Found Object

The Eye of the Storm

Glued to the TV, on despite a decision to turn off service totally and sell the equipment, I watch the horrors in Japan unfold along with the rest of the world.  This triple catastrophe is so beyond words and comprehension that really I can not write without sounding trite and redundant. Of course my heart goes out to those directly affected in their loss, shock and suffering.

One of my teachers from my teens, Paulo Knill, intent on helping us to ground,  would instill our confidence in Mother Earth by claiming She would always be there for us, support us, hold us. How wrong he was. I suspect as a civilization now a days we have greatly underestimated the power of nature. How else to explain the building of nuclear power plants along fault lines, be they in Japan, California or elsewhere? It does not make sense, never has, yet still our President insists that nuclear power will be part of the United States future. Sure, President Obama must be beholden to the nuclear industry, we know he received a lot of campaign monies from it. At least the Swiss and Germans put an immediate moratorium on further expansion, even plans already approved for the nuclear industry. If there is one good to come out of this let it be a radical rethink of energy demand and supply. Despite voices to the contrary, we do have the means now to go ahead with alternative, renewable energy. Nobody says that we have to continue to support a life style that wastes enormous amounts of energy. Locally we were able to shift in to a radically lower level of water consumption within only a few years. We can become more mindful in regard to electric necessities as well.

The political right calls for deregulation, but look at the horror of those 6 nuclear power plants in the control of one private company that does not communicate openly and honesty with the public. Can it get much worse? This is what my and maybe my generation's nightmares are made of. A destructive power on the prowl that we can not detect with our normal senses - horror of horrors.

Astrologer Erin Sullivan likens the harvesting of nuclear power to the stealing of fire by Prometheus, something terribly offensive to the gods. Do we consider a 9.0 earthquake normal, or an other effect of global warming or as some would have it punishment of the gods or Gaia or  others would  want to see it as the coming of Christ in the last days of earth? The flood and destruction does appear biblical for those that grew up in the Christian tradition. Who knew that tidal waves  would come in such a low, relentless force rather then those humongous super waves we imagined? Global warming has my vote. It gives us an opportunity to make amends and correct our errors and live more in harmony with nature as we strive towards a more sustainable life style individually and as a people.

Finally please, I heard that if you text in your support for Japan, the banks will take longer to deliver  your donations, so it seems best to go with the traditional organizations like the Red Cross, but please do not forget all those pets that no doubt are in dire need of our help as well. 

Cosmic Eye

Schneggehuus

Farming

This is about the farming, versus the hunting style of collecting a menagerie of cherished images 'image-cherie'. Usually I grab my camera and head out with my two pups on lead intent on capturing whatever captivates my eyes and spirit with little forethought, certainly minimal planning. Only on a few occasions did I attempt the farming style of image construction. For the first time ever in 2007 inspired by a flickr assignment I took on in total privacy, out of sheer curiosity. I chose a favorite object of mine found on Fire Island several decades ago, my 'Schneggehuus', which became my talisman and my spirit helper in finding a home of my own, first in New York City and later in the City Different.

I placed the object simply on a black plate on a table and started to aim my camera. The light from the above window proved to be a challenge, so I submerged my snail house inside a clear glass bowl filled with water which I placed outside, on a tiny mirror under a blue sky and this is one of the results:

Yesterday inspired by the attention a reprocessed image got on flickr, it made Explore, I took it on to finally give it another try with that favorite shell of mine. Something I had been meaning to do for years. I dragged my big oval mirror out in the yard on the table and placed my shell on the mirror under a blue sky. This is an Ortonized, intensified, or sugar coated version:

It was a challenge to keep out all that did not belong in the image, such as yard stuff, walls, overhanging branches, white tracks of airplanes on a mostly blue sky reflected in the mirror, all in a small confined space with not too much room to move.

By late afternoon the sky had turned gray and I thought I should give it another try, now with the light coming from the other direction. No longer intent on capturing the white shell against a blue sky I felt free to move in very close and this is the macro got: