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LARGE View On Black Brick lane becomes very busy nowadays - more people with cameras than actual visitors;-)
Difficult to determine the species because ferns tend to hybridise, this is probably Dryopteris dilatata or (more likely) Dryopteris expansa. I wanted to show the fractal symmetry of this particular plant, but finding a suitable frond without a lot of other confusion proved difficult.
So this is very much a work in progress, I'll get better at this....
Historical research reveals that diverse political rationalities have framed the political means and objectives of state frontiers and borders, just as the difficult work of making borders actual has drawn upon a great variety of technologies
The single word ”border” conceals a multiplicity and implies a constancy where genealogical investigation uncovers mutation and descent. Historical research reveals that diverse political rationalities have framed the political means and objectives of state frontiers and borders, just as the difficult work of making borders actual has drawn upon a great variety of technologies and heterogeneous administrative practices, ranging from maps of the territory, the creation of specialized border officials, and architectures of fortification to today’s experimentation with bio- digitalized forms of surveillance. This chapter argues that we are witnessing a novel development within this history of borders and border-making, what I want to call the emergence of the humanitarian border. While a great deal has been written about the militarization, securitization and fortification of borders today, there is far less consideration of the humanitarianization of borders. But if the investment of border regimes by biometric technologies rightly warrants being treated as an event within the history of the making and remaking of borders (Amoore 2006), then arguably so too does the reinvention of the border as a space of humanitarian government.
Under what conditions are we seeing the rise of humanitarian borders? The emergence of the humanitarian border goes hand in hand with the move which has made state frontiers into privileged symbolic and regulatory instruments within strategies of migration control. It is part of a much wider trend that has been dubbed the ”rebordering” of political and territorial space (Andreas and Biersteker 2003). The humanitarian border emerges once it becomes established that border crossing has become, for thousands of migrants seeking, for a variety of reasons, to access the territories of the global North, a matter of life and death. It crystallizes as a way of governing this novel and disturbing situation,and compensating for the social violence embodied in the regime of migration control.The idea of a humanitarian border might sound at first counterintuitive or even oxymoronic. After all, we often think of contemporary humanitarianism as a force that, operating in the name of the universal but endangered subject of humanity, transcends the walled space of the inter-national system. This is, of course, quite valid. Yet it would be a mistake to draw any simple equation between humanitarian projects and what Deleuze and Guattari would call logics of deterritoralization. While humanitarian programmes might unsettle certain norms of statehood, it is important to recognize the ways in which the exercise of humanitarian power is connected to the actualization of new spaces. Whether by its redefinition of certain locales as humanitarian ”zones” and crises as ”emergencies” (Calhoun 2004), the authority it confers on certain experts to move rapidly across networks of aid and intervention, or its will to designate those populating these zones as ”victims,” it seems justified to follow Debrix’s (1998) observation that humanitarianism implies reterritorialization on top of deterritorialization. Humanitarian zones can materialize in various situations – in conflict zones, amidst the relief of famine, and against the backdrop of state failure. But the case that interests me in what follows is a specific one: a situation where the actual borders of states and gateways to the territory become themselves zones of humanitarian government. Understanding the consequences of this is paramount, since it has an important bearing on what is often termed the securitization of borders and citizenship.
Foucault and Frontiers
It is probably fair to say that the theme of frontiers is largely absent from the two courses that are today read together as Foucault’s lectures on ”governmentality” (Foucault 1991; 2007; 2008). This is not to suggest that frontiers receive no mention at all. Within these lectures we certainly encounter passing remarks on the theme. For instance, Foucault speaks at one point of ”the administrative state, born in the territoriality of national boundaries in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and corresponding to a society of regulation and discipline” (Foucault 1991: 104).1 Elsewhere, he notes how the calculation and demarcation of new frontiers served as one of the practical elements of military-diplomatic technology, a machine he associates with the government of Europe in the image of a balance of power and according to the governmental logic of raison d’état. ”When the diplomats, the ambassadors who negotiated the treaty of Westphalia, received instructions from their government, they were explicitly advised to ensure that the new frontiers, the distribution of states, the new relationships to be established between the German states and the Empire, and the zones of influence of France, Sweden, and Austria be established in terms of a principle: to maintain a balance between the different European states” (Foucault 2007: 297).
