Sight and Sound - Main Street USA

Main Street USA in the Window

A shot of the gazebo across the street taken through my partially open front window and given the watercolor treatment in Photoshop™. King St. is Shippensburg's "Main St.", and all of the town's holiday parades go right by the gazebo, so it's kept patriotically decorated all Summer long. When I saw this through the window it immediately reminded me of some shots taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson (one of my photographic heroes) on Cape Cod in the '50s. I gave it the watercolor treatment to give it the feel of a Wyeth painting. Americana at its most basic! And the following song was running in my head as I was processing the shot.

Photo © 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Sight & Sound - A Pause for Reflection

Sitting on a bench by the north duck pond meditating on the reflection of a large Birch on the water. Add some reflective music by Shadowfax. A perfect moment.

Photo © 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Wolf Moon

Wolf Moon, January 13, 2017, 6 am

Do not fear the night.
Instead, summon the wolf inside you
and welcome the darkness
like it is home.
– Nikita Gill

"Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!" – Bram Stoker, Dracula




The highlight of any Paul Winter concert - howling with the wolves!

Photo © 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Sight & Sound - Earth Ritual

Bone and Bamboo

Earth - Rock, stone, dirt, sand, wood, bone, shell, feather. The understructure of the world, bridging Air and Water, forged by Fire. Feel the heartbeat of the world and dance the dance of Earth.

© 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Sight and Sound - November

"The spirits of the air live on the smells
Of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees."
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat;
Then rose, girded himself, and o'er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load."
-   William Blake, To Autumn

Photo © 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Tracery

I was out early for a walk. It was hot and sultry even as early as it was, and I sought shade and a slight breeze on a bench by the duck pond under a large Black Locust tree. I looked up and saw this - a deep, multi-layered, delicate tracery of browns and greens that pulled my gaze up and in. My morning was complete!

Photo © 2015 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Out and About on Sunday

A few things that caught my eye on my Sunday walk after doing laundry: a cloud castle; a little stream way back in the woods; and another Halloween Pennant dragonfly.

I also managed to capture the quintessential soundtrack of deep summer - Cicadas. The woods are almost deafening with the sound of them, although you can hear a Cardinal holding his own in this clip.

© 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Heat Wave

This was the temperature in the Shippensburg, PA Lowe's garden center this afternoon. It's official, we're having a heat wave, and there are at least two more days of this horror yet to come.

Speaking of a heat wave, here's Ella to sing all about it:

Hmmm... That sounded like a request for more Ella. "Summertime" anyone?

Photo © 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Cool Water

It's hot, humid, and generally unbearable here. I'm off today, and I snuck out early before the heat got a foothold. I figured I'd get some shots of water to get the mind cool in hopes that the effect would spread to the body, and I added sound and music to enhance the effect. I hope it works!

Photos © 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Hot Summer Day in May

Yep, it's in the 90s with high humidity - a July Triple H day (Hazy, Hot, and Humid), and it's only May. It's been this way pretty much all week, and I've been getting fairly scorched at work out in the garden center. The good thing is that for the first time in my entire retail career I have Memorial Day weekend off (but not Memorial Day itself); it seems that Lowe's days-off schedule rotation is inviolable, so come holiday or high water this is my Saturday/Sunday week and I by golly have it off!

So despite the heat and humidity (I'm a Winter person, so you know this weather makes me miserable) I went over to the wetlands park this morning before it got too hot and took some pictures. Today's theme is in the shade, and all the stuff pictured here was under trees. Even the birds weren't flying about so much but perched well inside the foliage, as that first shot of the Red-winged Blackbird shows. Yep, it's hot!

The birds may have been hiding, but they weren't silent. The Catbirds were the most vocal. Below is what I've called the Catbird Concerto, in two movements; Catbirds predominate, but they're accompanied by a chorus of Cardinals, Song Sparrows, Carolina Wrens, Robins, Goldfinches, and I think you might even be able to hear the burrr of a Red-bellied Woodpecker way in the background in Part 1. Enjoy!

