I have been studying the effect of background in a photograph or painting. Found some interesting stuff as I studied. I found background can have at least two meanings:
A. The space around an object is its background.
B. How you were brought up – your growing up environment is your background.
In the A. meaning, I played around with the background of a Sea Gull I photographed. I think the quality of a photo is in the eyes of the artist ((photographer) so there is no right way to do it – only a different way to do it:
As my camera saw it.Let’s darken the background.Let’s brighten the background.Let’s us confuse the background.
Oh my – enough of that.
What about the B. meaning? Just for fun – here are some words I found in a new Pew Research Center survey:
“The lives of children from rich and poor American families look more different than they have in decades.
Well-off families are ruled by calendars, with children enrolled in ballet, soccer and after-school programs.
In poor families, children tend to spend their time at home or with extended family. Their parents worry about them getting shot, beaten up, or in trouble with the law.
Higher-income parents see their children as projects in need of careful cultivation.
Working-class parents, believe their children will naturally thrive, and give them far greater independence and time for free play.
Working-class children are taught to be compliant to adults.While well-off families teach their children to challenge the norm and seek to improve it.
There are benefits to both approaches. Working-class children are happier, more independent, whine less and are closer with family members.Higher-income children are more likely to declare boredom and expect their parents to solve their problems” . …….. and on and on the research goes. If you are interested in the subject, look it up on the internet.
Here are 2 backgrounds I photographed this morning:
A. In the space around the road and trees is their background..B. Finally, here we see two fowl with entirely different backgrounds – For all I know one may be a Republican and one a Democrat? They have elected to enjoy the sun on my dock – together. Maybe we humans can learn from this image!Oh my – Let’s all swing together in the sun shine today!
After reading this page, Check the Photo Page – See Jim Spain with telephoto lens I hope.
I am standing on my dock this beautiful morning.I know it is morning because I know where the sun is at this time of day. But, what day is it, Monday, Friday?
The sun tells me what hour it is but how do I know what day it is? It does not really matter to me anymore. I love each day – last Sunday was great, Wednesday was too – sure hope and pray to God that this Friday is a repeat of good days
Oops, I said it – I do have a few things on my mind to tie me to the day’s of the upcoming week. I am not yet completely free.Or is it that I am very lucky to have thoughts that tie me to the day of the week.
Standing here reflecting on the reflections of nature, my mind jumps. It is beautiful here – I mean really beautiful!
Here is one dissertation that jumped into my mind, I know not why – maybe because I feel no anger at all – only the peace of nature this morning on Whitney Bay.
Now I am not a Bible person but at times I read something that makes reference to a Bible verse – so onto the internet I go to read the reference – For example: in Romans 12:18 the New Living Translation Bible puts it like this:
“What a difference between becoming irate over someone cutting you off in traffic and putting ourselves in that person’s shoes for just a moment.”
I stood there, so thankful for having the opportunity to experience the beautiful morning (Which I will show you in photos at the end of my little dissertation here.) I thought of Romans 12:18 – what I think is the real meat of the verse “putting ourselves in that person’s shoes for just a moment.”– Can not be done!
I am reading a book “Never Stop Walking”by Christina Rickardsson. It is about the struggles of a street person, “Rat,” as they are called, that by a quirk of faith got adopted 24 years ago and became successful.How could I ever put my self in her shoes – I never needed to murder a person at the age of 7 just to hold on to a piece of pizza I found in the trash behind a restaurant. It was her first food in 4 days.
Standing on my dock this morning, I looked skyward and said “Thanks” for allowing me to walk in my shoes. I can read of Christina’s shoes – but I can never walk in them.
Ponder that as you get upset with someone. They have their own shoes that most likely are quite different from yours. Of course they had a valid reason to do what they did and you had a valid reason to be upset with them – WOW – it is all valid – that is complex.
