The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has a cute effect in one of its galleries. On one of the walls is a realistic painting of people gazing at the paintings and statuary in that very gallery. In the painting you see a girl looking at a statue, with the statue itself standing just a few feet away from the painting. Here’s a photo of the statue and, in the background, the painting of the girl looking at the statue:
The drawings are on loan from the Casa Buonarotti in Florence. Okay, my photographs could have been better. What do you want for free? The light was dim to protect the drawings.
Cleopatra was my favorite. Notice the asp encircling her like a necklace:
Here’s a famous Madonna and Child. That’s one well-fed baby:
And here is a study for the head of the Madonna in some painting:
I don’t know anything about photography, but there are some images I just can’t stop staring at. There are lots of those among the finalists for the Smithsonian’s 10th annual photocontest.
Here’s a gorilla photographed at the Bronx Zoo by Vanessa Bartlett:
Here’s a kitchen in an abandoned home, photographed by Cleat Walters:
Go there and vote for your favorite! The current leader is this photo of someone watching a solar eclipse, taken by Colleen Pinski:
Wildlife have made a comeback over the years in my affluent little town. This is both good and bad. Wild turkeys aren’t a problem; coyotes are. Here’s a deer chillin’ in my neighbor’s yard at dusk:
Note the dirty snow from yesterday’s annoying snowstorm. I once saw half a dozen deer thundering incongruously through the basketball court across the street from us. Wish I’d had a camera for that.
Following up on my new year’s resolution to include more photographs in the blog, here are some winter images. First, a Tom Whelan photo of frost crystals:
He says:
[Ice crystals] only form on cold nights, with temps from 5 to 12 degrees F. These were on a leaf in a shallow brook, just an inch or so deep. The black water was a welcome background. I think it looks like a butterfly!
This one, from Michael Leacher, is called “Winter Water”:
Last but least, here is one I call “Some big icicles I saw one time when I was out taking a walk”:
Stay warm!
Here‘s another annoyingly talented photographer (and WordPress blogger) I work with. (See yesterday’s post for some photos from the first guy.) Here is a stunning image of foxtails:
And here is a haunting view of some foggy trees:
Finally, a little cascade at a brook:
You’ll notice that these photos are all copyrighted, so Mr. Whelan is probably going to come after me for reproducing them. Oh, well. In the meantime, the least you can do is visit his blog.
Following up on my resolution to add more pictures to this stupid blog, I’m going to steal a couple from the guy who sits next to me at work. (There are a lot of very annoyingly talented people where I work.) This photo is called Shadowscape:
And here’s one called Winter Water.
He also takes creepy photographs with weird filters and such, if you’re into that sort of thing. Check them out at the link! His site is in my blogroll, under “Images to Turn the Mind”, so it’s always available for your viewing pleasure.
Richard Bowker 