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A Study in Colour (Part 3)
By Silver Blue
A trip to Busch Gardens on the second official day they were open. (The season opener was yesterday, but with rain in the forecast, decided to delay it a day.)
Not every study in colours is bright and cheerful. Some are more muted, such as this flowing water.
Still, there were enough colours out and basking in the open air that it made it look, at likes, like Walt Disney had vomited.
Little things, like the water reflecting in the indentation of the rock, however, gave an interesting compliment to the colours of nature.
As you can imagine, the pollen counts were off the charts today, even with the rain of yesterday and the on again/off again misty rain we had today.
Down by the Loch Ness Monster coaster, comes a lesson in repeating patterns.
Wisteria, in the lane, with nary a desperate housewife in sight.
Remember the post I made about “Never be afraid to stand out in a crowd”? Notice that the red tulips don’t seem so special now that everyone is trying to be like them. LOL.
I just think that nature can give us a rainbow of choices to view, and fortunately, Busch Gardens groundskeepers feel the same way!
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/esp-e.mp3]There’s two more sections in our study in colour, but those will have to wait for another day. I decided to hold off and do 9 photos at a time.
Silver Blue, who now is off to dye his hair and get this pollen off me!
My morning is bound to appear.
By Silver Blue | 1 comment
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Ocean View Beach, Norfolk, VA.
“If I can endure for this minute
whatever is happening to me
No matter how heavy my heart is
or how dark the moment might be…
If I can but keep on believing
what I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
and that this will pass away, too –
Then nothing can ever disturb me
or will me with uncertain fear,
For as sure as night brings the dawning,
my morning is bound to appear.”
(“Comes The Dawn” by Helen Steiner Rice)
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/andhc.mp3]Silver Blue, who has his mind scattered all over…and it shouldn’t be this way.
Sing with me!
By Silver Blue
Enter to learn, leave to serve.
This is the motto by which we shall live.
Maroon and gold, our banner high we raise…
Wythe School, Our School, we proudly sing your praise.
Yes, I still remember the school song from my final elementary school, Wythe Elementary, where I attended from 1980-1981.
The school, built in an Art Deco Style, opened in 1936 as the George Wythe Junior High School. In 1950, the new George Wythe Junior High opened on Gloucester Street, and the old building became the Wythe Elementary School. (The original Wythe Elementary School had been built in 1909 and was demolished; the site was repurposed by the Wythe Recreation Association as the Wythe Neighbourhood Membership Swimming Pool.)
Wythe Elementary closed in 2010, and for the first time in over a century, the City of Hampton was left without a school named after Founding Father, George Wythe.
The building went through numerous renovations over the years; on the second floor is an auditorium that used to have a balcony you could sit in (and access) from the 3rd floor. Due to structural damage, however, the balcony was removed prior to 1980. On the first floor was the cafeteria, and entrance to the fallout shelter (yes, there were fallout shelter signs on the building when I went there. I didn’t poke around the property (besides, my allergies were getting the best of me.)
There exists a photo of the school (when it was built as a Junior High) with it’s original windows…:
(Courtesy of the Library of Virginia). (The old elementary school can be seen at the left of the photograph)
The school was about 4 blocks from where we lived, so I could walk, or ride my bike to school.
Pardon the distortion from the stitching of the panoramic shot — this is actually 7 photos stitched into one photograph, as I could not get back far enough to photograph the entire building (due to houses being behind me.)
We were known as the “Wythe Owls”, after the large owls that are over each entrance. (This is the left owl.)
Our school song came from the granite engravings over each door.
Here’s the right owl. I hope that whatever becomes of the building, that they put the owls in a museum, along with at least one of the “Enter To Learn/Leave To Serve” granite signs.
There is talk of making the former school into an adult education center. But as you can see, time is beginning to cause deterioration. Hopefully the city will be able to restore the schools exterior/facade into what we students had been proud of for years.