But come stand on my dock in whatever shoes you have been given:
Reflections – CloudsReflections – GullThe flotilla – check upper right – I will zoom-inPappa’s job, check under water to assure that a big pike is not sneaking up on the babies for the pike’s dinner.Now it is Mamma’s job to check for underwater danger – maybe the pike did not eat for days? – anyway I can not walk in the shoes of the geese parents or of the hungry pike.Family time on the Bay.At the Marina – Family timeOh my – I will try to have some new stuff the next time you swing thru here
Seasons create a changed outlook every 3 months for us who live in the North or travel there from time to time. Weather does the same every couple of hours or days. You gotta love it. Even in the Caribbean where the weather is always warm or in Northern Alaska where it is always cold by our standards weather gives a resident there a new outlook when it changes from day-to-day.
Today, my outlook smiled here on Drummond Island. Lots of beautiful spring season changes. I recorded a few on my cell phone just for you:
My front window looked like this at 8:00 am today. Oh my, its is beautiful.
Now the front window looks like this – Oh my – beautiful after the storm.Looking out over the water. Oh my, its is beautiful. (A Canadian Goose Family)Looking out over the water. Oh my, its is beautiful. (A Merganser Family)Oh my its is beautiful. (My rhubarb gone to seed)Bee flying in, oh my its is beautiful. (My rhubarb flowers loved by the bee)Oh my it is beautiful. (150 pound rock found in my wood lot, now by my garden – my sore back is getting better!Oh my it is …. well the result is beautiful (Just whistle while you spring clean) – (a stock photo by???)Swing on out of winter, into spring, into summer, into fall, and ’round again where winter leads to spring.
Lots of great photo activity in the Photo Page – A first time contributor, Bill White. Plus a great education and beautiful photos by Dave Cesari: Oven_bird and Thrush!
Oh my, check back often – Linda Somers is waiting for Chuck to finish a project so that we can enjoy one of their summer activities. When the project is complete, I will post photos of its progress to completion.
—————————My post of yesterday is below———————
Stick your camera in your pocket and become a BLUE_Blood.
You may think the next sentences have nothing to do with “Blu_Bloods.” Read on and I will try to show you that they do.
Cell phones and the internet are seen as positive tools for improving the quality of communications with family members.
Are you blue blooded, red-blooded, black listed, or green with envy.
Why did I ask that? Well, I was thinking of the CBS TV show “Blue_Bloods” – What do you like best about it?Of course it is the family dinner gathering and the family talking about their family community – all having jobs in the same activity – police and justice jobs.
I like it ‘cause I really relate to it.I grew up with parents, Grandparents, and some aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, and cousins gathering for chicken dinner every week. We were not cops but almost all of us were in the activity of the Brethren Church, self-sustaining farming, and teaching.We were face to face where we used facial expressions, voice tones, and arm waving to tell our story of what happened in our life this week.
Not many people can do that these days ’cause we are scattered all over the place and work/recreate in all different activities – Except of course the TV “Blue_Bloods.”
So I did a little research. 75% of the people interview said they use the internet to connect to family. 25% said they communicate that way and therefore watch less of the no-communicating “TV watching activity.”
70% said they send family members photographs to tell them of the excitement in their day. It is more like describing face to face where you use facial expressions, voice tones, and arm waving to tell your story.
So that lead me to urge your to send photos – not just words. But, do you have to carry you camera everywhere you go?- Yes. You do. It is your cell phone. Use it!
Use it to create family gatherings – get them to do the same– enjoy each other more!
For example, here is some of my “day’s happenings” recorded with my cell phone – just two day’s worth!
On my way up to the barn I save two neighbor from what could have been their end – before a car came around the bend. I stopped the car while the snake slithered off the road and the painted turtle, I put into the field where he was free to tread safely.Yesterday planted my flower garden – and fixed the deer fence.- But they got in any way – but I sprayed “deer off” – no damage done – and I fixed the hole in the fence today.Found this little rock in the driveway – looks like a turtle to me.So I decided to sit down and add a head!Here is the real one I saved from road trafficSpent the whole day mowing pasture and spreading manure – and – talking to the manure makers. You know – Those Icelandic horses – Survival of the fittest – If there is something to eat – eat it before someone eats it – Perla is here eating and the other 5 horses are in the barn hiding from the flies.Caught this duck swimming toward me – it saw me and took off – see the ring were it left the water – and see it in flight? All that was to tell you – I did not care if it flew off – ’cause:I was just sitting on the dock enjoying a little Texas wine and the evening sunset.
