evolution
i had a STILL blog image all ready to go tonight. it was getting dark and i had photographed a pretty beautiful golden colored fern, laid out more or less flat, but with some parts of the frond overlapping in a way that looked like kissing. i finished post-processing half a dozen images and then happened to go back into my bedroom where i had taken fhte photos, and suddenly, in the process of their dying, the ferns were full of life and personality, curling and cascading toward the ground so fast that i could almost watch the process unfold. it was clear a second photo shoot was called for, and this image is the delightfully unexpected result.
fall fern frond
i did not go for a walk today
i did not go for a walk today. instead i went to lunch with my husband. which means that the natural objects i found nearby (per the STILL blog operating manual), were a plate of a dozen oysters. Upon closer inspection (also part of the STILL blog operating manual), they revealed themselves to be both wildly more colorful than i expected and also confined within a single color palette. they displayed pearly interiors with shimmering nacreous spots. they existed on a spectrum from light sandy tan to dark indigo purple. in short they proved themselves worthy STILL blog subjects. and delicious.
oyster shells
from flowers as from the landscape . . .
. . . the color has begun to fade. rich summer greens are fading to colors, which will retreat to brown after they have come to rest on the ground. what is left will be the gray brown stems and trunks of plants and trees, the gray-white of snow, and the pale blue of winter skies. a new winter palette, that this hydrangea seems to see coming already.
october hydrangea (hortensia)
october 14
the earliest snowfall on record for minneapolis minnesota is august 30. which means that an october 14 snowfall is actually totally normal. it’s totally, totally normal. just totally normal. totally, totally normal. totally . . . just normal. totally.
snow covered pin cherries leaves
looking closely
sometimes i get feedback from people and its clear they think that i’m doing something very skilled or out of the ordinary in the process of gathering STILL blog images. but really, it’s just a question of looking closely. i’m not saying that’s easy. it’s like meditating. it’s not complicated. it just takes attention and practice. my husband particularly liked this image. he watched this flower turn from an orange flame to this wilted rag. he said he would have left it there. he never would have looked more closely to see those rusty orange and lemon yellow highlights on the wilted petals. it was a kind of compliment, which i accepted gladly. looking closely is not a broadly marketable skill just now. i’ll take all the compensation i am offered.
dried blanket flower bloom (rudbeckia)
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Well, wow—great commentary on this flower. I forwarded your page to a friend commenting to her that it felt like I was opening up an art book, when I flipped through the latest BH&G. Stunning work and I love how amenable your family was to your curiosity—regarding home decor.
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This is so beautiful. I read your article in BHG last night. Have been perusing your site ever since! So happy to have found you on here and Instagram. Your work is amazing, thank you for sharing with us.
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