Herbstromanze

Before October 31, don't miss viewing Dierk Haasis's gorgeous October gallery of autumn images.  This week is your last chance to enjoy it, because in November the photo collection he's chosen to showcase that month will replace it as the featured slide show on his website.

Autos auf dem Friedhof

Dierk Haasis's August gallery could be a little movie told with still shots -- a dozen images of cars being transported to their last resting place and, then, crushed, dismantled, their various parts displayed in Dierk's series of very interesting images, some in color, some in black-and-white. His theme -- quoted in the title of my post today -- is: Automobiles at the Cemetery. (LEO German-English dictionary offers "graveyard" and "burial ground" as translations of "Friedhof," also.)

The July Gallery of Dierk Haasis

Dierk describes his July gallery in a post to Facebook as a scant dozen pictures that play with perspective. In his comment there, he says that the objects themselves are not significant, only their relation to each other. ("Ein knappes Dutzend Bilder, die mit Perspektive spielen. Die Objekte sind nicht wichtig, nur ihr Verhältniss zueinander.")
It's a wonderful gallery, visually haunting and intellectually enticing, as each image invites one to linger and ponder its spaces at one's leisure.

"We do it in post."

The eleven images in the June gallery of Dierk Haasis are linked by the common theme of "We do it in post."  Each image was completed in the post-processing of the photo as it was originally shot.

Dierk explained this in the commentary with which he accompanied his June 1 posting of the link to the gallery on his Facebook page:

"Die zehn Bilder der Galerie in diesem Monat wurden alle erst im Post-processing, der digitalen Dunkelkammer, das, was sie sein sollten. Die Fotos waren das technische Ausgangsmaterial für das Bild, das ich im Kopf hatte, aber vor Ort so nicht erreichen konnte."*
* Dierk has just noted in a comment to my sharing of his link: "It's actually 11 images - Facebook shows an older version of the excerpt."

An approximate translation from the German would be: "The ten images in the gallery this month all first became what they should be during post processing in the digital darkroom. The photos were the technical material for the image I had in my head but could not achieve from that location."

(I don't trust my skills in reading German to attempt a translation without help, but with the help of LEO, plus a look at Google Translate and Bing, I think I'm able to give a passable English rendition of the text.)

The June Gallery of Dierk Haasis

Upright structures of all kinds -- columns, posts, lamp posts, lighted lamps -- see all these beautiful, interesting images in http://www.dh2publishing.info/aktuelle-monatsgalerie/Dierk Haasis's monthly gallery for June.

Wanda Roberts Baxter 1918 - 2014

Wanda was my older sister. She died on March 28, 2014, of congestive heart failure, which was brought on by a leaky mitral valve. She was very dear to me -- the oldest of six sisters and one brother, and five of us survive her, as do her three sons, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

The dogwood tree in front of her house, next-door to mine, has come into full bloom this April. It was planted in honor of her husband, after his death on March 31, 1982.

I made these photos of it yesterday, looking south towards my house.    A closeup:

And the tree itself:

Taft, Texas, 1932

In the photo above, Wanda is holding her youngest sister in her lap, with her other three sisters standing in a semi-circle behind her. Our mother took this photo with her little red Kodak camera, two years before our brother arrived in January, 1934. Wanda, beginning in 1931,  taught all of us four little sisters to play the piano, and she grew up to be an accomplished pianist herself.  She had trained in college. looking towards a career as a concert pianist, but then she fell in love, became engaged, and got married, thus beginning a long, happy married life as a minister's wife. A number of years after her marriage, she received her B.S. in home economics from Lipscomb University.

Dierk Haasis's February Slide Show

Only 5 more days left in February -- but there's still time to watch Dierk Haasis's gallery for this month, before he takes it down and puts up a different collection of his images for March. Don't miss it -- there are so many lovely and satisfying pictures in the February collection.

For January, 2014, by Dierk Haasis

A series of beautiful monthly galleries will again be ours to enjoy this year, as in the past, chosen for us by Dierk Haasis from his extensive body of work. He has a great many outstandingly beautiful images from which to pick the ones he'll share with us.

