California - north coast

The California coast north of San Francisco is a drive everyone should take, the land dives into the ocean, via huge cliffs, sea stacks, and always lots of sand. The ragged shore on the left could split apart like the rocks on the right, and eventually become the sand at the bottom. The planet has gone thru many changes since you and I arrived, and will continue on, ad infinitum. Amen.

One of my favorite stops - Trinidad:

Happy New Year!

I hope i always keep this saying, or prayer as it is called, close to heart.

The Serenity Prayer is the common name for a prayer written by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971). The best-known form is:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

Hope you enjoy my Year End portfolio!

Who knows what the future will bring.

Let's go there anyway, we have no choice, do we?

A secret cove, a revelatory walk....

Continuing on with the theme of sand...

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/it-was-me

"When you look back at the most difficult times in your life 

and see only one set of footprints in the sand, 

it’s because I was carrying you.

When also in the sand there’s a pretty great sand castle, 

at least for someone who isn’t a professional sand-castle builder, 

that was me, too."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-build-the-perfect-sandcastle-according-to-science/

"Far from perfect" doesn't make it unenjoyable by any means.

The world, your life, the beach sand - all a blank canvas.

Treat all with care.

Beach Mirage

I did this darkroom print really quickly, simply - wasn't much impressed w/ the result immediately, but it has grown on me. Who is this huge figure in the distance, coming thru a misty tunnel?

Is this the begining of a zombie apocalypse movie?

Or something more benevolent?

Above, digital coloring

The source image for this, made at Ocean Beach, SF, CA., was on this roll/film.

The place is a magnet for anyone looking for an enlightening refreshing experience without having to go very far at all. I lived in SF from '92-2001, i spent many a dollar on bus fare going to and fro. That's all it took, a buck, RT ticket.

At the west side of town, it extends south for miles. It's landmark structure - Cliff House - has undergone numerous renovations. The Sutro Baths was a huge vault of a place, that took in ocean water in a controlled way for a frothy cold bath. Above both of those, Sutro Gardens. Adolf Sutro liked to name places after himself. The ruins of the Bath House still take in hi-tide seawater, a path north leads to several viewpoints, and trails lead down treacherous land to rocky beaches.

The same set-up - the glassy surface of wet sand - made for a roll or two of the waves, rippling back and forth against each other, very late in the day. It became the cover image for one of my books.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Hope you're enjoying the sand - there's plenty left - Stop in again!

Moonrise...

...and a love declared.

Humans use the sand as a canvas. (Check out April 18 post too.)

The only limit is imagination.

Personally, i think mother nature is a whole lot more creative.

Smooth wet sand, Ocean Beach, San Francisco

Wet sand on a beach at low tide becomes a canvas.

.... which then becomes a maze? or perhaps a map? 

Much of life is a matter of 'it's all in the eye of the beholder'. 

Is the glass half empty or...?

Is it a map to the way out (or in?)... or a maze to become lost in?

And where does the ladder go?

http://www.sfchronicle.com/art/article/Rake-artist-uses-beach-as-canvas-11014950.php

The artist shows up when conditions are right, which probably isn't often.

This is the cover of my self published book:

That same wet sand is a canvas for very shallow waves that bounce off each other, creating a network of ripples.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

And of course there's much, much more at my website:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net

New topic/theme - sand

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage, and occasionally some digital montage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Also check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

Seeking The Vibe: http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

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Let's move on to a new visual theme/topic: I've chosen sand. Yes, that's right, sand! 
It comes in any color you can imagine, and any texture you can imagine. White to black, as fine as flour, as textured as gravel. It is amazingly malleable, and can create a multitude of forms and sights. It records the weather, the waves and wind, and the creatures that pass over it.

So here's a few photo-montage images to start off the new theme. 

They are a great transition from the previous topic (time) to this one.

(This one is digital)

A single blade of dune grass is blown by the wind, 

makes circular grooves in the sand. 

It is a clock of sorts, a measure of time. 

Part of a sundial miraculously appears. 

Reset your watch if you feel it necessary... this event will not last long.

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This/above is darkroom.

How many photos of sand do I have in my archive?

The only answer can be 'countless'.

Running...

Here's that sundial again, it eminates (sic?) from the grooves carved in the sand, someone runs from the indefinite time keeping of the grooves, to the somewhat more precise display of the sundial. What does this all mean, including the soft footprint?

Sometimes i have an inkling what a montage is about, other times, nary a clue.

I'm obviously interested in things metaphysical - beyond that, it's up to the viewer to decide what's going on. If I haven't figured them out yet, (and I haven't, not really), why should I presume to explain them to anyone else? Many of the pictures just seem to 'happen', because the individual negatives are 'looking' for each other. I'm just a chaperone, and a really loose one at that...

But those were always the best kind of parties, right?

One thing I know - that guy will probably keep on running for a while. Hoping perhaps that the sundial will turn into a Rolex.

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A bit of shameless self promotion for my books:

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

This includes an image i have recently posted here, titled 'Desert Time'.