But these are only hints of what significance the question of frontiers might have within the different technologies of power which Foucault sought to analyze. They are only fragmentary reflections on the place borders and frontiers might occupy within the genealogy of the modern state which Foucault outlines with his research into governmentality.2
Why was Foucault apparently not particularly interested in borders when he composed these lectures? One possible answer is suggested by Elden’s careful and important work on power-knowledge and territory. Elden takes issue with Foucault for the way in which he discusses territorial rule largely as a foil which allows him to provide a more fully-worked out account of governmentality and its administration of population. Despite the fact that the term appears prominently in the title of Foucault’s lectures, ”the issue of territory continually emerges only to be repeatedly marginalized, eclipsed, and underplayed” (Elden 2007: 1). Because Foucault fails to reckon more fully with the many ways in which the production of territory – and most crucially its demarcation by practices of frontier marking and control – serves as a precondition for the government of population, it is not surprising that the question of frontiers occupies little space in his narrative.But there is another explanation for the relative absence of questions of frontiers in Foucault’s writing on governmentality. And here we have to acknowledge that, framed as it is previously, this is a problematic question. For it risks the kind of retrospective fallacy which projects a set of very contemporary issues and concerns onto Foucault’s time. It is probably fair to speculate that frontiers and border security was not a political issue during the 1970s in the way that it is today in many western states. ”Borders” had yet to be constituted as a sort of meta-issue, capable of condensing a whole complex of political fears and concerns, including globalization, the loss of sovereignty, terrorism, trafficking and unchecked immigration. The question of the welfare state certainly was an issue, perhaps even a meta-issue, when Foucault was lecturing, and it is perhaps not coincidental that he should devote so much space to the examination of pastoralism. But not the border. The point is not to suggest that Foucault’s work evolved in close,
Humanitarian Government
Before I address the question of the humanitarian border, it is necessary to explain what I understand by the humanitarian. Here my thinking has been shaped by recent work that engages the humanitarian not as a set of ideas and ideologies, nor simply as the activity of certain nongovernmental actors and organizations, but as a complex domain possessing specific forms of governmental reason. Fassin’s work on this theme is particularly important. Fassin demonstrates that humanitarianism can be fruitfully connected to the broader field of government which Foucault outlined, where government is not a necessary attribute of states but a rationalized activity than can be carried out by all sorts of agents, in various contexts, and towards multiple ends. At its core, ”Humanitarian government can be defined as the administration of human collectivities in the name of a higher moral principle which sees the preservation of life and the alleviation of suffering as the highest value of action” (Fassin 2007: 151). As he goes on to stress, the value of such a definition is that we do not see a particular state, or a non-state form such as a nongovernmental organization, as the necessary agent of humanitarian action. Instead, it becomes possible to think in terms of a complex assemblage, comprising particular forms of humanitarian.reason, specific forms of authority (medical, legal, spiritual) but also certain technologies of government – such as mechanisms for raising funds and training volunteers, administering aid and shelter, documenting injustice, and publicizing abuse. Seen from this angle humanitarianism appears as a much more supple, protean thing. Crucially, it opens up our ability to perceive ”a broader political and moral logic at work both within and outside state forms” (ibid.).
If the humanitarian can be situated in relation to the analytics of government, it can also be contextualized in relation to the biopolitical. ”Not only did the last century see the emergence of regimes committed to the physical destruction of populations,” observes Redfield, ”but also of entities devoted to monitoring and assisting populations in maintaining their physical existence, even while protesting the necessity of such an action and the failure of anyone to do much more than this bare minimum” (2005: 329). It is this ”minimalist biopolitics,” as Redfield puts it, that will be so characteristic of the humanitarian. And here the accent should be placed on the adjective “minimalist” if we are not to commit the kind of move which I criticized above, namely collapsing everything new into existing Foucauldian categories. It is important to regard contemporary humanitarianism as a novel formation and a site of ambivalence and undecideability, and not just as one more instance of what Hardt and Negri (2000) might call global “biopolitical production.”The Birth of the Humanitarian Border
In a press release issued on June 29, 2007, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) publicized a visit which its then Director General, Brunson McKinley, was about to make to a ”reception centre for migrants” on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa (IOM 2007). The Director General is quoted as saying: ”Many more boats will probably arrive on Lampedusa over the summer with their desperate human cargo and we have to ensure we can adequately respond to their immediate needs.... This is why IOM will continue to work closely with the Italian government, the Italian Red Cross, UNHCR and other partners to provide appropriate humanitarian responses to irregular migrants and asylum seekers reaching the island.”