I hope you make full use of your phone camera to have a more enjoy enjoyable cell phone/txt gathering with your family.
I just had to waste time playing around with my camera and computer this morning! Here are two of many creations I made:
Wooden drawer panel on my desk. Did you start to look at the dot in upper right and circle round to find raccoon? Or did you go straight to the raccoon – I would like to know. Oh my, the “Just for Fun” photo at the top of the page is also one of my desk drawer front panels. My office rug – Just as photographed with my Nikon Coolpix. From a low position of course.
Yesterday’s heading: Nature is all about art – you know landscape, vistas – and abstracts that control our mind – WHAT? – Oh my, read on.
It seems to me that more than 50% of TV time is spent watching advertisements. Are the advertisements just pretty pictures of videos? No No. Each video/picture is designed to make you focus where they want you to focus – make you stay looking and get the message – which may even be hidden.
With a little research I found there are many college level courses and extensive research aimed at educating the folks that are “controlling” what we see on TV advertisements.
There is a new paper from Nicole Thomas, an experimental psychologist at James Cook University in Australia. Thomas uses eye tracking of folks looking at abstract paintings to investigate how we look– or as she puts it, “how do we decide what we pay attention to, and what we choose to ignore in on cereal cartons, TV advertisements, or bill boards”
Unlike paintings like portraits or landscapes, abstract paintings offer a kind of blank slate for observing how and what we see.
Some findings: In general, people tended to focus their eyes on the upper-right-hand area of the art, and move in clockwise patterns to the rest of the painting.
They stated the right hemisphere is important for emotional processing.They explain. “The emotional reactions that are elicited by abstract artwork lead participants to focus their attention within the upper-right quadrant. Then, since we go clockwise to the upper left quadrant with our emotions in gear – You guessed it, they put the message along that path.
But the five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) also played a role: People who tended toward neuroticism spent more time on the left side of each painting than the other four personality traits do – so advertisement creator’s must know who they are trying to reach.
Yipes, it is complicated – but I have been having fun with abstract photos – Nature is full of abstracts.I put a few here – study them – see where your eyes go and where they stop and study the abstract photo – do you see hidden images/messages. It is fun to study them.
The fallen treeup closeAbstract 1 Up closer – photo of fallen tree – where do your eyes go?Abstract 2 – where do your eyes go? – What is it?Abstract 3 – what are the hidden items? how did your eyes get to them?Did this help you see objects?Just for fun! What is it? Oh my – Take a swing through nature and you will find many abstract works of art! I gotta’ go move some rocks and some downed trees – bet I will find many abstract works of art in my days work! Maybe even a hidden message?
After you read my “DIGITAL EYE” page below take a look at the Photo Page.
Linda added new photos to the Photo Page. She wrote of them: Yearly, a West Newbury neighbor conducts a lilac walk through hundreds of lilacs on his property.Knowledgeable and entertaining, as there is a Scottish dancing segment, Chris shares his enthusiasm of plants with us.We are also treated to a delicious buffet.
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THE DIGITAL EYE:
Is your eyeball a digital magnifying glass? Better yet, is your mind a concentrating mind? Looking for details thru magnification helps you concentrate. Concentration on details helps you see and enjoy the whole.
Details in nature are a form of art created by God. When you look for them you are concentrating.When you concentrate on art I believe you are provided an uplift in your mental outlook on life, you see and thus learn new things, and you are prompted to wonder why or how such things could be.
Boy, what am I talking about? Well, I was thinking how lucky we are to be able to save things we see. I mean save them with my iPhone camera or my relatively inexpensive 42 power digital camera. I can see them again in the evening and concentrate on details missed with the naked eye.
Magic – Grandpa never had it that good. He never really got to seen things up close like I can.
