365 Photo Project - Day 167

Taken: June 16, 2010
Location: Healdsburg, Ca.

My bridge again. It's actually the railroad bridge that runs parallel to the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge.  It's been awhile since I've gone down to shoot it. It's an easy target for me because I see it almost every day but that's why I've been avoiding it lately. Wanted to stretch out some, find other things to shoot. But its call is strong and when I crossed the bridge tonight just around sunset, I had to stop and see what I could get in the fading light.

Today, the bridge was also a little symbolic for me.

Last week, I started a class at the local junior college. It's a beginners' course in photo editing in preparation for my planned immersion into photo and film editing. I've been meaning to to this for a few years now and I'm really glad I finally got started. The whole going back to college thing is more than a little bit strange but it's also kind of good, too. I mean who doesn't like to try something you did once but with all the wisdom and maturity you didn't have the first time around?

I'm embarking on a series of classes that will lead me toward learning how to shoot and edit digital film, which like still photography, I have just enough knowledge about to be dangerous. But I want to be lethal.

I want to direct my own scripts. I want to shoot small films about big ideas, the fire, hope, dread, love, death, craziness that rages inside all of us and how we deal with it and with each other. I realize that covers a lot of ground but these stories have been in my head forever.  A lot of it goes into the pages of my novels but my sense is the other stuff needs a different medium. I've always been in love with film, especially the films that tell intimate tales about the line people step across, that changes them from who they are to who they will be, the choices they make, the things they justify, the revelations they have, the loves, the loss, the tragedies, the journey. You know, the bridges they cross.

365 Photo Project - Day 131

Taken: May, 11, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

I've been without my car for a couple of days which has forced me to walk more. A lot more. Living in a small town makes not having a car a lot easier too. Of course, I had to walk over the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge, camera in hand, knowing I'd get a chance to shoot the railroad bridge from a new angle. As you can see, it was a spectacular late afternoon and the light glancing off the Russian River and the metal bridge girders, the stanchions  and the surrounding hills was very cool.

I love walking and I hate that I've forgotten how much I enjoy it. You see the world in such a different way when you're seeing it from eye level, when it's not speeding by through the glass of your car window. The thing I notice most is the smells -- I mean it helps that we're solid into spring around here but so many different scents wafted around me as I strolled into town or on my long (hot, up hill) walk home last night. Rose bushes, orange blossoms, new garden dirt, cookout smoke ... it was refreshing to close my eyes and breathe in and try to identify them all.  I've been meaning for freaking years to get to walking every day and being stuck without a car for several days has got me really thinking about it again. Now I have to commit to it.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Been having trouble with my camera so I traded up for a newer version. This will be the last installment of the project taken with my trusty K100D. Looking forward to seeing what I can do with the new one (if I can figure out all the controls).

Having said that, you might notice I'm talking a lot less about the camera I use, how I edit the images, etc. I've come to feel that it's better to let the image speak for itself. Let it be there in all its magic and not worry about how I got there. I do know some of you like to know the image information and you can find it by clicking on links to my Flickr.com page. I've made the information available there. And of course, you can always write me if you want more detail.

365 Photo Project - Day 129

Taken: May 10, 2010, sunset
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

I'm a day late putting this up but it's still my Mother's Day day of the project. I have the greatest mom. She's smart, tough and funny and she's got one of the world's best bullshit meters. No fun when you're a teenager constantly trying to get away with whatever it is teenagers want to get away with, but the older you get the more you appreciate someone who doesn't sugar coat stuff just to make you feel better.

I talk to my Mom almost every day. She loves mystery books and is a veracious patron of the local library so she keeps me up to date on what's worth digging into. And she's the person I call when I want to read a passage out loud or check to see if it's any good.

More than anyone else in my life, it's my Mom who keeps me from taking myself too seriously. And I think when I write, she's the reader I have in mind. She's never been afraid to speak her mind (something else I get from her) and she's passionate about her family and friends,  loyal to her causes, her beliefs and her sports teams and she could teach the ridiculous Tea Party a thing or two about independent thinking.

If I end up being half the person she is, that will be okay with me.

This is the railroad bridge that runs parallel to the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge. Shot with my K100D and edited in Photoshop

365 Photo Project - Day 126

Taken: May 6, 2010, 1 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

Here's the bridge I used to have to cross every time I went into central Healdsburg, It spans the much more modest Dry Creek River north of town and is only narrow enough to let one car pass. I used a shot I took from this bridge earlier in this project but this is the first time I'm using one of it.

When my husband and I sold our house in Santa Monica and decided to move up to Healdsburg, it was me who was sent on the task of checking out the house we wanted to rent, meeting the landlord and such. When I drove out to the place and had to cross this bridge, I knew immediately this was the place for me. I grew up in a relatively small town but have lived 90 percent of my adult life in or near big cities so it came as a bit of surprise how quickly I fell in love with this place.

A lot of it started when I crossed Dry Creek here on a beautiful October afternoon, the expanse of the just-picked vineyards spreading out in every direction. I remember friends would ask me how long it took to get used to living in the country and there really was no adjustment, passed getting used to real darkness at night and a place where the sounds that dominate aren't car wheels on pavement and the buzz of phone lines.

To this day, as readers of this blog know well, I haven't grown tired of the view. It feels as much like home as it did the day I drove over this little bridge.