Just the Melody

Sentinel

Fog in the gorge highlighting one of my favorite scenes along Hwy 14 between Stevenson and Bingen. A lone tree, clinging to a rock outcropping, and standing guard over the hillside. How this little tree hangs on and manages to sustain itself I don't know. It always amazes me.

Groundhog Day

Well, after a long, rainy winter, we were blessed with bright sunshine today. What does this mean?  Can we all count on the groundhog in Pennsylvania or is this seasonal forecast purely a local thing?  And what time of day does the groundhog peer out?  This morning we started out with fog, then midday bright sunshine with high clouds, now later in the afternoon the clouds are getting thicker.  Plus, it turns out we have our own season-predicting hedgehog here in Portland.  Who knew?  And he didn't see his shadow this morning.  Good thing he didn't join me for lunch in White Salmon, Washington, where this bright shadow photo was taken!

Tree on the Columbia

Evening: Red Tree
Piet Mondrain.  1908-1010

Tableau I
Piet Mondrain 1921

I'm still working through the list of artists in my Artistic Photography class.  I'm not really sure I'm photographing "in the style of" Piet Mondrain (see below); so far I feel like I'm just trying to copy a painting, but I suppose it's a good place to start. Mondrain's Evening: Red Tree caught my eye, and something about my tree against the Columbia had a similar feel.  The tree painting is one of his earlier works.  He was around as cubism was taking hold, and later went on to develop a style he called Neoplasticism, which is represented here by Tableau I.  For me, the general feel of all those later paintings is the side of the Partridge Family bus.  I like his earlier stuff much better. He was still simmering a painting down to the few essential elements, but hadn't oversimplified yet.  I love the red color in his tree, and I'm disappointed in how mine looks next to the painting.  I think that color variation between warm and cold is possible with a photo; I especially see it when the sun, low in the sky, breaks through the clouds after a rain.  Then the subject is warmly illuminated and the background sky is rendered a cool dark blue by the camera.  My day on the Columbia was just your plain old overcast day. Overall though, I'm happy with the shape of this tree and how it fills the photo, and I'm especially happy with the variation in blue that the overcast Columbia provides.

Green Tree and Rocks

Mandala

I probably would have posted this one back in December, but I did so many West Davis Pond reflection photos then that I thought it would be too much.  Recently I saw an amazing variation on this theme called Mandala.  It was a perfect reflection just like this one, but sliced in half vertically, copied, flipped to mirror image, and reattached.  It's something I will definitely be trying the next time I get an interesting reflection photo at the pond!

Winter

...as seen on my neighbor's garage door.