Each month a selection from my abstract Color is a Verb series is available as a desktop wallpaper. You can add this file to your screensaver folder and have it rotate among other images you collect.

Where I live July is bold and vibrant with plenty of rich primary colors. Blue lakes and skies, golden sun (sometimes!) canopy green hills. This image spoke of sumer to me.

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Here are some other terrific photographers who offer free images for you to enjoy. Treat yourself and have a look – they’re all quite stunning and very unique in subject matter and vision.

David du Chemin
Matt Brandon
Younes Bounhar
Gavin Gough

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Like many people I adore abandoned, run down places. I don’t know why but I am simply fascinated by the places people leave behind. Maybe because they appear to have been enjoyed, or at least consumed, by people and are then are further ingested by neglect and the elements.

So back in 2002 while driving in Utah my husband and I turned off the main road in search of Grafton – a little town that had been abandoned in the late 1800s. It was wonderful to wander around the poignant remains of the few farmhouses, barns and church that were there. I was in grunge heaven then, with only my point and shoot camera.

So on our recent trip to Zion National Park last month we made a planned detour to revisit Grafton because I wanted to play there with my spiffier whizbang camera. After first missing the unassuming turnoff we urged our rental car several miles down a rutted dirt road, passing a few new luxury desert homes that neither of us recalled being there on our first trip. When we rolled into Grafton I discovered it once again had been changed by time – it was nicer. It was cleaner. It was being refurbished? UGH! I have to admit I was a little disappointed. Ok, a lot disappointed. Do not misunderstand – I am all for the preservation of the whole world’s heritage just not when I’m specifically searching for its forgotten places. The organization that’s restoring Grafton is doing a wonderful job – no easy task considering the extreme terrain and climate in which it stands. I imagine Grafton will be a museum soon, it’s almost one now. It’s no longer a ghost town, more like the ghost of a ghost town.

I never really found my groove but ignoring the padlocks and climbing the fence I spent most of my time at this homestead. I’d like to say it was because I found it more enchanting than the other buildings down the road but honestly it was because there were people at the other end of town. No ghosts, people.

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Was delighted to see selections from my Color is a Verb included in David Nightingale’s soon to be released book Extreme Exposures, Advanced Techniques for Creative Digital Photography.

The book, published by Ilex Press out of East Sussex, England, covers a vast array of traditional and innovative techniques for capturing images in a variety of situations and will be available September 2010.

As a body of work Color is a Verb has deep personal importance for me. What began as a personal project for my husband continues to evolve as a series of vibrant interpretive images of nature that quickly became popular. But that’s how art happens sometimes—unexpectedly—and it doesn’t always wait for you to catch up.

As the series has developed, my approach to each individual image has changed. I spend a great deal more time pre-visualizing each shot with a more defined expectation than in the earliest captures. But the truth is with a technique like this, controlling the outcome to any great degree is virtually impossible. So I have to be satisfied with the execution of my intent and stay open to the idea that art can have its own energies.

Sadly, there’s no un-oops key I can press. But I can invite you to re-subscribe to my occasional email newsletter and I will select one lucky subscriber to receive a archival matted Giclée print of Urge, the very first image created for my Color is a Verb series. It’s the image that started it all and is only being released in a limited edition.

Color is a Verb: Urge

So sign up!  Who knows, you might occasionally find some sparkle in your email inbox.

The recipient of the print will be chosen randomly by a very well backed up computer, on Thursday July 1st!

Each month a selection from my abstract Color is a Verb series is available as a desktop wallpaper. You can add this file to your screensaver folder and have it rotate among other images you collect.

June is the official first month of summer where I live. Summer brings thoughts of lazy afternoons spent floating at the lake.

Download 1920 x 1280
Download 1280 x 853

Here are some other terrific photographers who offer free images for you to enjoy. Treat yourself and have a look – they’re all quite stunning and very unique in subject matter and vision.

David du Chemin
Matt Brandon
Younes Bounhar
Gavin Gough

Each month a selection from my abstract Color is a Verb series is available as a desktop wallpaper. You can add this file to your screensaver folder and have it rotate among other images you collect.

May is all about oft blue skies and vibrant yellow greens of new growth. May can be a real tease here in Vermont – it whispers summer warmth but sometimes with a cool hush.

Download 1920 x 1280
Download 1280 x 853

Here are some other terrific photographers who offer free images for you to enjoy. Treat yourself and have a look – they’re all quite stunning and very unique in subject matter and vision.

David du Chemin
Matt Brandon
Younes Bounhar
Gavin Gough

Does anything speak springtime more than pink? The delicate softness of the season is just marvelous.

Download 1920 x 1280
Download 1280 x 853

Here are some other terrific photographers who offer free images for you to enjoy. Treat yourself and have a look – they’re all quite stunning and very unique in subject matter and vision.

David du Chemin
Matt Brandon
Younes Bounhar
Gavin Gough

March, in like a lion and out like a lamb. March is a blustery month of wind and breezes. This selection, Dance, reminds me of the swirl of mornings in March.

Download 1920 x 1280
Download 1280 x 853

Here are some other terrific photographers who offer free images for you to enjoy. Treat yourself and have a look – they’re all quite stunning and very unique in subject matter and vision.

David du Chemin
Matt Brandon
Younes Bounhar
Gavin Gough