The same press release observes that IOM’s work with its ”partners” was part of a wider effort to improve the administration of the ”reception” (the word ”detention” is conspicuously absent) and ”repatriation” of ”irregular migrants” in Italy. Reception centers were being expanded, and problems of overcrowding alleviated. The statement goes on to observe that IOM had opened its office on Lampedusa in April 2006. Since that time ”Forced returns from Lampedusa [had] stopped.”
Lampedusa is a small Italian island located some 200 km south of Sicily and 300 km to the north of Libya. Its geographical location provides a clue as to how it is that in 2004 this Italian outpost first entered the spotlight of European and even world public attention, becoming a potent signifier for anxieties about an international migration crisis (Andrijasevic 2006). For it was then that this Italian holiday destination became the main point of arrival for boats carrying migrants from Libya to Italy. That year more than 10,000 migrants are reported to have passed through the ”temporary stay and assistance centre” (CPTA) the Italian state maintains on the island. The vast majority had arrived in overcrowded, makeshift boats after a perilous sea journey lasting up to several weeks. Usually these boats
are intercepted in Italian waters by the Italian border guards and the migrants transferred to the holding center on the island. Following detention, which can last for more than a month, they are either transferred to other CPTAs in Sicily and southern Italy, or expelled to Libya.Finally, there is a point to be made about humanitarianism, power and order. Those looking to locate contemporary humanitarianism within a bigger picture would perhaps follow the lead of Hardt and Negri. As these theorists of ”Empire” see things, NGOs like Amnesty International and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) are, contrary to their own best intentions, implicated in global order. As agents of ”moral intervention” who, because they participate in the construction of emergency, ”prefigure the state of exception from below,” these actors serve as the preeminent ”frontline force of imperial intervention.” As such, Hardt and Negri see humanitarianism as ”completely immersed in the biopolitical context of the constitution of Empire” (Hardt and Negri 2000: 36).Humanitarianism, Borders, Politics
Foucauldian writing about borders has mirrored the wider field of governmentality studies in at least one respect. While it has produced some fascinating and insightful accounts of contemporary strategies and technologies of border-making and border policing, it has tended to confine its attention to official and often state-sanctioned projects. Political dynamics and political acts have certainly not been ignored. But little attention has been paid to the possibility that politics and resistance operate not just in an extrinsic relationship to contemporary regimes, but within them.12 To date this literature has largely failed to view politics as something constitutive and productive of border regimes and technologies. That is to say, there is little appreciation of the ways in which movements of opposition, and those particular kinds of resistance which Foucault calls ”counter conduct,” can operate not externally to modes of bordering but by means of ”a series of exchanges” and ”reciprocal supports” (Foucault 2007: 355).
There is a certain paradox involved when we speak of Foucault and frontiers. In certain key respects it could be said that Foucault is one of our most eminent and original theorists of bordering. For at the heart of one of his most widely read works – namely Discipline and Punish – what does one
find if not the question of power and how its modalities should be studied by focusing on practices of partitionment, segmentation, division, enclosure; practices that will underpin the ordering and policing of ever more aspects of the life of populations from the nineteenth century onwards. But while Foucault is interested in a range of practices which clearly pertain to the question of bordering understood in a somewhat general sense, one thing the reading of his lectures on security, governmentality and biopolitics reveals is that he had little to say explicitly about the specific forms of bordering associated with the government of the state. To put it differently, Foucault dealt at length with what we might call the microphysics of bordering, but much less with the place of borders considered at the level of tactics and strategies of governmentality.Recent literature has begun to address this imbalance, demonstrating that many of Foucault’s concepts are useful and important for understanding what kinds of power relations and governmental regimes are at stake in contemporary projects which are re-making state borders amidst renewed political concerns over things like terrorism and illegal immigration. However, the overarching theme of this chapter has been the need for caution when linking Foucault’s concepts to the study of borders and frontiers today. While analytics like biopolitics, discipline and neoliberalism offer all manner of insights, we need to avoid the trap which sees Foucault’s toolbox as something ready-made for any given situation. The challenge of understanding the emergent requires the development of new theoretical tools, not to mention the sharpening of older, well-used implements. With this end in mind the chapter has proposed the idea of the humanitarian border as a way of registering an event within the genealogy of the frontier, but also, although I have not developed it here, within the genealogy of citizenship.
