Hello my amazing Flickr friends !

Today is an orange day at Color my World Daily and the theme at Crazy Tuesday is : Guess what it is ? Of course we have Mr. Teddy Bear with us to celebrate Happy Teddy Bear Tuesdays.

As you can see, Mr. teddy Bear found a very fascinating but unidentified (at least by him) object in the forest…. He decided to add a little red heart, which has nothing to do with our mysterious object, but shows that Mr. Teddy bear is truly in love with Princess (who is at work right now…). In fact, Mr. Teddy Bear sees love everywhere. Isn’t that great to be able to see love and beauty in tiny and very ordinary objects around us ?

So what do you think it is, that Mr. Teddy Bear found? What is that object, can you guess ? As usual in those situations: there is no money to win, only my eternal respect and admiration. I will reveal the answer tomorrow…

P.S : if you are Canadian you might have an idea about what it is ;-).

See you later my friends ! I wish you all an amazing day !

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments / favs/ general support / happy thoughts!! Stay safe and well!! And see you soon on Flickr !!

Macro Mondays challenge for 28/08/17, theme Members Choice: Abstract.

I'm all over the place today because I think it's Sunday!! So, no multiple choice, decide later situation - just straight in!

This isn't what I had been planning to do but it is just a fairly simple/ordinary object in out house. The whole image is made up of the single object, including the "background". However it is still a 1:1 reproduction.

I haven't had any time to look at the pool yet but hopefully will tonight - i normally look on the bus on Monday mornings!!

HMM to one and all and happy 7DWF too!

there is such a warm feeling when the sun finally breaks through the fog. when color returns and light shines.

this is the last of my series on my recent sail trip. i know you were shocked that i took these pics. gee whiz. however, i do really enjoy photographing glass and will return to it. hope i don't lose you over that!

i am gonna dedicate the next few pics to showing what can be done with everyday, ordinary objects.

Wildlife is my photographic preference but I also find it interesting looking at other genres

Flicking through Explore you often see pictures of abandoned cars., old staircase's etc. presented in such imaginative ways you suddenly have an interesting and unusual shot of what is a seemingly ordinary object

This picture wasn't planned (although I'd love to say it was of course)

A Heron flies past., and for an instance he's in front of a very dark area., suddenly I have (IMO) my unusual shot of an 'ordinary object'

It's not a 'great shot'., but it has taught me something about 'quick thinking' composition

... which is my next little project.

South Street Philadelphia

In 1994 Isaiah Zagar began work on the vacant lot next door to his studio adding tunnels, grottos and walls and decorating the surfaces with his unique handmade mosaic tiles and a variety of scavenged items and ordinary objects like bike wheels, dinner plates, fans, bottles and figurines. He was replacing graffiti with art that defied category. Isaiah’s work offered a boisterous display of creative energy full of colorful shapes and cleverly repurposed objects. While some neighbors disapproved of his unconventional public art, others supported him by dropping off leftover ceramic tiles from remodeling projects and other household golds for his possible use. The themes depicted in Isaiah’s mosaics were inspired by his own life and travel experiences and broader world events. They offer an intensely personal vision and serve as a kind of visual storytelling, both representational and abstract and open for interpretation by viewers. In 2002 as neighborhood land values were rising, the out of state owners of the vacant lot wanted to sell it for development, threatening the destruction of Isaiah’s work there. At that time the Philadelphia Magic Gardens was formed as a non-profit organization not just to purchase that property and preserve his artwork for public enjoyment, but to inspire creativity and community engagement by educating the public about folk, mosaic and visionary art. The Magic Gardens, a fully tiled indoor space and outdoor sculpture garden at 1020 South Street is now open daily to visitors. Many other of Isaiah’s mosaic murals adorn the walls of surrounding buildings and are simply a colorful part of the neighborhood streetscape. His murals can be found on more than 200 walls, with most of his work in Philadelphia

Inspired by: Albert Renger-Patzsch 1929 photo "Timber Yard"

-- the uncompromising reality of objects as they simply exist. The 'sculpture' of ordinary objects occupying space.

camera = Kodak-Rainbow Brownie No. 2C

built 1916

rotary shutter f14 - 1/50

100mm glass meniscus lens

film = Ilford delta 400

so you can transform it by photographing it :-)

Morley Baer

HMM! Israel Matters!

anemone, sarah p duke gardens, duke university, durham, north carolina

I am revisiting my goals and when I started my 365 project this year my goal was to use beautiful light to make ordinary objects more interesting. My heart still likes this idea. We can often overlook the small, mundane details of everyday items in search of something grand and novel to shoot. As I think about it, everything can become ordinary if it is part of our daily lives. When we are familiar with things we take them for granted and stop seeing the goodness and beauty. It is true that familiarity breeds contempt but I want to reject this notion and breathe life and energy into that which seems mundane and fills my daily life.

