Category - photography

Greetings, New Subscribers….

January 21, 2015
Paul Schatzkin
commentary, Digest, music, personal, photography
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…and welcome to your first edition of The Weekly Digest.

The Troubadour Logo - it's a long story...

The Troubadour Logo – it’s a long story…

(Oops. I got so wrapped up writing this this morning that I forgot to tag the relevant posts for this week’s digest – I thought I’d done that already. It should have included the first two posts below (Jeff T and Melrose Abbey) Doh!)

I’m sure there’s a better name for this recurring missive, but despite my vaunted creative genius that’s the best I’ve been able to come up with so far.

I am pleased to see that there have been a notable number of new subscribers to this list in the past week – which is even more notable because I don’t know who any of you are.

Most of the subscribers to this list are friends and family – people with whom I have had some form of personal contact since I started the list several years ago. But lately, I’m seeing new subs from people I don’t know, whose e-mail addresses I don’t recognize,

I[tweetable alt=””] recall reading somewhere that your ‘fan base’ isn’t really growing until it begins to spread beyond the people that you know personally [/tweetable]– so it is gratifying to see that my reach has begun to grow organically beyond a certain inner circle.

I am involved in several realms of creative endeavors. My most recent business card (I make up new ones all the time) identifies me as:

Paul Schatzkin
writer·photographer·musician·artist

…and each of those categories represents some measure of both accomplishment and aspiration.

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The Cloister at Melrose Abbey

January 14, 2015
Paul Schatzkin
photography
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I’ve been submitting some photos recently to a Facebook page called Scotland From The Roadside, which is a very active and popular page that features all manner of scenic images form all over Scotland.

I submitted a couple of my landscapes to the page and also to Instagram, so that they would show up here as well.

Then last week I opened my primary photo editor (Lightroom) and it came straight up to this image of Melrose Abbey taken on my trip to the UK in the spring of 2013.

The village of Melrose was my first stop on that trip. I spent three nights in a lovely B&B within walking distance of the town center and the abbey ruin. That afforded me the opportunity to spend a LOT of time in that one location, which explains why I have so many photos of it (only a fraction of which have I shown here or anywhere else).

This angle is looking out of the main church sanctuary into what was in the 14th-to-16th centuries an enclosed quandrangle where the monks could repose themselves for quiet meditation.

Melrose Abbey, from the Nave to the Cloister. May 2013GPS Coordinates 55.5980° N, 2.7310° W
more at http://ift.tt/1koYz4J
@bekkymott @historicscotland @welovehistory @visitscotland @GreatBritain @instagood #medieval #Scotland #UK #medievalworld #UnitedKingdom #GreatBritain #travel #ig_europe #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #architectur #travel #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood @instagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

The Quirang Isle of Skye

January 10, 2015
Paul Schatzkin
Digest, photography, travel
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Another recent submission to the Scotland From The Roadside page. This is “The Quirang,” a craggy valley on the northern edge of the Isle of Skye:

The Quirang – Isle Of Skye, Scottish Highlands @IsleOSkye @visitscotland @GreatBritain
#Scotland #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #tweegram #picoftheday #instadaily #jj #beautiful #bestoftheday #followforfollow #f4f #like4like #likeforlike
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Portals of Stone: Fountains Abbey

January 9, 2015
Paul Schatzkin
Digest, photography, travel
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It seems important to remember that the monks and masons who built these enormous cathedrals were dedicated to the contemplation of the infinite and eternal.They are truly monuments to the spiritual foundations of Western Civolization.

The entire (still evolving) collection from “Portals of Stone 2014” is here.

The West Gate of @FountainsAbbey in Yorkshire, England – October 2014@GreatBritain @GetOlympus @Welcome2Yorks

#Medieval #medievaleurope #Europe #stonebuilding #castle #fortress #abbey #ruins #instatravel #travelgram #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #picoftheday #instadaily
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Approaching The Isle Of Skye

January 9, 2015
Paul Schatzkin
Digest, photography, travel
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I’ve been sharing some photos to a Facebook page called “Scotland By The Roadside.” There are a lot of very talented photographers on that page. Lately their posts have reminded me how glad I am I don’t live in Scotland in the winter.

