Month: March 2025

Amen- A Very Good Sunday Service

Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra: The Way from Birmingham

My very young neighbor & Music Teacher & Cary Concert Singer member, told me about this performance – with regret – as she’d be away on a planned Spring Break. Bought a ticket and went to the Stewart Theater in the Talley Student Union on the NC State Campus. It was a luxury to be an audience member there instead of working in theater rear, photographing performances of the Cary Ballet Company!

The performance by Orchestra and Chorus was world class and wonderful.

There are benefits to living near a State Capital with great Universities.

Ain’t No Money In Poetry*

*”Cold Dog Soup” by Guy Clark

The last time I visited with this young dancer was during a Saturday Studio Session. I’d hired her to guide young dancer audition sessions. She had all the technical dance foundation I didn’t. Some “No Shows” allowed time to visit.

And we discussed how even though she had a contract with a professional Ballet Company, when she looked at the hours, it was barely minimum wage.

Later, I learned she went back to university and then entered the corporate world for far better money. Art is really, really hard.

Space & Tech – 3D Jazz Project Co. at Cary Ballet Conservatory Cary Arts Center – 18 April 2012

Permanent Collection

I knew the print was still hanging on the second floor of the Cary Arts Center but had no idea it was in the Town’s Website: Four Off The Floor

It’s well intended but displays the picture maker reflected in the glass (which I no longer use on displayed prints). And the focus is really soft.

Here’s what I wish it was displayed as:

Space & Tech Rehearsal – 3D Jazz Project Co. at Cary Ballet Conservatory Cary Arts Center – 18 April 2012

Heavenly

Made this photograph, 3 July 2011 – a Sunday. At the newly renovated and yet unopened, Cary Arts Center. There was a”Wet Paint” sign on the theater stage and I’m not sure if they had a CO (Certificate of Occupancy ) yet.

Didn’t know yet but I would spend a lot time there, working, until the Fall of 2022.

I do know that the adult male in the upper left, had just arrived from Belgium, with the rest of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. The three young violinists were members of the Triangle Youth Symphony.

I don’t understand how anyone can read music and play it. Some sort of mysterious alchemy. Art, I finally realized, is my spirituality. It sustains me.

Re-Engaging – American Girls

True story. Made this photograph in the “Annex” of the since sold & relocated Cary Ballet Conservatory. A Mom from the 3D Project Jazz Company left me a voice mail message (remember voice mail). Which I listened to on my laptop speakers in a Paris Apartment. Replied, we were flying home next day and yes, I could do a Sunday promo shoot.

No time to plan or rent gear.

Did have a 5 by 9 ft piece of black velour from Joann Fabrics. My late wife had sewn in rod pockets for hanging as a background. They’re laying on it.

Had one light up on a boom but was standing on a shaky piece of the lobby furniture while the Instructor, a big man named Yaqshaan Medan, was holding my belt & waist band, while I reached out over the very young dancers, with back button focus. And it worked!

Which explains why I entered it, this week, into a Digital Only Open Juried Photograph Completion.

That’s a lie – the real reason is, I have to remember to breathe when I look at it.

1 October 2017

The Moon & Me

I no longer live behind a golf course, my tripod on the empty expanse in the midnight, sky above the tree line. This week, a Lunar Eclipse will happen again. I’m pretty sure, it will look like this. Eugene Cernan, the last Man On The Moon, left his daughters initials, “TDC”, on it. Still there.

Wednesday Work – 2011 Diwali

Diwali, also called Deepavali or Deepawali, is the Hindu festival of lights. It symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Photographed for Cary Citizen, 22 October 2011.

Gallery here.

Back To Work Monday

I’m gathering speed on the array of photo editing & writing projects in plan! Today was editing and posting another Koka Booth Amphitheater event I photographed for Cary Citizen, in 2011. It was my sophomore year covering Town of Cary public events, which explains a lot more “keepers” than my freshman 2010 attempt. I was learning.

Eid al-Fitr is a holiday celebrated within Islam. Eid al-Fitr is the end of the month long, dawn to sunset fasting of Ramadan. It follows a Lunar calendar, so this year, 2025, it falls on 30 or 31 March, depending on location. Fourteen years ago, it fell on Aug. 30/31. The Town of Cary Festival was held on 8 Oct. 2011

Gallery here.

Day 2 of Meteorological Spring

(Disclaimer: These images are not mine, found on the wonderful Cornell Lab Macaulay Library site )

An upside of a ground floor Apartment with a large double window (open yesterday with 76 degree temp), is viewing the entertainment provided by a big, wildlife hosting Viburnum next to my modest patio. Underneath it today, was a Male Eastern Towhee rummaging in the mulch. The Viburnum and it’s companion row of Clarissa Holly are also on the local Grey Squirrel travel route.

Rick Simpson 28 Feb 2025
Riverbend Farm Trail , Cabarrus, North Carolina,

In summer, it shelters the nest of Chipping Sparrows and it’s blossoms attracts Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Bees. In the Fall, Monarchs!

Chippling Sparrow – https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/

And just like my previous home, I managed to shield it this Winter from the brutality of contract landscapers. Subtlety is a not, typically in their repertoire.