Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Black and White (and the Fog of Winter)

15 February 2016

Lens:

1. Foggy Afternoon; Copyright © 2016 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

2. Foggy Afternoon; Copyright © 2016 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved

Let me know which you prefer. Click on image to enlarge, which takes you to another page. If you decide to leave a comment, please return to this page.

Pens:

The morning was a blue-moon event. The entire landscape was painted with pockets of clouds that gave new meaning to foggy, creamy and deliciously provocative. The intersection of air currents, temps, heavy rain and snow created a moisture-laden environment.

In my hometown usually fog is closer to the horizon, being shy to rise into the trees or skyward. Truly, during that morning’s sightings memorable forms tentatively held shapes that surprised and stunned me.  This profusion was salt and peppered along my journey, and my astonishment overflowed into euphoric emotions and visual ecstasy.

It was as if the land and its surroundings were being swallowed by the intersection of weather-related elements. Areas of the landscape were overtaken by this phenomenon that provided a conundrum. My impulse was to jump out of the car to grab visual memories. But each place that succumbed to swaths of fog were located where it was inaccessible. It was frustration personified.

The effects were grandiose, and all I could do was marvel. As I continued toward my destination, one pocket disappearing to reveal yet another, I found a spot to stop in a small park.

I moved closer to the tree line in the distance, where soft ribbons of fog could not compete with what I had seen over the last half hour’s road trip. The elements were shifting and the fog with them. The rain had become timid, so I stood and enjoyed the serenity of the scene with its near abstract formations. Within seconds there was a radical transformation from ethereal and mystical to low-clinging mist. It was transformative in ways that only nature can produce.

In the Lens section are two images that show the scene at the park. The first image has the  view with a denser fog, and the second–only minutes later–shows a simple patina of mist.

That dense fog of a winter’s afternoon, filled with haze and soft glaze across the distance, was a clear voice from Mother Nature about her ability to bring engaging and yet ephemeral visions into our lives. But we must see them, envelope their unique qualities and remember who is truly in charge of nature’s palette.

Tip of the Week:

“[w]e know that people are formed by the light and air, by their inherited traits, and their actions. We can tell from appearance the work someone does or does not do; we can read in his face whether he is happy or troubled. ~~ August Sander

When I read about Emblems of the Passing World: Poems after Photographs of August Sander by Adam Kirsch (2015), I immediately ordered it. This book brings together the work of a photographer and a writer. Kirsch is a noted critic and poet who was inspired by the works of the father of Modern Photography. August Sander (1876-1964) specialized in documentary and portrait photography. He is well-known for an ambitious project that documented the German people from pre-World War I to World War II. Sander was able to capture the character and personality of his subjects with a searing outcome. Adam Kirsch has presented his response to forty-six of Sander’s black-and-white portraits–portraits that are created with a directness, insight, and sensitivity. Kirsch’s poems do not distract from Sander’s artistry. It’s a curious little tome that pays tribute to Sander’s contribution to the German society at a significant time in history, and also brings attention to his classic approach to photography. Click here to see some of Sander’s work. We can learn much from studying his portraiture with its tender and realistic depictions.

From Emblems of the Passing World: Poems after Photographs of August Sander, Adam Kirsch’s poem, “Bricklayer,” 2015, and August Sander’s photograph, “Bricklayer, 1928.”

“Bricklayer,” August Sander, 1928

“Before the architect can contemplate

Strategic harmonies of line and mass,

Before the engineer can calculate

The densities required to bear the stress,

Must come the laborer, who bears them up

As surely as the stack of twenty bricks

He wears as nonchalantly as a cap

Piled on a board across his back and neck;

Reduced to nothing but a quantity

Of muscle power, his defiant staring

Announces the heroic certainty

That he can bear a life of only bearing.”

View other entries for this week’s challenge:

https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-black-and-white/

https://patchworkponderings.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/frost-faeries-dance-sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-black-and-white/

https://angelinem.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-peace-out/

https://lumar1298.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/garden-photography-monochrome/

https://decocraftsdigicrafts.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-black-white-grasses/

https://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/making-changes-with-black-and-white-for-sally-ds-mobile-challenge/

http://ohmsweetohm.me/2016/02/15/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-black-and-white-nature/

https://amaltaas.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-black-and-white-4

https://badfish2.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/how-your-life-imitates-art-finally-a-short-read/

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/mobile-photographybw-and-flow-of-the-day

https://chasinglifeandfindingdreams.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/mystery-of-black-and-white

https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/the-medium-and-the-message/

https://christinejrandall.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-b-w-helenslee/

Note:

As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. My photographs for the mobile photography challenge are taken with an iPhone 6.

If you’d like to join this Mobile Photography Challenge, please click here for details and history of the challenge. If you have any questions, please contact me. Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming challenges:

1st Monday: Nature.

2nd Monday: Macro.

3rd Monday: Black and White.

4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Panorama, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week.