Seeing 2011 (#174)

For your consideration: cloud vapor streaming high over the halls of local governance power. Were I not more cynical I might confuse origin of the atmospheric mists for simply more hot air escaping the baffled chambers within these elegant and expensive edifices.

Even so, there is a beautiful interplay between the sweeping arcs of these structures, which lends a sense of sweeping funnels channeling the current events.

City Citadels, #2985-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: October 16, 2011; Canon 7D; f/20 @ 1/500 sec; —1 EV; ISO 500; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 14mm

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Seeing 2011 (#173)

For your consideration: an alien framing of odd developments suspended, frozen in time and space, of uncertain origin, location and destination.

Even the scale is indeterminate: microscopic, or galactic?

Ovum? Amoeba? Animal, mineral, or immaterial?

Friend or foe?

Alas, to limn the mystery would be a disservice, as the mystery at hand could take you down many intriguing mental corridors . . . let your mind give birth to your own answers through the windows of your own enlightements.

Rising Genesis, #0797-20D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: March 28, 2011; Canon 20D; f/5.6 @ 1/640 sec; —1/3 EV; ISO 400; Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

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Seeing 2011 (#172)

For your consideration: one of the sixteen various "floats" (statues, really) clustered in the proximity of San José's City Hall, depicted here as a thrusting counterpoint to the far more ethereal contrail which rhymes the form from far above. The canvas explores the notions of negative space, the juxtapositions of concreteness against impermanence, solidity, and illusion, and free motion over anchorage.

For the record, this piece has been interpreted as "Innovation", according to information at this site, which took me far longer to find on the web than did my image processing of my own interpretation of the work for this posting.

Untitled, #2982-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: October 16, 2011; Canon 7D; f/16 @ 1/320 sec; —1 EV; ISO 500; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 16mm

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Seeing 2011 (#171)

For your consideration: a composition offered as a black-and-white counterpoint to the last post . . . form versus function.

After several years harboring a low-grade obsession (is there such a thing?) I finally returned to the site of what I consider to be one of the oddest ostensibly mainstream religious objects around, a 32-foot tall stainless steel homage to Mother Mary.

Despite the location being local (less than five miles from my home), I'd not approached this memorial since c. 2004. Several things were different then: I was using a Canon G2, my first digital camera (a robust 4Mp); it was daylight; and I'd yet to develop a blog. What has not changed, however, is this: a remarkable edifice, one can evoke a startlingly vast range of mood and messages simply by taking time to consider photographing it from a number of unconventional vantage points.

Indeed, from my virginal visitaion of this subject I came away with several images meant to depict a decidedly un-welcoming sense of scenery; a few examples of this can be found in this archive gallery from my original website (you'll need to scroll through a few sets of images in the scrolling slide strip for the reward, but do take a look).

This most recent canvas seems a bit more ambivalent to me: the harsh lighting washing over her metal attire recalls something of a knight's suit of armor, while the outstretched arms are less of a inviting embrace (as is the original sculpturer's clear intent) than a posture of pleading to an ill-defined orb.

That glowing sphere happens to be the Moon, which, thanks to the astonishingly wide angle of my lens fell into the broad confines of this scene. (I took several more shots attempting to capture a version correctly exposed version for the moon alone, but in the final editing I decided that the relatively dim, quite small mottled-sphere would be more of an ill-defined distraction instead of glowing beacon.)

Mary Beholding Moon, #3701-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: November 13, 2011; Canon 7D; f/11 @ 3 secs; —2 2/3 EV; ISO 250; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 12mm

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Seeing 2011 (#170)

For your consideration (after a bit of an absence) . . .

A sighting dear to my heart: a simple statue of an elk, considerably gussied-up, with a color scheme that pays more than just lip service to the gaudy and surreal end of the spectrum.

The specimen was spotted from the highway, stiffly standing in a grassy field between a small brick office and the motorway. Late afternoon, and not that you can tell, but also very nippy outside at the time (40's, with wind), in western New York state.

