The Gray

Springtime rain season in the greater Pacific Northwest should be over by now, but it's gray again. 

This is the kind of uniform, all-encompassing gray that consumes the mountains, rooftops, trees, then everything else around.

It feels, smells, and sounds like fall. Late October, in fact, just after my birthday.

Even when the rain slows down, the gray remains--perhaps, with an occasional meager glimpse of sunlight.

I walk out in my bright red raincoat, passing by the railroad and scaring away a slew of Brewer's blackbirds perched up on the fence. They, too, want to take advantage of the chasm in the gray before it swallows the sun again.

Life's Little Pleasures

Drink freshly steeped Jade Oolong tea (even though you typically prefer the black varieties). Forget your umbrella, compact mirror, smartphone. Take your canine friend on a walk to an aspen grove.

Self-taken mobile shots? Oops, I didn't forget that phone!

Pick daisies. 

Watch a little black panther-of-a-cat hunt a ringed plover. 

Go on a solitary walk into the lilac sunset.

Get approached by one of the creepiest characters you've ever met (and you've met a few--you've lived in large cities!). Have your heart sink into your stomach, "I kinda wish this walk weren't solitary!".

* * * *  

I should really stop telling people that I live in Twin Peaks!

The Beak

Estonia might be a tiny country, but its seagulls are huge!  (Wink!) 

If you've never had nightmares about birds, you will now (and there's evolutionary (precedent). But here's a cuddlier, non-threatening version of the image. I've used a shallow depth of field to blend Tallinn's colorful rooftops and greenery into a glowing, neon background you see here. 

Supermoon!

The solstice and the supermoon? It's been a magical kind of a weekend.

In that spirit, the supermoon should be met with a glass of wine (red, dry, preferably Georgian--the usual) and Mussorgsky's bewitching Night on the Bald Mountain (or an excellent contemporary Japanese rock equivalent). 

The greater Pacific Northwest is a bit of a trickster when it comes to its ever-changing weather conditions. But, at the last moment, the thick cloud cover over "Twin Peaks" parted, and the town's residents were left with the kind of a sunset display of light and color that could challenge fireworks. 

Then, as the sun departed, bits and pieces of the moon emerged and hid behind the rapidly moving clouds. Just as quickly, it seemed to rise higher and higher, as I adjusted my tripod repeatedly, until it left the clouds altogether.

I don't know about the size, but that reported 30% brightness increase, as it appears to our eyes, was certainly noticeable. And, whereas a romantic (!) part of me wished that I opted to meet the moon up on the local mountain--perhaps to the howling of its wolves--ultimately, I am quite content with photographing it from my balcony to the comforting murmur of a warm, wrinkly basset snoring away on the couch.

P.S. The moon-beneath-the-clouds photos were shot at 3200 ISO, hence the grain (but you knew that already). 

June 22, 1941

"On the 22nd of June, exactly at 4 pm, Kiev was bombed, and they announced to us that the war had begun...", so goes a well-known Soviet-era song. 

As someone with an extensive academic background in Russian history and culture, I view the Second World War as a battle between Modernity's three principal ideologies for the right to be its ultimate expression as well as a formative, baptismal experience for the USSR, specifically, as a new geopolitical entity. But as an ordinary person, I also realize that the war had affected the lives of just about every person in the country. That is why--even over 70 years later--we, Russians, remember the 22nd of June.

This is not just a political slogan.

Those of us with a sense of rootedness (no matter where we are in the world) really think this way. Nosce te ipsum is nothing without understanding our ancestors.

I always refer to the photograph below taken on that very day in Tbilisi, modern-day Georgia. My grandparents dressed in their best and went out to enjoy the summer weekend with their young son (my uncle), which included a photo session. Their facial expressions are the result of learning that their country was officially in the state of war. (This is somewhat different from the aesthetics of melancholy in historic photographs, which I mentioned elsewhere.)

Photo taken on 22-June-1941 in Tbilisi, USSR.

Photo taken on 22-June-1941 in Tbilisi, USSR.

