AWE Gallery: Stacy Boorn

the fall the temperatures drop and the daylight fades, the leaves stop making food.  The chlorophyll begins to break down and the green color dissipates.  Always present in the leaves are the lesser amounts of yellow and red pigments, hidden by the dominant green in the season of growth.

Sunny days followed by nights below 45 degrees account for a greater intensity of color.  We have experienced that pattern this past week. The yellows and reds and oranges have been emerging on the grape vines along the Russian River Valley, Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley. (wine country as we call it).

When I first came to Northern California, a native of upstate New York, I didn’t think we had distinctive seasonal changes.  How can there be a fall with out the reds of the Maples and the yellows of the Vermont Birch trees?

But both the vineyards and Eastern Sierras account for true fall frenzy. This turning foliage in the vineyards has its own innate majestic and mystical qualities.  The human soul is drawn to these changing colors of the vines for both their symbolism and beauty.

The vine metamorphosis in repetitive seasonal changes gives glimpse of the movement from life to death and life again. We are drawn into a spiritual experience that invites us to participate in the transformation of life.  As we head toward a day of Thanks – giving I sing the lyrics of Jann Aldredge Clanton’s Hymn:  We Give Thanks to You, Dear Earth:

• We give thanks to you, dear Earth, For your gifts so rich and rare,
• For new life you bring to birth, Teaching us your tender care.
• May we nurture you each day; Wisdom always guides our way.

• (Tune:  For the Beauty of the Earth – Music by Conrad Kocher)

Wisdom and the Earth’s own tender care are gifts well worth being thankful for and seeking after.  Could they not lead us to a more equitable and peaceful world?

Low afternoon light and a little fill flash and a fairly wide angle lens helped me best capture these images.

My second image is a detail from the hoses used to suck the fish and crab catch out of the haul of the fishing boats docked in San Francisco waiting to catch the Dungeness.  Here too, repetitive pattern gives impact to the image.  You don’t even need to know what is in the photo for it to be a successful image.

Dungeness Crab are part of most Bay Area holiday offerings.  I don’t think they are being hauled in yet. Fishermen are asking $2.50 per pound, and processors want a price closer to the $1.75 rate of the past few years.  Lets give the fishing folk the $2,50 and let the feasting begin!  The rest of the world may head to the shopping malls for black Friday.  But as for me, it on to the steaming pots!

Every time I see someone surfing the tune to Hawaii 5-0 starts rattling around in my head.  Most images and scenes, pictures and art, songs and poems extract from us something that we can associate with from our past and experiences. Although I have never had a desire to learn to surf, I have always admired those who do and those who try!  Body and water, ever in motion, always aware of the other – rip curl…wow…

Surfing photography usually involves getting in the water, risking shark attack and getting run over or even drowning.  That’s not for me.  So if you find a location that can get you as close to water level and the surfers as possible is a good trade off.  Recently a surfing competition was here in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, but it was not extremely conducive to those conditions.  So I opted for Santa Cruz near the light house-surfing museum.

Early morning front lighting is usually excellent for surfing photography.  But in this location the AM sun is not behind you.  So you will need to take advantage of “side lighting”  So tracking a surfer until at least a portion of his/her face is lit provides dramatic presentations.

Continuous shooting and tracking are two wonderful features of our DSLR cameras.  This feature may be available in some point and shoot cameras although many of them have a substantial lag time.  That is the time between pressing the shutter and the actual taking of the picture.

Surfing photography is all about timing and capturing the surfer in the right position. With digital photography we can photograph like crazy while following your subject.

Everything along and by the water are on my photographic palette.  The second shoot from the second week in November was captured 30 minutes before sunrise from pier one.  The lights of the Ferry Building are reflected on the gently flowing ebb tide.

“The present structure, designed by local San Francisco architect A. Page Brown, opened in 1898, replacing its wooden predecessor, and survived both the 1906 earthquake and the 1989 earthquake with little damage,” says Wikipedia.

I did not have my DSLR equipment with me on this morning walk but my Canon PowerShot S95 was in my pocket.  I set the timer, placed the camera on the railing of the pier, framed my image, set the compensation to a negative 1 and used aperture priority to make this image. (No tripod – use some stable surface, and get your hands off the camera — timer)

No wonder we think of the “water” as the life source/blood of the earth and the Earth Mother herself… without it we would not be!

The local seagulls (California, Western and Herrmann’s) are getting a jump start on the “crabbing season.”  The season for sport crabbing began yesterday and the commercial season, south of Mendocino, begins on November 15.  It was as if this Western Gull was well aware of that as she/he picked a crab out of the surf which had been turned upside down by an incoming wave.

