Seeing 2012 (#102)

For your consideration:  the year's final photographic offering from your roving reporter.

Taken after driving from home to the Pacific coast (with visiting guests from Louisiana in tow — greetings Bryan and Susan!),  arriving propitiously literally moments before sunset.

Although this image was not taken on the year's final day, it is a worthy stand-in to serve as an closing ambience and sign-off to the dozen months we've each traversed in our own uniquely personal journeys.

For me, it's been an extremely challenging year.  Yet, of course, one also well-supplied with joys and accomplishments, wonders and growth.

Adieu, 2012.

May the coming three hundred sixty-five days bring all of us plentiful times of beauty, grace, and enlightenment as calming as the essence of this tableau conveys.

Thank you all for visting and sharing my journey;  I hope to see you here next year.

Namaste,
James

Cypress, Sunset, Pigeon Point, #0955-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: December 8, 2012; Canon 7D; f/5.6 @ 1/500 sec; —1/3 EV; ISO 400;
 Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 22mm

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Seeing 2012 (#101)

For your consideration:  a celebratory image presented on the eve of a celebration.

'Tis been a dozen years now since I was smitten by a uniquely dynamic, intelligent and beautiful woman, a spark ignited ironically over a meal in which I sought a female perspective on matters of the heart.  At some quite specific moment during that therapeutic repast a clarifying thought erupted in my consciousness:  why can't I have a woman like her?

Tomorrow, provided of course that the Mayan apocalyptic verdict remains voided, I anticipate congregating with several good friends with whom I'll usher in the New Year.  I must confess, I still  remain amazed that first (in my heart) among the gathered will still be this vivacious, vibrant vision — my muse, my love, my wife Julianna.

We've shared quite a byzantine journey during our time together; as with any meaningful, deeply connected relationship periods of turbulence, discontent, and conflict have made their appearance on the stage.  Yet within the arc of our intimate shared path we've also been blessed with bountiful, nurturing experiences of comfort, tenderness, wisdom, compassion and encouragement.  Even today, revelations and mutual growth continues.

I owe more to this woman for an ascending quality of my life than I can properly enunciate.  Among the countless blessings she's given me has been her unceasing, unwavering support and affirmation of my art. Indeed, Julianna gave me my first digital camera (a Canon G2), a gesture of love which reignited a slumbering, dormant creative flame which has since flourished and continuously grown, beyond dreams, without flagging.  This this blog, my exhibits, and my passion and self-confidence in the photographic arena are all direct results and manifestations of Julianna's vision (and consequent patience!).

It is, indeed, a wondrous grace to watch yet another year draw to a close with Jules by my side.

Je t'aime, ma cherie.  Toujours.

Julianna and James, #0807-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details:  November 16, 2012; Canon 7D; f/10 @ 1/160 sec; ± 0 EV; ISO 800;
 Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS @ 61mm

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Seeing 2012 (#100)

For your consideration:  the year, like all others before it have done, is coming rapidly to its close. 

It's been quite a wild ride, this particular circuit of the Sun, my Fifty-Second.  Not the best of the bunch; far too much turbulence and uncertainty for my taste (much of which still looms).  Something of a surreal aberration, in numerus.  Even so, of course there was also an ample bounty of loving conviviality and sweet adventures, revelations and expanded horizons.  

Not the least of my personal highlights was the two-month exhibit of 61 of my photographs at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., library, on the campus of San José State University;  it is rare to be allotted such an expansive amount of both space and time to publicly display one's art, and it was a great honor. I also enjoyed the sweet affirmation of having sold several of my prints throughout the year, with more commissions pending.

One can only speculate what the next year holds for fortune and folly.  Certain is this:  there will be many journeys, some following prescribed, predictable vectors and courses, others fraught with confusion, perhaps, with shifting and conflicting signals and enticements.  Such is the human condition. 

It will be especially interesting to see which way the wind really flows in the days to come.  I hope to not find myself tilting at too many windmills, being instead grounded in some degree of reality as the adventure continues to write itself.

Vane Vectors (San Juan Bautista), #0297-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details:  October 7, 2012; Canon 7D; f/10 @ 1/400 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 400;
 Tokina AT-X Pro 11-16mm f/2.8 DX @ 11mm

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Seeing 2012 (#99)

For your consideration:  not exactly fine art, if for no other reason beyond the reality of this scene's already having been photographed (and undoubtedly painted) a myriad of times before my offering here . . .

Yet, nonetheless, this tableau is arguably one of the most beautiful man-made sites on our tiny planet, and seen on a gorgeous day at that. It so happens that I recorded my interpretation during my first ever visit to this particular vantage point, after nearly thirty years of living within an hour's drive!

Posted as a counter to an abundance of overcast, cold and rainy days of late — and as a reminder of the majestic beauty which surrounds all of us, if only we pause to look outward long enough so as to experience the universe beyond our preoccupation with Self.

Golden Gate Sunset from Baker Beach, #0482-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details:  October 13, 2012; Canon 7D; f/11 @ 1/200 sec; —1/3 EV; ISO 320;
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM @ 116mm

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Seeing 2012 (#98)

For your consideration:  a Christmas season view from the the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

On this particular day's journey  (the date being a usually somber reminiscence of John Lennon's assassination)  I was delightfully treated to a visit from my dear friend Bryan and his lovely love Susan.  Current residents of Louisiana, the Bay Area was a quick jaunt from their previous stop in Colorado, to which they shall be moving come the end of this month.