Macro Mondays theme: forks

Dinglehopper (a.k.a. the fork) is an artifact from the sunken ship which Ariel and Flounder explore early in The Little Mermaid. It is in fact a fairly ordinary object, but Ariel prizes the dinglehopper, as it is an artifact of the human world. Due to his lack of knowledge of the human world, Scuttle gives this strange name to the object rather than the more-accurate "fork."

little-mermaid.fandom.com/wiki/Dinglehopper

Thank you to everyone that commented and faved. they are all greatly appreciated. Stay Safe.

one of our Flickr pro's has suggested that this reminds him of the dead sea scrolls. so....being the thief that i am i have decided to use his wonderful description of rather ordinary objects and raised them to the level or wonder and excitement. thanks again.

Macro Mondays - Single Use

Attempt #2

...that special light that draws you nearer. What it can do to ordinary objects still amazes me. Straight out of the camera....however, it was cropped.

Bright sunsets do not come everyday in my area. When they do, the most ordinary objects take on a new life.

Light is inseparable from shadow.

Shadow lives on the edge of light.

Shadow complements the light.

It transforms ordinary objects into extraordinary subjects

by adding mood and atmosphere

whilst elevating your photos

into the realm of feeling and imagination.

– Danie Bester

Own image 3460 and textures

It is the kind of photography that relies for its strengths not on special equipment or effects but on the intensity of the photographer's seeing. It is the kind of photography in which the raw materials--light, space, and shape--are arranged in a meaningful and even universal way that gives grace to ordinary objects :-)

Sam Abell

HMM! Science Matters!

hyacinth, 'White Festival', j c raulston arboretum,,ncsu, raleigh, north carolina

for the Smile on Saturday

Theme: "Guessing Game"

The object of this game is to take a close up photograph of an everyday ordinary object in a weird or interesting way so that it is not obvious what the object is.

You can make your guesses as a comment below, and I will reveal what it is after the group closes for the week!

Thanks for playing

-Artificial intelligence “image generators” give everyone the opportunity to be creative, and thanks to their abilities, millions of people have this experience. But there is confusion and new questions. As the artistic prowess of artificial intelligence emerges, it raises questions we haven't encountered before about what it means to be human. Some consider AI products to be works of art, while others object. I evaluated the facts analytically in terms of art philosophy and wrote my ideas in this article.

Below is the article I wrote about art, artist concepts, can artificial intelligence make art, analysis of human art and artificial intelligence products.

*

AN ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE "ART" ADVENTURE OF HUMANS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The concept of "art" is the field of creativity, the only feature of being human. As the artistic prowess of Artificial intelligence emerges in a fast-moving world, it raises questions we've never encountered before about what it means to be "human". What kind of a period will "art", which is the result of human concepts such as existence, society, communication, subconscious, emotions, imagination, intuition, love, sensitivity, impulse, instinct, dream, originality and of course, creativity, enter into a period with Artificial intelligence (AI)? With its revolutionary technology that will change production, thinking, lifestyles and the future, will artificial intelligence, which is designed to replace people in other fields of activity, be more creative than humans in the field of art and reach the competence to challenge the artist?

According to Hegel, art carries the spirit of the artist, who is transferred to matter and likens matter to himself. Well, since the products created by machines without a soul today are not generated by an artist, can they carry spirit and meaning?

For years, computer technology has already made an impact and contribution to visual arts with image technologies such as vector, bitmap, 3D, CGI as a tool that creates, processes and changes the image. Today, many smart image generators such as Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Craiyon, Midjourney, Nightcafe Ai, etc. are software systems that can statistically evaluate themselves over large datasets containing millions of images, train themselves, and produce new images that are not included in the original dataset. Not just images, AI is already being used in other branches of the arts to create music, poetry, sculpture, stories, articles and films.

There are many new questions and concepts such as whether the products created by a system that has human skills but is not human are real works of art, whether programmers and machines will be accepted as artists, whether AI products can be included in the broad and general definition of art. Although there are objections, acceptances, doubts, different opinions, it has been met with great interest by the majority.

First of all, it is necessary to talk about the concepts of “Art” and “Artist”. In its most general definition, art is a reflection of the human mind and cultural evolution, an expression of creativity, way of thinking and imagination. The artist, on the other hand, is the one who makes art with the awareness of "being human", humanizes and shapes life, and realizes the phenomenon of art with action. The artist combines facts with aesthetic elements from a different point of view and records them in social memory. Behind his creative works lie deep stories of man, his age and society. He uses his imagination, patience, enthusiasm and self-sacrificing efforts to embed his passions, memories, dreams, imaginary and abstract ideas, symbols, philosophy and his inner world, the dynamics of the era and society he lives in, with aesthetic expressions. The process of creating the artist's art is complex and difficult, while filtering everything he is affected by and incorporating it into his works. He feels both sadness and happiness most deeply, and experiences his anxiety and pleasure at the highest level.

Art originates from life and human beings and belongs to humans. “Art is an object made by man for man. “ (E.H.Gombrich, The Story of Art) This is a very accurate definition and “Art” is based on a human-made phenomenon that takes its source from the human artist and seeks meaning with its historical, social accumulation and imagination; existence occurs in the unity of human, artist, meaning, aesthetic object and aesthetic taste. In this respect, there is a deep bond of existence between man, art and work of art that complements each other.

The artist searches for the meanings behind artistic intentions and desires and vital phenomena. Since AI is not a living, emotional being, it lacks imagination, the reality of its external world, and the qualities of being human. Unfortunately, those who claim in advance that the products of AI are art, underestimate the artist who realizes the thousands-year-old deep source of art and the artistic production process, and find it unnecessary to question the artist's effort and necessity. Decisions made by those who do not know the depth of the creative process, without entering the enthusiastic world of an artist, are in favor of accepting and affirming AI products without questioning them. We see that the capitalist world, which wants to benefit from the stimulating effect of the trade created by AI products, has great expectations to use this situation in its favor and turn it into money.

The production process of AI is formed by the combination of computer, programmer, data, algorithm, output, aesthetic taste of the receptive subject. Since AI does not perform its actions by focusing on aesthetic values, aesthetic harmony and meaning, the output it produces is only a sensory, aesthetic value uncertain, non-essential, formal object. Because it lacks the subjective point of view and the values of the special creation process in the mind of an artist. The software, which does not take its source from the human mind, does not have emotions, and produces from ready-made data, has the potential to produce likeable outputs. It can even produce outputs, albeit rare, that, by chance, can give aesthetic pleasure and cause emotional and artistic excitement in people. Again, it is the receptive subject himself who adds artistic value to such an output with his artistic disposition, education and dreams. Because, while the output is devoid of a communication basis, an expression to be conveyed and has no artistic value, the perception style, psychological orientation and point of view of the receptive subject who establishes the communication raise the output to the value of an object that gives aesthetic pleasure. The receptive subject participates in the process with its level of perception of the object, aesthetic judgment and creativity, and needs the qualities of its own self and visual capacity. With a subjectivist attitude, he takes the artistic value not from the object but from his own psychology, customizes the object with his own emotions and attributes a meaning to the output. What makes the output of AI valuable is not the qualities of the aesthetic object formed by the activity of an artist, but the way of seeing of the receptive subject.

The work of art is a human creation, the creative subject is the artist. The artist produces by adding meaning to his work, and the visible form has a meaning integrity, a unity of form and content. In his work, the artist formally expresses a reality about life in his work. That is, the meaning is not added after making the work, and the meaning exists as a substance in the mind of the artist before the work takes shape. In the work, the expression to be conveyed without communicating with the receptive subject is already present and ready; all this is hidden in the work as a reality and waits to be seen by a competent receptive subject. This is the process of discovery of the work of a spirit that repeats the aesthetic creation formed in the artist's soul. The receptive subject, who judges the output of artificial intelligence, lacks the pleasure and effort of creating, perceiving and recreating the expression level of the artist, that is, the human being. Because understanding and making sense of a work of art requires an effort like the creativity of the artist.

E.H. “We cannot hope to understand a work of art if we do not have the ability to share that sense of liberation and triumph that the artist has over his finished work,” says Gombrich.

We see that while art is realized with the connection of the artist, the work (aesthetics) and the receptive subject (aesthetic interest), the process in the AI product takes place with the connection of data, algorithm, object (sensory) and receptive subject (aesthetic interest).

Human art is the aesthetic relationship between man and objective reality and includes artistic reality. Its source is life, human, society, created by the artist, it focuses on the whole process and is holistic. It is based on the reproduction of the aesthetic values that the artist brings to the object by the receptive subject, the connections and interaction with the aesthetic judgment. It is directly and tightly connected to human practice, society and social life. The work of art is personal, original, and the artist has a compositional knowledge and skill that will require much more than repetitions, different blending and attachment techniques in AI output. In a way that takes its origins from life and focuses on the soul and meaning, art considers beauty as a unity of values. Like artificial intelligence, it focuses not only on the result, but also on the whole process, and this is what we need to distinguish.

Although AI is capable of creativity, this does not mean that it is an artist. Likewise, neither a programmer nor an algorithm is an artist. Because their production is outside of the vital, emotional, spiritual and meaning integrity we have explained above, they produce automatically and with commands. The algorithm does not create the object by considering artistic values, qualities and concerns, that is, the algorithm is not aware that it is dealing with art, so it is not conscious of reality. It scans the database and generates predictive compositions with the ability to fuse, add, subtract, associate and learn.

Artificial intelligence products can only be at the limit of the general definition of art. The creation process is automatic and is not identical with human art with the layers of existence it has; the source, formation and result are realized by a completely different method. Therefore, it is a phenomenon of experimental production that, although it is ostentatious and surprising, is not competent, imitates art as a form, its essence is incomplete, although it gives the impression of art.

Based on the context of reality, the search for meaning, the layers of existence and the social source of life, it would be appropriate to call it "Human Art" because it represents human beings, and "Artificial Intelligence Art" because it is created by codes. Because we cannot see artificial intelligence, which enters art as a separate actor, as if it is making productions of the same value as human beings and art. What makes human art valuable is that it tells its own story and the struggle for existence with the accumulation of thousands of years of creation process.

As AI enters more and more scientific, everyday and artistic and human fields, we have to make the rules, boundaries and definitions of human domain, arrangements, positioning and criticisms that include what human being is, to remain "human". The important thing is to create and place concepts that will preserve the depth, value, originality, creativity and freedom of the human domain. While doing this, we should determine the roles by defining the field that artificial intelligence, that is, the machine can have. For this reason, the categorical distinction was made as "Human Art" and "AI Art" because it was based on codes. To make both the same, to say that both achieve similar goals in different ways, is a disrespectful, unfair approach to art and the artist and should be objected to.

Of course, AI will enable artists to create new and original products through collaborative work as a resource to benefit from. With artificial intelligence in artistic creation, the artist can expand his creativity, get inspired, try new things, and also think of artificial intelligence as a collaboration tool. Even if the artist is involved in the creation process of the products created by this collaboration, even if he has the initiative, the use of AI based on the source codes will bring about discussions.

The approach to artificial intelligence products will also mean the sincerity exam of people. The artist and no one should not escape easily, and try to show stolen ideas or directly as his own work. It should not make an effort to reflect worthless products as if they are valuable.

Deciding whether the output has value and the quality of its connection with the art means reaching the big problem area in art. A wide variety of factors should be taken into account while making an aesthetic interpretation. Knowing who the work belongs to is also a factor that will affect our decision. Interpreting a work that is not clear by whom it was generated may cause exaggeration or vice versa, underestimation and incompleteness. Evaluating an object as artistic and beautiful is relative (apart from reconciliation with assumptions that make aesthetic judgment general and based on common feeling) and is difficult, but this is a mysterious and normal state of art.

Artificial intelligence will be an encouraging and supportive force with its ease not only for artists, but for everyone. In addition, the copyright problem of the entries that make up the database should be solved, and the rights of the artist and everyone else who does not want to be in the database should be respected.

It should never be forgotten that; The importance of painters and painting did not decrease with the invention of photography, the transformation of smart phones into talented cameras did not turn everyone into a photographer, AI cannot turn anyone into miraculous and fantastic artists, nor transfer talents.

While the subject is being discussed, painting is generally focused on because of its popularity. But how do we react when AI produces an image with details and visual quality indistinguishable from a real photograph? Especially when we compare it with documentary photography, the situation will become more complicated. At this stage, the values shaped in our aesthetic, emotional and imaginary world, which we judge the paintings, will not be enough. We will need to ask whether the photograph is based on objective reality, and we will build our judgmental values after the definition of reality. Because, as a document, that photograph is real, it reflects the state of the world while connecting the lived past to the future, it has a place and a story, it is direct, it is a human and social memory and transfers it to other generations. The photograph created by AI has no story, it only depicts unreal scenes with automatic editing, and the composition is created only with the ability to imitate. Such a photograph will not go beyond an image that only arouses technical admiration before the viewer. For this reason, I think that unmanipulated and documentary photography will become more valuable in the future. Because it will never lose its value as a tool that reflects reality and directly reflects events.

