Open House

With the beautiful gift from WordPress of being Freshly Pressed the other day, which gave me many more subscribers, I thought a “blog open house” to show you all around and let you know what you may expect might be in order.

Poetry/Haiku
Despite photography having almost completely been in ascendancy over the summer, a brief look at the tag cloud will show that haiku are a very close second in importance. And especially as the Autumn approaches ever closer, the impulse to reflect on my surroundings in short haiku that pop up like kernels in a hot pan will increase as the days get dimmer.

Prose
Occasionally when here you may be presented with a prose piece, either on this blog itself or with a notification of a recent publication of mine in catapult magazine. The secret is that I would rather be a great writer than a great photographer…but one does what one can. Shhh!!

Contests
As an invitation to join in the creativity, the Dassler Effect hosts 2-3 contests per year in both photography and poetry, with real cash prizes and talented judges. As to the sad status of the current contest, please see “Housekeeping” below.

Exhibits / Pied Beauty Photography
When the opportunity presents itself, I also show my work in exhibits around St. Louis, which are also recreated and presented online here. While I am willing to mail pieces from a show or any picture from the blog anywhere, I hope that the process of selling my work becomes an easier enterprise when the Pied Beauty Photography web site fully comes online.

Housekeeping

Just as sometimes when hosting folk at my home early guests get the privilege to run the vacuum or wipe off the table (oh, the shame), I think a little public housekeeping is in order here as well.

chiaroscuro :: a photo contest
It may have been rather ill-conceived to attempt a photo contest about the interplay of dark and light in the brightest season in the northern hemisphere. And, so, I am postponing this until the Autumn. If you have submitted something to me already, know that your submission is safe in my Gmail and I will contact you soon.

Reply to Comments
In response to the flood of comments recently, I have turned on the ability to respond to individual comments and plan to begin using this feature myself. Do please feel free to do the same. The “Reply” button is on the top-right of a comment and gets a bit lost in the text.

You are invited

So, I hope that with this little introduction that you may be inclined stay a while. And if you are a blogger, I will try to come on over too.