Fall 2005

To be frank, I've never been that big a fan of Fall. I think it's largely because I always associated it with colder weather and the onset of Winter...who is definitely my least favorite Old Man.


I've been getting out a lot more this fall though, and turning my photographer's eye on the unique visuals of the season. There certainly are some lovely things to see.


I'm trying something new: the images in the main body of the blog are now a little smaller, but remember, if you click on the image you'll get a larger version.


These were all taken along with the pictures from my previous post at Proud Lake state recreation area. I highly recommend it to you (my blog AND the park. Har.).


Pow. That one just pops, doesn't it? Those are not grapes...don't know what they are...but I don't suggest eating them. Leave that to the birds. :-)

The Pines of...Milford?!

In the early 20th century, Ottorino Respighi composed a symphonic poem called "The Pines of Rome" which is to this day one of my favorite pieces of music. If you don't know it, you should go buy it - it's one of those things that can only be experienced. If you read up on the story of what was in the composer's mind as you listen, amazing pictures spring up in your mind. Well, they do for me anyways. Heh.

Fall is a wonderful time. We went out to the Proud Lake state recreation area a few days ago and came away with these pictures. For some reason, pine forests are inspiring to me. I love the majesty of the arrow straight trees, the way the deep carpet of needles underneath your feet scrunches quietly...the sound of the tree branches clanking together as the trees sway in the breeze...


Mystery:


Life is a journey, and I keep seeing paths everywhere:


Coniferous trees are amazing. They look cool, they smell good and they are made up of different stuff than deciduous trees:


You see some interesting things when you walk through the pine forest. Everything is covered in a blanket of needles...even the emergent trees trying to grow up under the shadow of their brothers:


Well, they may not be redwoods, (I think my fave in the whole world...well, the whole world I've seen so far...) but they'll do in a pinch. More than do, actually.

Mady Kouyate

Let me introduce you to a new friend of mine.

This is Mady Kouyate:


He was the person who provided processional and recessional music for Grace Balmer's wedding, which I photographed several weeks ago. I wrote a blog about it here. At that time, I didn't know his name, but because of the absolutely magical nature of his playing, I wanted to know more.

I first saw Mady play at the open mic night at TC's Speakeasy in Ypsilanti several months ago. When he got up on stage, I turned to my friend Randall from the Ragbirds and said, "what is this?" In a venue where the instrument of choice is the ubiquitous acoustic guitar, Mady's Kora stuck out like a very large sore thumb. Randall explained that Mady is a Senegal-born player of the African Kora, which is a 21 stringed harp. I was transfixed, riveted to my seat by his playing. It's a flurry of notes in an unusual scale (unusual to my Western ears anyway) with a wonderful undercurrent of traditional west African rhythms. If you'd like to hear a sample for yourself, Mady recently recorded a CD at the Good Noise Studio in Ypsilanti, where he now lives, and graciously consented to allow Good Noise to post one of their recordings here.

You can find more information on Mady at this link, (which seems to work intermittently), or you can also try here, a performance review in "Ann Arbor Paper" with a bio included.

He apparently plays around town and does at least one show annually at the Ark on Main Street in Ann Arbor. Anyone finds out he's playing a show, email me and let's go get our senses dazzled.

Oh, and BY THE WAY. If you haven't checked out the Ragbirds in concert, you should make a point of it. They are playing out all the time in the metro Detroit area, and put on a fantastic show. Two of the tracks on their album "Yes Nearby" were recorded in my studio, while Erin was in the process of recruiting Randall, Adam, Jeff and Greg to form the band. Their schedule lives here.

More WCT Faves

Not all the pictures we took from our west coast trip (WCT...get it?) made it into the blog first time 'round. Here are some more faves.

Graffiti (as you can tell from my other posts) has always fascinated me. The more obscure the better. This one I found outside the "Experience Music Project" in Seattle (yellow highlight was added by me for the visually challenged... :-) ):


Here is a view off the back side of Alcatraz:

This sign is in the BART terminal at the San Francisco airport. I thought the picture was delicious for a variety of reasons...there is so much fun you can have with industrial signage...:


As always, if you click on the image, you'll get a larger version.

