A Day of Red

roof

quince

redbud

choir robes

fire and passion, too, in student, family, and colleague memorial service testimonies attesting to the powerful influence of a beloved Sewanee professor, a man I met a few times and left each time charmed and intrigued and touched by his quiet humor and intelligence

One Red Cabinet Will Do

in place of the kitchen hearth. 

Sesame Street Asks

It's RED!

Photographing Red

A former student's beautiful Facebook photograph of a red flower captures what I find so hard to shoot: red things with contour, shadow, and three-dimensionality.  Under her picture, I commented, "Red is so dadgum difficult to photograph!"  She replied, "Yes, it blows out so easily, doesn't it?"

Indeed.

Caressing a Cardinal Flower this afternoon with my eyes, I kneeled in not-yet-hardened-muck and, like a penitent, sought spiritual guidance.  I surely earned forgiveness if not transcendence.  I could not, no matter how many snaps I took, quite capture the beauty of the flower renowned for its attractiveness to Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

My heart fluttered as a bird's wings might whir, and while I did not pierce the long throat of flower -- dusting my head with pollen -- I pierced the afternoon sky with bloody blossom.  Today, that was pleasure enough.