Violin with apple blossoms, with musical notes.

Apple Blossom Violin. I hung my violin in the tree. The hand-drawn musical notes were placed digitally, and colored with samples from the violin. Camerawork & first digital composite, 1998. New version 2005.

Western Tiger Swallowtail on rhododendron flower, with musical notes from Edvard Grieg's "Papillon" (Butterfly.)

Papillon of Edvard Grieg. The music is Edvard Grieg’s Papillon (Butterfly), Opus 43, #1. The visual appearance of the piano music expresses the rapid intermittent fluttering of a butterfly as well as does the sound, giving me a way of adding the feeling of flight. This Western Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, was photographed on a rhododendron at Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington—only the musical notes were digitally inserted. Camerawork 2000, composite 2003.

Basalt, violin, and musical notes from Bach.

D Minor Chaconne. The theme of Bach’s great melancholic soliloquy for violin starts with blocks of chords which remind me of this fractured basalt. I wanted the notes to blend into the crumbling rock face like aging petroglyphs.

    This basalt wall is in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area, in the foothills of the Washington Cascades near Yakima. The violin was carried to the rocks, later the musical notes were placed digitally. Camerawork 1999, digital composite 2004.

 

On Oregon's Deschutes River, a '49 Mercury has been both shot up by hunters and joyfully painted.

’49 Mercury on the Deschutes. In 2012, I delighted in the yellow car and made a composite image of the scene. Painters, hunters, and this photographer have each had their own style of fun with this relic. Then on a spring, 2013 camping trip, I found the play had continued. Series 9CM 4-Door Sport Sedan. Deschutes River Recreation Lands, U.S. Dept. of the Interior: Bureau of Land Management, Oregon. 2013.

Roadkill yellow-breasted chat, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon.

Yellow-Breasted Chat. Apparently a vehicle hit this male chat, which was likely on a display flight courting a female, or perhaps hunting to feed its chicks. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon.