Blog - Page 4 of 37 - Ryan Davison

Tactile Warning Devices

by Ryan DavisonComPosts March 20, 2019March 20, 2019No Comments

This is a tactile warning device, also-known-as truncated domes. Truncated domes are a much better description since they actually are domes with their tops cut flat. They are meant to be a warning to anyone stepping on them or rolling over them that they are about to enter a street or parking lot.

However, the word tactile means a sense of touch. Unless you are down on your hands and knees, running your hands across the truncated domes, you’re actually feeling them (through your feet or bottom), not touching them. So the phrase “tactile warning device” is not entirely accurate. I just thought you ought to know.

I’m Finally Using Instagram

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 18, 2019March 19, 2019No Comments

I’ve had an Instagram account for a couple of years now but have only posted two pictures. That’s kind of how I am with Facebook too. I kind of like the idea but then whenever I start posting it feels fake and pointless.

I don’t think my followers (mostly family and a few friends) really care to see all the boring stuff I do every day or pictures of my kids when they win an award or something. And I hate the idea of bombarding them with a bunch of photos that might not have much context for them. I could be totally wrong about this.

Maybe I would change my mind if my parents and sister were the only ones that could see my wall. Also, on Instagram, I didn’t really know what I should be posting. Should it be just personal family pictures? Artsy pictures that I take daily? A mix of everything? I just didn’t know what I was doing.

I still have no idea what I’m doing. But I do want to put interesting photos and information out for other people to see. This blog is one of the channels I use to do this but there are so many people using Instagram these days that I thought I should at least make another attempt at using it before it becomes obsolete and users abandon it.

So I started a fresh new Instagram account called Ryan Davison Photography and started posting the photos I thought people (yes, including my family and friends) might like to see. I post things that I plan out and take with my DSLR but I’ve also been posting things from my daily walks that I capture using my smartphone. Those smartphone photos usually turn out surprisingly well.

My latest photos have been a series taken of things I find in the gutter. That might sound boring or uninspiring but you would be amazed at the beauty hiding along the side of the road. Like the shots I posted in The Wonder in the Mundane or this image:

For Facebook users who aren’t on Instagram, I also started a Facebook page to showcase the IG photos, photography posts from this blog and anything else I feel like putting there. Hopefully all of this is for a good cause and will be enjoyed. As with most things, time will tell.

A Crack In The Road

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 15, 2019March 15, 2019No Comments

The Wonder in the Mundane

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 14, 2019March 22, 2022No Comments

I’ve continued my investigations into the gutters of my neighborhood and beyond and found more wonders that usually go unnoticed. I’m not sure how long this will last though. I like looking down to the small things around me but sometimes you have to look up and notice the larger world around you.

The trick is to see it all and not neglect any one part. Of course, I’m much more comfortable droning through life not noticing anything around me. But comfort is boring and doesn’t help you grow. I have to constantly fight the tendency to shut off the thinking part of my brain.

That’s one of the benefits of conciously looking for the minutae around you; finding the wonder in the mundane; enriching your life with the world that’s actually around you that your brain often filters out as unnecessary. So for now I’ll keep looking to the gutter as a way of lifting myself above complacency.

Oil Abstract

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 13, 2019March 13, 2019No Comments

One man’s leaky oil pan is another man’s abstract image.

Avoiding a Desaturated Life

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 12, 2019June 4, 2019No Comments

There really isn’t much color most of the places you go to. What color you do find usually isn’t well placed or interesting and you often have to search for it. Or it’s muted and not very vibrant. You might be able to see more color when you’re downtown but that’s because people are trying to sell you something so they try to shock your senses and get you to say wow, that stands out so I should buy it. But in the suburbs you just don’t find any people willing to do more than a red plastic bird feeder or a yellow “Pesticides have been applied to the lawn” stake.

