First fruits of spring

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), one of the first fruits of spring. Captured in the wild at dawn.

What Flowers Do at Night

Abandonment Issues

Abandoned -- or at least very neglected -- building in Tacoma, Washington.

Call to Prayer

Sidi Goma are black Indians from Gujarat. Their roots are in Africa, their spirituality is in Islam, and they were in Tacoma last week for a performance at the Giant Magnet festival. They opened with a traditional call to prayer, and ended with some feisty dancing that seemed far more African than Indian. They can seriously dance their spirituality!

Damp Days

So far, spring has been cold and wet. So cold and wet as to discourage photography outdoors. But it doesn't stop me from bringing the outdoors indoors, for some fun with my little macro studio. And those rain droplets on the tiny leaves of this flower stem remind that there's pure beauty in all that precipitation!

There Was a Crooked Barn...

Sometimes the subject does the work for the photographer. I was fascinated by this old barn, which seems to be collapsing in slow (very slow) motion.

Oympia's Procession of the Species (slideshow)

Red Huckleberry

a small sign of spring...

Spring Snow, Customer Service

Once in a while -- even in these tough economic times -- I am pleasantly surprised by some act of great customer service from a company. This was the case recently with Pentax. I had a Pentax Optio WP camera that had started including unwanted vertical lines in every photo. Very fine lines, but still annoyingly obvious. So I wrote to Pentax explaining the problem and also mentioning that I did not have the receipt for the camera and thus no proof of warranty.

Randall Schumacher at Pentax replied and suggested I send the camera in "for examination." He said they would assess the problem and that they would fix it if the camera was still under warranty or give me a free repair estimate if it was not. So I boxed it up and sent it off.

About a month later, the camera came back. Fixed. And it is taking photos like the recent one above (of Indian Plum blossoms under a March 15 snowfall). It probably was a small fix for the Pentax techs, but it returned to my use a perfectly good camera (and my only waterproof one!). My hat is off to Mr. Schumacher and his pals at Pentax for performing customer service beyond their legal requirement. That's the way to inspire customer loyalty!

Morning Meditation

It's always nice coming home from a journey -- returning to the familiar sights, sounds, smells, foods, people. But travel changes how we look at all these things too, the experiences lingering just under the surface, ready to re-emerge as a memory or a comparison or an observation. Yesterday I showed some photos of my recent India journey to some family & friends, and found it amazing how many observations I had about the culture. Not just the facts of where I was and what I did, but how things are done there, and the depth and quality of the cultural differences.

Travel changes me. Travel changes my thought, and my eyes, and the way I look at people. I expect it will continue to change and enhance the way I take photographs as well.

This image is from my last morning in Delhi, walking around the ancient buildings dotting Lodi Garden. This building is a combined tomb and mosque, where people were both praying (Muslim) and doing morning yoga exercises (Hindu). With joggers running on nearby paths.

Red Carpet of Faith

Mosque, Old Delhi, India

Focus

I haven't been posting a lot of new photos here recently, only because I've been too busy taking new ones! I'm currently enjoying the International Festival of Sacred Arts in Delhi, India, with a stunning array of music and dance, along with films, workshops, visual arts, talks, and yes...photographic opportunities! This is a Buddhist mandala under construction. The colors you see are all just colored sand, intricately laid and layered by Buddhist monks using thin metal cones. The monks will work on it throughout the festival, then wipe the sand into a pile and dump it in a nearby river. It's a meditation, and a statement about the impermanence of all things. And it's beautiful.

Live, from far away...

It was a magical night, January 16. That was the day Tuvan group Tyva Kyzy returned to Olympia for a one-night show at the Minnaert Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to taking in a great show of traditional music from Central Asia (Tuva is nestled between Siberia and Mongolia), I also had an opportunity to do some live concert photography. And with these amazing musicians and their beautiful costumes, it was a true pleasure. More of my photos of Tyva Kyzy here.

Flag of an imaginary nation

This isn't the first time I've found a flag in an unusual place. Since I found a Flickr group called flags of imaginary nations, I've kept an eye out for such things. This is the side of an apartment building near my home. The space where two wall textures meet was a perfect subject for this "flag." If some bricklayers' union wants to use this, I'm open to offers...

Victim of the Storm

Seen during the great Christmas snowstorm of 2008. Now the snow has nearly all gone, the usual rains have returned, and it seems odd that we made such a big fuss about a few inches (okay, a couple of feet) of the white stuff.

Happy New Year!