I didn’t have my camera in hand when the gull began picking at the crab whose legs and claws were flailing toward the blue sky.  I ran back to the car to grab my camera bag, mounted my 100-400 mm lens and knelt down to frame some shots.  But by the time I returned most of the legs of the crab were already pulled off and the gull’s beak made its way into the body cavity.

There was a record crab harvest last year and state biologists report robust populations this year.  But this gull who got her/his crab didn’t wait for the starting signal.  I was also amazed that the other gulls did not try to hone in on her/his catch or steal way the crab.  At one point the sea gull shared with one other bird.

“In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law that limits the number of crab traps on each fishing boat.  The legislation by state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, is designed to protect marine mammals, improve boat safety and prevent large out-of-state boats from crowding out California fishing boats.” So I am melting my butter now!

Wild life, like children, is best photographed at eye level.  But given the direction of the sun the best angle was from in the water.  So I worked my way as close to the water’s edge as possible to plant my knees and elbows in the sand.  My strategy is to watch for the incoming (hopefully gently rolling) waves and be prepared to simply left my camera above my head and get wet if need be.  If I try to jump to my feet it is more likely camera and all will go into the surf.

While enjoying the catch of the season I do want to be mindful of the many parts of the world and locally where people do not get enough to eat, especially the children in the horn of Africa.

So with my second shot I wanted to emphasize food.  Thinking about the unequal distribution of food and wealth I choose to desaturate the majority of the image, leaving about one percent with the vibrancy of the carrot. Yes, it’s a visual metaphor.

So when I eat my carrots this week I prefer to pray – “Blessed be God/dess, she is our bread – may the whole world be clothed and feed!”

There are hundreds of fantastic “postcard” photos of San Francisco and specifically the Golden Gate Bridge.  But it is still rewarding to look for your own moments worth capturing.  After a bald sky with little sunset color at Baker Beach, I turned my attention to the lights on the bridge , to capture the  beautiful reflected lights.

The tide was low and still going out, the swells were small and the incoming waves weren’t crashing immediately on top of each other.  These are the perfect ingredients for providing a wet soft sandy shore that will reflect the lights of the bridge.  Twilight is a magical time, so when the sun sinks below the horizon hang out for another 30 minutes and watch what happens

At the foot of rugged serpentine cliffs mile-long Baker Beach gives you spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Quite often it is warm enough for picnics and long walks at water’s edge.  At the Northern end you will fine the “clothing optional” area.

By using an f/22 aperture the lights on the bridge automatically star.  And a slow shutter speed, needed because of the darkness and small aperture, will give your rolling waves a soft cottony look.

Earlier a Raccoon joined me for lunch… but didn’t bring her own sandwich.   This little gal was just too cute not to make the weekly cut.   She is a good reminder, although often seen as a pest in the urban wilds, that we humans aren’t the sole or ruling creatures of this planet.

Sit down on the ground and get eye level with your subjects, just make sure they don’t jump into your lap.  For my sandwich she would have done just that – the little masked bandit!

Raccoons catch a lot of their meals in the water. These nocturnal foragers use lightning-quick paws to grab crayfish, frogs, and other aquatic creatures. On land, they pluck mice and insects from their hiding places and raid nests for tasty eggs and eat fruit and plants. They will even open garbage cans to dine on the contents.

For me it is photography but it could be painting, poetry, dance, music or any art form that helps us see the images within the images.  This past week I was looking for them in the morning hours at a couple different locations.  Viewing through the lens helps me focus on details and compositions I might otherwise miss. (Got tripod?  Use it!)

In a vineyard in Napa, although by noon it was over 90 degrees and sunny, the morning dew was still in shadowed areas.  One in particular that caught my eye was the dew on the spider webs that were blanketing some yellow grapes like new borns wrapped in their first swaddling cloths.

There was something about these old and un-harvested vines that touched my soul.  So I began to sing the Grandmother Invocation by Gwen Jones:  “Grand mother I see you sitting in the east, you are sacred and you are looking at me.  I pray to you, pray to you. You are sacred and you are looking at me… south, west, north, sky earth, heart…”

And today I am thankful for the work and voice of justice of “Yellow Bird Woman” – Elouise Cobell who after a 14 year law suit against the US Government won a 3.4 billion dollar settlement for the misuse and theft of monies belonging to Native Americans.  Elouise Cobell, a woman of “compassion and grit,” died this past week at age 65.  The legacy she hoped to leave behind was a world better for our children.  May it be so!

My second image was in first light at the newest pier near the Ferry Building.. The design of the railings is compressed with the use of a telephoto zoom lens set at 400 mm.

Graphic images, shadows and golden morning light can be intriguing. In one direction you have the city skyline and the other end of the pier you are looking to the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island.  But extractions can be just as powerful as the grand scene.  It is fun to be out and about at first light.