Several more angles will likely be posted on the smugmug site; for now one must be satisfied with gazing upwards at quite a rack.

Meanwhile, I've been at loss for an apropos title . . Dear (Deer) Me? Endearing Gaze? Oh, Dear!? I'm open for suggestions.

Untitled, #3837-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: November 18, 2011; Canon 7D; f/22 @ 1/60 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 400; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 16mm

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Seeing 2011 (#169)

For your consideration: a somewhat apocalyptic atmosphere which could just as well have been recorded forty years ago as (much) earlier today— given the ambiguous age of the vapor-spewing plant and the vintage of the main subject.

The image here is the latest entry from what have become enjoyable and always unpredictable excursions in what my fellow night crawler Jerry and I term Nocturnal Photography. Our most recent foray, last night, entailed a trio of venues, none of which were destinations set before the moment we started out (at 9:00pm): neon signs on a local downtown street, a prominent religious statue near a major freeway, and (spotted from the latter) a mysterious source of massive plumes rising skyward.

Reaching a spot from which a decent, unobstructed view of the steam-spewing plant was a bit of a treasure hunt; a combination of intuition, deduction and satellite mapping lead us to an obscure route though a largely abandoned business complex parking lot. Just as it was beginning to seem our efforts to discover a good venue for shooting would be thwarted we stumbled into this end-of-times scene.

Sweetening the reward for our persistence: the magnificent prop of this well-preserved vehicle straight from the nostalgia of my very early youth . . . the first new car I can recall my dad buying for our family, when I was perhaps four years old, was a Valiant exactly like the jewel in this canvass. A terrific final subject for a long evening of pixelation.

A final note: this is a HDR composite of three successive images having exposure times of 1/2 sec, 1.5 sec and 4 seconds.

Valiant Steam, #3730/31/32-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: November 13, 2011; Canon 7D; f/8 @ 4 secs; + 1/3 EV; ISO 640; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 14mm

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Seeing 2011 (#168)

For your consideration: a canvas infused with a dominant tone of melancholy, somber emptiness; the overall sense is that of an expansive void overwhelming any notion of energetic life — the abandoned deck does nothing to suggest any current sentient activity whatsoever.

Yet from the vast, seemingly limitless plane of dreary loneliness arrives a singular, potent reminder of a profound truth: hour by hour, tirelessly, relentlessly and (for all intents and purposes) eternally, a state of perpetual and constant change exists and persists. An unfathomable number of waves will continue their march to shore long after the architectures of Man decay and are swept aside. Observed or not, the ocean remains restless, dynamic, and a source of energy beyond comprehension.

Unceasing impermanence on a grand scale.

Seaside Seas, #1825-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: September 24, 2011; Canon 7D; f/11 @ 1/400 sec; — 2/3 EV; ISO 500; Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 64mm

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Seeing 2011 (#167)

For your consideration: a trio of spheres, floating in space, forming something akin to a rather permeable Maginot Line — presumably an implied boundary keeping the world at bay. Close inspection reveals a sweeping current arcing through this moist expanse; it would seem to be oblivious to man-made restrictions, as are most facets of nature.

Naturally.

Untitled, #0715-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: July 21, 2011; Canon 7D; f/8 @ 1/2000 sec; — 2/3 EV; ISO 200; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 16mm

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Seeing 2011 (#166)

For your consideration: a rare session of voluntary and even enjoyed, agreeable posing for the camera on the part of my wife yielded this unusual study in angular composition, lighting, and a deliberate disregard for sacrosanct portraiture rules.

The occasion was our private, affectionate getaway for our sixth anniversary; we stayed at a hotel directly on the beach of Monterey Bay, took in a wonderful exhibit of Edward Weston photography, indulged in good food and naps . . . and had a sweet, tender time together.

I have known and deeply loved this amazing woman for a decade and more, and she continues to demonstrate a wonderful approach to living life which I relish. To think: one night, seemingly forever past, I took her to dinner to seek advice about a disintegrating, hellish relationship I'd been enduring . . . it was during that meal that I found myself wondering, "Why can't I have a woman like her?"

