These photos just happened, really. We were outdoors on a late afternoon, in the backyard, just talking. Then it was like “the light is beautiful… your eyes are beautiful… wait, let me grab my camera.” I had some expired Fujichrome film loaded in my 35mm SLR, so that’s what I shot with.

This is Hong Kong. Early morning. I made the picture from promenade facing Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui. The boat in the foreground is The Star Ferry. It is the best inexpensive ride in the world. Especially at dusk or after dark. The background? Well, that’s Hong Kong. It’s my place. Many visiting Westerners get confused by it. It has energy. It has power. Motion. Light. It doesn’t hum. It screams.

The picture. One of my F8 and be there images. The trick, in this case, is the biggest trick of all. Getting there. I don’t mean getting to Hong Kong. That’s easy. The trick is getting up early, taking the ferry across the harbour in time to walk along the promenade, find the right angle, wait for a ferry to appear in the frame and make the picture. Why is that the trick? Hong Kong is a city that likes to stay up very late. It doesn’t like to wake up too early. When I’m there I fall right into that pattern. It’s my place. What choice do I have?

Oh yeah. Sorry about the spelling of harbour. Queen’s English. It’s always been a Chinese place. But, for a while the English borrowed it. 

Stand Of Trees On Carpenter Hill Road At Sunset

Late autumn and winter trees, bare of their leaves and silhouetted against evenings skies are an attractive subject for me – although I have to admit that I rarely paint the subject.  In this case, and knowing that the light would be disappearing, I headed for a spot that rarely disappoints, subject-wise on Carpenter Hill Road in Bennington.   Even so, this sketch got started almost too late in the day.  From the time I got started to until I ended, the light disappeared from the sky.  My vantage point was low and sheltered by surrounding woods which filtered the available light to paint by.   At this point in the day, barely 4pm, the sun was already very low in the sky and would actually disappear below the mountains in less than 30 minutes.   The sky was still bright and tinged with warm yellow and orange near the horizon.  The foreground were all silhouetted and appeared to be very dark against the sky.  Needing haste, the sketch was worked quickly, with wet washes laid over large shape areas and then dried using the car heater so that I could move onto the next area quickly.

Thanks for looking! More sketches of the day can be found in my “Sketchbook Posts“.
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We are about to be “bumped up” energetically with tomorrow’s eclipse.  The cup metaphor has shown up recently, as in, cup your hands and HOLD your energy, your golden light.  Let it accumulate, fill up.  As you hold your energy, it strengthens.

Now is the time to direct this love/light energy to add to the upliftment of our collective reality.  We are being effected by a huge alignment now and it will usher in a greater feeling of UNITY.  We are ONE with ALL.

Join me as we consciously collect and direct the flow of Divine Love.

from the Golden Bubble

deb

Anyway. The picture. It’s more about waiting and being there, than any technical or even photographic skills. Being there is a task in itself. Hanhville is interesting. There is an old sidewalk that runs along both sides of River Road. But, there is absolutely no place to park. So,even though I could see this field, I had to drive a bit and park in the parking lot of the Catholic church and walk. The walk is easy. But, it’s low country so there are plenty of mosquitoes to deal with. And lord knows what’s in the fields. That’s okay. I’ll do anything for a picture. Well. Most anything. So. I walked and I waited and made pictures while I waited. I get bored easily. That should be obvious to you. Eventually, the light broke through the clouds and you see the results. Photographer’s luck. 

The time of day when the light is the most lovely for photography are times that I am rarely able to get out alone so when I see something I want to shoot, I am often forced to shoot quickly because someone is poking me in the butt with a stick, or jumping in front of the camera and making silly faces.

I bet you thought I was talking about Corrigan…

Hahahahahahahaha

Never grow up, Mark. Never grow up.

Who knows what you will see today.

Click on the link and follow the centering exercise to put you in the best place for contemplating the picture below.

Gaze without words to distract.  Finish with the awareness exercise under the picture, repeat it throughout the day.  Take it with you.

Take in what you see, today 

Framed Light, UK

This one’s a bit of an experiment – while messing around in photoshop, I accidentally copied a picture on top of itself, and decided I rather liked the effect.  A little bit of playing around later, and this is the final version.  I think I like it… let me know what you think!

(See more pictures from 30,000ft on Journey Photographic here)

Check that golden lip pitch over a green wave!

I spent the day wondering in the Bavarian Forest with my little family.

Big Trees n Little Man

It is crazy all the colours that Autumn does to Forests.

All photos were taken with my iPhone and not retouched with any software (its 1 am!)

Mushroom Island Chain

Silk Road Covered Bridge, Autumn Morning

This sketch is a view of the Silk Road Covered Bridge in Bennington, Vermont.  The morning was what you might call a “prototypical” autumn morning – clear, sunny, crisp but not cold.   I’ve sketched this bridge a number of times.  It was featured on a dreary winter morning in my Sketch of the Day for February 3rd of this year.

“Silk Road Bridge, Bennington” Sketch of the Day for Feb. 3, 2012 Click Image to see the full post

Unlike the Feb. sketch, this one features a lot of bright color around the bridge itself.  Appearances are deceiving since the color used on the bridge is nearly the same in both sketches.  In the February sketch, the grays surrounding the bridge, make the bridge color appear more intense.  In today’s sketch, the bridge color appears muted, due to the bright colors which surround it.

Obviously, the viewpoint is different from one sketch to the next.  The main source of attraction on today’s sketch was the bit of reflected yellow light from the sunlit foliage on the right side of the bridge.  The bright light and luminous shadows cast from the guardrail on the left side of  the bridge was also eye-catching.

The sketch was done in a Moleskine  8″ x 11″ Watercolor Notebook with my watercolor sketching kit.
Contact me if you have an interest in this or any other paintings on the site.  Email me at  tc@tonyconner.com or by phone at 802-375-5548.

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Fishfinger love with green n golden light

The moment arrives for the most important question of the day. It starts with the very familiar, “Do you Brian, take this woman….?”

In the setting sun the bride and groom say, “I do.”

This concludes a beautiful wedding on a gorgeous day in a perfect setting.

My wish is that health, love and happiness stay with them always. This is the day that

1 + 1 + 1 = 1

1 man + 1 woman + 1 little boy = 1 FAMILY

Cheers,

Shez