The other day, in one of the most lovely cities I’ve ever been to, I had the not so common opportunity to spend an extended amount of time wandering at will, taking pictures, with every option before me.
Perhaps in line with my nature, I ended up in a small park next to a museum, spending a good deal of time photographing fish.
We take what comes our way.
In La Rochelle, I ate a dozen oysters at the exquisite market there. But before I ate them, I took some pictures. Then I did a lot of things to those pictures, and that’s what I have to show for today.
Having gone off on an ambitious day trip to a mountain town called Saorge, where I took so many photographs my phone died of exhaustion, I feel reluctant to get started on the story of the wonder of that journey before clearing out some of my notes, images, outtakes, and experiments from the past week first. Sunday, a bit of a low traffic day on Clerkmanifesto, is a good day for this, and so that's what we're up to today!
These are all random bits from around my city, mostly with extra layers of editing, image manipulation, and AI. Some of these are alternates from themes or series in my earlier posts, and a few are one offs. But I think they each tell their own story well enough, so I present them without individual introductions:
Holy crap. These seagulls are amazing.
I don't think there is a better bird for watching flying. I mean, around here, there's not much else. Am I going to watch the pigeons fly?
Yes, I am going to watch the pigeons fly! They're a lot of fun too, darting, quick, and surprisingly graceful. And if I'm lucky enough to run into a flock of starlings? It is absolutely mesmerizing! But I haven't seen starlings around here in more than a month. And pigeons are a little scruffy. Beyond that, there's the occasional crow or songbird, and none of them here are much about aerial acrobatics.
But seagulls?
They are the size of bald eagles. But seagulls look like something stiff and light that you could pick up if you wanted. And to compare their flying abilities to any other bird would be absurd. It's not quite that they look like they're doing it for fun exactly. It's just that they're so good at it. There are so many of these loud scavenging desperate birds around, and they can be obnoxious and it can be easy to take them for granted... but... they are so fucking good at flying. And the more you watch them the more you understand how good they are, their sheer complete understanding. Their mastery touches on art. They are beyond pride. And though full of all the craven natures and practicalities of living creatures, sometimes even moreso than many other animals, seagulls nevertheless slip beyond everything when they fly. It's not practical, or joyous, or thrilling exactly. Too pure to contain anything other than flying, it's that they are so good they think nothing of it. They are so good it just devolves down to... magic.
I painted one. I enjoyed drawing the stones of our beaches here about as much as I enjoy walking on those stones.
Maybe for the subject of this missive the seagull should have been flying?
But I am a mere mortal. How could I do that justice?
There aren't a lot of animals in this city, so thank god for the birds. I have yet to see a mere squirrel and even the wee bugs are rare. Maybe the ocean, its own teeming wilderness, is full of creatures, but they keep their own counsel, not be heard from above the waves.
I live above the waves.
But there are birds. Not many varieties, and they run a bit squidgy around the edges sometimes, but there are plenty of them. The pigeons are near everywhere, and though I am familiar with the phrase "Rats with wings" I do not find rats without charm in the right context anyway, and I have yet to find any pigeon who is not a perfectly delightful neighbor. Less common are the starlings, but in their formations they are so thrilling one is inclined to drop everything and get hypnotized by their flight for awhile. There's some kind of finch, the black and white songbird, I'll get their names down eventually, and a couple others I've seen show up rarely. But for the greatest presence of all, up in the air, and as unmissable as the pigeons, are the seagulls.
They're like crows, but with a far less sophisticated sense of humor.
I'm not even sure it is a sense of humor!
But, boy, can they fly!
A bit after dawn this morning they were out tossing about the sky for fun among the nearby buildings. I tried to take some pictures of them, moved by their grace and fecundity. The pictures really didn't come out, but in a telling sort of way. And it is too rare that I show you my completely raw photographs. I don't want you to think my world is perfect!
So here are some seagulls:
