04-11-13 Aspirations

Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that what I call "A Photo A Day" has recently been "A Photo Once and A While." Quite honestly, I'm fighting through the worst "blogging slump" I've had in four years. I can't say why except that I'm a little jaded right now. I enjoy teaching photography at Lake Area Technical Institute, and I love my students but I am realizing that as much as teaching photography has given me, it also takes something away. I'm not complaining and I'll have plenty of time to recharge in a few short weeks.

I will also admit that I'm a little bored with the dew dappled flower photos I post. But I posting one today, mainly because yet another winter storm has hit South Dakota and I'm looking out my window at at least 8 inches of new snow with more coming down. So my impulse was to find something colorful, and a set of iris photos I took last spring jumped out at me. I hope you like the one I've "developed."

And, before I leave, a word about words. . .

Finding a title for my photos is sometimes hard. And it could be that even my title today is a bit redundant. But I like the word "aspiration," which has the Greek word "spiro" as its root. Spiro means "to breathe." Per-spire literally means "to breathe through." Re-spire means "breathe again." But "aspire," or as in the title, "aspiration", is a little more complicated. I'll take the dictionary definition: an aspiration is "a hope or ambition of achieving something." This iris aspires but probably doesn't know it, especially today as it sleeps beneath a soft blanket of fresh, white snow.

Do I dare say that I am inspired (look that one up!) by what I just wrote. Today I have hopes and ambitions. I hope you do, too.

Ready To Bloom

Because we typically go on vacation at the end of May and the beginning of June, this is all Deb and I normally see of the Iris that she has planted in her garden. But there is something attractive and stately about an Iris that is ready to bloom.

Complementary Colors?

Purple and green go well together,V as this photo of a pine cone blooms evidences. On a short break from a technology conference in Sioux Falls, SD, we wandered over to the Japanese Gardens on Covell Lake. It is a photogenic spot but my eye was caught by these bright purple flowers. I don't know how the pine tree reproductive process works, but once again, we see Nature in a lurid attempt to keep the life force going. Well done! (Incidentally, I was tempted to Photoshop the spider webbing from between two of the blooms but I decided that that's part of Nature, too.)

05-18-09 Incipience, Too

By Scott Shephard

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Incipience means "beginning to happen or develop." When you live in a state like South Dakota, where spring comes late, there is something very special about buds and flowers that are about to bloom. In this case, we are looking at the white flowering crab apple tree right outside our front door. Blooms in this phase are ephemeral - you may find them in the morning, leave and return later to find that they have flowered. This says something about the transitions we and our families make in life, too, doesn't it?

Canon 5DII 1/250s f/2.8 ISO400 100mm

03-09-09 The Green Fuse

The first line in the poem by Dylan Thomas "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower. . ." came to mind when I took this photo. Chives about to bloom are pretty mundane but I caught them at the right time, with their soft purple color contrasting nicely with the deep green of the foliage.

Depth of field is tricky on a shot like this given that my goal was to try to get several of the "flowers" in focus while blurring the rest. I took 10 or 12 pictures but ended up liking this one.

Canon 5D f/5 1/60 ISO 400 Canon 70-200 2.8L (200mm)