A treasure trove of a find

In the last week there have been numerous distractions which have kept me from accomplishing some of the things that were planned, considering I was going to have a few days to myself in which to do so. If I were to tell you that these distractions were not welcomed, well I would be telling you a gross and deliberate, outright, deceitful, lie.

There are certainly undesirable distractions, but these were not part of the unwanted, not like the robot-phone calls, which seem to arrive just when one is sitting down for dinner. No, this was about connecting with like-minded individuals and trusts me; it was like each one was sitting in the kitchen and having tea and coffee cake. So now a balance needs to be struck between being with friends and colleagues, while devoting still ample time to either blogs, therefore a decision needed to be made and it has but first, let me share with you a wonderful find of a treasure.

Digital duo-tone photograph, September 5, 2009

Earlier today I stopped off at my favorite haunts, searching for collage material, including other items of interest and to my surprise discovered a 1901 Cram’s Superior Family Atlas in questionable condition. The hardcover volume was far from perfect, it was in three pieces, but what matters were the pages, the maps. At ten Dollars, the price was right, but would I ever make use of these pages for collage, considering I love to collect maps?

Besides the atlas, I was rummaging through in a flat filling drawers, finding further back under all the more recent additions, a number of National Geographic maps from 1954 through 1957. Over the years the papers prominence had softened, started the process of aging. Another National Geographic map was far more brittle and already heavily damaged had turned it to a deep amber tone as if soaked by a dark Kusmi tea from Kousmichoff.

There were two other maps, more modern but still distinctive, of areas less traveled to by most non-Europeans. The larger of the two maps covers Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, a city whose seal is very similar to that of my hometown and birthplace, Hamburg. The other chart I purchased is of the town Bayeux in Normandy, France.

Back home everything was once more carefully inspected before setting up near a window a tabletop arrangement with today’s treasures, including a circular object already on hand, to help out with compositional balance. After a number of exposures, the composition was slightly altered and adjustments were made in order to control how the light traveled across each surface of each item. A small, but wide enough form core reflector was placed near the camera to bounce any light back and soften any shadows.

Digital duo-tone photograph, September 5, 2009

Now the hour is late, candlelight fills the room, and there is music in the background. My cat is curled up in her small basket that rests next to me and I review my notes logged earlier in a buff coloured Moleskine notebook. Within the pages I recorded a number of concepts for the blog, like a list of topic ideas I might wish to cover along with a ‘Give Away’ idea and further customization to the sidebar.

To maintain six posts a month and two on ‘The Artist Within Us’, will in the end only suffer in the quality of what is published. The decision to cut back by a third has been most difficult, especially since I love to write. As the other blog already has a publication schedule, then ‘Four Seasons in a Life’ should have its own timetable, this way neither sites will be in conflict and you will know when to expect the next posting. I guess we call this ‘learning on the job’, considering I did not think of it when starting this blog.