I noticed on my walk today that most of the world around is made up primarily of neutral colors. The houses are whites, gray, and browns. The majority of cars on the road seem white, black or gray. When you do see a lot of colors all in one place they tend to look ugly because people haven’t thought about complimentary colors or how the colors are composed together.

Maybe that’s why so many people are into over saturating their photos on Instagram or doing HDR photography on Flickr. They want to pull out what little color they can find and show it to the world.

Now, I do have to admit, today was a cloudy, rainy day in my part of the world. And, it’s still winter so things probably seem more muted and dull to me. Thankfully, Spring is just around the corner and life is starting to spring up around us now that the weather is warming slightly. But right now, you really have to work at it to see it. Here’s a street corner I passed by the other day:

It would have been very easy to just pass by this scene and disregard it. But I stopped because I knew that in most places, if you come in just a little closer you can find some pretty amazing things. Sure enough, as I got down to ground level I was able to discover this:

This is just to show that even though the world around might look colorless, if you change perspective, and prioritize a mindful observation of your surroundings, you can find beauty almost anywhere.

A Dying Breed

by Ryan DavisonArt March 11, 2019December 9, 2023No Comments

There was absolutely no reason why I should start a sketch of a unicorn’s skull. But I did. Here it is.

42

by Ryan DavisonComPosts March 8, 2019April 29, 2020No Comments

Last week I celebrated my 42nd birthday. If you’re familiar with the work of Douglas Adams, you’ll recognize that my age is actually the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. The answer may not be entirely accurate but it does help inspire an upbeat attitude about being this particular age.

I’m way past the age where I expect to get birthday presents from anyone except myself. But, like anyone else, I still enjoy it when others recognize the fact that God has allowed the earth to shuttle me around the sun one more time by giving me something, no matter how trivial.

My family did not disappoint me in this. My youngest son who is 11 at the time of this post, drew me an amazing picture of a bird landing on a branch. I think he is getting better all the time but this picture shows that he is already pretty good!

My oldest son (15) got in on the action as well. He gave me a coupon good for a birthday gift to be made any time I want it. The funny thing is, he couldn’t bring himself to make one then on my birthday! He’s getting good at punting things. Next, I expect him to work on his delegation skills and outsource making my gift to fiverr when I call in the IOU.

My wife is always consistent when it comes to my birthday. She knows I’m fine not receiving gifts but she always manages to find something anyway to make me feel special. This year she presented me with two books that I keep borrowing over and over from the library. If I borrow something two or three times, that’s a pretty good indication that I could benefit from owning it.

The first book is The Painted Art Journal: 24 projects for creating your visual narrative by Jeanne Oliver. It’s a great book on mixed media and creating personal stories through art journaling.

The other book is Geninnes’s art: birds in watercolor, collage, and ink: a field guide to art techniques and observing in the wild by Geninne Zlatkis. Geninne is an amazing artist and I love her bird paintings. This book is great because it breaks down the process Geninne uses to develop her work. It’s very inspiring especially since I already like drawing and painting birds. Hopefully, this book can help me take my art to a higher level.

So all-in-all it was a pretty successful birthday haul. But presents aside, I had a great time spending the beginning of my next year of life with the people I love.

Photographing in the Gutter

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 7, 2019March 7, 2019No Comments

Yesterday and today I’ve taken to the streets and its gutters to see if there are any worthy subjects to photograph. It turns out, there are plenty of things that wash up against the curb. You really have to pay attention to the world around you to notice all that it has to offer.

Most people never consider the beauty of the small and insignificant things all around us. I certainly never thought that the accumulation of street refuse could be as interesting as I’ve recently discovered it can be.

This being the rainy season, most of the gutter subjects were wet when I photographed them. This really makes the color look deep and rich. It also helps to accumulate items together faster and makes new combinations that you might not otherwise see.

Rocky Road

by Ryan DavisonPhotography March 6, 2019March 7, 2019No Comments

I went out into the neighborhood this afternoon just after a rain and was able to capture some great images in the road and gutter. This was one of them.