Peter J. Crowley

Fine Art Photographer

June and July 2020 my images recent and what I have seen in my archives.

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A smorgasbord of my seeing now and then.

My first day out since March 16th a ride in N. Olympia to Steamboat Island. May 28th 2020 a barn abandoned is reclaimed by green.

July 9th 2020 West Bay Park Puget Sound a gull a Ferry and a conversation. 

Steamboat Island May 28th 2020 just after the three day weekend that makes Memorial Day more convenient. 

Northern Vermont Autumn. 

Artspace Norwich Ct. my studio 2009. Space I do miss studio space. Just after moving to Norwich Jeff an old friend visited. This room was empty as I had not unpacked. No ladders, sculpture stands, checkerboard floor just space. Jeff said I have an old wood diner booth it would fit here nicely. I looked around and said no I don’t think there is room for it here.

Norwich Ct. November 2013 shopping downtown. 

April 6th 2001 one month after moving to Norwich Ct.  I fill the space and show this image to Jeff.

Newport  RI Summer 1981

Manchester Ct. 2010 triangles and texture on a visit to Carl’s

August 26 2006 Artspace Norwich Ct  four images of her at the beginning of a roll of a model painted. I first thought it was the painter but on further review it isn’t. Seventy and my memory fails me, a resident or friend of one at the elevator or in the hall then 15 minutes in the studio. I’ll ask Roberta I think she will know.

Lacey Wa. December 31 2014 a librarian at Timberland Library. 

peace pjc

Look around gallery links at top of page or tags by subject at the bottom of this post. 

 

A Recent Vision Quest, The Shire with Ents leading to Boston Harbor

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Thurston County now in Phase Two. Not running out to a restaurant anytime soon but I can get in a car to see more then the neighborhood.

New visual stimuli freedom. 

The Shire perhaps there is an Elf dancing in the soft dappled light? Magic is here for sure. Burfoot State Park appearing in the role of The Shire. Seventy two days with the same 3-5 block walk. My eyes awoke to see many highlights to create magic.

A smiling Ent greets us as we enter the Shire on my Vision Quest. A child walks past her little excited voice ” hello we are going through the forest to the beach.” 

The forest lush, silence broken by a breeze rustling the spring leafs. Birds punctuate the stillness with songs of delight. One one hundredth of a second at F-7.1. I linger just watching studying my composition. Keeping the highlighted maple sapling at the bottom with space between the frame holding my eye within the frame. Finding the angle to best carry a shallow DOF across the photograph.  A sense of peace rolls through me with each breath that comes easier with the clean air and new inhaler. 

I moved a few paces the forest had so much to offer. Detail seeing what is there focus, refocus the breeze is robust a challenge to sharpness and creating a defused puddle of light in the background. Placing the highlighted repeating shapes around the subject. The negative space should caress my subject keeping your eyes in the frame. I made two exposures and still haven’t decided which will be in this spot when I click publish. 

Outside the Boston Harbor Marina a little more dappled light a thin overcast ideal light still directional but the contrast curve isn’t as steep. We used to call this Kodachrome Light. 

The Marina was everything I hoped for memory flashes of Rhode Island, and Maine. A funky little store a small dinning room with a wood stove and comply chairs. I think during non pandemic times there is live music. 

Ilesboro Maine  to visit friends from high school back in Coventry. The docks in Little Compton R.I. rusty freezers working to keep the catch cool. My vision beyond what is there to what emotion is created. I want my work to seem like a story not finished you complete the image with your vision quest. 

The cook, I caught her outside asked could I shoot her?  An image that isn’t a flower but just as bright. A beautiful spring day with a lovely cook in the spring time of life. So long without a human subject two shot’s thirty seconds I’m pleased. She makes a mean batch of shoestring fries as well.

My learning curve is not so level digital B+W. Here when I made this shot I was thinking B+W but lots to be done after conversion. Too much, here the soft light was a problem the shore line gray’s and greens were tonally the same. I worked to get more drama in the clouds. I spent more time in PS on this then all the other images combined. A bit of contrast and brightness in the Shire almost right out of the camera for the rest. Maybe shoot RAW when I want Black and White. I will learn to simulate TriX.

