reaching out

“reaching out” has become one of my least favorite business-speak neologisms. reaching out used to mean offering someone deep emotional support. you reached out to someone in their time of need. now you suggest that julie reach out to justin to see if he can reschedule the skype conference from wednesday to thursday. and then what you do after that, but don’t get me started, is you “circle back” to julie to see if she did, in fact, “reach out.” on the other hand, i can get sort of excited about a wild grape tendril, at the extremity of the growing vine, reaching out delicately for a branch to hold onto that it has not yet found.

wild grape vine tendril

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota

trapped

this coleus leaf appears to have descended in an alien spaceship, then swallowed and abducted a hawthorn leaf in full fall color, and taken it back to the mothership.. the aliens could have done worse in terms of capturing earthly beauty.

coleus leaf

saint paul, minnesota

happy accident

i spent 45 minutes trying to pin these rose branches to a vertical sheet of black foam core in order to set up an appealingly lush arrangement of flowers and greenery. they hung precariously and wouldn’t do what I wanted. they did not look appealingly lush at all, but more like they had been stuck together with glue. then one of my branches fell ignominiously to the tabletop. and lay there with a wounded air. suddenly i had my composition.

bush roses

saint paul, minnesota

expiration

peonies come with an expiration date. handle with care. keep cool. best if visually consumed by June 1.

peony flowers

saint paul, minnesota

sometimes

sometimes you take a photo and then go to process it. you play with highlights and midtones. you up the contrast and then lower it. you brighten and darken. you turn up vibrance and turn it down. you saturate and desaturate. you crop in and pull back. and then suddenly it occurs to you. wait a minute. this has been perfect all along. it doesn’t happen very often, or last very long. about as long as the full ripe bloom of a pink peony.

peony

saint paul, minnesota