“Morning  has broken…like the first morning”

….wonder what that would be like?

Sutro Baths at Sunset

Ruins and history sometimes shine most graciously when bathed in the golden glow of the final light before sunset.  This is true of the old ruins of Sutro Baths whose stones still kiss the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco.

The unconventional mayor in 1896, Aldoph Sutro opened a wondrous bathhouse for his city which could accommodate some thousands of swimmers in six salt water tanks holding 1,804,962 gallons.  For pictures of the original Sutro Bath visit the bathhouse website.

What remains of the crumbling foundation and hillsides now covered in ice plant and nasturtium provides a natural playground and coastal creation worth visiting. With the fog gone, the clouds gathering at the coast in the evening hours and a clear horizon, the sky is likely to provide long lasting colors before and after sunset.

Ocean View from Sutro Baths

I like to be in place about 30 minutes before sunset.  Find a scenic view or subject that the setting sun is hitting (opposite or 90 degrees to the sun).  The intensity of the light brings a new quintessence to your subject.

The sun rises and sets every day as it has for millions of years.  Yet every time it offers different vistas (photographic possibilities) depending on the time of year, visibility, clouds, temperatures, location, foreground…etc.   Once the sun is down we can keep on shooting.  As Genesis poetically puts it:  “There was evening and there was morning, day one…day two…” and so forth. And it was all good in the sight of the Divine Being!

Sunrise at Bay Bridge - near Pier 1

Often if there is a great evening sky the next morning has possibilities (or visa versa).  That was the case this past week.

The sky is what makes these photographs. Often excluding the sun from the sky produces a dramatic presentation.  You know the light source is there but it doesn’t dominate the sky. The sky by itself may be spectacular but other elements help make your image unforgettable.  In the case of the sky over the ocean beyond the Sutru Baths it was the rock island and one single sail boat that were the clinchers!

When metering the post sunset sky I usually under expose one to two stops to make the colors rich and vibrant. I suggest you set your camera on the spot metering mode, select a location about 30 degrees off the sun and take your meter reading. With dramatic skies I like to use a wide angle lens to get as much of it as possible.  If the sun were still in the sky it would be very small.  But if your aim is a red ball make sure you are shooting with a long lens – say 400mm.

“The sun has gone to bed and so must I…..”  One of my favorite Sound of Music scenes….

In the art of wine-tasting there are basically six steps: use your sense of sight, then swirl, sniff, sip, spit and finally drive home safely.  Just as there is an art to tasting the fermented juices, there’s an art to seeing subjects on and around the grapevine.  In capturing the art on the vine with your camera, the possibilities are endless.  But there are six invaluable techniques that can be remembered easily with the acronym GRAPES.

• Get in close
• Reflectors
• Aperture
• Polarize
• Exposure
• Spritz

I don’t always apply all of these techniques.  Sometimes the clumps look best with a little bit of water and sometimes not (Spritz).  Regardless you always want to pay close attention to the use of light and choosing your composition!  Last week the first rains came early to the Napa and Sonoma Valleys causing some vineyards to be harvest earlier than planned.  Too much rain can bring mildew to the vines.  But the water drops in your image can help with your focus and give life to your shot!

Although harvesting begins in August for some grapes I enjoy the last crushing because the leaves are more colorful in October into November.  Even after the harvesting you can find clumps of grapes here and there and your presence in the vineyards isn’t as intrusive or treating to the vines and growers.  The grapes that remain longer on the vine gives them a higher sugar content needed for certain kinds of wines.

My morning in the vineyards was on a cloudy day which provided a wonderful defused which pops the color and prevents hot spots in your backgrounds!  I would have like to photograph all day but it began to rain so that forced me to enjoy the fine art photo galleries at Mumm’s Winery on Silverado Trail and a glass of sparkling wine.

My second shot is also about light.  The San Francisco Yacht Club at the Marina was bathed in first light a couple of days ago.  When the light hit the top of the sail boat masks the water was still not illuminated by the sun except for the reflected masks.

The first light of the morning will make everything white look orange and glowing.  Sometimes this intensity of light only lasts a few moments so you want to be there when it happens.  I was actually just out walking but carried my Canon PowerShot S95 which fits in my pocket.  If I took my camera bag out every morning I would never walk – so this is a nice compromise.

You may taste wine blindfolded to enhance your experience.  But when you go to the wine country you must journey with eyes wide open – the images you create will rival all others.  If you haven’t looked at my portfolio “Art on the Vine” – go to it.

Water Lily in Sunshine

This past week I walked past the “Enchantment Pond” outside the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.  It isn’t very large but right now a couple of dozen water lilies are blooming.  I photographed these lilies one day in the sun and one day in the overcast of the fog.  Both provide lighting pros and cons.

