HALLIE EPHRON: We started this week talking about white space. It's Friday and I'm going to another un-writerly topic: images.
I wish I could paint or draw or sculpt so that I could harness a talent I have for seeing. I'm good at spotting patterns. At finding visual stories in nature. At tuning into the interplay of light and dark and color. Picture taking has been my avocation. So easy now that I carry my cell phone around like it's an extra limb.
Here are a few of my favorites...
This photo was taken on a walk just the other day to Houghton's Pond in our local Blue Hills. A tree stump. But I'm sure you can see why I wanted to have a picture of it. FIERCE.
Inspired by another walk in the Blue Hills, here are a pair of trees. To me they look like they're dancing. Or making love. Pure joy.
And here's a shot taken during this winter's deep freeze, again Houghtons Pond, this time iced over and bespeckled with stones people have tossed onto it. I love the layers of light and the setting sun.
And here's a robin's egg that ended up in our birdbath many springs ago. Surely there's a story behind it. When I went out again an hour later, there were only shell fragments.
And look at the skyline during an amazing sunset. Taken from a moving car, as I recall.
And just to show it runs in families, here's a picture my daughter Molly took, the view from Brooklyn's Sunset Park. The Manhattan skyline looks like a pastel stage set. (And I fully expect the trees in the foreground to start throwing apples at us, a la The Wizard of Oz.)
This photo was taken on a walk just the other day to Houghton's Pond in our local Blue Hills. A tree stump. But I'm sure you can see why I wanted to have a picture of it. FIERCE.
Inspired by another walk in the Blue Hills, here are a pair of trees. To me they look like they're dancing. Or making love. Pure joy.
And here's a shot taken during this winter's deep freeze, again Houghtons Pond, this time iced over and bespeckled with stones people have tossed onto it. I love the layers of light and the setting sun.
And here's a robin's egg that ended up in our birdbath many springs ago. Surely there's a story behind it. When I went out again an hour later, there were only shell fragments.
And look at the skyline during an amazing sunset. Taken from a moving car, as I recall.
And just to show it runs in families, here's a picture my daughter Molly took, the view from Brooklyn's Sunset Park. The Manhattan skyline looks like a pastel stage set. (And I fully expect the trees in the foreground to start throwing apples at us, a la The Wizard of Oz.)
Are you a see-er as well as a do-er?
What lovely pictures, Halle . . . thank you for sharing them with us!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure! The fun is in the sharing. LOOK LOOK!
DeleteAmazing photos, Hallie - you do have the eye. The lover trees. The blue egg with pink petals. The fierce wood-bird and the skyline. All of it. Plus Molly's pastel New York!
ReplyDeleteI'm hosting twelve for Easter, so doing much prep today, since tomorrow I'm away half the day at an author gig. But I will look for wonder as I go about my errands, walking and otherwise.
Happy hosting, Edith! That's a lot of folks...
DeleteIt is, but they are all dear to me, and everybody brings sides to go with my traditional cold poached salmon and easter desserts. We always accommodate two gluten-free guests, and this year it's also Passover for my d-i-l and another one of the guests. One of my missions today is to find gluten-free matzo for a pie crust!
DeleteFabulous photos Hallie !
ReplyDeleteBeauty is in the eye of the one who looks. You have the talent to capture and share it.
Danielle
Thanks, Danielle
DeleteEvery one is beautiful, Hallie - thank you for such a nice start to my day!
ReplyDeleteWish I could go out today and "see" some more but it's not t o be.
DeleteBeautiful pics, Hallie -- especially that one of the egg in the bird bath: That would be a splendid greeting card! What a story it sparks in the mind... Thanks for sharing your talent.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have the "after" shot somewhere: broken pieces. It's like a mini-short story.
DeleteLove the photos Hallie! And Molly's is amazing--such a portrait of NY. I love taking pictures and scrolling through them later. It helps me remember happy times vividly too!
