Light and the Masterful Masterpiece

Strange weather hounds us here in enchanting rural Virginia.  Days range from perfectly sunny to projected “severe thunder storms” to high winds and even overnight freezes.

The world certainly looks different with a changing sky and I still play with light to create unique photography (and of course, to develop a photographic masterpiece).  It’s a long and arduous struggle though.  There are so many fabulous photographers who understand their complicated cameras while I stick to my old friend, “Pal” (ye olde trusty cell phone always at the ready).

This last week I was struck by the awesomeness of a looming storm and tried to capture a green green pasture crowned by ominous gray clouds.

The road out of Camelot was next.  Somehow, punctuated by the shadows of the season, decked out in spring foliage and outlined by ever green grass, my plain old gravel driveway took on a rather elegant persona.

And lastly I was trying to imitate the light in a Vermeer painting.  Old Dutch paintings have the most wonderful light and detail.  But Vermeer would no doubt be aghast at my Veggie Still Life.

I will keep you posted if a photographic art masterpiece suddenly emerges in the Dork Collection!

Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer is now recognized as one of the great Dutch painters, but while he was alive he could barely make ends meet, and his artistic achievement was almost entirely ignored for 200 years after his death. Little is known about his personal life, other than he died poor and young and left behind a wife and eleven children. Vermeer is admired for his realistic style, his subtle use of color and light and his unusual and inventive brush technique, but fewer than forty of his paintings exist. His most famous works include domestic scenes such as Girl With a Peal Earring (1665) and The Music Lesson (1662-65), and tranquil landscapes such as The Little Street (1657-58) and View of Delft (1659-60).  

From Who2 Biographies http://www.who2.com/bio/jan-vermeer

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