Triangles a way to see and use negative space. Wood paddles to go with a kayak. Shot in open shade with total shade underneath that is how even the light was this day.  A very low tide a good time to make this photograph. It is always a good day to photograph sometimes a great day for a vision quest. 

peace

Another story

 

A Day in Northampton Summer The 80’s

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Most days now I am up early sometimes even out for the morning light. More flowers on my walks new inhaler better breathing, less inspired by the flowers but the air is cleaner. Birds singing, children  playing rarely close enough to catch but a glimpse. In my mind I am a child part of the chorus of glee. Inside it is me, Miles, John, Duke, and Oliver.  Searching my archives seeking my Photo Journalism for the Connecticut State Library. The haystack is full of distractions never printed negatives, old favorites. I live here in memories, stories of happy times before the world I loved died. It is said an artist creates for themselves. I enjoy folks seeing my images but not enough to live this day on Anti Social Media. The anxiety of hate and hopelessness amplifies my stress with a negative effect on my COPD. So here I will be telling stories living in my own time. Just me, Inara Wings of Fire, Dragons Life a virtual life. Liz shops and we garden with an occasional vision quest. 

Summer Northampton

Omelettes,  BLT’s  a cold soda. Start or finish  a day trip.

City Taxi pre-Uber I imagine Smithies rides to Amherst  for parties, the days game, an autumn afternoon. Just around town or sitting on the bench waiting for friends returning from home after a break. Another time another place.  At an outdoor concert 1985 two stages, Tom Rush, Jerry Jeff Walker many in the crowd scurried away for the food concessions stopped in their tracks when Jerry Jeff started to wail not the country music they expected. Settling in again as a strong breeze blew some of their Cocaine of the mirror. No one was upset I’m sure there was more. 

Catching some rays on the Y’s fire escape. Perhaps a human perhaps a dummy we never spoke. Many days spent in Northampton an oasis of creativity, studios, gallerias,  trendy shops, and cafes. Pretty people a blend of old and new architecture. I would go up to Amherst Wednesday to help layout the Valley Advocate after the Hartford edition began. I was the first staff photographer in Hartford.  Working full time as a paste up artist 2nd shift at the Hartford Courant surprisingly I often was sick Wednesday nights recovering at the Advocate in Amherst. 

Back to her dorm just a silhouette rushes back, a days classes ending, a forgotten book? So many tales these walls hold Dorms eloquent designs from the past well kept telling stories of prestige. One of the Seven Sisters dating back to the late 1800’s originally all Women’s Colleges.  Barnard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Radcliffe were given the name “the Seven Sisters” in 1927, because of their relative affiliations with the men’s colleges.  The schools are also sometimes referred to as “the Daisy Chain” or “the Heavenly Seven.” The name Seven Sisters is also a reference to the Greek myth of The Pleiades, the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione.

Composing in the viewfinder.  How I work I saw this light my angle was right for the detail I wanted of the two people on bicycles. A second shot squared up the frame  frame but in 4-5 seconds the two were gone. That image doesn’t make the grade. No Photo Shop, no crop seeing the entire frame subject and negative space.  My process, technique no screen to see if I got the subject. I got it I knew seeing the details not just the subject.  Dance, theater, movement understanding I had to shoot 1/2 second prior to create the moment I wanted. One image at a time fire cock fire. Process often three bodies in the bag slow Apx 100, TriX 400 or 800, color negs or transparencies. TriX the in hand body for most trips, Rarely shooting the same image in both B+W or Color seeing in B+W but noticing a color image switching cameras. The big bag full when I left, Free to see whatever on a journey. Now a little bag a decision of what to carry  when I head out. Then often seeing an image for a lens didn’t have in the bag. Having two diggies has alleviated  that somewhat. A roll of TriX sits in my home I may try to manually focus with a Nikon F next time? No room in the bag for 3 bodies and four lenses. 

Always time for a cookie, a scone or Portuguese Sweet Bread strolling Fox Point in Providence in love. But those days by the bay on cobblestone streets a memory that has burned off like the morning fog. Another time another place. 

 

Today there will be new memories that will burn off like the fog by a new bay. Today I’ll visit the 80’s a time of process, love and a hope for a highlight. Peace

peace pjc