ReplyDeleteIt IS a portrait of the part of Brooklyn she lives in - a big park on a high point with a kick-ass view of Manhattan in across the water.
DeleteBeautiful pictures, Hallie. I love that tree that looks like a hawk or falcon's head. So cool.
ReplyDeleteI often "see" things in nature. I wish I had a talen for taking pictures. I follow a photographer from Pittsburgh on social media and his pictures are just breathtaking.
Liz if you have the photographer's link, post it?
DeleteDavd Dicello: https://www.davedicello.com/
DeleteHe has prints for sale, as well as other stuff like ornaments.
Hallie, thanks for sharing your photos. I love how we can see things in nature - in the first photo, I saw a tortoise, fierce.
ReplyDeleteI confess, I see a bird. A hawk. But I can see the turtle (with a beak)...
DeleteHallie, snapping turtle :-)
DeleteI love your pictures Hallie. So evocative. You have a gift
ReplyDeleteMuch love
A gift or an affliction - makes taking walks with me a slow going endeavor.
DeleteLove the photos, especially Molly's magical Manhattan snapshot. On our daily dog walks, I'm stalking blooming daffodils and flowering tree blossoms. Just before our last round of horrific thunderstorms, I rushed outside to take arty closeups of newly emerged crabapple blossoms. Priorities.
ReplyDeleteMargaret we are soul mates, for sure!
DeleteFabulous photos, Hallie! You definitely have the eye, as does your daughter. In your first picture I could see some kind of bird's head. I miss taking walks on my road and seeing how things are different, even from day to day. And as I look around I think about how the artists whose puzzles I work painted trees and hills and so on.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I see - a raptor.
DeleteHallie, that skyline photo of yours looks like a painting!
ReplyDeleteYou really do have an eye for not just capturing such sights, but finding them in the first place to capture. I've been around professional photographers for 2/3 of my life, and know that is more than half the battle.
I think some people just notice more... btw I can never remember what any SAID but I can give you every detail about the rooms I was in, in their homes. It's why I like to write setting more than I like to write dialogue.
DeleteHallie, wonderful photos! Thank you so much for sharing! Every time I've needed a new phone, I always want the one with the best camera because I too am very visually oriented-inspired by the world around me. Just last evening, I stepped outside to take a series of images of the sunset behind the black trunks of trees.
ReplyDeleteFor the umpteenth time I'm sorry blog comments don't support graphics.
DeleteAmazing photos, Hallie! I especially love the fierce tree stump. It looks like a hawk.
ReplyDeleteI also take my phone in hopes of getting shots--especially of the sunrises behind Mt. Hood and the red-tail hawk family I am so fond of. I love the interplay of light and shadow when I am hiking. Moments of beauty and awe are a true gift in our messed up world.
Gillian, sounds as if we're "tuned" to the same stations.
DeleteSo evocative! The world is endlessly fascinating.
ReplyDeleteDo you get the urge to put the scene into words, like, how would I describe this in a book?
I can see where just enjoying the scene is enough, but so too can I see a writerly mind going to work on it with figurative language.
Describing is so much more complicated than point and click.
DeleteGreat work! I know I know--to you, it's not work. It's how you document wonder and beauty around you.
ReplyDeleteI'm a see-er, too. A long time ago, when we lived in a condo, I used to have a portable darkroom. I had the B&W enlarger on a rolling microwave oven table. The bathtub held my trays of chemistry. The shower rod? A hanging red light hanging on the shower curtain rod. Blacking out the room? A custom-cut piece of thick foam to fit the bathroom window and a rolled up towel against the gap under the door.
Thank you for sharing your pictures!
Rhonda, hope you're still taking pictures even if you're not developing them. Waaaay long ago I took a photography course and we developed our own film. What I remember is the smell.
DeleteThe smell! :) To this day, I can't use white vinegar without thinking "stop bath." :)
DeleteOur phones have way more photographic power now, and I love that it all fits in a pocket or handbag.
