Some Velvet Morning

Some Velvet Morning ©2019 -  The background image in this montage was captured in the area of Phillipsburg NJ shortly before crossing into Pennsylvania. While driving along, this lake caught my eye due to the hundreds of snow geese surrounding it or floating on it. Snow geese don’t like to travel without the company of another dozen or two and can form flocks of several hundred thousand, especially when flying south for the winter. They mate for life and at winter’s end fly north to their breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra. The great expanse of white feathers reminded me of a  beautiful black and white Paint horse I photographed near Pottersville NJ who would fit nicely walking along among the geese. The terms “paint” and “pinto” are sometimes both used to describe Paint horses but “Paint” is the breed and “Pinto” is actually the coloring. So, all Paints are Pintos (any spotted horse) but not all Pintos are Paints. The lady from my vintage photo collection was in reality looking down and reading what seemed to be a letter. So to insert her interactively into the composition, I removed the letter and photographed my own hand in the position needed to have her holding gently onto the horse’s mane as they strolled along the shore. To add a sense of mystery, I placed a young gentleman (also from my vintage photo collection) in the sunlight streaming through the trees across the lake. A small murder of crows was added flying from him to accompany the young lady and her menagerie.The final composition and lighting inspired the title “Some Velvet Morning”, a song written by Lee Hazlewood and originally performed as a duet with Nancy Sinatra in 1967. Hazlewood confessed he did not really know what the lyrics mean but that he was inspired by Greek mythology. The lyrics consist of the male part describing a mysterious, powerful woman named Phaedra, who “gave” him life and made it “end”. The male part alternates with the female who identifies herself as Phaedra and speaks over ethereal music about beautiful nature imagery and the secrets held by an unknown collective “us”.  So there I will leave the story or meaning to the interpretation of the viewer.   

When Dragons Fly

When Dragons Fly ©2017 - I started this piece with the stone pool from an abandoned property in Scotch Plains, NJ. The house had already been demolished but the pool intrigued me with it's curious door shaped opening on one side that didn't seem to lead anywhere. It was surrounded by brush and debris so I placed it on the side of a sloping, stone hill I captured at Leonard J. Buck Gardens in Far Hills NJ with lovely plants growing along the top. The tree behind it came from another area of the gardens, but I loved the dripping leaves so I added it to the background and some clusters of ferns to the foreground. The little fish peering out of the water actually resides in an aquarium at my local pet store. The lady in sapphire blue (from my vintage photo collection) seems to be enjoying an afternoon stroll with her crow sporting his own blue fedora. Lastly, I added the magical dragonflies which were living on the same property with the pool. The sun that day created such ethereal sparkles of light on their wings, reinforcing a supposed connection with nature's spirit and fairy realms. It's hard to believe after hatching from an egg, this enchanting insect lives most of it's life as a brown, rather nondescript nymph under water for several years. When ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs to the surface at night on an emerging plant. When it's system adapts to breathing air, the skin splits open and the adult dragonfly climbs out. It spends the remainder of the night drying out and plumping up it's wings before, at sunrise, taking flight as the beautiful, agile creature we know as the dragonfly! 

"I can still only see a dragonfly, it's wings as thin and light as silk and it's body the color of rainbow. But on the wings of this dragonfly I take off and fly, for my soul carries no weight. It is our bodies - these borrowed vehicles of flesh and bone - that weigh us down. Our spirits are eternally free and invincible."  - Daniela I. Norris, On Dragonfly Wings: A Skeptic's Journey to Mediumship