Patterns, Textures, Light and Shadow, and Mimi
Textures and Patterns, Light and Shadow, and Mimi
What a lovely sunny morning to spend on a nap in the sun.
Not only does this photo contain Mimi, who has apparently been my photo muse lately (you haven’t seen the half of it, whatever that phrase means), it also has all the other elements I like in a black and white photo as listed above—clear patterns, varied textures, bright highlights and intense though not heavy shadows. All the direct and reflected light catches all those textures and patterns, and in turn the light is refracted and reflected into all the dark areas. The floor on the landing has always been an interesting subject for me with its old mixed woods, some hard, some soft, some with finish still on them, and that piece of rolled corrugated has more than earned its keep as a cat toy and lounging spot as well as photo and art backdrop, something the cats and I can share while using it for our own very different purposes. And of course, the princess herself adds an organic softness to all those lines. I just wish I’d moved the vertical stack of matboard in its segregated plastic bags, it’s not so pretty, but does add its own texture and some nice reflected light.
The one thing that’s been a little difficult to decide with these photos on the landing is whether I use them in black and white or color because the colors are almost monochromatic, certainly a limited palette, very warm and inviting.
I post daily photos of my cats past and present. Browse the archive of all daily photos, just photos from the archive or vintage photos or Wordless Wednesday, or choose a cat’s name from the category list on the home page to browse an archive of photos featuring and including that cat.
Brick Street
Brick Street
On a sunny day like today this pale yellow brick street is nearly blinding.
Sunny Main Street
Main Street Carnegie
Well, it was sunny, but instead of leaving it in its natural colors, I desaturated it to approximate a black and white shot because I liked the close-set details of all the buildings and light poles and bollards and bricks. I then added a yellow filter because it seemed to help define things better.
Left Outside
Left Outside
Someone left a number of quart-size canning jars outside their door for most of the winter. They don’t have the lids, only rings, so rain and snow fell inside, melted, froze and did all the things water does. I’m surprised only one jar is shattered, but it looks like four friends who are a little worse for the wear.
A Straight Line
A Straight Line
Possibly a good way to begin the year, but virtually impossible for most of us.
But train tracks always fascinate me in their absolute perfection of line in this part of the country. This line variously clings to the side of a hill before running along the edge of a hill and crossing a number of tunnels and trestles. The topography is everywhere here—hills come in every shape and size, creeks and streams run down every hill and along the bottoms of hills, little back roads wind back and forth with creeks and yet the railroad lines predictably go in a straight line off to the horizon, aside from ones that make lovely gentle curves like another local line I photographed last week.
This line actually does go gently around a curve where it disappears in the distance.
Around the Curve
Around the Curve
The single line of tracks follows the bends of Chartiers Creek and the heights of a natural highwall as it has for at least 100 years. Tracks, trees, dried plants, on an overcast day there are no shadows, only black and white, like an ink drawing.
Abandoned
Abandoned
An abandoned and derelict house stares defiantly toward the road, the very fact it still stands, though tattered, an indication of its strength. Its siding has lost its paint, its windows their glass, and one by one the muntin bars loosen, angle, and fall from their casements, the interior is open to the elements, but the house will stand until the last board falls. The legs of an old metal swing set creep into the edge of the image, an idea that someone, somewhere, remembers this place.
Ancient Fishes
Ancient Fishes
Seen along the trail, perhaps washed up eons ago in the ocean that created our layers of limestone and fossils here in Western Pennsylvania.
Really just an old weathered tree trunk. But they certainly looked like ancient fishes at first.
Gargoyles Await Your Entrance, 2011
Gargoyles Guarding
These gargoyles guard the entrance of the Outlet Barn garden and gift shop. They are friendly with people and animals but can detect any evil spirit seen or unseen. I have merchandise there and I’m sure no evil spirits will enter the building while my goods are there.
PhotoShop desaturate and diffuse glow applied, lots of film grain.
Dill With Dew
Dill With Dew
Another black and white from the autumn garden, a large head of dill with sparkles of dew catching the morning sun that filters through the trees. This was taken with black and white film with my Pentax K-1000 SLR with a 1.5X converter. The film grain is partly in the shot, partly from the print. I ended up liking the print though discovered it was grainier than I had intended when I studied the negative.
Autumn Abstraction
Autumn Abstraction
The tops of corn plants, the light through the leaves, and a teeny tiny spider tries to catch a final meal with a slight web between to plants.
Taken on black and white film with Pentax K-1000 in my garden years ago.
Patterns and Shadows
patterns and textures.
Such a perfect natural composition with no help from me, perfectly balanced patterns, lights and darks, even framed. Of course, I saw this in color, but could see it would really excel in black and white with just patterns to enjoy.
But there was also something I liked about the whole shot, below. I think the billowing clouds above made it look like an old abandoned barn, especially the placement of the one house to the right. It is just an old garage in a neighborhood I pass through.
The Old Garage
First Quarter Butternut
Butternut squash in first quarter phase.
I have some lovely butternut squash, but these are not those. I shot these black and whites with film about a decade ago using butternuts from my garden.
Butternut Squash, last quarter phase.
I love their shapes, so voluptuous and sensual, and reminding me so much of the moon in her phases.
Butternut, full of mystery.
And those twirling tendrils, both the tendrils and the shadows they cast, delicate but definite.
Butternut has landed.
I still scan my black and whites in full color, and they appear here in RGB, not grayscale, to maintain the integrity of all the gray values. At one point I had thought the resolution and detail of these scans was fine, but now I’m considering a negative scanner to capture all those black and whites.
Mr. Sunshine and the Basket
- Lurking in Black and White.