What I have presented previously is only a very cursory overview of certain features of the humanitarianization of borders, most notably its inscription within regimes of knowledge, and its constitutive relationship to politics. In future research it would be interesting to undertake a fuller mapping of the humanitarian border in relation to certain trajectories of government. While we saw how themes of biopolitical and neoliberal government are pertinent in understanding the contemporary management of spaces like the detention center, it would seem especially relevant to consider the salience of pastoralism. Pastoral power has received far less attention within studies of governmentality than, say, discipline or liberal government (but see Dean 1999; Golder 2007; Hindess 1996; Lippert 2004). But here again, I suspect, it will be important to revise our concepts in the light of emergent practices and rationalities. For the ways in which NGOs and humanitarians engage in the governance of migrants and refugees today have changed quite significantly from the kinds of networks of care, self-examination and salvation which Foucault identified with pastoralism. For instance, and to take but one example, the pastoral care of migrants, whether in situations of sanctuary or detention, is not organized as a life-encompassing, permanent activity as it was for the church, or later, in a secular version, the welfare state. Instead, it is a temporary and ad hoc intervention. Just as Foucault’s notion of neo-liberalism was intended to register important transformations within the genealogy of liberal government, it may prove useful to think in terms of the neo-pastoral when we try to make better sense of the phenomenon of humanitarian government at/of borders, and of many other situations as well.
williamwalters.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2011-Foucau...
very difficult lighting conditions--- harsh sunshine all around, and this bird was shaded in the tree with back light
we heard way more birds than we saw
"All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small." Lao Tzu
Captured just outside our cottage in Donegal, growing wild on a lane, where these little plants, which I think are Wild Clover (please correct me if I'm wrong in the comments as I'm no horticulturalist). They were all seeds with no flowers or petals, so I'm not sure if they're at the end or the start of their growth cycle.
In all honesty I didn't see a shot here right away and just snapped three quick shots of the plant, never thinking it would end up a 'keeper' - and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it in Lightroom. Photography never ceases to surprise me like that...
Website | Project 52 | Week 46
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If you are confronted with two alternatives, consider what is more difficult to you and choose it because it does not weigh on you except that it is true.
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Notoriously difficult to tell apart from the Marsh Tit but as Willow Tits are resident at this location, it makes the ID a bit easier. An on-line ID forum has also confirmed this as a Willow Tit.
Sadly they're on the RSPB's 'red list' as their numbers have and continue to decline. It is estimated that there are now only around 3400 breeding pairs in the UK. Compare that to the Blue Tit's 3.6 million breeding pairs and you can see that these little guys are thinly spread!
A big and difficult Lego build. This is my own creation and it took me 4 days to build. The picture on the wall is my wedding picture :)
I did not use a lot of treatment
Was in the early morning at sunrise .. And clouds obscure the sun's rays
Its difficult to believe that it has been 3 years since I built this model and finally photographed it!
To be fair, it was substantially rebuilt last year just before exhibiting it at Skærbæk 2019 in Denmark. The model has the following features:
1. Full interior lighting
2. Directional headlamps
3. PFx Brick sound effects
4. Dual 9V motor bogies with dedicated motor channels from the PFx Brick
5. Close coupling mechanism which elastically expands around corners and switches
I will be uploading some more detailed shots of the interior, lighting, couplers, etc. very soon for the benefit of anyone interested in those sorts of details.
For that difficult-to-buy-for-friend, you can do your holiday shopping at your local Tesla store. Black Friday specials are available ;) This photo from Westfield Montgomery Mall in North Bethesda, MD.
I think this is the most difficult one I did. I sure stressed over it a lot in the beginning, but once the pencil sketch started to work out, I enjoyed it. After the pencil I used a 005 (the tiniest) Micron to outline it and tried to maintain the soft pencil effect. Then, I went in with paint. I love how the colors blended together, but it was tricky to achieve because I had to make sure that the paint didn’t dry before I’d finished a section or it would have left an unintended line. The face had a bit of a weird mix of paint going on, but the ‘fur’ texture I tried to create isn’t too obvious I think. Heh.
Overall, was fun, but not sure if I would do it again. So much work for such a tiny result!
Fruit's all gone.
