John Michael Swartz

I pushed my bike south from around that Lafayette Memorial bas relief. Immediately behind it is a fantastic swooping path down a gentle slope toward The Pools (location of the dog beach). There are two stands of trees which face each other on small hills. I am very familiar with them; they are among my favorite things in the whole world.

The light was touch and go all afternoon, sometimes blasé and smudgy. It got quite nice at around 4:30 but I think the magnificent shape of the trees from trunk to twigs does the heavy lifting. There were diffuse clouds that somewhat softened the hard and warm pre-sunset light. It's hard to describe.

These are a bit more sentimental than I'd normally do. To be clear, I spent more time just emotionally gawping than actually taking pictures, which I think is a privilege I enjoy as a non-professional. Part of the point of this photo blog is to practice quick (and ruthless?) editing, to figure out how to get handfuls of images to hang out together in some sort of conversation. But also to have somewhere to look at how I've been looking at things, which is why I've included a few very similar shots: one with and without my shadow; two with the wasp's nest. (I thought it would be nice to try having a "subject" that isn't just a rhythmic field of branches and twigs against the sky for once.)

Encounters with the sublime result in sentimentality or camp in the hands of a mediocre artist. Maybe it was the Adagio from Mendelssohn's first piano concerto, which I was listening to while editing these. But at least I think my soul is a bit more enriched. Better luck next time!