Beets and Olive Oil

Beets + Olive Oil, Pittsburgh, PA 2019

The juice of the beets interspersed with olive oil after cooking.

Abandon Series

Plastic Likeness of Human Infant and Carolina Wren Egg, In Five, 2019 Pittsburgh, PA

Invasive Pink

Lonicera tatarica, Pink Honeysuckle, Ross Twp, Pittsburgh, 2019

On a strip of land meant to deal with storm water runoff, an imported ornamental escapee flourishes.  Introduced in 1845 from China, L. tatarica is a woody bush rather than a ground covering vine such as Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), although L. tatarico will twine around surrounding vegetation and trees, choking them out in the same manner that L. japonica will if left unchecked.  That's why, despite what beauty and medicinal properties are to be gotten from these plants, they're considered invasive and noxious.  I have collected honeysuckle for medicinal purposes, and it's important to note that the flowerhead is what holds the most potent active properties, and should constitute the bulk of your collection.  To a much lesser degree are the leaves useful.

Vergiss Mein Nicht

Forget-Me-Not, The Summer Is Gone, Pittsburgh, 2015




There were some forget-me-nots growing in a patch of lemon balm.  I wanted to get some photos of the flowers, but nothing turned out that didn't seem trite - or worse yet, just plain hacky.  So, I dug up the plant and attempted to do a botanical study of it.  The results of that were pedestrian at best.  I tossed the plant then in a bucket of rain water and stared at it for a long time.  After awhile I took some shots of the flower moving through the water.  This is a shot with the color inverted.  I have to say that I'm pleased for a change.

Barbie And The Butterfly

Barbie and Great Spangled Fritillary, with Milkweed, 2015


I am playing about with the digital equivalent of a double exposure:  Printing one image atop another.  This turned out better than most, and overall I'd say that usually the result is a hot mess of overlapping imagery.

Digital Miasma

Milkweed With Butterflies Miasma, 2015


Sometimes when I have a shot that is really out of focus, I'll tinker with it, manipulating it digitally before I decide whether to keep it or not.  I get rid of a lot of shots on my hard drive.  Not because I don't have enough memory to preserve them, but because I don't want to have to look at them any longer. Be gone, you sad affront to the eye!
I pushed this failed image to both its limits and mine.  Except for that small white mass right of center, I like the pic, to me it brings to mind Van Gogh.