Happy Halloween

Fire dancer

 At Bay View's Pumpkin Pavilion last weekend... witchy, pagan fire dancers under an autumn tree ... I'm a little weirded out by the purple light in the scary dancer-immolation photo. It showed up in a few others. Probably a delayed effect from the moving fire and slow shutter speed. Or not...

Pumpkin pavilion

 From last weekend's Pumpkin Pavilion in Humboldt Park, Milwaukee. Residents of Bay View (the coolest, hippest neighborhood) carved hundreds of jack-o-lanterns for the event, which also included fire dancers (photos to come).

Some things stay the same

Love the motion in this shot. Everything is in motion – my youngest cousin (swinging, yes, but also beginning the rapid change from childhood to adulthood). The season, the day. I was losing sun quickly, and I was losing battery power. Sometimes my camera gives me some interesting gifts when it’s running out of juice. Though things are in flux in this picture there are elements that remain the same: The cabin (in northern Wisconsin) has been there a long time – part of my aunt’s family history. The tree has been there a long time, as has the river directly behind me. The seasons will change – that’s a constant – and children will grow and maybe retain or regain their sense of joy in the moment. The memories will remain.

Transition

A few changes. New look.  Maybe a new focus. After all, Purple Houses has been my "journal of creative evolution" -- and, of course, evolution is a fundamental component of creativity. I preach to my beginning bloggers that regular posting is important -- clearly, I'm not following my own advice, and clearly, that's an indicator that something needs to change.

So what's the deal? I'm still writing and working on getting published and balancing the things I want to do with the things I have to do, blah blah blah. Not much else to say about that.

But I'm taking a whole lot of pictures. Maybe, I thought, I have more to say visually right now. I think the stories will come with the images...