Posts Tagged ‘beauty’
branches at belle isle
Posted in Branches, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, Belle Isle Marsh Reservation, Inspiration, nature, Photography, salt marsh on December 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »
three opportunities
Posted in Inspiration, tagged beauty, books, cybersale, gifts, Inspiration, nature, Photography on November 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »
That’s right. There’s at least three opportunities to purchase my work and get a great deal. Blurb where I produce my photography books currently has a 50% off sell. Coupon code is BEST50. In my shop you’ll find a range of books including a new compilation of images from a field in Woburn, MA.
Preview the book here.
In my Zazzle shop you’ll find a mix of merchandise for the holiday season and well beyond.
Coupon code for up to 70% off items is ZAZCYBERSALE.
Details from John La Farge’s Presentation of the Virgin
And if you prefer to step away from the computer and like to browse the shelves in person, then I invite you to visit the gift shop at Trinity Church where you’ll find some new postcards as well as classic images, and a lovely selection of music, inspiration books and other merchandise. Located at 206 Clarendon St., entrance is across from the Boston Public Library. Enjoy!
the christmas cactus
Posted in Inspiration, tagged beauty, Christmas Cactus, flowers, indoor gardening, Inspiration, Photography on November 27, 2016| 3 Comments »
As I plantsit a friend’s cactus, it is providing lots of wonderful photographic opportunity. Enjoy, and wherever you are in the world, have a good day. 🙂
the last few leaves
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, colors, Inspiration, nature, Photography, trees, urban landscape on November 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »
detail from la farge’s presentation of the virgin
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, beauty, Charles McKiim, Inspiration, John La Farge, religious art, stained glass windows on November 21, 2016| 4 Comments »
Detail from Presentation of the Virgin (after Titian) by John La Farge, 1888
At Trinity Church in the City of Boston, there is the stained glass window, Faith, by Burlison & Grylls of London, installed in 1877-1878. It was given in memory of Charles Hook Appleton and Isabella Mason by their teenaged daughters Julia and Marian Alice, known as The Appleton Sisters.  The two sisters were extremely close. They lived together on Beacon Street and purchased adjoining property in Lenox, MA.Â
Julia and Marian Alice Appleton
Eventually, the oldest daughter Julia would meet and marry noted architect Charles McKim, a colleague and friend of the artist John La Farge.  Sister Alice would marry George Von Lengerke Meyer. As did many families of their social circle the McKims traveled extensively and often throughout Europe. In Venice they visited the galleries and in that city one of Julia’s favorite paintings was Titian’s Presentation of the Virgin, 1534-1538.
In 1887, Julia would unexpectedly die during childbirth. The grieving McKim, along with sister Alice, would commission John La Farge to create a window in Julia’s memory.  La Farge would select as focus a small portion of Titian’s large canvas. The window would be designed and completed within five months.
The window depicts a young girl climbing steps and symbolizes Julia’s climb toward heaven. Â Below this image and considered separate from the story is the image of an angel playing a musical instrument. It is a spectacular window at any time of day but especially when the sun is shining just right through the opalescent and painted glass. For this series of images, that perfect time was approximately 1pm on a sunny day.
La Farge’s early sketch can be found at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the actual window is located on the south wall of Trinity Church located in Boston’s Copley Square.
Sources & Additional Reading
http://library.bc.edu/lafargeglass/exhibits/show/descriptions/all-saints/trinity-boston
at the water’s edge
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged abstract, beauty, Charles River, colors, Inspiration, nature, Photography, sun, urban landscape, water on November 17, 2016| 1 Comment »
Several analogies came to mind. The sun like liquid gold spilling over rocks into the sea. The sun in a bucket being dribbled from the heavens into the waters below. Jackson Pollack with a wide paintbrush and blue canvas and working only with shades of gold. In the end as in the beginning it was simply reflections of mostly bare branches and refraction at work in the gentle rolling waves of the Charles River.
revisiting edmands park
Posted in Inspiration, Publication Updates, tagged beauty, books, edmands park, Inspiration, libraries, nature, photobooks, Photography, self-publishing, urban landscape on November 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »
scenes from edmands park
Walking into Edmands Park was an escape for me. I was working at a small nonprofit located at Boston College’s Newton Campus researching and writing grants. On occasion I needed to rise from the computer and walk around to collect my thoughts, free my brain from jargon, and so on. I’m not the most adventurous person – really! – but when I start walking I sometimes get lost in the motion. Luckily my job was free form enough, so long as I met deliverables and deadlines, that it was okay if my legs kept me going past the stone walls of the campus and into the neighboring woods. It became ritual and coincided with my deepening exploration of photography. At times it seemed a magical place, strangely isolated, though it was adjacent to an active college campus. I’m not sure how many of the students knew what beauty lay around them. Over time, I would collect photos from across the seasons. I couldn’t wait to make my way into the woods after a heavy rain or snowfall to see how the landscape had been transformed.