Veg is all gone.
Only Sudoku left!
Edding 1800 0.1 pen
W&N Watercolours
Cass Art square sketch book
28 Drawings Later - No 6
Barbie makes loading presents look extra difficult.
Some wonderful finds (Elf on the shelf) from the Tiny Frock Shop on eBay www.ebay.com/usr/tiny-frock-shop and at tinyfrockshop.com direct link to Elf on the Shelf tinyfrockshop.com/products/super-impulse-worlds-smallest-....
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
Countdown to Christmas is available as a book/pdf at www.blurb.com/ebooks/pc9227a5b507c417297c7 and as a magazine at www.blurb.com/b/11010810-countdown-to-christmas.
About the Ebook
As a self-challenge for December 2021 a photo was taken every day up to Christmas Day (sometimes multiple photos a day) featuring 1/6 scale dioramas, Elf on the Shelf and Santa to celebrate the upcoming holiday. For any collector of smaller scaled items this is a must for any fan of Christmas in general.
It is difficult when the time comes to say goodbye to your parents. I wish for one more time to tell them thank you for their love and support. Papa K's funeral last week at the National Cemetery in Sarasota, FL, was beautiful. The Coast Guard came to honor him, present the colors, and thank him for his service to our country. I am appreciative of my neice's family and of our children, spouses, and grandchildren over the past two months with Papa K and after his passing.
This is the Columbarium where my parents are now in a niche together.
View from below the old house in Farifax County, Virginia.
Canon EOS Elan film camera with Canon EF 28-80mm 3.5-5.6 lens
The Vision is surprisingly difficult to find in his original classic costume in Legends 1:12. I don't mean that you can't readily find him in an eBay search. Rather, over the years, Legends has provided us with multiple Visions in both the MCU and WandaVision designs, and even the white version from West Coast Avengers. But for the classic original comic version? Only the 2004 Toy Biz and, pictured here, the 2024 Hasbro.
The first classic Vision in 20 years.
The 2004 Toy Biz is fine but we were holding out for a modern Hasbro as the figure aesthetic is more pleasing. And, they finally released him!
This also puts us halfway to completing The Void BAF from this wave. We don't know much about the Void so building that character is not a strong pull, but since two of the remaining figures are Justice and Namorita from The New Warriors, both of which we like, if we eventually get them that will leave us only one shy of completing the build, which usually prompts us to buy. Even if the last figure is an absolutely horrid version of Namor.
Though we would have preferred Hasbro to use one of their slimmer bucks as the Vision was not usually drawn this bulky, this is still a very satisfying end to a rather long wait.
We also saw that there are independent offerings of yellow wired capes for him, so that's tempting as well. Vision was always drawn with super dramatic cape action, à la Batman, Doc Doom, etc.
In dull light, ex-LMS 'Black Five' 45212 accelerates its heavy train (12 coaches and an idling class 47 diesel) past Shalford Junction, taking the Portsmouth Direct route - a very challenging line for a class 5 steam loco - on the morning of 5 December 2017. The destination for the train was Bath, via Southampton and Salisbury, having originated from Alresford on the Mid-Hants Railway.
Nikon F4, Nikkor 24mm 2.8 ai-s MF, Fomapan 400, SB-24 flash on, developed at home in D76 1:1, Epson V600 scan.
LP-shop in Sandviken.
CN 5318, IC 6250, and CN 5338 make easy work of the 2.2 percent Proctor Hill grade with two empties from Duluth on July 17, 2015.
Been difficult getting an evening train coming up for the past couple of summers on CN's Proctor Hill, but a 1400 call time for this job gave some good light after they pulled loads down to the dock.
The temperature was 90 down by Lake Superior, so the crew has to be thankful for the AC units on these SD40-types.
It is often difficult to know how well the final product will turn out when shooting HDR. Similar to how non-digital film photographers don't have the luxury of being able to look at the camera's LCD and make sure they captured the shot as they wanted, when shooting HDR, some imagination is requrired to blend the images together in your head. I think this is where there is a lot of room for improvement in the way that we shoot HDR. If the camera were able to produce a pseudo HDR image immediately after bracketing away, it would be a great advantage for photographers, although I would never suggest it would fill as big a void as the introduction of the LCD in the first place. Beacause of HDR's increased popularity, you've got to think that someone is already working on this.
