Seeing 2009 (#10)

Having rediscovered the joy and positive energy of late evening loud music delivered by means of headphones, there's considerably more adrenaline than normal in the veins tonight (made possible by my wife and step-daughter's joint beautifully loving gift of an iPod Nano few months back).

Thus a few offerings . . . two images taken under unsettled dark skies separated by virtually exactly three years, another beneath a heavenly bit of widely scattered lightfall.

The first, an extraction from the particularly enjoyable night work I undertook with my buddy Jerry a few weekends ago. (Another effort from this shoot appears in #7 of this Seeing 2009 series). This bit of the universe is an upward-looking view of a significant local landmark, recorded between rain showers just before one o'clock in the morning.

Neon Spectrograph (Jaws' Arch), #2594

(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: March 21, 2009; Canon 20D, f/11, 1.3 sec, -2/3 EV, ISO 200, 85mm.
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For your further consideration: a revisitation - another stormy evening, another site. The effort here was premeditated for at least a year, a desire to conquer the disappointment of an earlier nocturnal visit (nearly three years to the night, on 28-Mar-2006) . . . that first evening I lacked a tripod and so captured what became a tentative, blurry sketch of sorts for what you see below.

This version is a rare composite of several exposures blended, done in order to capture an extreme range of contrasts between the comparatively faint, ethereal clouds and the shimmering metal. A considerable amount of time went into developing this particular vision, entailing more than a few discarded prototypes . . .

I am particularly pleased with the outcome, in no small part due to this image's resistance to being rendered in a fashion substantially reflecting the power, the atmosphere and the challenges it presented me in this excursion and extraction. Here my art truly demanded digging deeply to create a canvas worthy of public exposure.

Enmeshment

(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: November 8, 200; Canon 20D, f/9, 15 & 30 sec, ISO 400, 41mm.
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Last, but not least: a moment in time at my beloved holy ground, that of the St. Francis Retreat Center in the hills above San Juan Bautista. Presented here in natural lighting, without significant color manipulation save for slight adjustments to overall image brightness and contrast.

The Suspension of Timelessness #8007

(c)2009 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: June 2, 2007; Canon 20D, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, -1/3 EV, ISO 800, 38mm.
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