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Some Photographs

I put this page up several years ago just to show that sometimes I do use my camera and digital darkroom to make pictures.

Written sometime around 2012. Updated January 2015.

Lilies: two buds and one bloom.
Kitchen Lilies

Before leaving on a business trip, my husband brought me a bouquet of lilies. While he was away, my camera and tripod spent a week vacationing in the kitchen-dining-den portion of the house (nontraditional house, very few walls) while I photographed the lilies.

One truck passes another during a heavy rain storm, casting spray into the air.
Tractor-trailer passing a tanker on I-90, east of Rochester, NY

This gritty, grainy photograph was taken from the passenger seat of a car during the spring of 2011's widespread rain and flooding. The mood was somber; driving conditions bordered on dangerous.

Three apples against a dark background.
Three round apples

An attempt to emulate the roundness of Edward Steichen's very round "Three Apples". If you would like to see what Steichen's prints actually look like, find a copy of Steichen's Legacy (check your library), written by his third wife Joanne Steichen. Many internet reproductions of Steichen's prints are not very good. In Joanne Steichen's book the "Three Apples" are so round, they look like they are actually breathing.

Melting pond with submerged leaves and sky reflections.
Spring melt: pond, leaves, and sky

Norway maple leaves, preserved in ice all winter and floating below the surface of a pond; a blue sky and overhanging yew branches reflect off the water's surface. Despite efforts to halt their advance, the highly invasive Norway maples have steadily encroached upon natural stands of sugar maple and other native New York trees.

Intricate center details of a half-blown dandelion clock.
Half-blown dandelion clock, wet from a rain shower

Dandelion flowers are bright and cheery, attract pollinating insects, and can be used to make delicious dandelion wine. The leaves, a traditional spring tonic, are tasty and nutritious. The dandelion's long taproots bring nutrients up from deep within the earth. Mowing over dandelions chops them up and turns them into valuable "green manure" fertilizer. In one of the more inexplicable rites of spring, New York homeowners spread copious quantities of herbicides in a futile attempt to kill this worthy component of a healthy lawn.

Tall, leafless trees and a few joggers and dog-walkers. Onondaga Lake is in the background.
Shoreline Walking Trail at Onondaga Lake Park, Liverpool, NY

A tripod and bracketed exposures were used to capture the dynamic range of the scene. Contrary to popular belief, tripods don't keep joggers, dogs, and tree branches from moving between exposures (small photography joke). Once a pristine body of water held sacred by indigenous peoples, decades of raw sewage and chemical dumping have made Onondaga Lake one of the most polluted lakes in the United States. Designated as Superfund Site in 1994, expensive clean-up efforts are underway.