Eventually I compiled those images and paired them with a few words about my experiences in Edmands Park into a book and published it independently. I shared the book with friends but I didn’t really know what else to do at the time. Anulfo Baez of The Evolving Critic suggested I check out the Indie Photobook Library (iPL) founded by Larissa LeClair. Her library featured the work of emerging and established photographers who were self-publishing their work. I did reach out to Ms. LeClair and she did indeed accept my submission of In Edmands Park for her library.
Five years later her library collection has been placed at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. In a recent press release she stated that while the iPLÂ is now closed to submissions, she “will continue to advocate on behalf of self-publishers from around the world by directly consulting with libraries and museums on their acquisitions.” I am thankful for that early support and recognition of my work and honored to now have one of my books figuratively if not literally sitting on a library shelf at Yale University.
Sources & Additional Reading
iPL collection adds to Beinecke’s strengths in photobooks and modern trends in self-publishing – http://news.yale.edu/2016/11/16/ipl-collection-adds-beinecke-s-strengths-photobooks-and-modern-trends-self-publishing
See more images here:Â http://www.newtonconservators.org/art_staples.htm
sticks and stones on my path
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, tagged beauty, Charles River, colors, Inspiration, light, nature, Photography, poetry, urban landscape, water on November 9, 2016| 2 Comments »
One day I went wandering by the river because I felt a little lost. I thought I might find focus on the leaves fallen in the water but the sun was at such an angle that I could not get the right shot. Â I kept wandering by the river, in hope, still focusing my camera on the leaves.
A leaf or two I did find but they were not exactly what I sought and so I continued my journey by the river, in hope, seeking something, though I knew not exactly what.
I grew cold and frustrated. There I stood on the banks of the Charles River knowing I had to give up.  As I paused, undecided of my direction, my eyes rested on the waters — you see, the sun was so low it was hard for me to look up.
Waters lapped upon the shore, cascaded over the rocks and swirled small broken branches about. A lovely sight especially when I realized in the water the blinding light was subdued. It was a delight.
No doubt there was beauty behind me and there would be beauty before me but on this particular journey I found the beauty right in front of me. And that’s what I chose to photograph.
a different enduring and edible beauty
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged beauty, broccoli, cooking, food, food photography, fractals, Inspiration, mathematics, patterns, Photography, romanesco broccoli on November 7, 2016| 2 Comments »
When a certain physicist I know tells me excitedly that he picked up something really cool for me to photograph from the farmer’s market, I know that it will undoubtedly be an edible object that in some way visualizes some fundamental principle about how the world works. In this case it was a head of romanesco broccoli with its beautiful repeating pattern that is a “natural representation of the Fibonacci …Â a logarithmic spiral where every quarter turn is farther from the origin by a factor of phi, the golden ratio.” (source)
Indeed! Well, I did have fun photographing it. When I thought I was done, I put away my camera and picked up a knife. It was time for dinner, you see. But then at the look on the physicist’s face, I put the knife down and said, “Uhm, would you like the honors?” And so he gently broke it apart revealing and reveling in the ever smaller yet repeated pattern of the larger broccoli.
In the end he sauteed the little bits in garlic and olive oil and topped it with a bit of cheese. Quite good. And there remained just enough of the veggie to place in a little ramekin. “Like a little Christmas tree,” he said. “We could decorate it with baby capers!” I don’t think so but it looks like I will have the opportunity to photograph this tasty mathematical subject a while longer.
an enduring beauty
Posted in Inspiration, tagged art, art exhibits, beauty, colors, Della Robbia, Florence, Inspiration, Photography, Renaissance, sculpture on November 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence is a current exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It is a beautifully curated show featuring glazed terracotta that, as one visitor stated, if you did not know the sculptures were made over 500 years ago, you would think that they were made just yesterday.
The colors are still that vivid thanks to a unique glazing recipe developed by Luca della Robbia (1399/1400–1482). The sculptures produced by his family, based in Florence, Italy, are dramatic in design and expression and rather luminous.
detail from The Visitation, 1455, on loan from the church of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas in Pistoia, Italy
Della Robbia’s signature colors of white and cerulean blue radiate with a brilliance that would become the family hallmark. There is a deep richness to the others colors as well.
For the exhibit the MFA pulled together nearly 50 objects from U.S. collections and from Italy. On view in the museum’s Lois B. and Michael K. Torf Gallery, the freestanding sculptures and other decorative pieces are organized around three themes – hope, love, and faith. Exhibit curator Marietta CAmbareri describes these as the virtues of the Renaissance, guiding peoples’ lives at the time.
The exhibit, a visual treat, runs through December 4th. More details available here:Â http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/della-robbia
Words + Images 