This is a very large, sturdy flat basket that I use at shows and festivals, and in between to move things around in my studio when I need to clear a workspace, except that it most often has a cat in it, or several cats as the case may be. Mr. Sunshine discovered it on the table and, seeing he had it all to himself decided to make a good time of it.
Above, I simply desaturated to make the image black and white.
- With Green Eyes.
Here, I desaturated everything but his eyes, then added a 10% deep yellow filter back into it when it looked too stark. I also shot it on an angle intentionally because it takes a pretty static, common composition and literally puts it a little off-kilter, and makes you wonder what the black cat is up to, especially with one paw on the edge of the basket, and one claw showing.
You’ve seen enough of my studio to know it’s always got stuff stacked everywhere since I always have projects going and the room will never be big enough. So seeing Mr. Sunshine happily settling in and exploring the space within the basket I tossed a piece of neutral-colored mat board up against the pile of stuff always at the end of my work table so he’d have a solid, light-colored background that wouldn’t interfere with the light and color metering in my camera.
Classic Sepia.
Sleepy kitty in basket! I desaturated and gave it a sepia filter just to warm it up.
I did get a number of nice photos, of which these are my favorites. Wasn’t it nice not to be distracted by all my stuff in the background for once?
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
Shadows and Light
Shadows and Light
It looks so mysterious, but it’s just my round galvanized tub with carrots growing in it and a few leaves around it, shadows, shapes, angles and lines, the wanted and unwanted, expected and unexpected, a new view on a common thing.
Changing Light
Giuseppe at the door.
Giuseppe stands at the door watching the birds and chipmunks, hence his very alert and somewhat aggressive stance. The sun comes down the hill at an angle and filters through the leaves and branches of my river birch and then through the garland of grapevines around my door, creating lovely and changing patterns at all angles on the porch outside, the screen of the door, the floor inside and on Giuseppe, who has no idea he’s modeling abstract shadows and seems to emerge from the sunbeam itself.
This was today’s Daily Cat Photo on The Creative Cat
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop or Fine Art America profile to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
A Moment With Mewsette
A Moment With Mewsette
Mewsette has been spending time with me in the mornings in the basement, and is a perfect subject, just being herself, and holding positions for whole seconds at a time.
After all the photos I’ve taken by this basement door, do I need to say I love the light that comes in at this angle, the shadows and patterns? Add a cat, and nothing could be better.
This was my daily photo on The Creative Cat but I thought I’d like to share it here too. For more feline photos, visit The Creative Cat.
Three Stepped Leaves
Three Stepped Leaves
Morning glories are twining on the cast-iron fence around my neighbor’s back yard. Even though colors are bright on a sunny summer day they often overwhelm the textures: the veins in the leaves, the rust on the fence, grooves in the downspout and even the muted long shadows of the other section of the cast-iron fence and the fence itself in the background.
Queen Anne’s Lace: 2011
Queen Anne’s Lace
I love a field of Queen Anne’s Lace, so common yet beautiful this time of year, but somehow it’s much more mysterious in black and white, especially the dappled sun highlighting a flower umbel here and there making it look like an iced cookie.
And then I went back to that photo and did a few more variations on it–back to the color version, and then another filter to create an abstract pattern. Really, I often see all these things when I look at the scene, before I even photograph it.
Queen Anne’s Lace, in color.
Queen Anne’s Lace, filtered.
Bird on a Fence
Starling on a fence.
Watching birds land and leave and land and leave in a popular bird spot can be mesmerizing. I thought I’d capture the starling in monochrome.
Main Street, July 4
Main Street, Carnegie, July 4, 2012
Just another in my series of sun-and-heat-drenched photos of my town done in a sort of vintage look.
The Penny Post Card, not certain of the year.
I always associate Independence Day with small towns and parks and such. Carnegie’s Main Street looks much as it did when I was growing up, and that much like it did when my parents were growing up.
Below is a “penny post card” of Main Street from an unknown year and a slightly different angle, but you’ll recognize the image. See other photos of Main Street, Carnegie.
Backyard Abstract
Backyard Abstract
Shiny violet and wild strawberry leaves, with a few goldenrod and phlox leaves added in, look like a mosaic, even in black and white, perhaps especially in black and white.
Black and White Barn
The Old Barn.
Why, on a lovely green and gold summer morning, I’d imagine this old barn in black and white, especially when I loved the way all the green around it reflected on the peeling white paint and broken windows. But the details were so clear and varied—tiny details, large areas of darkness or light, regular patterns and lighter patterns, it was just very interesting to look at. And it’s not really a barn, at least not any more. It was long ago when the house was built, large enough to accommodate a horse stall and a carriage or two with a loft above for hay. Now it’s just an old garage with a planting shed tacked onto the front. It’s what’s in the background of the acrylic painting I featured today, “My Neighbor’s Laundry”.
But the old barn provides hours of interest for me in all weather, and lots of photos and sketches.
Patterns
Patterns
One tiny sparrow decorates the picket fence, washed by angled morning sunlight.
Patterns, both natural and man made, work so well in black and white photography because you can avoid the distraction of color and just enjoy the shape and form, the play of light on an object and the abstract shapes created by the light and shadow. Running my eyes on the pattern of light and shadow on the picket fence for me is almost like walking along and dragging a stick on the pickets, hearing both the taps and the silences as they make their aural pattern, the companion to the visual pattern.
The waving habit of the fence adds interest to the pattern, creating a visual rhythm all its own.
The shadow on the ground, while not as strong, is also intriguing, broken up by grass and gravel.
And, of course, the common little house sparrow sits atop like a punctuation mark.
