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Sometimes you see a pretty face, or even a picture of a pretty face, and just feel compelled to turn it into a photograph. This young lady was encountered while strolling the streets of the small Brittany city of Morlaix one day in August. I was wondering what was on her mind, when the sun came out, and all became perfectly clear. She was thinking about the colorful old houses across the way, and how much she'd like to live in one of them someday. Her reflections on the subject were rather brilliant I thought. And speaking of reflections, am just nipping in here at the tail end of James Reflections Weekend. Better late than never.
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47 comments:
What a charming reflections post...one of the best everever.
Your captures always make me smile and anxious to get out to find my own. I never take time to post on here, which is sad, as you need to know how much you touch other's lives with your writing and shooting. Keep up the amazing work, my cyber friend.
Wow! Love these Owen. Beautiful. Veronique (French Girl in Seattle)
In fact, I believe she's pointing to the house she wants to live in. :>)
Hi Lydia, your wedding pictures were a pure pleasure to regard, poignant yet full of promise of a future where smiles rule.
And am glad then if you like these reflections... I like your "everever", which caused my eyes to do a double-take...
:-)
Dusty, humble thanks for this most abundantly kind word here... I thank you deeply. Could you please remind me of your website address ?
Best wishes...
Hi Véronique, very happy to see you on this Sunday evening, or Monday morning already here... may you have a fine week ahead...
But you are positively clairvoyant! Quick--read my mind.
Dear Distracted, I think you must be right... as she gazes out through the window of her eyes...
(echoes of Simon and Garfunkel, Kathy's Song come to mind)
To Lynne, It's not me, it's her who is clairvoyant, but as for reading your mind, I think you are still running from the thought of grown men wallowing in the fundamental mud of Fundy... having fun in their undies...
No, scratch that, I think you are just thinking innocent thoughts like putting the kettle on for tea as a cat stretches peacefully on the kitchen floor...
Tell me if I'm right, if so, I'll go buy a lottery ticket tomorrow, the jackpot is only a mere 175 million euros now. Not that I pay any attention to that sort of mind rot, my life is plenty rich already. Though, if I was a little richer, I can think of a Canadian artist I would love to subsidize a bit by buying lots of paintings...
Very clever and very creative of you Owen. And thanks also for the pretty girl.
Cool shots and interplay with the reflections across the way. But, let's face it, she's selling a hair product. "Its only focus is beautiful hair; its sole philosophy is that Beauty and Personal Hair Care are inseparable. The company is utterly dedicated to hair beauty, applying the unique philosophy that Beauty and Personal Hair Care necessarily go hand in hand." (Perma Neutra)
I don't fault her for this. For all I know she already owns one of the beautiful and colorful buildings across the way! And, of course, I would love to run my fingers through her hair..
I meant Eugene Perma, not Perma Neutra...that must have been a Freudian slip.... : )
You brilliant voyeur you.
PS I'm thinking about just how many coffee table books are in your blog! And maybe you are already published somewhere?
eh bien tu crois owen adoré qu'elle aimerait vivre dans une de ces maisons ? je n'aurais jamais pensé à ça :-)
tu en as de l'imagination !
en tous les cas j'aime bien le thème et james appréciera sûrement ces belles photos (comme tu dis mieux vaut tard que jamais)
belle journée à toi, plein de bisous
I'm sure she was thinking: Cameron Diaz used to look a little like me...
Amusant, et drôlement bien joué avec les reflets, bravo. :)
Très Magritt, le visage de cette dame envahi de suréel... Je ne sais pas si seuls ses cheveux ont besoin d'être aimé, mais la photo aide définitivement à l’apprécier... ;)
Oh!--underpants are involved. Well, in that case...I might risk being exposed to the frolicking.
Never mind buying the lottery ticket then. Unless it's the ghost of my cat that's stretching peacefully on the kitchen floor (something she never deigned to do when she was alive; it was comfy chairs only, svp). Nope, your visions are flawed (did you get your new specs yet?)
I'll let you know when I'm having my scratch and dent sale.
I think you've got that girl in the window's thoughts all wrong. She's stalking her married lover who lives across the street in that rather strangulated looking yellow building. He's told her that they have to break it off but she has other ideas...
Wow!! Photo's speak louder than ever.
Same thing's that's on my mind: moving to a bigger apartment!!
Lovely reflections.
Ciao friend.
Makes one wonder what is melting into what, either the city into the humans, or maybe the other way round.
And yes, once I thought it was possible to melt thoughts of people as well, sadly the other seems to have gone.
(Excuse using you as a mean to transmit messages, maybe the person is reading, as I miss the voice much.)
Excellent images indeed. Please have a good Tuesday you all.
haha, that is both funny and very skillful, i would love to see a poster like this :-)
Hey LGS, a pretty girl is always welcome from time to time, and I'm sure she'd be the life of a party... You're a bit of a rascal for an squirrel I think... a squirrely rascal, or a rascally squirrel...
:-)
Ah Mythical Dan, our obsession with beauty and youth sells billions and billions of dollars of products the world over, always with slick messages... "Your hair need someone to love them"... who wouldn't think for a moment of offering her hair a little bit of loving ? Just look at those glossy lips ! And the devil wears Prada...
:-)
Dear Lady M.,
Oh, I'm so transparent ! Or was she transparent, that all those windows came shining through her eyes ?
