Guestpost
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If there were leprechauns in Granada, Nicaragua, I imagine they would be hiding in the courtyards blending in with the greenery. I learned recently on a city tour, that Granada leads Nicaragua in shoe construction quality. A sure sign of the leprechaun.
Looking to escape the hot heat of the city during the middle of the day, I sat and watched a flock of pigeons bathe in a courtyard garden for entertainment. They came and went and came and went. In the shortest of distances from the rooftop to the fountain top they flew for miles and miles. I can’t imagine why they didn’t just sit still and stay cool in the fountain pool. All the motion and commotion did make for a fun photo session filled with action, drips and endless fluttering. Perhaps they were afraid of the small sprites playing behind the scenes………
Back in the days before there were digital cameras, when I had access, I spent hours on end in the darkroom. The process was so magical. To see an image suddenly appear out of nowhere on a previously blank sheet of photo paper never ceased to tickle me pink. I was in an architecture program no doubt and sneaking in every possible encounter in the dark with my true love, a more ephemeral form of art. I remember taking architectural plans sketched on trace paper and exposing them onto the photo paper to produce a more finished looking drawing. Photograms are a bit like xrays playing with positive and negative space with negative space being black. If the object placed on the paper had some transparency there are also shades of grey. Moving the objects around the paper and experimenting with exposure times yielded fun effects.
Here in the garden, the mid-day sun was bright and strong. I played around with shutter speeds to capture different effects. The faster speeds froze the birds in flight. The slower speeds yielded blurry shapes expressive of the motion wings make and the nervous bustling energy of the birds. I liked the way the leaves of the palm fronds mimicked feather shapes. I liked the way the slower speeds and black and white allowed the bird spirits or ghost birds to be revealed. The images took me back to the dark room and my days playing with photograms. Positive and negative space in black and white, an interpretation of an object revealed through a tool or a technique and not something that can be captured by the naked eye.
Visit my gallery here to see more images from this photo session in color.