(Pic #1) Close-up, peeling paper and paint on newspaper box, Santa Barbara, California. Lonnie Lardner photo.
“Show me something I’ve never seen before, or something I know well – in a way I’ve never seen it.”
— Mike Dressler, Photographer, Time Magazine
My favorite moment when capturing an image comes when I spot something interesting within a larger scene. On a run through the streets of Santa Barbara I recently I spotted this old metal newspaper box with a patch of sea green shapes on its bottom panel (Pics #1 and #2). The ripped white paper poster seems to have been sprayed by a local tagger.
(Pic #2) Wide-shot, old newspaper box, State Street, Santa Barbara.
Blown up, it became a sweet abstraction that reminds me of a pattern that might make a cool background for a comic diflucan super-hero or villain like video designer Mike Henry’s take on Batman’s nemesis, Mr. Freeze (Pic #3).
Then, near the iconic Santa Barbara pier, I saw an awful over-ground pipeline stretching out over the beach, and zoomed in there too. As I moved in closer, I could see black and white striations that turned out to be bird poop. Again, close-up, it turned out to make a really nice vertical pattern (Pics #4 and #5). Even when nature “unloads” on us, it can be a beautiful thing.
(Pic #3) Left: close-up, news-box papered front panel. Right: Batman's nemesis, Mr. Freeze, illustration by Mike Henry.
(Pic #4) Close-up, Bird poop on Santa Barbara beach pipe
(Pic #5) Wide-shot, Santa Barbara beach pipe
(Pic #6) Contemporary painting, poop-inspired?
When you reach a certain age; if you can’t find beauty in dripping dried bird poop or rusting metal; you’re in trouble. Such things are just about everywhere you look. It’s life.