The aim of his large Water Lilies paintings, Monet said, was to supply “the illusion of an endless whole, of water without horizon or bank.”   Monet’s presentation captures the changing qualities of light while blending the lilies, water and sky into abstraction while seeking to create “the refuge of a peaceful meditation in the center of a flowering aquarium.”

I am choosing to present segments of the pond very realistically.

Water Lily on Overcast Day

The water lilies nobly burst through the water’s surface to reach the sun,

offering fragrance and gentle enchantment

while making home for bees and dragonflies.

The wisdom of the yellow petals unfolds for those who pass by

taking with a simple glance                   a meditation ready to reside in heart and soul.

A sun lit day provides crisp colorful reflections and an overcast day provides an even light that holds the saturated colors.  With the sun often comes wind and that means you need a pretty fast shutter speed so your dancing water lily won’t be blurred in your image.  So the challenge is getting the depth of field you need.

On the over cast day, with practically no wind, I mounted my camera and 100-400 mm lens on my tripod.  I could use a relatively slow shutter speed to allow for a smaller aperture opening (f/16 or f/22..etc.) to get greater depth of field (The water lily and the floating leaves in the pond all in focus).  When using a long lens remember to use the mirror lock up so the vibration of the shutter doesn’t cause motion blur.

But if you want to be more Monet like you might want a lot of blur.  I will try that next time.

And don’t miss the turtles there!

It is said that the best weather in San Francisco is Fall, the season we have just entered.  But it seems like all this climate change – global warming, is changing the predicable patterns around here.  Rainfall is rare this time of year?  We saw some today!

We are surrounded on three sides by water: ocean and bay. If the temperatures in the East Bay are relatively hot that phenomena pulls the fog into the gate.  Often the fog sneaks under the Golden Gate Bride before fully engulfing it.  That was the case this week as the sun rose to give the waves of fog and the city in the sky an orange glow!  The weather changes quickly and is significantly different from neighborhood to neighborhood here in San Francisco.

Like snow, the fog tends to throw off the camera’s ability to correctly meter the amount of light in a given scene. Bracketing helps, checking the histogram, and realizing that your fog is 1 or more stops lighter than medium tone are helpful in obtaining correct exposure.

The Marin Headlands gets you above as the low fog coming into the Golden Gate so you experience it as a cotton candy sea with curves and waves and curls.  So you will want to capture these textures. Even if you time the photograph for when you feel there’s the most interesting distribution of fog, this fog may not retain its texture if the exposure time is not short enough. In general, the shutter speed needs to be a second or less in order to prevent the fog’s texture from becoming just a mass of white or blurred.

My second image is also benefited by the fog, but in this case as the great diffuser.  It produced perfect light for capturing the details in this turban snail shell on dried kelp.  What makes this picture for me is the orange ring in the turban snail shell and that same basic color in the dried kelp.  Ad a vignette to help keep your focus in the image.  I do this by simply burning in the edges in Photoshop.

Yesterday (Saturday September 24) there was a peace rally in San Francisco in the drizzling fog – but that did not dampen the spirit of the event or the enthusiasm of the marchers and participants.  I hope these images arouse peace within your very being!

Given my very limited time this past week for photography I had to take my own challenge.  Pick a spot and pretty much create images there.  So a parking lot with its the gardened edges became my creative play ground.  It turned out to be full of cars and color.

I eyed a finely polished black BMW.  I wasn’t actually admiring it, just the reflections in it and the distortions it cased as the metal wrapped its curves.

Thanks to the owner it was spittin’ clean.

The low light of the morning was hitting the tail light of a small red car next to it (also nicely washed!).  The tail light and a piece of the blue sky above reflected in the black BMW made a very patriotic presentation – red, white and blue!  And you would have thought that I would have headed directly to the flower beds.

There is so much around us that we often just don’t “see.”

Friday Kara Kennedy, 51 year old daughter of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, died.  She has said, “What mattered to my father was not the scale of an accomplishment, but that we did our share to make the world a better place.  That we learned we were part of something larger than ourselves.”

I hope that my work with herchurch in seeking to help change the theological and life paradigm from domination to partnership systems and structures, our simple acts like cooking and serving a meal at the SF Friendship Banquet for person with HIV, and presenting a few images each week help make the world a better place .

May the images help connect you to the earth, peoples in distant lands, and creative energies.  Seeing with our heart and soul can lead us in many directions.  Moving to the side of the parking lot leaves were being back lit which caused their steams to shadow through them.  The shadow with its soft curve and the leaf veins with their straight lines created a dissonant composition in green.

These two images are offered as a thanksgiving for the life of Kara Kennedy and her life lessons learned and enacted!  May we each continue to find ways to do our share to make the world a better place!