AMAGA Blog — Just a Year Ago Today

November 5, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 36
Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography

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November 5, 2019 — Home. It was just a year ago today / Mike, he taught the WordPress to play. / It’ll never go out of style / Still guaranteed to raise a smile.

Posts: 114. Views: 8,221. Visitors: 3,477. Followers: Quantity more than made up for by quality.

Click along with me as I look back before continuing into the second year.

The first post, on November 5, 2018, was titled Moving Forward. It’s the only one where neither photo is mine. (Grabbed from the Internet, they were.) It states the purpose of the blog and that purpose remains as it was and evermore shall be. It stresses my love of simplicity, and as time has gone on, that has become more and more the case.

1A02The second post marked the first entry of a photo log (a time machine was involved, the first of many such occasions) and goes further into answering the question, “how’d you get this way?” It also features one of my most minimalist images ever.

 

1A03Post number four was the only one of its kind — a discussion (with visual aids) about performance photography. For about five years I did the performance shots for El Dorado Musical Theatre, a (youth) musical theater group based in El Dorado Hills, California. “Youth” is in parenthesis because, despite the fact that the casts are made up of people ranging in age from seven to twenty, the quality is equal to or better than professional Broadway road shows I’ve seen. The shoots were a routine: shooting dress rehearsal on Thursday afternoon and evening and then pulling an all-nighter choosing editing the best thirty of about 2,500 shots, in time for rush printing and putting them up in the lobby for opening night on Friday. This is one of two posts that prove that I can take pictures of people. Can you find the other one?

1A04The very next post the was first of many wildlife shots — actually a series of five shots taken in the span of seven seconds. In the course of researching the copy for the post I learned that she (definitely she) is a Northern Harrier, not a hawk, and that Northern Harriers hunt by a keen sense of hearing as well as sight. Photography breeds ornithology. And a physical fitness program: camera and lens, together referred to as “the beast,” weigh eight pounds.

1A05On Christmas Eve, 2018, I posted what was to be the first of many explorations of ICM — Intentional Camera Movement. I also supplied the etymology of the word, “abstract.” No extra charge.

 

 

1A06The month of March was marred by the wanton slaughter of fifty Muslim worshipers in Christchurch, New Zealand. New Zealand is by statistic one of the most peaceful counties in the world. This is a photography website, not a political one, but I had to say something. To my surprise, this post was reblogged and linked several times and was seen in about thirty counties.

1A07Two days later, I had to say more. This was spread around too, and the message needs to be spread around even more.

 

 

1A11For a complete change of pace, on April first I posted a gag photo — except everyone thought it was real. Oops. This is why Photoshop has become a verb. A few days later I posted an addendum, because I couldn’t have people thinking that Highway 1 actually does that. It doesn’t exactly do that…

 

1A08Fast forward to the end of May. This was part of a series of abstracts that don’t use ICM. A stretching exercise. Stretching is good. Encourages more stretching.

 

 

1A09July 1. The first of many ICMs that include streaks. I was thinking of one my mentors who advised me to embrace changing conditions and things that seem to go counter to my original intention and use them as an invitation to greater creativity. In this case, I didn’t want anything unnatural in my shots. But, with apologies to James Brown, man made the electric lights / to give the image a spark.

1A10October. Deep into abstract territory, following the words of another mentor who said that if conditions aren’t right, use what you have in front of you and be creative. (Is there an echo in here?)

Along the way, there were quite a few flowers. Here, for instance. And here.

October was rich with abstracts, but in the next few days I’ll move on to other not-so-abstract photography. Because, contrary to recent posts, abstract is not all I do.

Thanks to all for your valuable comments, kind words, and humor.

On with the show.

A splendid time is guaranteed for all…

Mike

(Screen shots made on a 10.5 inch iPad Pro, edited in Photoshop.)

The Author

California based fine-art photographer featuring abstract, impressionist, and minimalist seascapes — near and distant — and floral-based images. Fine-art photography can be seen at www.amagaphoto.com All original images on this blog are copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Michael Scandling. All rights reserved. No images on this site may be copied, duplicated, reused, published, or re-purposed in any way without express permission from the copyright owner, Michael Scandling.

36 Comments

  3. Frank says

    Congratulations Michael! Thanks for your beautiful images and entertaining/insightful words. Have another great year!

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  9. gregoryxandrew says

    I absolutely loved your work! And I love this recap! So much more to learn about each post and I loved reading that. Your creativity is beautiful and I’m so glad you share it with us!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  14. Steve Gingold says

    It was nice seeing this retrospective. I didn’t do much blogging last fall/winter so didn’t realize you had only just started when we “met” here. Congratulations on a first year milestone. Looking forward to many more of sharing images and thoughts.

    Liked by 1 person

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