For example: See this little snake I found sleeping under the pile of rotting leaves in my garden. I scooted him out onto the driveway and snapped a picture of him with my iPhone
Cute little guy
– then today, I magnified him:
Look at the heart-shaped design on his head. Hey, how do you think his brain organizes a view from the left eye with a view from the right eye? – each eye sees entirely different views of the world around him.What is that on the horizon?42x Why is the smoke not trailing behind the freighter – He came from the Soo Locks and is heading to the left (North-East) – Did I PhotoShop that smoke? – I did not – then why? How about a 30 MPH South-West wind?Why did the woodpecker peck so close to the ground?Do you think his head would hurt after chiseling a hole like that?Wow – did he miss these critters at dinner time – or did they come after dinner to feast on the sap?How big was this tree when it blew over? – See the top is pointing to the sky and the tree is growing quite healthy with the top of it’s roots pull out of the ground.- The roots went down to get nourishment and the top went up to get sunshine! All after a long-ago storm made the tree use it’s creativity to survive.Hey here is a piece of broken branch on the ground by the tree trunk.Magnify the broken branch – Did God’s art have good contrast, good composition, good color, good lines.– Is it a pleasure to look at?I focused on his art and discovered a face he hid there. Did you find it?I will swing on out of here until tomorrow – study your world in detail – Hey, then, send me photos to post on the Photo Page!
June 3, 2018 – See the updated Photo Page featuring Linda Somers and Jim Spain
Jim Brubaker wrote:
June 3 – For Loon watching, I have been testing the 42 power lens of my old Nikon Coolpix which I have not used for a couple years – looks pretty good though:
June 1, 2018 – Who are you? Are you an Island onto yourself? Of course you are. You are yourself! Read on down this page just for fun.
Landing at Sault St Marie – The Soo – with a Canadian Island in the far horizon.
Our photo club members are each an Island onto to themselves, in a way. I can identify each photographer by the set of photos they send me to post on our website. Each set has it’s unique fingerprint.
Hey, club members, you may not have thought about it, but I think that is why our sharing session at club meetings is so successful. That session is like a vacation trip. We get to see the sights – and some times – the sounds of another island, without the cost and effort to travel there. Our fellow club members bring “Their” unique island to us so that we get to enjoy their island.
Every vacation or motorhome trip I have taken for the last sixty or so years included a visit to an island.Newfound, Iceland, Smith, Tangiers, Denmark, Scotland, and dozens more.I have lived on two Island – one 15 miles out to sea off the coast of Rhode Island and the other is Drummond Island in the Great Lakes.A Island girl even married me – Manhattan Island is in her soul!
I will show you a few sights and sound of my home on Drummond as I saw them in the few days since I left TGO – Of course TGO is like a gated Island – we in TGO do have a unique culture – being a culture of RV’s and associated toys and hobbies like the Outdoors, Nature, and Photography.
From our fire pit I see a 900 foot freighter heading for the Soo locks.From my living room window, at 9:30 in the evening, I see the sun setting.While petting a horse, by the barn, I see the winter’s pile of horse manure sprouting hundreds of mushrooms.In the grass by the barn, I see the beautiful spring flower.I love what my iPhone camera and PhotoShop can do to a tulip in the spring.More important than Island fingerprints of mushrooms, flowers, sunsets, and freighters are people – Linda uses our dock each morning – and I mean each morning – to catch bait for her 4 hour fishing trip, in her open boat, in Whitney Bay. Today the temp is 44 degrees – and it is June 1
Below is one sight and sound from our dock on Island Drummond. It may take a few seconds for the sound to load – but it will, so be patient.
Be sure to go to the Photo Page and see photos club members sent me – see if you can find the photographers unique fingerprint of their Island.
Go to the Photo Page – Ed Swan has added 11 wild flower photos (5/25/2018)
Go to the Photo Page – Ed Swan has added new photos today (5/22/2018)
Go to the Photo Page – Dave Cesari has added new photos today (5/19/2018)
Then come back and read my story of animals in my life.
What is that animal(s) in your life?
It could be a cracker, a wild partner, a kitty coiled up on your lap, a vulture tearing through the garbage bag, a fish in the pond, a gator scaring you half to death, a mosquito biting you, W O W animals are everywhere.
But where do you like them? I was thinking about it – I like them in my life and I like them where they choose to be – not so much where I put them.
Sure, having an animal to keep and feed is great, but putting food out for them and letting them decide when to eat, when to bring their babies with them,and where to go after they eat is the best.Never quite sure what their timing will be, it is better than watching a TV mystery show – looking for the animal’s arrival and their interaction with each other – or lack thereof.
