i spend a part of almost every day trying to get rid of shadows. i use a light diffusing screen that i hold in one hand like a mutant semaphor, while trying to press the shutter of my tripod mounted camera with the other hand. i move arrangements from the kitchen window on one side of the house to the patio door on the other side, to the window in my son’s west facing bedroom, and back to the kitchen window, trying to find the most indirect light in the house. post processing is partly a question of getting my backgrounds white, but it’s also a lot about toning down shadows so that my subjects pop out without looking as if they are obviously sitting there against a white sheet of paper. today was what i called a “bucket day,” except i used a different consonant at the beginning of that phrase. sometimes shadows themselves are beautiful. and STILL is about beauty, right? so here are some beautiful shadows. enjoy them, goddamn it. i don’t want to hear a word.

wild aster stems in winter

rice creek, saint paul, minnesota