Hallie, have you thought about opening a art/photo gallery with your daughter? These photos are so unusual and intriguing.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! It's hard enough to sell a manuscript!
DeleteWonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing and I hope you share them to Instagram too! I'm a see-er and have way too many pictures on my phone (I've just spent hours deleting some). However, the last few years I've biked more than walked and don't stop as often for pictures. :-(
ReplyDeleteStay safe, Missy! Indeed it is important to every once in a while get off the bike and take in the scenery.
DeleteWonderful images, Hallie!
ReplyDeleteYesterday I saw a photo on social media. It was a photo of big rocks shaped as something. The caption said something about left brain would see this and the right brain would see this. The person who posted the photo said it looked like a big sleeping dog and it looked like the big dog from a children's book that I read a long time ago. Clifford the Red Dog.
Cannot paint or draw either though I doodle. I like creating shapes on paper. Photography skills is nothing to sneeze at! I noticed that you take great photos! Some people have a knack for taking pictures and some do not.
Diana
But Clifford is RED.... red rocks? Could be. My kids loved Clifford The Big Red Dog. IN fact I have a plastic Clifford on my fireplace mantle. Along with all the characters from Walt Kelly's Pogo.
DeleteBeautiful photos! I think I’m a see-er, as I love to find patterns in what I’m looking at. I often outline them in my head. Does that mean I could learn to draw? I don’t know.
ReplyDeleteDebRo
Don't tell anyone but it also passes the time on a long drive. You just have to make yourself look at the road and your rearview mirror every once in a while.
DeleteGorgeous photos, Hallie, yours and Molly's. I especially love the "hawk." I am a "see-er", too, and am always taking photos. Do you ever think what a wonderful thing it is that we can now always have a camera in hand? That's one win for technology!
ReplyDeleteAND that today's camera is so blessedly simple AND powerful and easy to crop and edit what you take... I wasn't good with F stops and aperture openings and film speed... AND you had to print all the shots before you could tell which ones to ditch.
DeleteThose are great pictures.
ReplyDeleteI'm more a doer than a see-er. I need to try to fix that.
Or thinks like Popeye: I yam what I yam...
DeleteOh, I love these photos so much, Hallie. You have a fabulous eye. Ever thought of a career in nature photography?
ReplyDeleteCould there be a profession any harder to make a living in than writing?
DeleteBeautiful photos, Hallie! Yes, I'm a see-er as well. I'm itching for spring to get back to hikes in the woods!
ReplyDeleteSOON!
DeleteHallie, I love your photographs and the one from your daughter. You and she do have a gift for capturing the extraordinary in the ordinary. I am gobsmacked by the photo taken of the skyline at sunset from a moving car. It looks like an Edward Hopper painting, with its shadows so striking. For years I loved Edward Hopper paintings without realizing why, and then one day it came to me. It is the shadows, his play on light and shadow. I'm mesmerized by it. Photographs fascinate from the aspect of them being that one moment in time captured, a moment that will never be quite the same again. In looking at photos of people, especially older ones or photos of my family from years ago, I always imagine the people talking or moving before and after that one moment. I guess I'm a see-er.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate enough to see the wonderful Hopper exhibit that's been at the Whitney in NYC... and there's a ton of his paintings at the Brooklyn Museum. I love the moodiness of his interiors.
DeleteI'm a see-er too and try to capture some of what I see. I probably have more flowers than people on my phone.
ReplyDeleteFlowers! I've been photographing my orchids.
DeleteI also look for patterns. I used to do a lot of photography particularly reflections. I’ve also
ReplyDeletetaken a lot of photos from trains.
One time I was at the airport (pre-complicated security screenings) and realized I had forgotten
my camera. Fortunately I was there early and the airport was close enough and I went all the
way back home to get my camera. I couldn’t leave home without it.
I agree it would be like leaving behind your glasses.
DeleteOh, LOVE these! Wow. That stump is incredible.
ReplyDelete