Jay Ahrend

Time does not stop for anyone.  Today at Jay Ahrend’s celebration of life, I caught this iPhone shot of Eliot Crowley sharing a memory of his about Jay.  The projected image behind Eliot is Jay in his youth.  The random light above was as if Jay was just hanging out with us. Jay was one of the original players here at the Daily Photo Game. Great memories shared by all.  RIP Jay.

A different look at a Canna Lily.

There are over 700 species of Eucalyptus Trees in Australia and they can now be found almost everywhere in tropical and moderate climates of the world. This particular tree was located in a Hawaiian Botanical garden waiting to be photographed. The trees’ peeling bark can come in a myriad of rainbow colors and tones making them a pleasing and natural study for the artist.

Crawling on one’s belly in the garden is a pleasurable way to spend a few moments on a warm summers day. And the strawberry patch is a great place to start. One can literally eat one way to make a photograph. I’m always so eager to pick these beautiful berries when they are ripe but I often overlook the plants small white blossoms. So today was my day to get in, get personal and indulge.

I love rust and age on old abandoned structures. The exposed wood weathers and eventually turns grey while metal, in this case pounded flat tin cans, shows­­­­­­­­­­ off it’s colorful patina that has been maturing for a hundred plus years.

Water is a universal attraction for most children. They love to frolic in it and on any given afternoon on our SoCal beaches this scene can be observed. They will play until they are exhausted yet unwilling to leave and go home where taking a bath at the end of the day does not fit into the category of fun.

Traveling along the Amalfi Coast can be a romantic adventure and one that allows the traveler to step back in time. The pace is slow in these seaside villages with tiny cafes enticing the visitor to enjoy a glass of wine and a little cheese. In one small courtyard off a side street in the town of Amalfi, we stopped for lunch and to relax. Seated, my view was of this woman hanging her laundry from her balcony above a local Pescheria. A bit of a caliche but when she stepped behind the hanging pants, I couldn’t resist.

I was fascinated by the midmorning sunlight as it came through my bathroom window, projecting these shapes on the sill’s surface. Without knowing just what created these abstract forms, it would be nearly impossible for the casual observer to describe just how they were produced. And yet this is a simple and repeatable exercise. The image simply presented itself to me and only needed to be photographed. As for the elements, the textured cone shape was composed of two shadows, one from the roof of the house, the other from the casing of the bay window, the textured crosshatching from the window’s screen, the transparent shapes from the sunlight passing through a fluted clear glass bowel and the large shadow at the bottom from sea shells in the bowl, simple and repeatable, right?

Italy and especially Rome contains so much beauty that it seems it would be impossible for one to see it all even in a lifetime. My senses were on constant overload and every time i turned around there was another famous piece of art, statue or building right next to the last one that had just buckled my knees. I have promised myself that some day I will return to scratch it’s surface once again. This courtyard was tucked away from the casual passerby’s view behind a ordinary door on a busy street and on entering we felt almost like uninvited guests come to steal a peek at its rich and colorful history.

There were Sunflowers everywhere at these growing fields in Oahu, Hawaii. The hard part when confronted with literally 1000’s of photo possibilities was to find and capture the one image that spoke to this photographer’s vision. This flower was angled just right to the sun to catch the light on all of the ray florets, petals and to give texture to the center disk parts. Most of the background blossoms were lit from behind allowing the main subject to pop. The bee was serendipity.