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After Rousseau’s Sleeping Gypsy
Warm breath
soft nose
nuzzled against my cheek.
Secure under the watch of my friend
I dream of a place faraway
crowded
lush
large leaves
animals peeking out.
Is it scary in there?
Or am I supposed
to say
“Oh, that is lovely.”
Speaking of elephants and shadows last week, an elephant and I scared each other. We were in Botswana in 2007, on safari. Our driver had stopped his vehicle close to thick brush. The elephant came out on the other side, saw us and immediately spread his ears and charged. For a split second I wondered whether I should take a picture or scramble over to the other side of the Toyota Land cruiser. I took the picture. Thank goodness the elephant stopped. The image was in focus which is kinda amazing, too. (You can see him close-up, too. Just click and double click on the image.)
After buying a gift of sugar and powdered milk, my friend took me to her mother’s home to meet her family. A taxi drove us outside of town where we were dropped off near an old wood bridge; someone was giving the bridge a new coat of paint. It was a beautiful day. Peach trees were in blossom Player flags on high poles were fluttering in the breeze. We walked the rest of the way past water fountains, past pigs and a cow in bamboo pens, past hunting dogs tied up in front of a home and past clothes hung up in the sunshine. Looking ahead of me, sitting up on top of a hill, was Karma’s mother and sister traditionally dressed with their black hair cut in the traditional style. Not having a telephone, they didn’t know we were coming. I was offered yak butter tea or tea with milk and sugar and maze, “corn picked, fried and pounded.”
After tea my friend took me into a beautifully decorated prayer room which, among other things, had a photograph of the Dalai Lama, an altar and a cabinet filled with twelve holy books collected between carved boards, wrapped in orange cloth with blue, orange and gold ribbons. The older ones were made up of pages of calligraphy wrapped in silk and tied with a silken ribbon or leather. The classification system consists of tiny satin flags, color coded to match subjects. I painted with my friend’s three year old niece. She was shy, but I gave her a few crayons and paper. In a few minutes she was drawing, too.
They didn’t know I was coming, but my friend’s sister had prepared a full meal. We ate in the livingroom with her mother, sister and niece. The meal consisted of red rice, spinach, cheese potatoes cooked with onions and chilis, pork and green ferns from the forest. I asked how they had prepared our meal since they didn’t know I was coming. They grow their own potatoes. The rest of the meal was prepared from dried foods they had in their home,
This day was special, never to be forgotten.
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Away from jet airplanes,
computers, and CNN
is a garden in Suzhou.
A child waits there,
quiet and pure as a peach.
It was like Christmas; opening boxes - two Quattro Flourescent light sets, daylight balance light bulbs (35 watts each), reflector diffuser, and a portable translucent shooting table. After taking a class at Calumet http://www.calumetphoto.com/on how to photograph small things, I bought some equipment for my studio. I needed some lighting anyway. When my studio ceiling began to fall down (the chunks were an inch thick) I tore out the light fixtures. I have no lights in there – only a wall of windows – great natural light. So I needed the lights anyway . The table top desk is good because I can put it on the floor and shoot looking down at the object. Now I will have no excuse – better photographs of my Artists Books. I’m not counting these images though. I took these with my iphone, I couldn’t wait. I just wanted to set uo everything right away and try it out. The “book” is a collaborative book I made with my grand daughter. You can see I borrowed her swan which has become a permanent part of my Artist Book, ‘ The Queen’s Swans.’
‘The Queen’s Swans’ is made up of 20 accordian books containing original watercolor and graphite drawings of the swans on the river Thames near Windsor Castle and a plastic swan. The pieces are housed in a box with a bamboo cover.
This was the actual view from our apartment. I have a series of photographs taken at this time. This one was shot at 1/500 sec at f 5.5 ISO 400. We had a friend who was a pilot for these boats. He would tell us about his mornings out on the water before the San Francisco area woke up and started the activities of the day,
Friday morning the fog crept under the Golden Gate bridge and quietly moved along the water over to Coit Tower. Sts Peter and Paul Church in North Beach/ Telegraph Hill peaked through the frothy shape. Joe DiMaggio, who grew up in the neighborhood, returned to live there with his wife Marilyn Monroe during the 1950s.
January 27, 2012 1/160 sec at f/29 ISO 400 8:28 AM
This was the view we had from our apartment. We looked at a picture that was always changing. Besides making drawings and paintings for my Artists Book, I made photographs. This photograph was taken at 5:34 in the morning.1.3 sec at f/4.0 The focal length was 28mm ISO 200. I didn’t have a tripod so I set up my Canon EOS Digital rebel XTI on a pile of books on a table. Then, I put the camera on timer and experimented with different settings. A bit crazy, too, it was dark, I’m trying to see the dials with a flashlight – I have to remember where they are on the camera! I’m trying to be quiet so I don’t wake up my husband, then of course when I do try that, I usually crash something.There’s not a lot of time to fiddle around because the light changes rapidly.
I’m working on how to show bigger images on my WordPress site here but so far all I can say it click on the image to see it bigger. It makes a difference. If anyone has a suggestion on a better layout for my blog, I’d love to hear about it.
I’m thinking about adding a page for my photographs.
Right now you can see them on the following website http://www.carla-saunders-photography.com
