The Photo Bin - January 2013

Welcome to Season Three of The Photo Bin.

For those of you who are new to the blog (or for you regulars with memories like mine, you know who you are), the Photo Bin has become my opportunity to wander through the odd images that have tumbled out of my camera during the past month and re-examine those that didn’t find footing in a post but still had a small story to tell. It’s fun, at least for me, to give them their moment.

Not surprisingly, I begin the year by breaking the rules with the first two pictures. They were not taken in January. In truth, they were captured a scant few minutes earlier, just before the stroke of midnight, New Years Eve. We ended our annual progressive community crawl at the under-construction, river-overlooking home of neighbors Sam and Robin where we illuminated their fabulous greatroom-to-be with strings of Christmas lights and a wide array of candles, lending a festive warmth to the proceedings; a warmth also inherent in the fine company who attended.

Above, Mary lights up the room, as she does my life, and below, an exquisitely set table is prepared. The perfect start for a new year, each of them.

Of course, getting the first fishing trip of the year under my belt was an imperative in January and the shot above was taken a couple days later, along the edge of one of my favorite winter streams. The cold week that followed gave me time to play with the image, a shot of an abandoned mill, and create the moody tableau you see above.

Mary saw this view of the redfish flats I visited during a brief warm spell and commented “Oh, another of your twisted pictures.” What more needs to be said?

They don’t call it “shine” for nothing. A conversation on a fly fishing forum brought Carolina mountain dew to mind so I dug into the back of the pantry for my mason jar of pure corn-sourced sunshine and snapped this picture on the back porch. I caught the light just right, but the question is “Was the light outside, or inside, the jar?”

And finally, apologies for my vanity, a self portrait. Generally, I hate pictures taken of me, just like I hate recordings of my voice, because they always deviate so radically from my perception of myself. They disappoint.

But this is different. This shot is me, in all my scraggly cantankerousness. I took it to be used in an upcoming Maui Jim sunglasses review but got sidetracked and ended up with this image instead. I friggin’ love it, though the asymmetries in the shot – the glasses, the nose, the lighting - both intrigue and annoy me...

...much like the man that’s portrayed.


Note: I think that most browsers will let you click on a picture to see it in a larger format. Give it a try, especially the black-and-white stream scene. You might, however, wish to skip the last one. It's scary enough as it is.