Published ? Am published nowhere. Unless you count a grade school collection... or one piece in a poetry anthology that I had to pay to have published... :-)
Nope, this blog is it for now, my window on the world, the world's window on me... and every once in a blue moon a kind soul like you wanders in somehow; cyberspace works in mysterious ways...
Bonsoir Karine ! En fait, après réflexion, cela m'étonnerait qu'elle reverait de vivre là sur la place d Morlaix, elle a sûrement un F5 dans Paris 16ème, et puis un villa à Saint Trop-ez, un chalet à Chamonix, et si elle va sur l'Atlantique, je la vois mieux à Biar-ritz... non ? Je ne sais pas, le monde des photos de luxe et top modeles doit être toute autre chose, je n'arrive pas à imaginer, même avec toute l'imagination que j'y mets...
Je préfère de loin des choses simples...
J - 5
:-)
Steve, there's a reason for that, she is Cameron Diaz's grand-daughter...
Merci Pastelle, parfois les reflets viennent tout seuls, sans le moindre effort... comme parfois les meilleures choses dans la vie. Quand on les cherche, on ne trouve pas, mais quand on ne cherche pas, tout arrive...
Bonjour 'Tsuki ! Ah, tu penses qu'elle aurait besoin de plus qu'un simple shampooing ? En tout cas, c'est certain, il y a quelque chose de très attachant dans son sourire, ses yeux... il va falloir un bon démelant...
:-)
Brilliant! This is so clever and I love the architecture in the reflections!
Dear dear Lynne, I guess I've got it all wrong then, from A to Z, departed cats, jilted lovers, strangulated yellows, not so mellow, guess I'll head back to my wallowing... and forget all about the lottery ticket ! Thanks for setting things straight in my jumbled mind, where imaginitave tsunamis sometimes create great havoc...
:-)
Hi Lorrene, no hearing aids needed !
:-)
Ciao Lola !
And I hope you will succeed, especially if a bigger apartment means a bigger kitchen... I think you should have a kitchen of at least 50 square meters, just to give plenty of room for your rampant culinary imagination to run totally wild...
Tag Robert,
I think the melting works both ways, depending on the temperature and density of the subject matter... some things are just too cold or too hard to allow melting to occur, while others are soft and warm and melt like chocolate at the merest glance...
And you may transmit messages here to your heart's content, may the entire universe read them, and maybe somewhere cause a heart to melt...
Dearest Roxana, you will have to come to France then, and hire me as your tour guide, and I will show you where this poster is, and much much more ...
:-)
Suis content si ceci t'a provoqué un petit sourire... j'aime surtout comment les fenêtres se sont mises à la place de ses yeux...
Hi James ! I love not only the architecture of the houses, but the architecture of her features as well... something very harmonious going on there... hope you've been having some good strolls on Balboa... I'm sure there's lots of fine architecture there as well, on the streets, on the beaches ?
:-)
That is quite surreal. You have a skilled eye for our times! We all aspire to one or both of these things - awesome hair and an amazing place to show it off...
Hi Stickup... It seems to me that the world is an increasingly surreal place. We have cut too many ties with the earth itself, with our animal origins, and we flounder in an increasingly artificial world, where lip gloss and hair products and perfume conspire to cover and mask and dissimulate the underlying humanity, the art of seduction through marketing photography has become a multi-billion dollar business. My photographs, I hope at any rate, are the antithesis of all of that. Give me a mountain trail to an old ghost town any day, with the hope of seeing a mountain lion, at a distance, or a coyote... with an Abbey book in my day sack... but I guess you understand all that. Though how it is we folk from the heart of the urban sprawl of south eastern Pennsylvania could have picked up on any of the vibrations speaking of other realities, other spiritualities, I don't know, I wonder, I wonder. So much was hidden from us while we were young and impressionable. Climbing the myriad desert paths to clarity of vision is a long and arduous trek, I feel like I have only just begun.
Sorry for ranting a bit, you always seem to spark a smoldering fire in me.
Be well, friend...
How fabulous! Most of the reflections round here are awful, with broken down buildings...it will be a great day indeed when I find the time to get out further afield and capture more Canterbury beauty. (And she's probably wondering if you now the way to San Jose...lalalalalala)
Dear Sister Saj, I trust, I hope you are capturing some of those scenes for posterity, there can be great beauty in scenes of desolation. And these broken down palaces cannot last forever, before they rise again, stronger than before ? I trust, I hope...
yes owen adoré J-5 !!!
xxx
Owen, it has been awhile since I've been to your Blog . . . as always, you have captured some mighty impressive images.
Well, you demonstrated beautifully that reflection is in the eye of the beholder! Depending on where you place yourself, the photo is so different! My preference goes to the top one with its soft mix of face features and townhouse background.
her hair needs someone to love it and the houses need someone to love them.....sounds like a match made in heaven!
love the way you superimpose these shots, owen - tres fantastique! i love doing this kind of thing - i shot a similar reflection off a poster a la scala in milan - didn't see it until my sister pointed it out to me. beauty is all around us - thanks for sharing it ;-)
Dear Owen, what an eloquent reply. You have helped to clarify and put words to my quest and I can't tell you how much I am warmed by those words. I have cut and pasted your reply to put in my journal to read over and over and know that I have a friend with me in spirit during my times living in, loving, and photographing these amazing, primitive, vast, wild western landscapes. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for those words and sentiments...
Karine... errr J-4 !
Peut-être je devrais songer à raccourcir la barbe légèrement ?
:-)
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