It starts with watching the pan too close.  The fluorescent lights up above the stove reflect the surface tension in clear white lines, and the shapes are reminiscent of the primal coming together of the chaos of the universe.

Then, the software for using a digital image as if in a darkroom with a negative and, as Ansel Adams said, "using the negative as a conductor would use the score for directing the symphony."

                                                         As a fractal enthusiast, and admirer of chaos theory and the Mandelbrot set, I couldn't help but jump into some of the vortexes created by even the smallest amount of dry matter sticking above the surface of the soup.  These patterns, which are recognized in other cultures, too, as 'Ur-patroon" by Feininger, or Li by Chinese artists...the repetitive but always changing shapes  morphing, yet following some constants that create patterns on several dimensions simultaneously.  I'm no mathematician, nor scientist, nor physicist, but the underlying harmonies, beauty, and shapes found in the art of our ancestors because they do follow the forces of the Tao, these visual clues that this miracle we call our universe is so magnificent in every detail.                                                        

The patience and openness to experience new paradigms, new perceptions of reality, new entrances to other explanations, is what drives my photography, my image making, and sometimes, even art.

 Abstractions Help Remove Biases

     Looking along the road when the last evening sunlight shines through some golden grass and a knapweed with junky but still quite circular backgrounds, it helps to overcome the inner bias that trash along the road and unrecycled trash should not be lying like an eyesore along the road...this road being North Dryden Rd in Chelan County, and the collected detritus of the "King Ranch" which lies there predictably every year all seasons for photo studies of rural decay and wabi sabi...I'll probably miss it all when someone finally orders the country to remove it because of the toxic waste leaking down the bank into the river below.

Morphic Resonance or Waves or Vibrations or Ripples or Reflections

     Perhaps my first 'aha' awareness moment in life came when I saw the rings from a penny I'd thrown in the water...
My mind melted with the reflecting lines of the buildings of Amsterdam spiraling out with ever wider wavelets and my why? light went off.
     Now, in a time when we speak of curved time and space, quantum reality of chance, molecular and microbiotic universes the question, "Which is real, the reflection or the reflectee?" it becomes necessary, as usual, to have to say "Both"
     I suppose it all sounds  kind of New-Agey, but there does seem to be an analogical relevance to ideas of vibes and harmony, flow, and meditation to arrive at new paradigms of our existence, how it is interacting with all of its parts, and how the slightest act will have lasting consequences once the interacting vibrations and their ripple effect are fully understood.

The Threshold of Winter

Frost on the puddle, even in the afternoon, yet still one yellow Cottonwood Leaf against an otherwise stark black and white background enriched by a multitude of etched webbed crossing lines from several dimensions, both reflected and real.

It is here that my brain analogizes reality into the patterns I see in life, the contrasts we are brought up with, the irreconcilable blacks and whites, not willing to grey.

This Poem Came to Mind as I Posted This on My Flickr Site

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoscribe/10683218215/

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The Threshold of Winter's Hold

The Threshold of Winter's Hold

Papa taught me about Black and White,

and Color or No Color,

Then Warm versus Cold

And soon Right and Wrong?

Depending on whose point of view,

Realistic - Unrealistic.

Bad or Good?

And often it would come down to"We'll see!"

Bare branches, Fallen leaves,

Darker nights, Shorter days.

First frost.

Crystals shake hands with fluid molecules ...

 the dance 

of 

hydrogen and oxygen.

Staring down, at the basics,

The lines etched in fluid,

Ever changing states of being,

Amazing grace,

Seen from the right angle,

Open to each moment,

Like a final gasp.

                               

Looking into the universe of a cup of coffee.

Observation

     Looking into a cup of coffee after installing the new ultra-light daylight lamps in four bars, and suddenly I see the surface tension of the round cup and the liquid, the floating particles of powdered milk and my eyes are drawn into memories of recent science theories of infinite numbers of universes, and warped space, vortexes, black holes, and just looking at my coffee cup, I suddenly understand it all.  (-:

Trick or Treat ???? Why Bother

       This is of many snapshots taken of the delightfully outfitted trick or treaters at my house each year. Most are glad I'm impressed enough with their costumes to care to take a picture.  When parents are there, I immediately ask for permission, if not, I ask the kids.  If they say no, I respect that, but since it is my front porch on my property with someone knocking on my door, I do believe I have the right to record the moment.
      One parent, who apparently did not accompany their children complained to the police, and the next day I had 2 sheriff deputies on my door asking if I had taken pictures of children, and why?  I was astonished but responded that I put them on my flickr site to share with my contacts, as others would on facebook, and that I have a cousin in the Netherlands who was here once for Halloween and enjoyed it.  I was told that I had to have the parent's permission first, and that I had to put up a sign that said, "You may be photographed"

     Suddenly Halloween Lost its Charm.  The following is my sincere letter to the person who caused my loss of enthusiasm for preparing for Halloween. May a witch haunt your door this evening.

Letter to Parents of Child who called cops because I took picture of their kid in Halloween costume.

Dear folks,

        I'm sorry if I violated your expectations of what happens when kids go trick or treating without their parents, and that folks might actually like your kids costume well enough to want a snapshot.
May I ask, if this offended you why you didn't come to my door to discuss the matter with me.  If things like this concern you, might it not be better if you went trick or treating with your kids.
And finally, if this bothered you, why didn't you have the neighborly courtesy and decency to discuss the matter directly rather than attempt to make a criminal action out of a traditional neighborly celebration.
        You've caused me to seriously reconsider taking part in Halloween at all, even when my own childhood was full of memories of getting to know neighbors and celebrating evenings with other kids.
        Now your actions have caused me to associate what was a fun childhood memory to the realization that at every step America has become more and more an authoritarian state with common courtesy skipped so that we can't be held accountable for our thoughts and feelings.
       I am now conflicted....why bother to celebrate what was fun, when the mere snapshot of the creative kids asking for candy and tricking me if I don't give it...should have the moment captured so others can share the tradition of a fun-filled holiday centered on childhood, mischief, and fun.
     `Given your paranoia about who might answer the door, may I recommend you keep your kids at home this year, for regardless of their costumes, I would rather not see them, if I can't share the memory.

Apologies will be accepted.

Let me dive into my own universe....

         The more I hear and read about the current cosmological models of multiple universes, curved space, quantum leaps and waves and particles, I can't help but see all of those possibilities in a small stream with moving water, light, and the tools for stopping time for a mini-second view to realize how another second would entirely change the mini-universe in the photo.

     The surface world of water, is simultaneously a reflected distorted world above, and those distortions tell us volumes about the world below the surface, it's tension, flow, depths, speed, calmness, and what is being reflected...sky, clouds; in short, visually we have entered another microcosmic entrance to a world very different from the one we must live in, one of air, and three dimensional objects.