Never having before been to the West Coast, Susan was eager to see — and touch — the Pacific Ocean.  Naturally happy to accommodate, I acted as something of a tour guide for the day from the copilot's seat of their rental car.  After a few distractions and meanderings (including a stop at the Beethoven Center at San José State University) we arrived seaside moments before a spectacular sunset at Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

The coast was windy and quite chilly; after my friends had time to walk on the beach and I took several photos (some soon to be posted in this blog and on my main image repository) we drove up coastal Highway 1, in search of San Francisco sushi . . . and thanks to both excellent directions and recommendations from Kevin Ahern we were well-rewarded. Extravagantly fed, our next goal was to secure a view of the Golden Gate Bridge; a close option was from the grounds of the Legion of Honor,  from where the beautiful span was a splendid orange thread in the distance.

By now the hour was growing late and the travelers tired, yet the unanimous vote was that the night could not end without a direct experience with the Golden Gate.  Thus we navigated our way down to the northbound crossing, and finished our (amazing) sight-seeing expedition on the Marin end of the iconic structure.

Ergo the offering below, which features one of the world's most beautiful views, particularly bejeweled by the Embarcadero Center buildings' traditional Yuletide season lighting adornments, just to the left of center.  As a superb finale to a splendid day (rare, of late), my photographic composition was nicely enhanced by the serendipitous timing of a passing ship in the foreground.

San Francisco Bay, Ferry, #1041-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: December 8, 2012; Canon 7D; f/8 @ 6 secs; ± 0 EV; ISO 400;
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM @78mm

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Seeing 2012 (#97)

For your consideration: at the precipice of yet another insta-cliché thoroughly inundating the National Conscious, thanks to the media's penchant for relentless and unceasingly dramatic, maladroit employment of sound-bite-sized snippets of attention-getting idea fragments.

Was anybody immediately sick of the "fiscal cliff" admonitory the second time you heard it, spewing from a talking head who earnestly trotted it out for the lead-in to a broadcast network news segment? 

In vain hopes of broadening my own horizons, I quickly set out on a search for this newly discovered, apparently vitally important geographic site.   Being relatively knowledgeable about place names and Earthly features, I was surprised at the time required for me to discern Fiscal Cliff's whereabouts.  It was nowhere to be found amongst all the usual suspects — no mention of it in the Sierras, nor the Rockies, nor the Dakotas;  neither Arizona, Alaska nor even Montana maps mention such a promontory.   

What of New Mexico then?  Idaho?  Perhaps somewhere in the Appalachians even?  Alas, no.

Peeved, then pausing ponderously, perspective presented itself to me:  I had missed the scene by sheer inches, overlooking the obvious locale — 'tis in my own backyard!  Well, metaphorically of course . . . it's in my friend Steve's backyard, actually.

And so, gentle reader, I present the first concrete photograph of this object of so much blathering discourse.  

For those who peer especially closely at the full-size version you may discern its true nature and scale, and thereby gain insight as to why I didn't enter any betting pools for odds on it ever being actually located 'ere the Mayan calendar expired. (Hint:  although the image is unaltered, not all is at it seems . . . those irregularities in the atmosphere betray the true nature of this point of view.)

(Fiscal) Cliff, #0128-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: September 29, 2012; Canon 7D; f/5 @ 1/800 sec; +2/3 EV; ISO 800;
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

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Seeing 2012 (#96)

For your consideration:  a pitch for recyling clichés, perhaps:  is anyone else out there already exhausted by the once-a-minute use of fiscal cliff as our latest addition to the national lexicon?  It doesn't have quite the potential lasting power as Day of Infamy, associated with today's date since 1941.  (Let us pause to remember the USS Arizona, among the many fallen at Pearl Harbor.)

Well, while on the matter of slippery slopes, forthwith an offering from one of the more eclectic areas of downtown San José.  I photograhed this subject from a number of angles; this submission is the most acutely angular, and suitably composed in order to simultanously depict an incongruous stasis amidst a severely plumeting perspective. The juxtapostion creating considerable energetic tension.

The most challenging aspects of capturing this scene were manging the sun's glare while also trigging the shutter just when those racing flags' flapping were synchronized by a stiff breeze  — it took several attempts before I nabbed them such that there is space between the upper paired poles.

Untitled (Disoriented Downhill Racer), #9986-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: September 2, 2012; Canon 7D; f/11 @ 1/1000 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 500;
Tokina AT-X Pro 11-16mm f/2.8 DX @ 16mm

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Seeing 2012 (#95)

After a delay of unexpected duration, I am extremely happy to again be in a position to post thoughts and imagery for your consideration.

The past three months or so have been rife with personal upheaval on both geographic and emotional landscapes.

In the midst of the sojourn into the current interior and atmospheric winters I found myself disconnected, quite literally, from the technical resources I require to create muddled musings and their associated photographs.  This forced artistic deprivation significantly deepened my darkening mood, as this milieu has for some decades been my only reliable, consistent spiritual immunization against folly and even despair; in such times of extreme duress the act of capturing light has more than once been all that has illuminated meaningful motivation for continued respiration.

Thus, when this day finally arrived — regained access to the tools necessary to resume my creative narration — I was determined to publish something suitable and reflective of my place on the path.  The times are acutely challenging, many moments grim, the slope steep . . .  yet I am treading on the shoulders of close and deeply trusted men who steadfastly provide aid and comfort for my journey.  I shall keep yearning for the Sun, and to believe (even if naïvely) that the summit I seek can yet be attained.

Sunset, Winter, Western New York State, #0900-7D

© 2012 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: November 21, 2012; Canon 7D; f/10 @ 1/664 sec; ±0 EV; ISO 500;
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM @ 300mm

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