Ah, sometimes dreams come true.

Julianna in Seaside, #1959-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: September 21, 2011; Canon 7D; f/3.2 @ 1/332 sec; — 1/3 EV; ISO 800; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 11mm

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Seeing 2011 (#165)

For your consideration: a scene of literal motion capture . . .

One of the delightful perks of my venue as a university employee is that I am frequently exposed to varied and usually new experiences related to the Arts; so it was when I was invited to photograph (as well as help set up) a stage for a demonstration of the latest in motion-capture technology.

Thus I was in a unique position to record a moment of suspended animation, as it were, when one of the expert technicians was paused in contemplation of his next step on the path ahead.

This composition features some interesting symmetries: the steps rhyme with the staff's seven lights; the ovoid turban subtly echos the arc of the odd, undulating cord tracing across the mid-background. All in all a complex depiction of serene competence, stasis and implied motion cohabiting interiors physical and mental.

Enlightened Man, #3026-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: October 21, 2011; Canon 7D; f/5.6 @ 1/20 sec; —1 1/3 EV; ISO 1000; Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 61mm

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Seeing 2011 (#164)

For your consideration: a snippet of the Point Lobos reserve, on a typically overcast day. The Monterey peninsula hugs the right-side horizon.

Pinnacle Cove, Point Lobos, #2006-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: September 25 , 2011; Canon 7D; f/8 @ 1/2000 sec; —2 EV; ISO 250; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 16mm

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Seeing 2011 (#163)

For your consideration: a singular burst of color in the midst of an otherwise largely gray day on the Northern California coast.

Taken near the end of a sweet anniversary weekend my wife and I spent in the Monterey area, at my favorite venue on the entire Pacific coast (San Diego to Vancouver).

The real challenge here was capturing this lithe, weightless petaled bowl's pose between unpredictable buffets of soft and sometimes stiff breezes; the slightest movement beneath the macro lens' extreme magnification and the inversely proportional shallow depth of field presented significant challenges to both patience and execution.

Point Lobos Poppy, #2073-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: September 25 , 2011; Canon 7D; f/6 @ 1/500 sec; —2/3 EV; ISO 640; Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

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Seeing 2011 (#162)

For your consideration: symbols of a bureaucratic alien invasion, perhaps? (UFOs, in triplicate!)

Considered with more gravity, this canvass could also be seen as a multi-exposure, rapid strobe capture of a high-velocity landing. Or, a hat-trick, if you like.

However the eye chooses to interpret this subject, there is a certain music to the forms: razor edges delineating surfaces at once cylindrical, undulating and subtly veined; a sense of openings to be explored, noted, and ultimately found to be of uncertain scale.

Untitled, #1602-20D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: June 23 , 2011; Canon 20D; f/5 @ 1/80 sec; —1 1/3 EV; ISO 400; Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 44mm

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Seeing 2011 (#161)

For your consideration: the view from Serenity Point at the St. Francis Retreat Center, near midnight.

Gilroy, Morgan Hill and undoubtedly some ambient presence of San Jose make themselves known on the horizon.

A single exposure of 28 minutes and 7 seconds (I was trying for 30 minutes but was estimating all the way). There is an art to capturing star trails, which I have clearly not yet mastered; far better results are derived from taking a large series of relatively short exposures and blending them together. Ah but that requires much more discipline and precision.

The downside of of employing single, lengthy shots such as this one is the accumulation of significant color noise. Removing it also, unfortunately, eliminates many of the fainter, finer streaks in the darker areas. Thus, this version, while largely devoid of the ugly grain, is also lacking considerable trail paths present in the original raw capture.

Heaven knows: perhaps next time . . .

True North (Polaris over Hwy 156), #2215-7D

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

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Details: October 1, 2011; Canon 7D; f/11 @ 1687 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 250; Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 11mm

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