If you were confused by my comments about the yellow sign, go here, and you may find your questions answered. Then again...you may not. ;-)

Mowing the lawn with an ATV?!

Just driving through our neighborhood a few minutes ago, coming home from an appointment. Witnessed something that I could not even believe. A guy had attached his expensive self-propelled, walk-behind lawn mower (you know the kind with three blades and a wide path used by professional services) to the front of his four wheeler. Not a lawn tractor, a four wheel, so-called "All Terrain Vehicle". The kind Ozzy nearly decapitated himself with a coupla years ago. So this guy could sit down while mowing his 1/2 acre of lawn around his million dollar home.

I swear I am not making this up.

Honestly now, what are we coming to?

Tufted Titmouse

Here is one of my favorite photo series I've ever taken. (I think that's rotten grammar, but I can't figure out the right way to say it at the moment. Hopefully you get the "picture", so to speak.)

This "triptych" takes place at Kensington Metropark in Milford Michigan.





These pictures are separated by a matter of milliseconds. I think that probably all three photos can be fit into 1.5 seconds total. Karen later said that she could barely feel the little Tufted Titmouse, he was so light. She felt his little "talons" gripping one of her fingers...but almost as if there was no weight, just the feeling of his grip. Wow.

Oh, yeah, one other thing: there is birdseed in Karen's cupped hands. You probably figured that out, but just wanted to make sure you understood that birds don't just alight on Karen because she's some kind of latter day Snow White or something. :-)

Traffic Details

I sent out an email to a whole bunch of people yesterday to let them know I'd been busy blogging. Wouldn't you know, traffic (page views, hits, unique visitors, all that) went through the roof. Maybe my biggest single day ever.

Thing is, I sent that email to mostly work email accounts. On a Sunday.

Which means: you people work too much.

Seriously. Take Sunday OFF. Radical concept I know, but a good idea IMHO.

:-)

The Old Lion

Woke up this morning to the sounds of our cat gettin' his brawl on...we went looking for him, cueing to the yowls...by the time we found him out in the midst of the "savannah" (read: the old overgrown orchard in our back yard), he was slinking away from the scene of the crime. Not too many minutes later, he appeared on the back doorstep...in the worst state I've ever seen him.

(FYI the following pictures were NOT taken this morning...just wanted to let you have a look at the big fella himself. This is a 17 pound animal we're talking about here. Loves his hunting.)


Nasty gash on the back of his left ear, bleeding from a hole in his right ear, bleeding from a gash in his nose (right in the middle of that white stripe) bleeding from his left rear paw...came onto the back porch, shook his head like a boxer trying to clear his vision and splattered blood all over the tile floor...tufts of fur pulled out from various places on his left side...

He did let us compress his ear, and wipe off some of the blood...ate a few scoops of his favorite kibbles, and then went and curled up under a bed to sleep it off. We're trying to find a bottle of Clavamox to stave off the near certain imminent infection(s).



Reminds me of one of the saddest IMAX presentations I've ever seen. When we were in Victoria BC earlier in the year, we went to see "ROAR: Lions of the Kalahari" (which, my comments here notwithstanding, is a very worthy film to see). The story line revolves around an older lion and his harem who has fought for squatting rights at a water hole in the desert. Over the course of the film, a young lion comes and challenges the old lion for rights to his water and his women. In the beginning, the old lion emerges from their scrapes victorious...but eventually, the young lion perseveres and drives him away, out into the desert to die.


I know it's the way nature works, and I know that Monty is doing what God made him to do, but I do worry about him. He's a good cat, even if he is an attitude with fur most of the time.

The vet says that if his wounds are on his face, ears or front (as opposed to his butt), that means that he was the winner. And I do wonder what condition the other cat is in.


But I still wish that our old lion would learn the ways of peace...somehow.