In 2002 (22 years after I attended the school), the students commemorated 9/11 with the planting of a tree. The granite block (engraved with an owl) says “Growing out of our hopes and wishes for America. The children of Wythe Elementary School, September 11, 2002.”
This is the tree that was planted, a decade ago, and the stone marker.
Coming home, I found St. Francis of Assisi hiding in the azaleas.
(Okay, so the song is more fitting for High School, but hey… how many times is there something actually from Grease 2 that is fitting??)
Silver Blue, who now is off to scrub the pollen from my eyes!
Go…I must let you go…
By Silver Blue
Sometimes, you know that what you want, and what you have to do are polar opposites. Like a flame that cannot be held. Some things have to burn freely, and if you attempt to control them YOU’RE the one who gets burned.
Friendship is like that. Romance is like that. Love, life, and happiness are all like that.
Though we may think we know what is best, the multiverse always has its own design.
The hard part is to let go. To turn it over, to allow a power greater than yourself to bring you to clarity, peace of mind, and serenity.
Too often, however, human ego, greed, and desire gets in the way. You may escape the flames at first, but there’s that little thing called…
…Karma. It has a way of bringing the past, present and future together. Best to keep a clear account with Karma. For what you put out to the multiverse, so you shall reap.
These photos were taken on a warm September’s night in 2006. Everyone who was present that night has had their lives changed, for better or worse. Come to think of it, of the people who were there who were in a relationship, not one still exists six years later. So go the sands of time…
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/cfbe.mp3]Silver Blue, who is introspective and contemplative tonight. Must be the New Moon tonight.
As close to music as I’m ever going to come
By Silver Blue | 4 comments
4Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I ran an Unofficial Fan Page to former Columbia Recording artist Jane Olivor (who performed the Academy Award nominated song “The Last Time I Felt Like This” with Johnny Mathis from the movie “Same Time, Next Year”.
I first met Ms. Olivor in 1999 at the Birchmere, in Alexandria VA, when she played there for Valentine’s Day. I gushed appreciation and had to sit down before I hyperventilated.
In 2001, I actually was able to have dinner with Ms. Olivor:
In 2002, I was offered the opportunity to become her Web Manager. It was a stunning ride on the merry-go-round, during which time I saw her in concert five or six more times.
The only other photo I have of us together is:
Well, things have a way of changing and we parted ways as “the record company wanted to take over her official page.” (That was the official “request’.) Such is life, and she’s never really had a website since. Being that close to the machinations of the music industry, however, left the polish quite tarnished. I’ve never looked at “stars” with the same eye again. Fame simply doesn’t impress me. I’ve met my share of performers over the years, from Star Search winner Sam Harris, to Annie Lennox, to Basia, to Roxette … and to me, they’re all human. When they perform, they all have the ability to take my mind away from reality for a short while. But they all bleed red, they all have bills to pay, and they all put their pants on one leg at a time.
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/wtil.mp3]Silver Blue… who isn’t famous for any reason, and as no desire for fame and riches… yet if I know that if I make one person smile, one heart remember, one moment brighter, then I have more fame and riches than the biggest superstar there is.
Funny how time flies…
By Silver Blue
The year: 1973. The city: Kenton. The state: Ohio. The location: My Grandma’s house, the backyard sandbox, which was in a giant truck tire. The subject: 3 of my 4 cousins on Mom’s side.
From the left: me (age 4); “Mikey” Megison, Jr. (age 5); Regina Van Hoose (age 8); “Patty” Megison (age 3).
Too many years, too many miles, too many lost opportunties. The four of us wouldn’t be back together again (after circa 1984) until my Grandmother’s passing in 2008.
The year: 2008. The city: Kenton. The state: Ohio. The location: My Grandma’s house, the backyard flowerbed, which is now in that self-same giant truck tire. The subject: 3 of my 4 cousins on Mom’s side.
From the left: “Patte” (Megison) Lamer (age 38); me (age 39); Regina (Van Hoose) Soape (age 43); Michael Megison, Jr. (age 40).
