December 2013 – Page 3 – A Photo A Day (Squarespace)

12-11-13 The End of the Season

2013 12-11 End of the Season by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
When Deb and I paid the entrance fee for the Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska, a few weeks ago, we weren’t expecting much given that the gardens were past bloom and prepared for winter. But we were surprised by what we found. And even if we hadn’t found anything worth seeing, it would have been good just to stroll through a largely deserted landscape on a nice November day.

I suspect that many gardeners would feel that what you are seeing here is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. But I see a great mix of lines, colors and textures. This isn’t quite like Monet’s famous lily ponds at Giverney but this but perhaps a way to pay tribute the one of my favorite artists.

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/5.0 ISO200 100mm

12-10-13 Late Fall

2013 12-10 Late Fall by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
It occurs to me that in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where this photo was taken, the ponderosa pine is visual white noise in that there are so many of them and, unless they are fallen or bug infested or on fire, they are rarely seen.

Good photography often involves being in the right place at the right time. But good photography also is about directing the camera towards things in ways that help people “see” scenes, events and objects in ways that make them worth noticing.

So today I present a detail of a lowly ponderosa pine which has probably been standing largely unnoticed for 50 years. And what is special about this tree branch? Perhaps nothing. But when photographed at the the right time with the right light, it is certainly interesting and, I think, worth stopping and looking at.

Canon 5DIII 1/200s f/2.8 ISO200 200mm

12-09-13 Where I Want To Be

2013 12-09 Where I Want To Be by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
My friend Dennis Newman, who is an artist and an art/photography instructor, says that good art (including photographs) should invoke emotion. I heard him say that about a year ago and since then I have tested most of the photos I post here with this question: “What do I want my viewers to feel and think?” Not all of the photos I post have a certain answer to this question, though I’ve been posting long enough to know that what I feel as the photographer isn’t always the same as what you feel as the viewer. Such is the nature of art. . .

A problem that photographers often have is that a photo that they have taken invokes strong emotion in them but is otherwise meaningless to their audience. And perhaps today’s photo is an example. Many might say, “An orange float in a big, nondescript body of water? Big deal!”

But if you live where it is very cold (-9 fahrenheit in South Dakota today), and if you live where the world appears predominantly in tones of white and gray (South Dakota in December) and if you love warm sun and water (I do) and if you love the solitude and silence on a reservoir on the high plains (me, again) and if you like the color blue (guess who?) then you can’t help but feel something when you see this photo.

And if I am the only one, oh well. Not everything I photograph turns out to be art. . . .

GoPro Hero III Black Edition 1/589s f/2.8 ISO100 2.77mm (35mm eq:15mm)

12-08-13 Symbiosis

2013 12-08 Symbiosis by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
Deb and I took a hike through a nature area on our visit to St. John in the US Virgin Islands this past June. I spent quite a bit of time photographing the plants that grew on plants here, much like this air plant is growing on the side of a small tree, which is also host to a vine that is curling upward. Are these plants friendly and helpful to each other? And is that what symbiosis means? Or are we seeing evidence of parasitism?

And are these questions really necessary if, like me, all that is striking about this place are the rich green hues and filtered light in a shaded forest?

Canon 5DIII 1/60s f/4.5 ISO640 60mm

For those who might be interested in seeing a more mundane but much more “unnatural” place for one of these to grow, check out this photo, which I took on a walk in Charlotte Amalie in the BVI:

12-07-13 Great Faces

2013 12-07 Great Faces by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
I posted a great face yesterday so I decided to post two great faces today, this time of our grand daughter Glenyce Jane and one of G’s namesakes, my mother-in-law Glenyce D. I’m lucky to have them both in my world and I’m learning to interpret Glenyce J’s facial expressions. This one says, “You’re pretty cool and I like you.”

I get the same look from my mother-in-law all of the time. 🙂

Canon 5DIII 1/125s f/5.0 ISO800 90mm

12-06-13 “I Am Not A Saint . . . “

Given all of the talk in the wake of the death of Nelson Mandela, I felt compelled today to offer a small tribute him and his legacy. He not only helped change the face of South Africa, he also helped change the way many think about race and equality. The photo is not mine and I hope that’s OK.

Four quotes of his strike me as particularly meaningful today

“I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”

“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

and

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

12-05-13 The Real Rosetta Stone

Meet the namesake for the language translation programs you see advertised on TV. . . .

When I say “Rosetta Stone” you probably think of a well-advertised foreign language learning tool. But the actual Rosetta Stone (pictured here), which is housed in The British Museum, was the key to translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics into English. There are three different languages/scripts on this stone, two of which were decipherable. But, in the the early 1800s, the top script, hieroglyphics, was still a mystery. A man named Champollion used the known scripts and pretty astute inferential reasoning to crack the code of hieroglyphics. So ends the history lesson.

If you are curious about the leap from grand daughter to son to Rosetta Stone over the last three days, don’t try to find the logic. There is none. Today, fearing that I would miss a day in “A Photo A Day” for the second time in five days, I just picked a folder of photos from 2010 and found this picture.

Your attention is no doubt waning by now, so I’ll say, “Thanks for looking.” 🙂

Canon 5DII 1/15s f/4.0 ISO1000 24mm (Notice the slow shutter speed. Shame on me!)

12-03-13 Curiosity

2013 12-03 Curiosity by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
At the end of one of my photography classes the other day, I asked if there were any questions. During the minute or two that I waited, I was greeted with silence. I told the class that their silence may be due to their shyness, their total understanding of everything I taught, or their confusion. I did point out in a friendly way that “teachers don’t drive the best learning; curiosity does.”

I call this post “Curiosity” because when I watched my son (the teacher) coach his second cousins on the use of a fascinating puzzle, I realized that the learning was pure: it was based solely on a desire to understand. It certainly wasn’t based on fear of the disapproval of the teacher, the disappointment of the parents, or the assignment of a grade to the task at hand. It was all about wanting to know more. . . .

Canon 5DIII 1/250s f/5.6 ISO1000 45mm

12-02-13 Caribbean Shores

2013 12-02 Caribbean Shores by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
So today’s photo is a huge leap from what I’ve been posting the last couple days. Is there some plan that I have so that I can keep my viewers off balance? No. In fact, the number of views I get when I post kids goes way up. Today’s photo won’t get a third of the hits yesterday’s got. But that’s OK with me. . . .

Geographic Note:

The island upon which we have landed with our dinghy (that’s our larger vessel in the background) is called Sandy Cay, which is just a short distance from Jost Van Dyke. (Click here to see it on a map.)

Canon 5DIII 1/500s f/10.0 ISO200 16mm

Caribbean Shores by Scott Shephard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

12-01-13 Then & Now – 6 Months Old

2013 12-01 Then & Now - 6 Months Old by Watertown, South Dakota, photographer Scott Shephard
Yesterday’s photographic mission was to copy a photo that had been taken 59 years ago. The subject in the photo is Debra DeGeest (AKA Deb Shephard). The new subject for the copy was Glenny J. (AKA Glenyce Jane Shephard). The dress in both photos is the same dress – worn very little for the photo so long ago and worn only for a few minutes for the recent shoot. Both subjects are 6 months old.

Careful observers will note that there are striking similarities between the two children. Such is the nature of genetics. The single most striking thing to me is that they both seem healthy and happy. What more could you want?

Canon 5DIII 1/125s f/5.6 ISO200 58mm

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In case you’d like to see the out takes, here’s another contact sheet. . .

GlenyceJane6MonthsContact (1)

And a short video. . .