I decided to give my Leica 2 its own flower show today; it’s a miracle to have three very different cameras for me to use on my flowers; I’m learning a lot about all three.
Each one – the Leica Monochrome, the Leica 2, the Iphone 13 – is different and does different things. The flowers are giving me a graduate degree in photography.
I don’t need an agent, and I don’t need a gallery, and I don’t need the eye-rolling and clucking harrumphs of the old guard.
I’ve always been someone who makes other people uncomfortable and unknowingly and knowingly challenges conventional wisdom. It’s just the way it is.
It isn’t intentional, but I can’t deny it either. The flowers have become vital to me, and they have become essential to other people.
I know I’m not supposed to be someone who knows about flowers and can take lovely photos of them. Life is luck that I take it when it gives me a shot.
But here we are. I love it, and the yentas and peckerheads are confused and momentarily silent. They will, I know, return.
People keep suggesting I join various groups, and that’s nice, but I am just not a joiner. It’s not in my blood or DNA. Do your favorite groups a favor, and keep me out of them.
Any gathering of more than three people is doomed to become ineffectual, hateful, or boring. That’s the poison of politics. Along, men and women can do great things. In a group, that’s often – not always – impossible.
I need to figure things out for myself and ask for help – and pay for it – when I need it. Being alone is where I belong; that’s the way life works.
The Leica 2 did not disappoint. As always, understanding the light, inside and out of the camera, is everything. This morning, the hot sun was good. The Leica 2 just drank it up.
I want to put up these flower photos before we head to Williamstown, Mass., to see Jordan Peele’s new movie, Nope. It sounds wild; I’m not usually interested in horror movies, but Peele has made the genre his own, and I’m very eager to see what he’s done with this film. It’s getting enormous amounts of buzz.
I’ll review it if I have something to offer – reviewing a Peele movie will stretch the outer boundaries of my confidence and skill.
It’s too hot to do much of anything else; a great day for a movie and some Japanese or Thai food.
Here is Leica’s interpretation of flowers; I hope you enjoy it. I keep thinking I’ll get tired of taking the same photos every day, but the truth is they are not the same; I’m excited every day.
I trust the Leica 2 with color if the light is right. If it isn’t, that’s another story. This camera is moody and arrogant; it does what it wants. But when it delivers, it delivers.
Going inside these flowers is among the most beautiful experiences of my life. There is so much color and feeling and emotion in there; it takes me to a new and different place and leaves me feeling calm and content.
I didn’t see the light shining through the heart of this gladiola when I took the photo, but the camera spotted it immediately.
This orange gladiola photo is different from all the others. It was out of the direct sunlight, and it looked to me as if a hand was coming out of its interior.
I could look at this gladiola for an hour; it is a meditation all unto itself.
The right light brings out all sorts of invisible things in these flower pictures, all kinds of things I can’t see because the sunlight is too.
I am grateful to have lived long enough to have a camera that can take photos like this and a Leica2 and a Leica Monochrome. Both have changed my life and made me think of myself as an artist, something I have wanted all my life.
A writer is a terrific thing to be, but a writer is not an artist to me. An artist is something entirely different in my mind. Something to do with color and light and the shape of things.
I think I can be both, which is a great accomplishment in my life, second only to convincing Maria to marry me.
Thanks for watching the movie.
It is fun to see possibly a couple photos here,that you were taking when Maria was doing a video of the gardens this morning and captured you in it
Thanks Dawn, everything bout Maria is fun…
The orange gladiola (?) made me gasp. You fall into the beauty with your artist’s eye, and then we get to as well. I continue to very much appreciate being a reader.
Me too Katherine, I appreciate you also.
Jon, your flower photos are beautiful. I find it almost unbelievable some that people have been giving you grief about taking them! Please, keep on keeping on in your own way, as I know you will :-). I especially like the color photos of the gladiolas with the sun shining through the translucent petals. Gorgeous!.
thanks Maureen, that’s the nature of creativity I think, everybody has a different idea of what it is..I’m okay with it..
Your eye and your mind and your camera allow me to see what I never otherwise could, my eyesight is just OK but through these pictures I can experience such beauty and perfect clarity, thank you so much
Diana, that is a very beautiful message to get.. thank you
Jon, I think your photos are absolutely amazing. I’m delighted to see that you are enjoying yourself so much.
I want to find a way to get a decent print of them off my computer and then maybe frame a couple.
Then I can look at them all the time.
(It’s sometimes difficult to “go back” on your posts and I would like to have continuing access to some of these
photos.)
I’m enjoying them so much. They are a pleasant addition to my life!
Thanks Marcia, notes like this make it all worthwhile..
Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. I hope the gentleman who sold you the Leica 2 is following along on this journey. If he is, I’ll bet he’s happy you have it. I know I am!
I haven’t heard from him, Jill, but I hope he’s watching too..
Each of your flower photos is a complete story in itself. I can gaze into them for hours and see so much
They jog my imagination and I spy elves and fairies hiding in there ,believing we cannot discover their
secrets. Your cameras have! But we will not tell.
Nice thought to read, Cynthia, that means a lot to me.
Boy these photos are remarkable. I am enjoying them immensely. It is fun to read about how exited you are with the cameras and your gardens. I can see why people reference O’Keefe (spelled wrong) but these flower photos are very unique and I think of them as Katz florals. Thanks. I am old school (and old) and will send along a check if I can figure out your mailing address. I know it is here somewhere.
Thanks Cathy; lovely note, the mailing address if is P.O. Box 205 Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. I appreciate that note, the blog is free, but donations are very welcome.
Jon, these are truly great photographs!
Thanks for sharing them.
Yes, indeed, with my artist eye, I agree with those who find your flower photos precious. I am using the white gladioli as my Home Screen photo on my iPad. Thank you for making another senior happy. We just returned from a trip from Tennessee to home here in central NY state and had stayed at a La Quinta motel. They had close-up flower photos in the rooms but I wished they were yours. Yours are nicer. Don’t tell them, lol.
thanks Kathie, a nice message…
Thank you Jon. Your photos are splendid. The closeups of the gladiolas are mesmerizing. Thank you for sharing your art and yourself with us, grateful readers.
I’m grateful for you all, Nonna