Wednesday, October 31, 2007

asheville silhouette


asheville silhouette, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Wheel pants and wing struts over Interstate-40

Tim took Catherine and i out in his wonderful Cessna 172 to try and find fall color. While we were hindered from flying over Asheville and Pisgah mountains because of weather, we still had an absolutely wonderful time.

Tim was very tolerant of me opening the window and taking shots out in the wind.


To see more of the flight, go to my Flickr site tagged with cessna172.

asphalt and leaves.


asphalt and leaves., originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Friday, October 26, 2007

inside green


inside green, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

people believing they're unobserved

Concerning people in their 'secret' state, i passed a cubicle at work at the exact moment that the woman who worked in it happen to lift up her purse and smell of it.

She saw me go by and i slowly backed up and asked, "Did you just smell your purse?"

"You know," she laughed, "I did. You caught me sniffing my purse."

"Do you mind if i ask why?"

"It's kinda funny. My mother-in-law smelled my purse yesterday and i just remembered that and so wanted to see what she was smelling."

We both laughed and though i was tempted to bring out my wallet and sniff it, i did not. I walked off. When i told a friend about the encounter she asked bluntly, "What did it smell like?"

That, for some reason, i felt was none of my business. I wonder why?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

yellow wall windows


yellow wall windows, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

leaves in puddle blue


leaves in puddle blue, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

overcast, rain, leaves and puddles make for wonderful fall feelings

Monday, October 22, 2007

shadow self


shadow self, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

the littlest zombie


the littlest zombie, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

from the 2nd annual Zombie Walk in Asheville.


For a video of the zombies coming down the hill, click the link.

Friday, October 19, 2007

indirect object


indirect object, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

i love the objects created that were used in creating something else and how THEY were transformed.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

double rainbow morning


rainbow morning, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

I almost didn't ride my motorcycle in today because of the threat of rain. I would've missed this little beauty forming, a double-rainbow on Howard Street. Thanks to Chris too for standing in the middle of the road, mouth agape, and pointing it out!

It reminds me of one of the very few things i do miss about living in Florida. The skies. I've seen several layers of clouds swarming around a double rainbow with the inner rainbow forming a complete circle. All while people huddle together going 75 miles per hour down I-95 in lockstep. Afraid to look away lest they run into others who are reading their papers or putting on makeup during the race-to-work.

Ok, it was the skies i miss, not my waxing poetic about how dull people are.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

zen marble puddle


zen marble puddle, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

i love disparate elements.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

maybe reality can be photographed


portrait of my reflection, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Most people will say they hate reality shows but will whisperingly confide that they turned on this one and "just got hooked, but it's the only one," (or two) that they can tolerate. I can't seem to watch any of them. Even the dancing ones or the scavenger hunt ones. Least of all the love or roommate or vote-someone-off shows. There's just too little there in terms of a story to interest me. Too much condiment and not enough food.

But there is a reality show I would watch. It would be the reality show of reality shows. It would answer this burning question in my head of "who on earth would want to be on a reality show?

It would be a reality show about reality shows. It would follow a couple or a single person from the decision and idealism of wanting to become a reality show contestant to the disgust or shame or ultimate sell-out that the contestant has become after the show was over. Or after they were voted off. From their own point of view, not the point of view of the reality show itself.

It would show, with as honest an eye as TV could muster, the human life a person lead before their "reality" experience began, with all their hopes of notoriety or money or resolve to "show them how it's done" or whatever motivates a person to humiliate themselves into being filmed acting badly, along with how those dreams were ground down by the Directors and the Executive Producers who find they need to manipulate the contestant's reality to "give good drama." It would of course expose the "reality television" for what it is -- nothing even remotely close to reality -- but all for the good of our reality show, not theirs.

The hardest part of being human is being frail and making mistakes and learning from them and modifying our behavior because of it. Well, the hardest part may be taking that first step to all those steps: admitting it. And here is where my reality show would shine. We would show the people our filmings of their beginnings about what they thought, remind them of their idealism and naivety and let them realize how they look and then turn off the cameras. Allow them to understand what everyone else seems to understand about them But we would not film that realization. If it becomes an epiphany for them, then it does - but the finality of that will not be known by us, who shall be called "the viewer." The "final outcome" that TV loves so much would be left to the viewer's imagination.

What is private, should remain the ownership of the person who experiences reality, and the value of that could oneday become some sort of artistic expression or muted understanding passed along to us in the form of a poem or painting or best yet, a better reality show.

The revolution will not be broadcast, but will be what goes on after the cameras are turned off.

patches


mountain shot, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

dark and light, red and green and yellow and blue - it's all amazing to me.

Monday, October 15, 2007

babyhead


babyhead, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

bless that evening light when everything is golden and the shadows spill out of objects like thick molasses; it fills faces with the fullness of being human and the world with a golden amber that makes my heart swell to many times its normal size.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

photography builds strong bodies


photographer as strongman, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Only in the last year have i discovered the liberating nature of photographing myself. Usually in reflection or at arm's-length, the process has made me even more comfortable with the way i look and how it matches the way i feel (usually pretty good)!

Friday, October 12, 2007

implied triangle


implied triangle, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

I love how the mind fills in the gaps - how we can view 24 consecutive photographs in a second and see that as "motion," or how our mind's eye fills in the missing parts in this shot to create the triangle.

In other words i love photographing the things that aren't there - the things our mind puts there. Not always easy...

Thursday, October 11, 2007

red admiral


red admiral, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

clingman window leaf


clingman window leaf, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

the giving tree


the giving tree, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

"It is so easy for your people to forget that everything has a spirit, that all are equal. That magic and mystery are a part of your lives, not something to store away in a child's bedroom, or to use as an escape from your lives."
- Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl

Thursday, October 04, 2007

my huge photography arm


my huge photography arm, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

This week is the wrap-up for DILOA (Day in the Life of Asheville) which i am totally unprepared for. Which means that despite the fact that i'll have fun at it and maybe even totally get into it, i'm going to stress about it, fret about it and in general avoid thinking about it until it happens for me tomorrow. I get that feeling like it's taking over my life and my instinct is to want to resent it, but - like a party i don't think i want to go to - i'll enjoy it anyway!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

wall abstract


wall abstract, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

Sometimes i just stand somewhere until a photo jumps out at me. I was around the corner from Westville pub, a little past Orbit's and my spidey-sense warned me that a photo-op might be nearby. I waited for something to come by and waited a little more before i turned around and looked at the wall. OH! :)

well-lit extremeties

Back to work. Work work work. Luckily i have my camera and my unique little zenness otherwise the petty tyrants would bother me. This is taken from the very mirrored elevator at work and it amuses me that while the door is shut i do what i want (short of removing clothing).

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

the fairy tale of work


my shadow child, originally uploaded by zen♫♪.

today is my day off. yet stress invades the moment i get up - phone ringing with work to be done, people to meet in a half hour, my dog looking at me like i haven't walked her since she was a pup. so i run from thing to thing ignoring the magical light of being and stubbing my toe on the unmagical leg of a dining room chair.

oh if i were only my shadow child today...