My neighbors on the Island feed the deer. Some folks are not sure it is a good idea to do that – I love the idea because, that is what I do nearly every hour of the day – look at or look for animals around the neighborhood.
When I had the ranch in Texas, you had to not only watch them, you had to watch out for them.Snakes (Corals, Copper Heads, Water Moccasins, and Rattlers), scorpions, mosquitos, black widow spiders, brown recluse spiders, rabid fox, mad bulls, and protective momma cows and momma emus, or those papa emus that thought you may be a rival. You better watch these animals ‘cause they were watching you – some not in the most friendly way. – But I loved watching them all. Could not wait to tell any listener about my latest encounters with the animals.
Even now, I am out and about a lot. I exercise on my bike for an hour to two every day, ride my golf cart around after dark while taking out the garbage and going for the mail. I eat out on the porch, or by a picture window, three times a day. I am sitting here at my computer looking out over the lake.I was thinking.Every minute that I am doing these things I am looking for animals to watch. Beautiful birds over the lake looking for dinner, even as I type.
All summer I help my friends take care of horses, and after work is all done we sit on their porch and watch the animals gather a their bird/racoon/bear/squirrel feeding station. Four or five months a year I have no TV – but I never go even four days without watching animals.I am always looking for animals – animals that I have seen many times before – I still am looking for them.
When my children were growing up, our house always had cats, dogs, gerbils, hamsters, parakeets, song birds, rabbits, turtles, snakes, and more – our lawn was home to snakes, squirrels, all kinds of birds, and more.
When I was growing up we had cows, ponies, horses, chickens, goats, sheep and of course a barn yard full of birds, mice, rats, weasels, bob cats, deer, mink, fox, bear, etc that came to eat food left by the farm animals – or perhaps to eat a not too cautious farm animal.
Maybe this little recap about animals will trigger a thought in your mind about enjoying the animal around you – they are a gift of nature – and the gift is practically free.
Here are a few photos of my animal friends – most are snapped with my iPhone while out on my bike:
Need I say more of it’s majestyCuteNeighbor peeking around the corner – Watch out, that gator needs a lot of food to fill his tummy.Athletic- I tried holding on like that in the Gym – I failedHidingDo not tread on me.Lookking for dinnerSwing high – get a better look for your animal friends!
Pegasus is a mythical winged divine stallion, and one of the most recognized creatures in Greek mythology. Usually depicted as pure white, Pegasus is a child of the Olympian god Poseidon. He was foaled by the Gorgon Medusa upon her death, when the hero Perseus decapitated her.
My most recent digital painting – On Drummond Island – Serena, an Arabian Horse.
As I was creating the painting of Serena, the image of mythical horses popped into my brain. Oh my, grab your sword and shield and jump on your unicorn or Pegasus and ride with me for just one nice legend:
With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence dating back 4,500 years.
“The Legend Of the Bloody Shouldered Mare” by Mariam Duncan
The Bloody Shoulder Arabian is a tale that has been past down for hundreds of years in the deserts of what is now the Arabian Peninsula. It is said a warrior saddled up his most prized Arabian mare that was with foal. During the act of battle, the mare gave birth to a strong healthy filly. Struggling to keep up with the mare and with the enemy quickly gaining on them, the warrior took his lance and pieced the foal through the shoulder. The mare understood the act and realized the foal would no longer be following her. Even though she was filled with grief, the loyal mare carried her warrior rider safely to his camp.
When the warrior awake from sleep, he noticed something astounding through the tent door– a day-old filly standing by the mare’s side. This was the same foal he had killed the day before. With no injuries, the foal carried just a patch of blood-stained hair across its shoulders. Believing the foal was a treasured gift from God, the warrior vowed to raise the foal and take special care of it. The foal’s blood-stained shoulder was never lost and she passed on these special markings to her offspring.
That is my story – Legend – and Oh my, I am sticking to it!
Hey, do not forget to check out Dave’s bird photos on the Photo Page
Here is one time I did that while looking at the clouds – I sat down and painted a photo of the clouds I saw in my mind!
Here is the real photo of the sky. – study it and see what you see.Maybe you can add a little color.Or, maybe you can see a few strange characters?I have sure wasted enough time on my computer – to work cleaning up my garage I must go!
