At night, light is simple. Images graphic. Forms and masses appear.

The river moves below the bridge.

A knitted curtain in a window.

The bridge rumbles and groans.

A tree grows next to a building.

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Gung Hay Fat Choy! Today Chinatown Chicago celebrated the start of a new year. According to their calendar this is the year of the dragon.

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

As I was shooting today I actually began to feel terribly frustrated. How to make a new image of a traditional, annual display?

And then I began to reflect on my inclination towards masses of color, painterly notions of late. Pair this with an inclination to high contrast…and the whole thing made me wonder about how to pair what I started the day thinking were opposing tendencies. That is historically, I’m a people photographer but lately looking at landscapes (defined very loosely) and the fields of color and texture. You can check out the paintings of Richard Bruce if you like for one example.

If it helps at all, I love Ad Reinhardt.

http://phototopainting.mktos.info/black-paintings/

Then looking at a video of Florence and the Machine of all things, on someone else’s blog made me realize I could do both! Treat the face, the portrait just as I would anything else. There were some really nice moments in the video where the camera comes in close and her face does become a landscape.

Interesting things I learned today:

The Lion Dances in which two set of lions appear to face-off against each other is connected to kung fu schools from differing styles, families etc. The face off then the teachers from the different schools meet to shake hands as friends. This good will sets them up for a year of friend ship and cooperation, instead of fighting.

Jameson whiskey is what keeps the pipers warm as they march. The Shannon Rovers were amazing, as always! 

So, a cool day of picture making. Food for thought.

As always, thanks for stoping by and please, if you enjoy the visit, click “like” or take the full-plunge and subscribe. Want a picture made? Contact me and I’ll be happy to sort out the details with you.

Happy New Year, Hillary

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What is it about light and dark, lights flaring against a dark night, a red ribbon in the wind? Lately I’ve been looking at the world as I imagine a painter might, some painter somewhere anyway. Maybe it’s the old Josef Albers color theory coming out from long ago stash in the brain. I don’t know. But I can tell you this: cold as it was, I didn’t feel it at all, rather completely absorbed in looking, looking at the ever-changing fields of color, light, pattern that came and went as quick as the breath. I hope you like it and find something here to return to again. If you do, you can always click the follow button or like if you so moved, and let me know someone out there is watching too. Peace. Hillary

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Click to view slideshow.This woman teaches with passion.

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Puggy looks so wise and kind here and like he’s just expecting life to rain down dog treats on a daily basis. I guess he’s kind of an optimist. And he was so sweet to let me test out my new Fuji Finepix X100 macro on his baby browns. Thanks Puggy!

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Ever since the first roll of Kodachrome 64 I ever shot, I’ve been in love with that intense red. I hope that a miracle happens and Kodak might be saved, but from a distance it seems unlikely.

Oddly, here is a bit of an homage to Kodak, the great yellow and red box god… ironically from one of the things they say has contributed to the Kodak ills – yep, I confess it – these are Hipstamatic. Alfred Infrared, Lucifer VI.

Looks like a solar eclipse... click through to see a real one. QUESTION: WHO CAN TELL ME WHAT IT REALLY IS???

Everything changes.

As Agent K said in “Men in Black” (one of my favorite movies of all time because it’s a sorta serious film dressed up in silly film clothes (like an Egger outfit):

  ~ 1500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.~

So, till we meet again. Happy picture making everyone. Thanks for stopping by. By all means, if you like what you see here, join other photofiles and subscribe.

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I’ve always really loved watching people wait for public transit, especially I like bus stops. There’s something inherently interesting to me about how people carve out their own little pocket of personal space there.

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