Day 15

I began Day 15 by spying a compelling image possibility I could not exploit because I, very uncharacteristically, had left the house minus my Device. I plan to go back to this place with my iPhone, from which I never again shall be parted, but could not do so yesterday.

Because yesterday I actually had to shoot a photo yesterday for a more-or-less monthly food column I write for the Baltimore Citypaper, and so found myself in the back yard setting up little tableaux involving tomato plants and mason jars of gazpacho -- and shooting them with my iPhone. (I'm still waiting to hear back from the art director on the images I filed to him this morning. A bit nervously: the photos looked good, but they are on the very small side for publication repro standards. The paper goes to press this evening).

I must say that before undertaking this project, I never would've had the nerve to hand in an actual photo assignment shot on my phone. But it was fun, and while I was at it I spent some time making other photos of random things in the yard I'd noticed. So now I have the happy conundrum of having to choose today's 365 image from two that I like quite a bit, images I enjoyed taking time to work with and compose. Both of them speak to a loose theme of my earlier plastic camera work, though it's sort of difficult to articulate: pathways. Openings.

Here's the second photo, which I think ultimately doesn't work but there's something about it that I can't quite let go of. I dunno, is it cheating to post two pictures for one day?

7/28/11 Addendum: the day after I made and posted this second image I started reading an advance copy of "The Unconquered" by Scott Wallace, an account of finding yet-uncontacted tribes in the Amazon. The introduction talks about following footprints on a path through the jungle and finding a single small sapling cut to lay across the trail -- unmistakable symbol saying, go no further. It turns out this image is in its own way a suburban equivalent. Leaving me musing about paths, both actual and metaphorical, and what an uncertain and meandering one mine has been for the past couple years on both fronts.