Mitch’s Eyes 2019.02.14
Valentine’s Day
Mitch lives on a nice street.
He always manages to get that downhill effect shooting from, I think, the Seventeenth Street bridge in Fort Lauderdale.
Anyway, Valentine’s Day.
Mitch wrote,
I found a lonely rose this morning in the street it gave me an idea. Stark beauty in a vast emptiness,but then I find beer bottles right in front of a trash can, how sad. Yet God in his infinite wisdom gives me my moments to capture. Life like art is visual, it must be seen. It also must be felt. If it doesn’t move me its not worth the time. Patience is where I find my peace. So hug someone and have a blessed day.”
The rose led to a great photographers meta-tango with Robert working hard to get a shot of his friend Melanie Jayne Mastellone as she worked hard to get a shot of the rose.
It was hit and miss as always with photography but then somehow the stars aligned and they nailed their shots at the same time.
I love how that worked out. Speaking of love...
I can tell from this next shot that Robert was back in his captain’s chair on the wall…
…propped against his backpack watching the world go by…
…and by…
…and by…
…or just chillin.
Gentleman in the middle (Jimmy?) entertains East Las Olas every Christmas dressed pretty much the same but with a Santa hat.
Across the street is Spazio’s, my daily haunt three years ago and my dawg Damien has not changed, always surrounded by admiring ladies.
When Mitch turned around he could catch a nice strong minimalist shot.
I christened these “bi-chromals” after I noticed Mitch was hitting that effect pretty regularly and decided it was not chance.
Here is a different take on “the street”. Bird is wondering if he really wants to catch up with the worm that laid those tracks.
Back up on the street, Mitch finds a shot he likes.
When he first started sharing his pix with me I would do a lot of cropping and Photoshopping. I guess his phone has a zoom lens and he is anticipating the light pretty well, now I just drag from his feed to the blog.
Where he got this shot I will never know, but I can always count on a macro shot or two in every set Robert sends along.
My brother Donald, like Mitch, does macro as well as bagging grizzlies from the safe side of a massive telephoto, and I was recently delighted to learn he, too, works hard at catching birds in flight. I like this next one by Mitch mostly for the colors. A bi-chromal, come to think of it.
Not sure why I like this next shot so much. Robert probably knows.
Also, I looked at this a dozen times before spotting the trompe l’oeil. Maybe you will see it right away — field and ground are like that — but it is worth the search. I will not ruin it for you, but it is there.
I think for every sunset shot like the one above, Mitch sends me twenty sunrises. South Florida’s east coast is different, the sunrises are dramatic and the sunsets ordinary. And Robert is an early riser.
Before closing out the day, let us see what Robert sees in the morning.
Robert has never sent along a shot at an angle like that so I had to include it. Turned out pretty sharp, too.
Love this second variation on the tree; the glare off the picnic tables makes it.
When Mitch gets down to the water’s edge the waves come to life. Maybe the automatic exposure does better with a full frame.
Above is a neato bike rack in the shape of a bike, just one of many shots Robert hits again and again, like Georgia O’Keefe and her flowers or dried skulls. I guess this is like sampling a song — the sculptor created the bicycle, and Robert is showing us what the sculptor created.
I’ll be back with some evening shots after lunch. Here’s a tease, another trompe l’oeil (it’s not water).
That is just the enamel-coated wall at the corner of A1A and East Las Olas.
Not sure why I like this next one so much.
And the man himself, photographer Robert Mitchell.