This is a photo from our trip to Scotland in October, 2012, from just after we crossed the big bridge on to the Isle of Skye:

@IsleOSkye @visitscotland @GreatBritain
Just over the bridge, coming into the Isle of Skye in the #Scotish #Highlands – October 2012#Scotland #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #tweegram #picoftheday #instadaily #jj #beautiful #bestoftheday #followforfollow #f4f #like4like #likeforlike
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Fountains Abbey Upside Down In Space

January 7, 2015
Paul Schatzkin
Digest, photography
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This is actually the first in what will be a short series of similar composites.

The genesis of this series started at Sweetheart Abbey in Dumfries/Galloway. I’d been on a hill above the abbey ruin waiting to see what the sunset would do for me (not much), but when I came down the hill and thru the abbey yard toward the car park (that’s English for “parking lot”), I noticed a street lamp reflected in a puddle in the walkway.

After that, I started seeing puddles every where, and set up compositions in anticipation of doing what I did with that one. Here’s one from Fountains Abbey:

@GreatBritain @GetOlympus @Welcome2Yorks @EnglishHeritage
Fountains Abbey in #Yorkshire, illuminated by electricity and starlight
The Illumination of @FountainsAbbey in Yorkshire, England – October 2014#Medievalworld #Medieval #stonebuilding #castle #fortress #abbey #ruins #instatravel #travelgram #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #igcapturesclub #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics #picoftheday #instadaily
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Self Portrait(s) – December 20, 2013

December 20, 2014
Paul Schatzkin
photography
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Ann and I took this past weekend and went to Chattanooga.


One stop we made was to the Hunter Museum of Art, where we encountered this installation of 64 slightly concave mirrors, each throwing a slightly different angle on whoever stands in front of it. Made for an interesting self-portrait…


Multiple self portrait

A “Portal” At My Feet

December 9, 2014
Paul Schatzkin
Digest, photography
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Sometimes you get an idea, and though it may be a few weeks before you can actually get around to it… sometimes the execution is exactly what you had envisioned. Such is the case with this puddle of rainwater that I noticed as I was leaving the ground of Sweetheart Abbey near Dumfries, Scotland last October…

Portals usually open in the heavens above; occasionally they open at your feet – as happened here at #Sweetheart Abbey near #Dumfries

©2014 [email protected] aka @driver49

Caerlaverock Castle and Introducing “Mr. Turner”

December 8, 2014
Paul Schatzkin
Digest, photography
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I am FINALLY getting into the photos form my trip to the UK back in October.

The hold up has been software related… I won’t bore you all with the details, other than to say that software I have been relying on since I started the whole “Portals of Stone” thing last year was updated, and the update didn’t work as well as the… what do you call it, the “down dated”? version.

Anyway, those issues (more more or less) resolved now and I’m starting to turn out some new “Portals” (PW <UK14> like the one above/after this post.

One upside of the recent difficulties is that I am now using a new suite of photo processing programs from Topaz Labs. One module that showed up as something of a “bonus” in the process was a new program called ‘Impression’ which lets me digitally emulate the fine-art techniques of several masters. Among them is JMW Turner…

I first learned of Turner (Wikipedia entry here; image samples here) after my first trip to Scotland in 2012. He was regarded as Britain’s premier landscape artist in the late 18th and early 19th century, and once I started looking at images of medieval ruins online, I realized a lot of the paintings I encountered from that period were by Turner.

Now it seems that “Mr. Turner” is about to undergo something of a personal renaissance – he is the title character in a feature film that will hit theaters here in the US on December 19.

I will post the trailer for that film at the top of this page in a moment. In the meantime, here is a rendering of Caerlaverock Castle near Dumfries, Scotland – re-imagined as “Mr. Turner” might have painted it:

©2014 [email protected] aka @driver49