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

I'll be back, for sure :-)

Sand dial #2

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Also check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

Seeking The Vibe: http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Beach grass out of the frame serves as the gnomon, casting the shadows on the sundial's face, a digital concoction, only four hour numbers necessary, this is not a finely tuned instrument, minutes don't matter, perhaps even the hour is debatable. In times and places where most people didn't have watches or any time piece, time was spoken of in varying terms.  In spanish, the word 'manjana'  + 'mañana' in my Mac's translator, is a soft and uncertain term - "we'll get there, when we get there".

The study of time is called horology - hora is the latin root for the word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_of_time

Many ancient societies were obsessed w/ time, measuring it, marking it, using it to guide anything from spiritual celebrations to planting crops. From Meso-America, to Chaco Canyon, to Stonehenge and well beyond, to Asia - their work was infinitely more difficult than ours. 

Somehow they they figured out how to erect carefully built structures w/ small openings that let the sunlight fall on an opposite wall,  to tell them the exact moment of the a solstice, for instance. They weren't a whole lot more advanced than hunter/gatherers, but they figured this out? I guess they were a lot more interested in these things than they were in other more mundane things.

We can buy an almost infinite number of watches in a heartbeat on the internet. When i click on the 'dashboard' on my Mac, i get a clock, second hand ticking away.

Carpe diem, dear reader. 2016 will soon be history, the big ball will drop in Times Square, you celebrate in whatever way you wish. To quote a great songwriter, Warren Zevon:

"Time marches on, time stands still, time on my hands, time to kill. We contemplate eternity under the vast indifference of heaven"

Don't let 'the vast indifference of heaven' slow you down much. Warren sure didn't.

Desert time

The last post was long, the next few will be short, hopefully sweet.

Mottos for this one might be:

"Self-dependent power can time defy, as rocks resist the billows and the sky."

or Latin "Pulvis et umbra sumus. (We are [dust and] shadow."

The Golden Gate Park sundial now sits not on a stand, but on the broad leaf of a prickly pear cactus. What does this say about time? Perhaps that just like the cactus we have no choice but to keep hands off, unless of course we like pain. 'Leave time alone, don't mess with it. You think you won't get old? " 'Fuhgeddaboutit', as they say in New York City - it can't be changed anyway".

The gnomon (which casts the shadow) is instead a tree which will grow, casting a slightly different shadow as the years go by, slightly longer every year. But the hour, the time told, will remain the same, only the shadow gets longer, as yours will too.

(The gnomon casts a shadow; the shadow shows the time.)

There's a hand-colored version of this one:

If you like my images, check out any of my three self-published books:

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

Please do stop by again - every 2 weeks, somethin' new :-)

Secrets

What is this blog about? In a nutshell, it's about black and white darkroom photomontage. Every few weeks or so, a new image with a few words about it, kinda poetic, philosophical. 

For more details - check out the archive, the first post, April 26, 2015.

If you like what you see here, go to: www.bobbennettphoto.net

Also check out my self-published books:

Desert Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

California Beach Trip: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

Seeking The Vibe: http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

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This one's about a secret, hidden in the sky, the clouds, the ether. You can just barely make it out, the door is locked... or is it? And if you turn the handle and open it, what lies beyond? Are you ready for that? It might be nice.... or maybe not exactly nice, but mysterious and perhaps inscrutable. Here's what it might look like:

Ready or not, here you go.

Take a seat...

Take a seat on an abandoned decrepit chair on the beach. 

In a surreally oversized driftwood shelter. Let your thoughts wander. 

Watch the fading sunset light. Did i mention your cell phone should be turned off? 

Well, now i have.

Stop. Sit. Think. Pay attention to the real world. 

The chair, the driftwood, the sunset.

After many years of making darkroom photomontage ( since the late 80's), 

and not being able to get arrested for it 

except for a few appearances in competitive group shows, 

and some assignment illustrations in various magazines 

....I am designing & publishing books I make at Blurb with 'Bookify' 

- two of them are on Amazon, one is at Blurb.

'California Beach Trip':

On Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/1364579138

'Desert Trip'

On Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1367900190

'Seeking the Vibe'

On Blurb:

http://www.blurb.com/b/6834807-seeking-the-vibe

Previews of all at:

http://www.bobbennettphoto.net/BB_Books/index.html

Ascension

Climb the steps in a forbidding desert landscape ...your final destination - unknown.

As you climb, an apparition appears in the sky - 

'there are many answers to all questions'.

Is this advice of some sort?

A riddle?

A paradox?? - stair-steps against a vast nothingness?

Here's what my Mac's thesaurus has to say about that:

I used this in another montage, equally mysterious:

Yes, 'many answers to all questions'.

Also?...'ask me no questions, i'll tell you no lies'.

Put both in yer pipe and smoke 'em up, real good.

Come back again in a few weeks for more of whatever it is i have been delivering up...

Visual riddles?

Paradoxes?

:-)