Nature | Targuman | PhotoBlog

When I started shooting and developing my own film and images (following in my older brother’s footsteps) we only used B&W. It was much cheaper and a lot easier to do in a basement darkroom whose walls consisted of heavy black plastic duct-taped to the ceiling. I have always loved landscapes and barns and farms in particular. This fall I hope to shoot a dozen or so specific farms I have gotten to know in our drives around central PA over the last 6 years. Today was fortuitous. It had begun to rain and we pulled over to put the top up. I drive past this farm at least twice a week, but usually as I am late for some meeting. This time I had the time.

I have loved orchids ever since I first read Nero Wolfe as a kid (Timothy Hutton did a great TV adaptation a few years ago). I already enjoyed horticulture and to have a detective-hero who had his own greenhouse where he nurtured and nursed his blooming children made it obvious that I had to have a few plants of my own. In those days orchids were very hard to find. Now they are in every grocery store, or so it seems. My wife has recently developed an appreciation of the delicate blooms as well and rather than giving her cut flowers that would fade and die in a few days, this anniversary I got her a small phalaenopsis. In the sunlight the blooms are translucent and gorgeous.