Can you consider William Turner's painting "The Slave Ship" separately from the historical, social, reality of the outside world and the dynamics of the artist's inner world? This painting is not just a painting, it is a work that has meanings far beyond the painting. Now let's imagine that a similar picture is generated by artificial intelligence. Even if pictorial values, light and composition are used appropriately, what historical, artistic, cultural, emotional value can it have? In other words, in the background of art, there are stories of life and a context, while artificial art has nothing to tell, it is a storyless phenomenon that is disconnected from the context of reality, as a product of a system under the control of virtual codes, and has no history.

In today's society, communication habits have changed, the world of possibilities has grown, and even magicalized. AI "image generators" give everyone the opportunity to be creative, and thanks to their amazing ability, they make this experience available to millions of people. Even a child who has learned to read and write can accidentally create remarkable products in front of his computer. It does not make anyone who can write keywords to the computer and who does not have artistic personality and creativity an artist and does not include them in art. Millions of people are attracted to this attractive game without age limit and are entertained by its amazing and strange results, as if they have achieved a magical power. It is more accurate to call them "experimental participants". It is a fact that outliers, complex, uncertain, surreal, mystical, imagination-stimulating images attract a lot of attention. Friedrich Schiller and his theory that art is a game come to mind. But in his theory, Schiller meant real art. Besides, art is a much more complex phenomenon than play.

Although the outputs are strange, unencountered, interesting and attractive, as they multiply uncontrollably in the internet environment, they have a high potential to turn into habitual, valueless, artificial, ordinary objects.

It is human beings who will stand against the destructiveness of technology and protect humanity. Being human, despite your shortcomings, is unique. Do we have the human intelligence, virtue, honesty, will, courage and plan to use the future to be a better human being “together” and to create a world based on beauty and equality? While AI becomes human, we never want a role change where people become automatic, ineffective and robotic.

Man interprets and makes sense of life with his art, resists against time, and transfers his relationship with life to the art environment in freedom with his searches and discoveries. Art is formed in reality through "labor" by the artist. All innovations and technological changes should never be allowed to trivialize art and artists. Because Artificial Intelligence lacks the human touch, love, impulses and, in short, a life.

Einstein said, "The criterion of being intelligent is not knowledge but imagination," and reconciling human imagination with intelligence.

Akil Alparslan / 01 2023

"The beauty of still life lies in the simplicity of ordinary objects, captured in a moment of serenity."

Found in Schapenbout!

Schapenbout is a hamlet in the municipality of Terneuzen, in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The hamlet, in the region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, is part of the residential area Spui. Schapenbout consists of about forty dike houses on the Graaf Jansdijk. The name Schapenbout has nothing to do with sheep meat: the word bout here means 'end', namely of a dike. In this hamlet there was a remnant of a dike where sheep grazed. Hence the name.

Schapenbout became known through the television program Man bites dog, which went from Hongerige Wolf (province of Groningen) to Schapenbout in the 2003–2004 season to visit people.

sometimes you just have to take pictures of the mundane.

time to find other ordinary objects

Playing with ordinary objects...on going series

From the series 'Home', a celebration of quiet moments and ordinary objects.

Taken with the Lensbaby Sweet 22.

Seen in a different light. The reflective quality of flatware.

(www.janimaki.net)

The May challenge was "Ordinary Objects". Take a look at the other shots here : www.flickr.com/groups/ajac/pool/

I wanted to take a picture of this lady but she asked me to pay for it.

I refused – so this is the result. LOL

Parnell Bath in hibernation waiting for summer to arrive.

Out to lunch yesterday with a friend and the shadow of her plastic cup called to me...

We're getting hit with so much rain... so I have to capture ordinary objects inside!!

From the series 'Home', a celebration of quiet moments and ordinary objects.

It's a fan, but it's so much more than a fan. It's slow days, sleepless nights, debates - shall we sleep with it on? Or off?

(Taken with the Lensbaby Sweet 22.)

There are indeed moments — rare moments of illumination — when the most ordinary objects and commonplace events appear to us suddenly quite different. All at once they shed the shackles of arid matter-of-factness and become free; once free, they step out of the prison of contingent existence to enter the realm of mystery.

-The art of praying : the principles and methods of Christian prayer : formerly entitled Prayer in practice / Romano Guardini.

