A photograph, seen through different eyes.

I’ve always been interested in how different people see things differently.  This holds true for my photographs.

The photo above introduced me to another artist.  A writer attending Utah State University, Alex Baldwin.   Alex wrote in an email:

Tonight I just found your beautiful photo from 2009 of a feather in a bottle and was wondering if I could use it on the Cover page of my project. My project is actually about the author Sherman Alexie but he addresses often the problem of alcoholism on reservations, so your photo would be perfect!

Alex was awarded USU’s Creative Writing Student of the Year and USU’s Overall Outstanding English Student of the Year. This email started a great dialogue with Alex about his work and my photography.  I was more than happy to help out. 

By the way, the photo above that Alex found was really just something I was using to demonstrate how I achieved the photo I was after.  I was on a weekend outing with two wonderful friends.  I was trying to figure out how to capture the texture and color of the feather.  The beer bottle and the twist tie just happened to be convenient!  How very interesting that my “example” made a completely different impression on Alex.  Here is my finished product for comparison:

I was excited when Alex sent me a short piece so I could share it with you.  I look forward to reading his creative portfolio that he turned in for graduation (where he is using the photograph.)

So, here is an example of Alex’s work.  I hope you enjoy!

What is that Sound High in the Air

 

A mist, too thick for a waking sun,

slouches against mountains

east of Cache Valley,

 

and somehow turns January snow

blue: leftover scraps of sky

            draping the view

            beside campus.

 

Students, dozens, rush

by: cell phones flipped open,

            ears clogged with iPods,

            palms warm to the foam

            touch of cups brim

            with hot chocolate.

 

Cat Stevens hopes I have a lot

of nice things to wear,

            a sideways smiley-face

            buzzes in my right hand:

            Sapphire’s in for lunch

            at Quadside Café,

OJ from Einstein’s Bagels

 

sloshes almost empty to my stride.

 

Ten minutes away from a class

starting in five, I give ten seconds

            of semester to the mist,

            imagine my Faded Glory

            treads climbing air.

 

Could I summit before losing myself

in absence of up and down?

            Like a bluebird spreading

            a shiver of feathers

            between cloudlessness

            and a lake of glacier run-off.

Alex can be contacted at:  alexbaldwin2@yahoo.com

Fata Morgana

I was fortunate enough to photograph a wedding last Friday at the Grand Superior Lodge in Caste Danger, Minnesota.  It is a truly fantastic location for a wedding.  Hard to go wrong with Lake Superior as your backdrop.

My wife and I decided to stay until Sunday and make it a mini-vacation.  On Saturday, we drove up MN Highway 61 to Tettegouche State Park.  If you know me, you know I was out shooting various wildflowers and chasing butterflies as much as photographing the standard attraction there (waterfalls).

After hiking up to the aptly named High Falls, we went in the opposite direction and made our way to the lake shore.  We sat and took in the sun and poked around in the rocks for Lake Superior Agates – Minnesota’s state rock.

My wife pointed out to me some unusual formations on the horizon.  At first I thought perhaps storm clouds, but then a light bulb went off in my head about an atmospheric phenomenon that I had read about, but had never seen.  Of course, it had to wait until I had an internet connection to help me recall the name and the details.  What we were seeing was a mirage from the Apostle Islands approximately 25 miles across Lake Superior.  Below is a map from Google Maps giving you some perspective.  Click here to see in Google Maps if you wish to see larger:

According to the Wikipedia article: A Fata Morgana is an unusual and very complex form of mirage, a form of superior mirage, which, like many other kinds of superior mirages, is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon. It is an Italian phrase derived from the vulgar Latin for "fairy" and the Arthurian sorcerer Morgan le Fay, from a belief that the mirage, often seen in the Strait of Messina, were fairy castles in the air or false land designed to lure sailors to their death created by her witchcraft. Although the term Fata Morgana is sometimes incorrectly applied to other, more common kinds of mirages, the true Fata Morgana is not the same as an ordinary superior mirage, and is certainly not the same as an inferior mirage.

I’d be the first to admit, perhaps these may be an “ordinary” superior mirage, but it was cool to see and I’m glad I finally had some kind of an idea of what it might be like.

I hope to post a few more photos from the trip soon and also a special post from a writer that used one of my photos in a recent project.