Breakfast. Bird catches Fish. Crab holding on to the fish tail. Double Jeopardy! September 12, 2020. 5:35 & 5:45 am. 60° F. Winds: Gusty. The Cove, Stamford, CT
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
September 7, 2020 by 37 Comments
Daybreak. September 7, 2020. 6:20 to 6:40 am. 67° F. Humidity: 86%. Wind: 6 mph. Gusts: 11 mph. Cloud Cover: 4%. The Cove, Stamford, CT
Saturday Morning
September 5, 2020 by 26 Comments
Daybreak. September 5, 2020. 5:57 to 6:49 am. 63° F. Humidity: 73%. Wind: 7 mph. Gusts: 13 mph. Cloud Cover: 13%. The Cove, Stamford, CT
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
August 31, 2020 by 40 Comments
Notes:
- Daybreak. August 31, 2020. 5:59 to 6:08 am. 60° F. Humidity 70%. Wind: 6 mph. Gusts: 7 mph. Cloud Cover: 32%. The Cove, Stamford, CT
- Inspired (again) by Helen Macdonald: “I kept trying to find the right words to describe certain experiences and failing. My secular lexicon didn’t capture what they were like. You’ve probably had such experiences yourself – times in which the world stutters, turns and fills with unexpected meaning. When rapturousness claims a moment and transfigures it. The deep hush before an oncoming storm; the clapping of wings as a flock of doves rises to wheel against low sun; a briar stem in the sun glittering with blades of hoarfrost. Love, beauty, mystery. Epiphanies, I suppose. Occasions of grace. — Helen Macdonald, Vesper Flights (Grove Press, August 25, 2020)
Sunday Morning
August 30, 2020 by 15 Comments
Daybreak. August 30, 2020. 5:55 to 6:15 am. 66° F. Humidity 76%. Wind: 11 mph. Gusts: 28 mph. Cloud Cover: 3%. The Cove, Stamford, CT
Monday Morning (Epilogue)
August 18, 2020 by 40 Comments
Yesterday’s post, yesterday’s comments. Loved them. Link here.
The ask was: “Two different cameras, shot taken 1 minute apart, two different perspectives. What’s your favorite?” Same photos above. Here’s my take.
- I didn’t really See them until I was at my desk, at home. Wow. What a difference!
- One taken with a camera that had dials for aperture, for shutter speed, for exposure compensation. So it had to be better.
- One had a separate, expensive zoom lens. So, it had to be better.
- One camera was so much bigger than the other. And was made for still photography. And was so much more expensive then the other. So it had to be better.
Photo 1: Came from an iPhone, zoomed 2x. No other alterations.
Photo 2: Came from a Fuji X-T4 with a 50mm x 140mm zoom lens. No alterations.
I stared at the iPhone photo. I wasn’t there. Not with this scene. Not with these vibrant colors. Yet, I was drawn to this photo. “Warmer” (Beth, Darlene, Jnana, Michael, yes.) “Better composition with light and dark contrast.” (Jnana, Lori, yes.) “Bright, depicts the awakening of life…under the kiss of blush” (Christie, Louise. Yes.)
No. No. But it just can’t be. It had to be an aberration.
So I did it all over again this morning. Except this time, I took 20 shots with each camera.
Result: Same.
Can’t be the camera. Can’t be. Has to be the Operator. What an amateur. Can’t be the camera. Not with the money sunk into this device.
I’m standing under a hot shower a few minutes later, thinking about the photos.
I think I need a Canon.
Inspired by Jnana Hodson‘s review of my shots — some day I hope to see and be 50% as good Jnana.
“The top one, though I would try to level the water to flat horizontal rather than its current slight tilt. It’s warmer and speaks of sunrise. The bottom photo is tonally too muddy. There’s no light detail and no distinctly dark contrast. Also, the right side of the shot lacks the compositional closure the bit of land gives the top shot, balancing the land on the other side, even though the power lines are a bit of clutter. That detail invites the eye out into the bay beyond before returning to the heron or egret in the foreground.”
Monday Morning
August 17, 2020 by 66 Comments
Two different cameras, shot taken 1 minute apart, two different perspectives. What’s your favorite?
Daybreak. August 17, 2020. 5:59 am to 6:01. 63° F. Humidity 92%. Wind: 7 mph. Gusts: 12 mph. Cloud Cover: 11%. The Cove, Stamford, CT
Credit to Jim Borden for the request.
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
August 10, 2020 by 16 Comments
Remembering that time …
when we had unrealized possibility,
the drifting period of our youth.
— Kate Zambreno, Screen Tests: Stories and Other Writing (Harper Perennial, July 23, 2019)
Photo: Alain Laboile
Saturday Morning
August 8, 2020 by 35 Comments
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
August 3, 2020 by 8 Comments
The first moment I wrote in my notebook again, I wrote of that fleeting feeling in the morning, of possibility.
That’s what I want Drifts to be, my desire and longing for it.
— Kate Zambreno, Drifts: A Novel (Penguin, May 19, 2020)
Portrait of Kate Zambreno by Nikola Tamindzic
