It’s Mike Ettner’s Blog

2017 Photographs: At the Phillips Collection

January 1st, 2018

Over the days ahead I want to post a handful of photographs from 2017 I’m especially happy with.

This first one was taken on the afternoon of January 6, 2017, at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, during the exhibition, “People on the Move: Beauty and Struggle in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series”

The central painting on the wall, in front of which a trio of kids have stopped to look and discuss, is Panel no. 58 out of a total of 60 panels in the complete Migration Series. Lawrence’s caption to it is: “In the North the African American had more educational opportunities.”

Jacob Lawrence, Migration Series, Panel no. 58, 1940-41. Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. David M. Levy

Tags: Beauty and Struggle, In the North the African American had more educational opportunities, Jacob Lawrence, Migration Series, Museum of Modern Art, Panel 58, Panel no. 58, People on the Move, Phillips Collection, Washington DC
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Flowers of the Year 2017

December 31st, 2017

I can’t think of better material to post on this final — and brutally sub-freezing — day of 2017 than a bunch of photos of flowers and other flora found in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. The presentation will begin with Spring, of course.

APRIL

Here’s a bit of nature I found while hiking a trail in Glover-Archbold Park. It came from a majestic tree commonly known as the tulip tree or tulip poplar for its tulip-shaped flowers painted in a brilliant orange, green and yellow. In fully mature trees these spring flowers remain high up in the tree’s canopy, out of sight to those of us below. So I was surprised, one day in April, when I came across this specimen resting on the forest floor. I wondered whether it was a storm that brought it down from on high. But then I noticed the twig that not long ago had connected it to the tall tree above. This stalk was cut cleanly, on an angle. Who would do such a thing? The best answer: a squirrel.

April 29, 2017, Glover Park, DC

April 29, 2017, Glover Park DC

MAY

May 21, 2917, Glover Park DC, sedum in bloom

May 21, 2017, Glover Park DC, an unmowed front yard with wildflowers and grasses. In the lower right you’ll find the left-behind shell (exuvia) of a cicada.

JUNE

June 5, 2017, Glover Park DC

June 5, 2017, Glover Park DC, one lily wants to roam free

JULY

July 9, 2017, Glover Park DC, puzzle pieces of sycamore tree bark

AUGUST

August 4, 2017, Glover Park DC

August 4, 2017, Glover Park DC, drooping hydrangea

August 25, 2017, Glover Park DC, liriope‘s late-summer flowers

DECEMBER

December 24, 2017, Glover Park DC, fallen leaves from a Japanese Red Maple on moss-covered pavers

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Footprints of small dogs and their big companions

December 30th, 2017

Sidewalks this morning were dusted with a light coating of snow — just enough to record these imprints.

Tags: dog, dogs, footprints, Glover Park, prints, sidewalk, sidewalks, snow
Posted in Dogs, dogs, Glover Park, Nature, Photos | No Comments »

Ginkgo Leaf Drop

November 19th, 2017

Cold weather was overdue in Washington, DC, and so it was no surprise to us when an overnight freeze on November 11th hit the ginkgo trees in the neighborhood. A day before the youngest specimens still sported bright summer green. And so the freeze, and the ginkgo specie’s traditional all-at-once leaf dump that followed immediately, created a pile of leaves not of the usual autumn gold, but of this hue:

A few days later, though, when the oldest trees shed their final bits of raiment, the natural order of things was righted. A tradition was restored.

Sidewalks paved with gold:

Tags: ginkgo, Ginkgo biloba, gold, green, Robinson Meyer, sidewalk, The Atlantic
Posted in Nature, Photos, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Let’s Face It

September 29th, 2017

Recently in the Glover Park neighborhood of Washington, DC, two new faces appeared.

Tags: bicycle, bike, chalk, face, faces, Glover Park, pavement, reflector, reflectors, sidewalk, Washington DC
Posted in Art, Let's Face It, Photos | No Comments »

A Couple of Bored Twosomes

September 2nd, 2017

Tags: A Couple of Bored Twosomes, Absinthe, Degas, Donald Trump, Drinker, Edgar Degas, Melania Trump, The Absinthe Drinker, Three Bored Twosomes
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On the Day of the Eclipse – Looking Down

August 21st, 2017

During the height of the solar eclipse this afternoon in Washington, DC, when the moon occluded 82% of the sun’s disc, a neighbor pointed out to me how strangely the sun’s remaining light was filtering through the foliage of the large Japanese maple tree in my front yard. Openings in the tree canopy were operating as pinhole projectors. The sidewalk became a canvas for dozens of elusive, feather-like crescent shapes. You sensed this was a strange visitation, one that would prove to be ephemeral.

(Click on photo to enlarge its details.)

Washington, DC, April 21, 2017, 2:52:59 PM

April 21, 2017, 2:57:00 PM

April 21, 2017, 2:50:44 PM

By way of comparison, this final photograph, taken nearly an hour after the eclipse had passed and after a brief rain shower, shows the normal appearance of full-disc sunshine when filtered through the tree over the same sidewalk.

April 21, 2017, 3:45:49 PM

A friend informed me that Billy Ray Cyrus posted on Twitter his photo of the same phenomenon.

Tags: Billy Ray Cyrus, crescent, eclipse, feather, feathers, Moon, shape, sidewalk, Solar, sun, Twitter, Washington DC
Posted in Nature, News, Photos | No Comments »

The Tobacco Barns of Calvert County – No. 1

April 9th, 2017

If you travel the country roads of southern Maryland’s Calvert County, you are sure to come upon many tobacco barns. They are remnants of a once thriving tobacco-growing industry. While a few barns survive in good condition, most are falling victim to disrepair and the ruinous forces of nature.

I’m intrigued by these large wooden structures. There is beauty in them. Character, too. Large and simple in form, they command the landscape with a presence somehow both rustic and majestic.

From time-to-time I plan to post photos of favorite examples.

First up: A tobacco barn located in northern Calvert County at the meeting of Vanous Road and Jewell Road, photographed April 8, 2017, shortly before sunset. The second photograph catches the rising moon, in its waxing gibbous phase, trying to touch the apex of the barn’s western facade.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Tags: barn, Calvert County, gibbous, Jewell Road, Maryland, Moon, moon phase, moon phases, phase, phases, tobacco, Tobacco Barn, Vanous Road, waxing, waxing gibbous
Posted in Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Photos | No Comments »

Dusk over Chesapeake Bay – Six Photos

January 6th, 2017

This is a series of photos of the water and atmosphere of Chesapeake Bay captured at dusk on December 27, 2016, at 4:42 PM. Click each photo for a full-screen view.