Chair lit with blue morning light reflected from snow outside a nearby window. Selective focus is used to give this photograph of an ordinary object an abstract feel.

Actually no ordinary object, peels like crazy...including my fingers!!

En tant que photographes, nous aimons sortir et voyager pour trouver des choses uniques et intéressantes à photographier. Mais il y a des sujets photographiques partout et tout ce que vous devez faire est de regarder autour de vous et faire preuve de créativité.

Here are some photos of every day, ordinary objects where the photographers have gotten creative with lighting, cropping, and composition. Take note you can do this too !

__________________________________________________

Sources "DPS" ... merci à toute l'équipe de photographes et "félicitations sincères" pour leur "explore" entièrement mérité car seul le montage a été réalisé par mes soins !

This image's provenance may go back to the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Vermeer. It is one of the most copied master works of human kind. Vermeer may have used his knowledge and practice of art to employ technology to transform an ordinary image into a masterpiece. I found the descendant of his iconic image in a photograph by Zack Zhang (not sure as it was posted on Pinterest without proper attribution), which I studied by transforming it into a digital image in Procreate, the digital painting software. Then I used my rendition as a starting point for its tranformation into AI synthetic art by Stable Diffusion. A clip interrogator derived a prompt from my painting that read, "a woman with a blue head scarf on her head and a black background with a black background and a white background." I then further styled the picture, generating over a hundred versions. Marcel Duchamp says art is conceptual and artists simply go through a decision process to transform an ordinary object into an extraordinary one. This image is my homage to the artist working with whatever tools falls into their hands.

Commer was a manufacturer of vehicles in the days long gong. I learned that the Commer N-series was introduced by the British Army in the last 1930s with production ceasing in 1939. Somehow a no doubt fine product at the time ended up as a delivery truck in the very south of New Zealand. It is now a local landmark in Hawea Flat. Hopefully the farmer waiting for hay to be delivered found another supplier! Funny.

Sliders Sunday.

A very special friend sent this dangle to me and I so very much absolutely love it. I love your creativity and you’re so crafty. You have a beautiful soul.

Crafting is the art of turning ordinary objects into extraordinary things.

As I sat sipping the last of my morning coffee - I noticed the sunshine was making a unique light pattern on one of my kitchen chairs. As the sun rises further and further to the north of us each day - it is interesting to see the play of light on ordinary objects within our cabin.

Posted for Sliders Sunday-- Post Processed to the MAX!

HSS!

Look around you and find that beautiful light that can make even the most ordinary object stand out. This is an image of a weed that was growing next to my driveway and was lit by late afternoon light.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the feedback

Knob on plastic wall thermostat manufactured by Berko.

Taken for the Macro Mondays theme of 4/14/2025: KNOB.

In explore

Tiki Love Truck, created by mosaic artist Carrie Reichardt in 2007.

It was part of an exhibit at the V&A museum, "Disobedient Objects", which presented the ordinary objects used to facilitate protests throughout history.

Own photo + DxO Nik filters + Filter Forge 12

I thought this was a nice image of an abandoned shovel of an excavator in the dug tunnels in the sun.

Explore#32 April 23, 2023

The theme this week for macro mondays is "ordinary objects." Are icicles ordinary objects? Let's just say I live in Chicago and spend a lot of time outside in the winter. We were encouraged to try to capture the essence of our ordinary object. Do icicles have essences? I pondered the question as I admired the clarity and shape of this particular specimen. Unlikely to resolve this question of metaphysics before succumbing to frostbite, I settled for a tentative answer. The essence of this particular icicle is to subtly imitate the reflected form of the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Or maybe the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere is imitating the form of the icicle. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Image featured in Chicagoist "Around Town: Ready for a Close-Up" on March 27, 2015

May challenge - ordinary objects - www.flickr.com/groups/ajac/pool/

Even the most ordinary objects can be beautiful.

Strobist:

SB700 @1/128th power in Lumiquest Sotfbox III handheld above subject at camera left triggered by Phottix Strato II's.

Also if you have some spare time, please check out my fiancee's, Sarina-Alexandria C., photostream. She's strictly a b&w film photography purists, but she's rekindled her photostream with some awesome mobile photography (thanks to her new obsession with VSCOcam).

Reggie Ballesteros Photography:

Website | Facebook | Society6

I was shooting the sunset in my backyard.

It is the sunset without the sun though.

This is the buckle of my garden shed with its long shadow.

Puss Tabby was staying with me while I took the shot.