This January it's a varied selection of his landscapes.  I love the word play with which he's titled this latest gallery: 'scaping.  Its double allusion to "landscapes" and "escapes" highlights how viewing these pictures can take us out of ourselves and away from our present bitterly cold winter weather.

Three Beautiful Christmas Images from Dierk Haasis

Yesterday Dierk Haasis posted three wonderfully beautiful Christmas images -- generous gifts to us all that make a festive season even more delightfully festive
1) A Tree of Light
2) A Snowy Night-Time City Scene
3) Another City at Night

Favorites of Dierk Haasis

The December 2013 gallery of Dierk Haasis features 31 of his pictures, favorites of his from among the thousands he's made over decades of creating beautiful images.

Click on the link and have a look.  I promise you, you'll be entranced!

They're my favorites, too, especially the scene with the red trawler.  A print of that is framed and hanging on my hall wall, where I enjoy it every day, and many times a day.

Dierk Haasis in November

"Requiesat in pacem ..."  That's the theme of the November gallery from Dierk Haasis.  Beautiful images from Hamburg's historic cemeteries, including close-ups of peaceful grave sites.  Some of the photos are in color and some in black-and-white.  The slide show is very lovely and satisfying to watch, as well as educational. with captions supplying information about many of the views.

Dierk Haasis at Imagekind

Three galleries at Imagekind offer an opportunity to buy prints of Dierk Haasis's beautiful images, in various sizes and formats.  Prices begin as low as $26 for the 7 x 10 inch size.  My favorite size is 11 x 16 inches, at $38 a print.  Framed, it costs $122.  I particularly love the landscape titled "Walk This Way."  It's currently being offered for $30, 35% off the regular price.  The upcoming Christmas season would be a good time to order several of the pictures as gifts and as presents to oneself, I think. Go and have a look!

Beautiful October Gallery from Dierk Haasis

6 days more to enjoy this colorful slide show, which features the images of Dierk Haasis's gallery for October, 2013. Then it will be replaced by a new gallery for November that will perhaps reflect November's gray skies and gloomy weather.

31 Images from Dierk Haasis

Dierk Haasis's slide show for this month is chock full of colorful and interesting images to enjoy viewing and thinking about.  Some, like the brilliant view of a "black" tulip, show recognizable forms; others are almost abstract, like the lovely image of the orange tulip.  And there are many views of sky and water that are pleasingly interspersed with all the warm floral images.  This is a slide show to enjoy watching over and over again with increasing pleasure, all month long.

30 Days Hath September

And this month's gallery from Dierk Haasis has 30 images -- one for each day. They are very compelling, some of them showing the seamier and sadder side of life in Hamburg, but they are well worth viewing and pondering. Mixed in with the darker scenes is much commentary on the brighter and busier side of life in this huge city. Watch for the images of street musicians caught in a lively performance, the malls full of shoppers, the patient dog waiting outside a store, the striking white bird perched on the head of a statue in yet another scene. And don't miss the restful, quiet colors of the stream that appears midway of the slide show.

Light in Dark Places

Two August delights from Dierk Haasis: his August slide show , "Fotos aus dem Dunkeln" (Photos from the Dark) and his SciLogs article discussing George Orwell and Mark Twain.

Doorways

Dierk Haasis's July gallery offers a thoughtful poetic text by way of introduction and almost 80 interesting pictures of doorways and walls of all kinds. Impressive and thought-provoking.

June Images from Dierk Haasis

Many lovely views, with the theme of water running through them, were selected by Dierk Haasis for his June slide showhttp://www.dh2publishing.info/Blogged/2013/06/elementar/ this year. Go and enjoy!

Windmills and Water-Driven Mills in Germany

As shown in 31 images from Dierk Haasis in his gallery for May, http://networkedblogs.com/KNSYW, there are a number of places in Germany where one can see not only mill exteriors but also their interiors at work. In the text accompanying the slide show at his blog site, he also mentions the interesting mill museum at Moisburg.

A glimmer of blue iris

A late April afternoon, and blue iris buds finally, reluctantly, showing their color to the cool breeze.