My grandfather showed up at a military office as a volunteer almost immediately only to be rejected for poor health and eyesight. An engineer and an architect, he went on to build bomb shelters. A man of calligraphic precision, he earned extra money for the young family to make ends meet by creating dainty dress shoes out of cardboard (!) and other available materials for local socialites. My other set of grandparents participated in the Murmansk Run (which Westerns probably know as part of Lend-Lease).

I share this photograph with my friends on social networks every June 22nd. Today, I felt compelled to sketch my grandmother--my namesake--whom I've never met (she passed away long before my birth).

Smoking Man

Watching a rather inane street performer, his lips curled in contempt (or, perhaps, naturally), he maintained an unblinking stare--this smoking man of Arbat.  Of course, his eyes were concealed by his sunglasses and his "Lenin" cap, but, for some reason, I was convinced of it.

And as he watched on, I watched him, admittedly pleased that I could detect his smoke through my viewfinder. Then I took a second to review the existent photos, and pointed the camera back up. 

He was gone. 

Summer Solstice

Here is an impromptu summer-solstice e-card for all those who appreciate (or practice) the Old Ways. 

Yes, I actually braided macaroni!  

I've also used daisies and rose hip, greens, blueberries, a raspberry for the mouth, dried seeds, ink pen, and the uruz rune. 

And now...to watch the sunset! 

Immer Vorwärts!

Spring has got to be wildlife photographers' favorite, since it is baby-animal season, even in metropolitan areas! I found these ducklings--slightly hesitant, though ready to proceed with further investigation of their murky element--in the pond outside the New Maiden (Novodevichy) Convent in Moscow.

After the Patriarch's Ponds, the New Maiden is my favorite place in the city. Admittedly, a part of me feels immeasurable, infinite nostalgia: after all, I grew up a subway stop away, and I engaged in a lot of sporting activities nearby as a child. But more immediately important, this is a somewhat central, yet quiet place to get away from the nonstop buzz of a massive city.

The ducklings' mother carefully oversaw their water training and suspiciously avoided my telephoto lens (almost, hah!). Normally, I try to check the specific names for the wildlife I photograph--if it is unfamiliar--but I'm ashamed to say that I'm not sure what these bright orange ducks are called, though I saw them all over the city, and though surprisingly beautiful they are. 

The Law and I

I suppose I should actually blog about some of the major projects in publishing--my current field--that I've completed recently, huh? :)

The 2012 installment of The Law and I (Zakon i ia) has just been released. The latter is a charitable undertaking on the part of Russia's well-known lawyer, radio and TV personality, Ruben Markaryan, who also functions as the editor-in-chief of Zakonia.Ru, that country's premiere online legal portal. This doorstopper of a publication is kind of an annual report in the legal field, but with a twist. It is a collection of articles that are sharp, funny, and, at times, snarky, so illustrating them was quite an enjoyable experience for me! 

The book's editor with whom I've worked gave me a lot of creative freedom. Equally important, this project served as a viable lesson in terms of dealing with a client across an ocean (i.e., between western North America and Moscow) on something of this size. I've produced over 50 photo-illustrations--many of which were conceptual--and some of which I've blogged about earlier. Like these:

 

I was also responsible for cover art and graphic design. We've chosen an immediately obvious archetypal Blind-Justice concept. I certainly remember climbing this Classical-throwback statue (outside of a private home and with permission, worry not!) in the dead of winter with a massive snowstorm, to boot, to blindfold and photograph it. 

Next time I might consider wearing gloves! 

The book's presentation took place at a legal forum in Saint Petersburg, which I missed by a day, literally!

Source: personal archive of zakonia.ru's editor-in-chief.

Russian actors Nikolai Serdtsev and  Maria Malinovskaia from Trial by Jury: Final Verdict, a popular daytime television show screened on Russian state channel NTV check out their colleague's new book:

Source: personal archive of zakonia.ru's editor-in-chief.

Source: personal archive of zakonia.ru's editor-in-chief.

Despite the fear of sounding trite, I will say that I've had a wonderful experience, and I'd love to be able to pursue similar projects for the Russian audience in the future.

Dear Future, please come soon!