In the meantime, understanding the presence of a wide range of light in a scene, and being able to imagine an HDR image in your head is an important skill for us HDR photographers. Today's image is an example of a time where I just knew that the scene was well suited for HDR and that the subject of a Parisian enjoying a beautiful sunset would make for a great scene. The challenge with this shot was waiting for the right moment when this man stopped moving and keeping the camera nice and steady while handheld. I wonder if someday this man will ever see this photograph. Probably not...
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It's difficult to capture the depth of the "Big Hole" in Kimberley but the height of the buildings give an idea of the scale.
Kimberlite, an ultramafic igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite, is most commonly known to be the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after Kimberley where diamonds were mined from this hole.
Kimberlite occurs in the Earth's crust in vertical structures known as kimberlite pipes, as well as igneous dykes and can also occur as horizontal sills. The consensus on kimberlites is that they are formed deep within the mantle, hence at high temperatures and pressures.
Difficult to know where to start with WYRCo / Harrogate and District on the 36. This is vicar lane bus station in the late 1980s. UWY88X has just arrived from Harrogate and was depositing passengers on the forecourt, a usual practice if the stand was blocked or the bus was about to park for layover...imagine that happening now ! I was very fond of the three ECW leopards west yorkshire had, despite the scare stories with the boots, I found them attractive vehicles with comfy seats and a fair turn of speed. Originally numbered 2390-2 they had been renumbered into the dual purpose series of 2612-4, the "even" numbered pair were at Bradford and 2613 at Harrogate.. by far the more elusive of the three. The duple sister in the picture 2604 UWY82X was on the 768 a regular leeds based leopard duty to Shadwell but didn't really make best use of the vehicles potential in my opinion that route. The people queuing to the right are at the East Coast stand, it was common occurrence for that Q to go round the corner out of the bus station into the street. Despite WY putting express summer extra services on to Scarborough & Bridlington, services often needed to be duplicated by "foreigners".....Hutchinson's coaches was a favourite.
Suit cases without wheels...buses with steps...banks which weren't wine bars...gas shops in town centres...no authorised walking routes...no HV rests.....not a mobile phone in sight.....another world it must be !
difficult to paint on that wall , and it was so cold , anyway happy to show you the first piece in 2011
This puzzle was difficult!
We are still in an ongoing deep freeze! Fed up of this very cold weather, but thankful that there is nowhere that I have to go.
"A brutal, long-duration cold snap struck Calgary, Alta., just as we turned the page into February, creating the coldest start to the month in 50 years.
The average temperature fell below -20°C for the first eight days of the month, the coldest start to February since 1975.
This cold snap is extra stubborn, and there’s no clear end in sight. Over the next week, temperatures will average 10-15 degrees below seasonal across central and southern Alberta." From the Weather Network.
I knew I should never have started online jigsaw puzzles, lol. Oh, well, they are good for the brain. Many, so far, are easy puzzles with few pieces, but relaxing. Sometimes, I do a more complicated one. When I put in the last piece of any puzzle, it immediately replaces the puzzle with the picture of the puzzle, but with no outlines of the individual pieces. Can't find any way to have it with those outlines, so I am just posting either the picture or showing puzzle pieces with one piece not quite in place.
"Whether it's a crossword, jigsaw, trivia, word searches, brain teasers or Sudoku, puzzles put our minds to work. Studies have found that when we work on a jigsaw puzzle, we use both sides of the brain. And spending time daily working on puzzles improves memory, cognitive function, and problem-solving skills." From the National Holiday Calendar website.
It is difficult to make a portrait of a tree. Even though they are one of my favorite and frequent subjects (or perhaps because of that), I would say in general trees are tough to photograph. They are challenging to isolate and they are very messy. There is so buch going on with the branches, roots, and leaves -- not to mention that they seldom stand alone -- that it's almost impossible to reduce the static and get a message across. You can hike through the woods all day, and never get a clean look at a tree.
That's why I'm here today to praise the trees on the edges. When it comes to making a portrait of a tree, I look to the edges. I can't tell you how many great compositions I have dreamed up of the trees along the side of the highway. Trees along the shore of a pond or a lake are fantastic. Along the perimeter of a clearing works too. Especially if there is an elevation gain behind them so no white airspace trickles through into the frame. Trailhead parking lots, like the location of this image here, are great also, since they are often heavily wooded and lined with beautiful trees.