I love the look of leaves in the fall. The colors and patterns always bring me a smile as I drive or follow a wooded path or kayak a narrow creek.  Much to my frustration, I’ve never been able to take a picture of them that satisfies me. Last year, I thought of those streaming light pictures one takes at night with very long exposures. I occurred to me to try the same technique with autumn leaves. I’m still not happy with my leaf pictures, but I do enjoy some of abstract images I find in these blurred splashes of color.

I have long admired the work of John Cage and his toying with the random. Both Night Lights and Autumn Abstracted owe him a great deal in that they are captured in a nearly random fashion and there is little to predict what effects they will render. I take the raw images and search them for portions I find visually pleasing. Those portions are then culled and “developed.” I’ll call it curated randomosity.

The effects of this exploration may also be seen in some other styles of my work. Most obvious to me are its effects on what I call “drive by shooting.” These photos are taken out the window of the car in stopped traffic. Framing and focus certainly suffer in such circumstances. Using the same eye as in curated randomosity, I look in those less controlled raw images for compositions that please me. This is an explanation for some of the unconventional framing and cropping you may notice in some of my street photography.

The new collection may bee seen here. It will be supplemented with fresh images periodically.

My first such gallery is here.