35 years had passed since we had our photo taken together. Chances are good that we’ll never pass that way again to all be in the same place as the same time. In fact, I have four cousins (there are five grandkids), and to be best of my knowledge, only one photo was taken with all five of us together:
From left: Michael Megison, Jr.; “Patte” (Megison) Lamer; me, Regina (Van Hoose) Soape; Douglas Michael Van Hoose. (Taken at Grandma’s funeral viewing, September 9, 2008)
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/sr-hbty.mp3]Silver Blue…who does try holding back the years…but to no avail…
A Study in Colour (Part 2)
By Silver Blue | 1 comment
1Not much to say this evening. I’m in a rather introspective mood, but I wanted to share some more photos from the trip to Busch Gardens:
The colour, the water droplets, even the mulch come together to act as one.
A wheelbarrow of spring. Overflowing in its greenery, simplistic in its colouration.
Un petit oiseau, jaune.
Tis the season for tulips and pansies.
As well as tulips and dusty miller.
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/tf-epce.mp3]Silver Blue, who wonders how different the world would be if people took time to not only stop and experience the world around them, but if they were for accepting of those who are different. What if… everything were possible?
A Study in Colour (Part 1)
By Silver Blue | 1 comment
1
A trip to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, has put me on a study of colour, from the garish tones in the above photo, which to me still work as the flowers and greenery spill forth from this window box planter to the simplistic….
…single red tulip blooming in a field of purple pansies. I call this “Never be afraid to stand out in a crowd.”
Learning to use depth of field (known in the photographic world as “Bokeh”) to throw the background out of focus so that you don’t have sensory overload from EVERYTHING being sharp and your brain going “what do I focus on? This? That? This?” is something I’m really beginning to have fun with.
Of course, I realize that most of the flowers at BGW have been “forced” into bloom in greenhouses, the weather has been so peculiar this year that it really wouldn’t surprise me to see petunias, pansies and snapdragons all in perfect harmony. (In fact, this morning while cutting the manor grounds here at the Shenandoah Forester, I noted that the wild violets are already in bloom — something that normally doesn’t happen until late April/early May.)
One of the things I appreciate most about the groundskeepers at BGW is that they aren’t afraid to juxtapose opposites on the colour wheel for dramatic effect.
[audio:https://www.eyesofsilverblue.com/aob-liaf.mp3]Silver Blue, who loves this time of year, even though I suffer from bad seasonal allergies.
Night I left the city…I dreamt of a wolf…
By Silver Blue
Went to Passport Preview day at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg today. Weather was perfect and it was worth putting up with the pollen.
I’ve never heard the grey wolves howl in the park…. until today.
In fact, over in Germany, at the Curse of Dar Kastle ride, a large wolf statue says…. CHEESE!
The thing that I really appreciate about BGW however, is how well they tend to their grounds (a veritable wheelbarrow of Spring):
Plus, the fact they act as caretakers this year to four Bald Eagles who have been injured in the wild and cannot fly or hunt, so are protected and fed here:
and…
This one, if I recall correctly, injured his wing by flying into a power line and almost lost the wing to injury and infection (hence the reason it wasn’t able to be “re-set” so he can fly).
All in all a great day… even if time passed too quickly.
Silver Blue, who is thankful Mother Nature held off on her rain and storms and let me have MY day, making the most of the shots…
(*title from “Cry Wolf” by a-ha)
Where the HDR fascination started…
By Silver Blue
I was in Ghent, Norfolk, VA, and had shot a good number of photos of the Naro Theater and … back in those days, the only option I knew of was the somewhat primitive Photoshop option.
A different look (not necessarily better, but different) is now available by clicking three buttons.
The lower is garish, while the top appears lost in a fog. The difference is that the top photo took (when I rendered it, back in 2007) about 15 minutes of heavy computing power. The lower one took about 8 seconds.
Sometimes, however, just a proper exposure for neon can make all the difference. This one has no HDR effects applied at all, and it’s the one I prefer most:
Silver Blue…. who tries to capture what lights up his world.
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