there was a man working in the old blacksmith shop. The shop was dark and too full of spectators…but there was a moment that the light started to stream through an upper window…and the crowd in front of me started to disperse, and for a full 4-5 seconds, this scene appeared. It was the only “keeper” of the day.

Mother-to-be

Yesterday I photographed a lovely mother to be. The woman was so beautiful and was open to anything (not to mention sweetly patient when my dog entered the studio and sat down with her on the background and gazed up at her with complete affection). This morning I quickly reviewed the images and stopped at the first one I liked and played for a few minutes. Above is a final image extracted from the original below.  I am suddenly so taken with the beauty of the human form. I – who until a few months ago insisted I was NOT a people shooter – was reveling in wrapping a woman with her own wedding veil and celebrating the miracle that is the creation of life … and my task in the creation of art. I continue to open new chapters in my own growth.

Yosemite – Glacier Point

Taking this photo became a defining moment in my life. Taken with film in October of 1995, it is the shot that re-ignited my now ridiculously satisfying obsession for photography. And the way it was taken also made me begin to find countless lessons in life through nature. I was tired of hiking on this morning. I was hungryand I almost quit just before the best part…Here’s an excerpt from my journal:

I had hiked for several miles on this icy October morning and all I was thinking about was breakfast, but I hadn’t reached the end of the trail. I had engaged in a sensual feast of smells and textures and I had found moments in which no man-made sound was audible, only the birdsong, the chatter of small mammals, the beating of my own heart in reaction to the splendor of this place. When I reached a point of having to scramble over rocks to complete the last leg of the hike, I decided to call it quits and head back. Something urged me on. “Push yourself. Finish.” So I climbed up the rocks toward an apparent summit. I could not have been more thankful that I did. Those last few yards gave me one of those lifetime moments.

Out of the top of the rocks grew a twisted pine which had weathered the winds of time for hundreds of years. While it had recently died, the tree had a grace that was amazing to me. The harsh conditions it had endured…the cold, the wind, the lack of soil, the ages. But the Jeffrey Pine was not the half of it. Looking out from those rocks gave you a 360-degree view encompassing Half Dome, El Capitan and the Yosemite Valley. It was a chilling experience. It was breathtaking and life giving. And I completely forgot about being hungry.

A ghostly path

Taken on the grounds at Ft. Ticonderoga in New York, this scene lent itself nicely to infrared, a non-visible spectrum of light. I use a camera filter which is virtually black to block out all visible light, allowing only the infrared to reach the sensor.

Castle in the Park

Central Park in New York City is a fabulous place to people watch and soak in a more relaxed city pace away from the crazy cabs and honking horns. This is a window detail on Belvedere Castle.