Video
Unexpected Bounty
November 1, 2020
When I walked through our groundskeeping yard the other day—the same day I netted some of the landscape photographs posted last week—I was not expecting to score such a trove of images. I had noticed some of the objects in earlier visits to the area, but this time the sun rendered them photogenic. Finding a new-to-me old dumpster on the premises was a bonus.
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Romancing Reality 
For me, these images share an ethereal spareness.
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November 1, 2020 at 5:55 AM
Mmmm, I like that. Thanks, Leslie.
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November 1, 2020 at 8:34 AM
Great images.
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November 1, 2020 at 7:27 AM
Thanks, Jessica. They were fun to take and process.
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November 1, 2020 at 8:35 AM
Another beautiful set of images that only nature could make, but captured exquisitely by your well developed and poetic sensibilities.
I love them all!
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November 1, 2020 at 8:27 AM
Thank you, Clare. I like that you see nature in these. I do, too—not only in the inclusions of leaves, raindrops, rust, and some kind of microbial life, but in the sheer materiality of things, which is overarching nature.
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November 1, 2020 at 8:43 AM
I like your obscured selfie in #3, Linda. Another fine set of images. Nice work.
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November 1, 2020 at 11:34 AM
Thanks, Ken. I would have preferred not to be in the frame, but you know how it is. Sometimes you can’t avoid it.
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November 1, 2020 at 11:56 AM
What a pleasure, Linda, there are some real treasures here…I like the pairing of the two reflected self-portraits. I love #2 – the gravely stones and yin-yang leaves (one’s upside down and one’s right-side-up) arranged themselves so nicely for you. They knew you were coming. The first photo is one that I KNOW I would have missed. It instructs us to keep looking. #5 is fascinating because I can’t figure out what’s making the leaves look like they’re behind waxed paper. It’s gorgeous, the colors, the composition…there’s poignancy there. #6 has a whimsical air like that oval shape popped up to say Hi. #7 is a found arrow, right? Crazy. 🙂 #9 and #10 together are for me, another perfect pair. There’s an erasure in #10. I really like those two, especially in relation to each other. The way the blue shows through is cool. #11 is an excellent find – very graphic and animated. The red slash “holding down” that worn piece of paper is dynamic. Great work, Linda.
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November 1, 2020 at 12:09 PM
Linda Grashoff
I had to look hard to find the second self-portrait. Never noticed it before you called it out. Number 2 took a lot of processing to get rid of an intrusive piece of machinery. You make me glad I worked that hard. I saw the tub and fluorescent bulbs of #1 several times on other trips to the yard, but either the sun or I wasn’t right to make a decent photograph of them. It pays to revisit places. I’ll tell you what makes the leaves in #5 look that way: water. This area is something of a junk yard that keeps getting cleaned up. In #5 you’re looking at a refrigerator door lying on the ground. I think the orange stuff is mold. Number 6 is a dumpster there that I’ve photographed before, but not that part of it. The rest of the photos are the newer dumpster. Thanks, Lynn. You help me see my own photographs.
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November 1, 2020 at 7:58 PM
Now you’ve made me look harder at #2…I see no trace of machinery but I do see a tiny hole or two in the metal. Intriguing! Looking at that one a second time I still love it, it’s like a photo of a moon, but it’s not. A refrigerator door with water and stuff on it! Who knew? Such an eye you have. 🙂
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November 3, 2020 at 1:38 PM
Good, you should see no trace of machinery! I worked hard to obliterate it. 🙂 Thank you, Lynn.
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November 4, 2020 at 7:59 PM
You’re still the queen of found objects, and especially rusty ones. The first picture is mysterious; I don’t recall ever seeing one like it. That’s a good self-portrait in #3. Like Lynn, I noticed the arrow in #7. That’s an appealing yellow sequence in the second half of the set.
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November 1, 2020 at 3:37 PM
Thanks for the coronation, Steve. If you read my reply to Lynn, above, you know that the first photograph is of a plastic tub filled with old fluorescent bulbs. I can’t imagine where all the colors on the tub came from or why. Thanks for all your comments.
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November 1, 2020 at 8:16 PM
Ah, now I see the fluorescent bulbs. The colors are indeed mysterious.
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November 1, 2020 at 9:48 PM
#2 was a perfect ghostly Halloween photo
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November 2, 2020 at 7:16 AM
Well, I guess it could be, couldn’t it, Ruta! Thanks for writing.
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November 2, 2020 at 9:22 AM
Excellent set of photos, my friend! My most favourite is 1, absolutely wonderful. And having you in 3 really adds to it, I agree with Ken. 5 and 6 are also high on my list. 🙂
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November 3, 2020 at 2:39 AM
Thanks, Adrian. I was so lucky with that barrel of fluorescent bulbs: the sun, the arrangement of bulbs, the angle at which I was able to shoot. It was a case, in #3, of not being able to get out of the frame; I really didn’t want to be in the photo of that lovely old washing machine. But I’m glad you and Ken and Lynn enjoyed it.
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November 3, 2020 at 9:06 AM
Linda, I think #3 would not be as interesting without the person there.
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November 3, 2020 at 1:40 PM
OK, I bow to your and Adrian’s and Ken’s sense of aesthetics. Thanks, all.
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November 4, 2020 at 11:55 AM
These are all SO wonderful!
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November 4, 2020 at 10:27 AM
Thank you, Ruth. You know, grass and ponds and such are truly beautiful, but I may get the bigger kick out of photographing the built environment. I suppose I feel I can add something there, where I can’t with trees and rivers.
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November 4, 2020 at 11:59 AM
extremely beautiful ❤️
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July 26, 2021 at 5:48 PM
Thank you, Friedrich. I’m happy that these photos appeal to you.
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August 5, 2021 at 10:58 AM
They are really beautiful! I don’t know if it was your intention but some have very strong elements of Chinese painting.
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August 5, 2021 at 11:41 AM
No, I did not know that. Looking at your paintings, however, I see a resemblance to some of these. Thank you for writing.
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August 5, 2021 at 11:48 AM