binary moments

...a visual calculus of probability

physiognomies

Sometimes a tree is just a tree, and a branch is just a branch.  Sometimes parts of a tree look like faces, fish faces.  Sometimes a silly fish face...

Sometimes a menacing fish face...

contra dichos

Entre labios y lenguajes, me llegan esos pensamientos.
A veces cuando me tientan, pues... se los regalo al viento.

Pero cuando los secretos se reflejan en el parabrisas, los labios me tiemblan...

y no sé qué mas decirte.

morning sunlines

streams of consciousness

oculus

applied kinematics...

kabuki webcast...

I noticed the translucent warrior-in-waiting after a few glances, and I decided to seize the opportunity. After gathering a tripod and switching lenses, I cautiously ventured in closer hoping to photograph the encounter between it and its next meal.

A few test shots later, the 10mm arachnid began to dissolve into a Samurai visage, arms uplifted in mid-aria.  Look closely, and you'll see as well.

[Fe] and other Ironies...

My very good friend Roberto visited this past weekend.  He suggested we find an urban setting and take some photos, so we settled on a strip of Columbia Pike in South Arlington.

I heard echoes of familiar places from my childhood as we walked past the Botánica Boricua (a one-stop shopping paradise for the local Espiritistas) and the Orisha ornamentations in their window.

A few steps away from the herbalist, I was reminded of a different Plant and his heavy metal melodies about a lady buying a...

("There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure...")

("With a word she can get what she came for...")

("And the voices of those who stand looking..."):
("ooh, it makes me wonder...")
("ooh, it makes me wonder...")

(" 'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings....")

syncretisms...

muralities...

Sometimes you walk by and can't resist engaging the artful abstractions in your path.  On this occasion, I coaxed my brother in-law and his companion.  

The photograph in the middle is the pièce de résistance.  (I wonder how long these images will remain in place...such a crime to erase this graffiti.)  

entre lineas y lineajes

icecubicles

We are still digging out from the recent snowstorm. The schools are still closed, and the federal government offices in the DC area were closed again today. More snow is on the way tonight...as much as eighteen inches according to some forecasts.

Our neighborhood has been shrouded in white for more than four days. In order to combat cabin fever and the snow glare delirium, we take walks and search for odd patterns created by the cycles of melting and freezing.

This cargo net suspended from a chain link backstop has been cradling a mass of flakes, but upon closer inspection the impromptu hammock is acting more like a sieve, patiently extruding long cubes of frozen snow...nature's own play dough wonderland.

 

  

 

(tw)ice

 

snow daze...

Last weekend, it snowed inches of light dry powder.  Today, we woke up to more snow, some four inches of heavy wet flakes.  The early morning radio newscast mentioned the coming weekend's impending snowstorm.

I'm sick of snow, but the dog had to go out.  So I rolled out of bed, and left the house with camera in one hand and the leashed puppy in the other.

 

The neighborhood was quiet, and the sun peered from behind a veil of fog. The contrasts and patterns were everywhere.  The snow almost seduced me with its devilish charm as I eyed more patterns ahead.

Heading back home, the landscape then lost much of its appeal as I thought about the day ahead, and the confinement of the office.

As we passed by the park on the return leg, I made the usual deposit, a blue bag of dog poop at a trash can in the park.

The distinct and familiar pulse invited a glance, and I spotted the military helicopter circling above, a fitting punctuation to the dissolution of the morning's atmospheric glare.

 

Life in the DC Metro area...an immersion in serial contrasts

shadow plays...

on a kitchen window sill, behind a shade...