In case anybody's wondering, yes I was on my way to the grocery store as usual. I decided to splurge a little and have Memorial Day picnic food for supper for today and tomorrow. So I picked up some boneless, thin sliced rib eye steaks, to be eaten sandwich style with spinach, red onion slices, and tomato, accompanied by red skin potato salad and fresh iced tea. Sorry, no paper plates or red plastic cups!

© 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Rainy Day

I'm off today and tomorrow, and it's raining; supposed to rain tomorrow, too. Oh well... So I wandered over to the Dykeman Wetlands Park to see if it's as photogenic in the rain as it is in all the other times I've wandered through. It is.

This is what it sounded like while I was taking these pictures:

And some music videos on the subject. Here's Patty Griffin with her song "Rain".

And here's a classic, arguably the best song and dance number in American film history. Enjoy!

Photos © 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sight & Sound - A Pause in the Rain

The gazebo across the street, taken today when I got home from work. It was raining a little less than it had been earlier in the day, and soon after it picked up again.

The perfect music to go with the picture - Shadowfax's "A Pause in the Rain", from their 1990 CD The Odd Get Even. Enjoy!

Photo © 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Walk in the Park

I meandered through the Dykeman Wetlands Park on the way to the grocery store and captured the sights and sounds of emerging Spring. More trees are blossoming, including Redbud and Apple trees along the nature trail. And more flowers on the forest floor, including the newly-arrived Violets. And of course the birds are singing up a storm.

© 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sight & Sound - The Dykeman Wetlands in Spring

The Dykeman Wetlands Park is greening up nicely. And Middle Spring Creek is babbling away; the file below is the sound of her babbling:

And as you can see, the park and the neighboring nature trail are greening up nicely as well. And full of birds, to which the following sound file attests. Featured in this file is a Tufted Titmouse, but a Northern Flicker and several Goldfinches also stand out in the mix.

It got cooler after the weekend, more seasonable March temperatures, but starting tomorrow we'll be back into the 60s. Spring is definitely in the air.

© 2012 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sight & Sound - Spiral

A macro shot of a spiral shell, processed as a black & white and the "sepia soft" filter in the Exposure 2 plug-in.

Music: "The Spiral Staircase" by Robert Rich, from his 1991 CD Gaudí

Photo © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Time...

... and tide wait for no man.

... is of the essence.

... is, time was, time always will be.

... has come today!

Photo © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sight & Sound - Plumes

There used to be a flock of Peacocks here on Timber Hill years ago. They seem to have disappeared over the years, either due to the climate, predators, or the Amish farmers' kids, who seem to like to shoot anything with feathers. But my sister-in-law made a habit of collecting the feathers and made displays with them throughout the house. This is a detail of one of them enhanced in Photoshop - the saturation and contrasted amped up, brightness tweaked a little, and a moderate amount of posterization applied. I liked the effect.

And music to match, although it's a bit of a linguistic pun. "Plumeria" is from jazz/new age violinist Steve Kindler's 1990 album Across a Rainbow Sea. Now Plumeria is the botanical Latin name for Frangipani, but the name comes from the same source (the flower is named after someone named Plumier, which comes eventually from the French word for feather - plume). So here's the second, musical half of the pun.

Photo © 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sight & Sound - The Green Man

The Green Man is a mythic figure in cultures all over the world, representing the Nature Spirit. This still life shot today is my tribute to that spirit. And what more fitting musical tribute than Jethro Tull's "Jack-in-the-Green"? Enjoy!

Photo © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Spring Moves On Apace

You've seen this scene before here. But the last time I shot this the conditions were a lot different. Big difference, huh?

Vivaldi's "Spring" movement from his The Four Seasons suite gets overplayed this time of year, don't you think? So I went with Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" from his Songs Without Words.

Photo © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sight & Sound - Appalachian Spring

Spring moves along here in the Cumberland Valley, part of the Great Appalachian Valley. The top photo is of Timber Hill, where I live; the bottom photo is of Apple blossoms in back of the house.

And of course the perfect music for this is Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, here performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Copland himself. Enjoy!

Photos © 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger