every photograph has a story

2007-10-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

This is only the second time that I have shown my photography like this... (kinda nervous)

And this is also the first time that I have shown my photographs at first fridays... (really nervous)

I am really excited because my good friend aubrey has collaborated with me on three pieces...She has painted over three of my photographs...and they will be there on friday...I have only seen them through a jpeg, and so I am eager to see them in person!!

If you are free on friday night and you want to come down and check out some art & photography...

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

ny city skyline

2007-05-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

2007-03-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

2007-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

moonlit night.

2007-02-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

2007-02-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

There is something calming about skipping rocks. I don’t have the slightest clue as to why. But it is. Have you ever skipped rocks before? If you have, then you know what I am talking about. This particular time I was working at a camp in Alaska with a team that I was leading from Scottsdale. It was late when I took this photograph…I needed to get away for a bit to gather some thoughts and listen to silence. I think it was like 12ish in the morning, and since it was the summer the sun stays out just about all day and night. It never got any darker than what you see there in the photograph.

If you look real hard you can see the rock and the trail of skips...I think I got 4 out of that rock!

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

Water Lily

2007-01-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

lily |ˈlilē|
noun
1 a bulbous plant with large trumpet-shaped, typically fragrant, flowers on a tall, slender stem. Lilies have long been cultivated, some kinds being of symbolic importance and some used in perfumery. • Genus Lilium, family Liliaceae (the lily family). This family includes many flowering bulbs, such as bluebells, hyacinths, and tulips. Several plants are often placed in different families, esp. the Alliaceae (onions and their relatives), Aloaceae (aloes), and Amaryllidaceae (amaryllis, daffodils, jonquil), and as many as 38 families are sometimes recognized.
• short for water lily .
• used in names of other plants with similar flowers or leaves, e.g., arum lily.

ORIGIN Old English lilie, from Latin lilium, from Greek leirion.

I photographed these water lilies near the Sea of Cortez...

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

2007-01-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

Late in the night…

I think in black and white the photograph becomes more romantic.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

2007-01-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

To be honest I don’t remember where I was going on this train…but what I do remember is that I was in Chicago. I remember that I was with a really good friend of mine. And I remember that I was only 1 of 2 white people on the train. The other was my good friend I was with. I also remember being lost on that train. So these pictures were an attempt to get my mind off being lost.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

2006-12-20T23:59:00.000-08:00

I wonder what this bird is thinking...

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

2006-12-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

This photograph was taken at dawn.

The location was a fishing dock somewhere in Mexico. What the picture doesn’t show is about 100 other fishing boats…big new boats…that were heading off to sea. This particular boat wasn’t though. I think he or she (I don’t know the sex of the boat) was retired. It had seen it days.

The appeal and the beauty in this ship is hidden within its rust and brokenness. I don't know if you can see it, but the left side of the ship is literally leaking water. I couldn’t image the stories that this ship could tell if it were to speak.

I wanted to make this photograph appear as though it might belong in someone’s dreams…or imagination. So I spent some time with the photograph in Photoshop to see if i could design this feeling or emotion.

I think now the photo it is just real enough, but yet tales could still be told about her (I think I just made the ship a her).

If you have some time you should tell someone a tale about her…

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

from my car window

2006-11-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

I was just on my way home from the grocery store…It was 5:53pm and I had just bought two six packs of Guinness for some friends who were coming over to watch football tonight. I was in the middle of a bunch a cars…and you know those moments when you are driving and for whatever reason you space out and can’t remember how long you weren’t looking at the road or paying attention? I had one of those moments...

I was lost in this sunset…

It was beautiful. I wish the quality of the photo were better for you. My camera phone isn’t the best but it’ll do. I hadn’t seen a sunset like that in awhile. I swear the only thing Arizona is missing is the ocean.

It was funny because I looked at all the cars around and I couldn’t help but wonder just where they thought this sunset was coming from. I have a few ideas of my own.

One thing I know is that we all enjoyed a treat on our way home.

Glad I could share it with you.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

sacred dirty ground

2006-11-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

Some of my favorite times of worship that I can remember have taken place on my knees…

I <3

2006-10-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Have you ever carved a heart or the name of someone that you had a crush on into a tree or bench before?

I was in 7th grade…it was a tree…her name was Nikki. Those were the days.

I didn’t carve the heart into this bench, but when I saw the engraving I was brought back…way back…back into time.

So who do you have a crush on?

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

through the lens

2006-10-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Photography much like writing is one of my favorite things to do. But it is also really embarrassing when I know that people see my photos or read my blogs. This particular blog was really hard for me to get started. I am already at times very self-conscious about writing and then when you add my photographs…it only heightens my nerves. But I am working on it…I’m trying to open up more and more…

I was asked last week to be one of the photographers of this night that was going to celebrate the art of photography. I was told that this was going to be the third year in a row they were going to have this event. The vision for this night came from the mind of this guy named Humberto. Over the past week I have gotten to know him more and I have really grown to respect him and his vision for this night. And I am honored that he wanted me to be apart of it.

So I wanted to invite you, if you are in town, to Through the Lens. I don’t know what to expect, but I look forward to seeing everyone’s photographs.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

water painting...

2006-10-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

I was hiking in northern California about a year in a half ago. It was beautiful. The fog would come in at dusk and wouldn’t leave until the next morning. I remember I would get up early and I would walk around this lake looking to see if I could find God posing for my camera.

I remember walking a lot…I remember thinking to myself as I looked back at the camp wondering how the heck have I gotten this far.

I don’t know about you, but lots of my favorite photographs have come when I least expect them…It's almost like I have reached the point where I have given up and I start to walk back or put my camera away and then it hits my eyes and I notice something to which before I didn’t see. I sometimes feel like God is doing this on purpose to just play around with me when this happens.

On this particular morning I had decided to walk back…I was way to far at this point and the thought of walking back was just frustrating. While on foot I remember looking off into the forest wondering what could possibly be out there that could eat me…I also remember looking at all the flowers that seemed to hug the shoreline of this lake. I remember I kinda followed the shoreline at this one place on the lake and I started to notice the reflection of the mountains in the water. It was beautiful to me how much the reflection made the mountains look like a water painting. And I remember at that moment I thought to myself…He’s posing.

Have you ever been driving behind a Jeep wrangler or any other off-road vehicle and saw that bumper sticker that reads, “if you can read this, flip me over”? But in order to read this bumper sticker you have to bend to one side and to the best of your abilities you have to turn your head upside down so that you can read the sticker.

Well that is how I began to see this picture.

Did you just try it??

I was just standing there looking at this reflection in the lake with my body bent to one side and my head was turned upside down...Hey, what happens in the woods, stays in the woods! That's what I like to say anyways. haha

It was really funny (it would have been embarrassing if someone was around) because I was trying to turn my head upside down and still take the picture…that didn’t work to well. Then I tried turning the camera upside down…that didn’t work either. But then the light bulb finally turned on…I remembered thinking that I could just rotate the photo once I put it on my computer.

It wasn’t till then that the photograph came to life.

I have tried to refashion some of my other photographs in various ways through photoshop. But this photograph has not been adjusted in any way. The only thing I did was rotate the photo.

I guess you could say this is a Water Painting in the most literal use of the words...

From one seer to another...

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

number 3

2006-09-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

This photograph was taken in San Diego. The bridge in the background is what you cross to make your way over to Coronado Island. Coronado Island is deceiving because it really isn’t an island, but they call it one anyways.

I was with some friends when I took this picture. It was around 6 in the morning. I really wanted to see what the bridge looked like at Sunrise. And so I got up early one morning and I drove down to the bridge. I thought I was going to be the only person that dumb to get up that early but they have this long walking path and the whole time I was taking pictures I would see people walking briskly. Have you ever seen someone walk briskly?? It is that awkward looking walk where they take a bunch of little steps and they stick their hips out really far to the right or left as they walk and while their hips resemble that of Shakira their arms are in a punching position so that when they walk they look like they are punching the air. It is really bizarre.

But anyways…

I really like this picture because in the background you can see the number 3.

Can you see it???

If you look in the bottom right-hand corner you will see a white number 3. It was painted on the side of a Navy ship. But because of the fog you can’t see the ship…just the number.

I love the number 3. I guess you could say it is my lucky number. What’s your lucky number? It feels like such a high school thing to ask. I don’t know where the idea of lucky numbers came from. I used to play basketball in high school and everyone wore jerseys with numbers on the back and so all the players fight over the number they want. They never had number 3 in high school so I would wear 12. My high school logic was that 1+2=3. It was really cool though because my senior year my coach surprised me and ordered me a number 3 jersey. So all of my senior year I wore the actual number 3…no addition required!

Anyways, I love this photograph because you can faintly see the number 3 in it.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

luminous nazarene

2006-08-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

So I found this in an old high school physics book…

Lesson 1: Reflection and Its Importance
The Role of Light to Sight

The objects which we see can be placed into one of two categories: luminous objects and illuminated objects. Luminous objects are objects which generate their own light. Illuminated objects are objects which are capable of reflecting light to our eyes. The sun is an example of a luminous object, while the moon is an illuminated object. During the day, the nuclear reactions on the sun’s surface generate sufficient light to illuminate objects on Earth. The blue skies, the white clouds, the green grass, the colored leaves of fall, the neighbor’s house, and the car approaching the intersection are all seen as a result of light from the sun (the luminous object) reflecting off the illuminated objects and traveling to our eyes. Without the light from the luminous objects, these illuminated objects would not be seen. During the evening when the Earth has rotated to a position where the light from the sun can no longer reach our part of the Earth (due to its inability to bend around the spherical shape of the Earth), objects on Earth appear black (or at least so dark that we could say they are nearly black). In the absence of a porch light or a street light, the neighbor’s house can no longer be seen; the grass is no longer green, but rather black; the leaves on the trees are dark; and were it not for the headlights of the car, it would not be seen approaching the intersection. Without luminous objects generating light which propagates through space to illuminate non-luminous objects, those non-luminous objects cannot be seen.

Without light, there would be no sight.

None of us are light-generating objects. We are not brilliant objects (please take no offense) like the sun; rather, we are illuminated objects like the moon. We make our presence visibly known by reflecting light to the eyes of those who look our way. It is only by reflection that we, as well as most of the other objects in our physical world, can be seen. And if reflected light is so essential to sight, then the very nature of light reflection is a worthy topic of study among students of physics.

If you are a Christian and reading this I would assume you are thinking about yourself (illuminated) in comparison to Jesus (luminous)…and if you are a person who does not follow the ways of Jesus…I want to assure you that I did not find this information from a Christian Physics textbook.

I once read that Albert Einstein often referred to Jesus as Luminous Nazarene...

I quickly fell in love with this naming of Jesus.

And so with this physics description and Einstein and his portrait of Jesus illuminated in my head I came up with this photo…

The inscription on the cross reads...Luminous Nazarene in Greek.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

free advice

2006-08-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

Have you ever looked at someone on the street…in the mall...or at your favorite place to grab some tea or coffee and thought about seeking advice about some difficult decision you have to make…or how about your love life…or maybe even seeking spiritual wisdom from that person? Maybe I'm just closed minded, but I don’t think that I would be able to do that…it would just be strange. haha...could you imagine telling your girlfriend, "yeah, i'm sorry we need to break up", and when she asks why you tell her, "well, there was this guy at Dairy Queen and he told me we need to break up."

I was in New York City about a year ago and I have to say that New York was one of my favorite places to take photographs.

I remember I had seen these photographs from Central Park…what I don’t remember is where I had seen this photo on display though. Maybe it was from a movie or maybe it was at one of those venders on the side of the road in New York. Either way I loved this picture…it was of this long path and there are all these benches along the sides and it has these really tall trees that seem to make this archway that you walk under.

I really wanted to capture this scene…but I didn’t…I ended up taking this photo but to be honest I don’t really like it that much…

But I did find something that day worth taking a picture of…I kept walking up and down that long path hoping that eventually I would find a different angle or viewpoint that I liked so that I could take the picture. While walking around I noticed that there were these two guys and they were setting something up near one of the benches…I couldn’t tell what it was at first…it was odd because they opened up this fold up chair and placed it in front of them. That didn’t make any sense to me because there was no one to sit in this chair and these two guys were sitting next to each other on the bench and so I was confused and hooked. Shortly after they opened up the chair one of the guys got up and placed this sign right behind the chair. The sign read...Free Advice…it was written by hand and it was written with a black marker…the sign was nothing more than a large white folded piece of paper.

I had one of those moments where you know what your eyes are seeing…but then you don’t know what your eyes are seeing. Almost like the obvious is just too obvious.

But I watched…I was hooked…this was like real life reality TV!

At first people just walked by and looked and then they looked again…you could tell they were thinking something…if I had to guess they were thinking, “did that sign say?…yeah I think it did.” a few times I just wanted to say, “yeah, it does”, and ask them if they wanted to watch with me. But I didn’t.

After a little while this guy walked by…and then I noticed he walked by again…and then sure enough he sat down in the chair.

That is when I captured this photo…

This guy sat in that chair for at least 45 minutes…there was one point in their conversation that he even started to cry…

I know this is random but I remember I started to think about church buildings… I thought about those billboards that all churches have in front of them…you know the ones that say the churches service times or sometimes you might see Jesus Saves…well, I was thinking about those signs and I was wondering what would happen if church billboard signs read, Free Advice!

I wonder if any random people would come in and talk and maybe even cry. I think that would be pretty neat.

Next time I am in New York I want to sit on one of those benches and place a chair out and put a sign up that says…Free Advice.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

lady in red

2006-08-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Do you like to people watch?

I think the love of people watching is universal…I have never met someone who does not enjoy it. I could grab some tea (Strawberry Cream from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf preferably) and just sit or walk around and watch people for what seems like hours.

I remember this one time I was in Seattle…which is one of my favorite places to people watch. I remember I was right by Pike Street Market. That place was really neat because during the summer it is this huge market and you can buy just about anything. I remember how excited I was to see that one place where when you order your seafood they rap it up and throw it to this other guy who is on the other side of the counter so they can weigh it. And when I say throw it…they really do throw it pretty fast. I would say it is a mix between a baseball pitch and a softball pitch in form and the fish just fly through the air.

It was really fun to watch.

After watching them do this, I don’t know if I could catch one of these flying fish. My friends and I had a great time watching though.

I also remember there was this little whole in the wall place that served cheese. The closest thing I could compare this place to was that of a brewing company who brews its own beer. But this place brewed its own cheese. For the three days I was there…everyday I ate their macaroni and cheese. They had this bench where you could take your food and sit and watch people as they walked buy.

It was one of those meals that even today I still crave that Mac and Cheese from time to time.

I also remember there was this bookstore district. It was one of my favorite things I got to see…it was literally blocks and blocks of books. Some new…some old…either way it was just fun to walk into these places and just look around. The people who ran these places cared so much about their books. I remember I would ask them about different books and they would know immediately if they had it or not. And if they did have it they would know the exact place the book could be found.

Next time I go back I hope I get to spend more time walking around those few blocks of books.

You know how when you go to certain cities they have those people who are on all different streets and they normally have some talent that they want you to give them money for. It can be anything from magic tricks to playing the drums with pots and pans to playing music and singing…do you know what people and cities I am talking about?

I remember one of the days we wanted to see the first Starbucks ever in the history of Starbucks. I am not much of a coffee drinker, and so when everyone went inside to get Starbucks coffee I waited outside.

There was this guy and girl that were performing right outside the Starbucks and so I watched them while I waited. This girl was wearing a red dress and she had red shoes on. They were tap-dancing shoes. And as the guy played the guitar and sang she tap-danced to the music. It was so much fun watching her dance. She quickly had a crowd around her.

It was at that moment I took this picture.

When I took it though I didn’t want to see her face…just her red dress and her red tap-dancing shoes. As if that wasn’t enough I took this photo and turned it into an oil painting in Photoshop. I wanted to memorialize this lady and so she has since then become the lady in red to me.

When I look at this photo every once in awhile I think of her gifting…it was so special and unique. Without being cheesy (no offence to my favorite Mac and Cheese place in Seattle) just like you and I.

Now when I people watch I think of this lady in red. I wonder what these people walking by would do if they had to stand outside the very first Starbucks and reveal how special and unique they really are.

I wonder what they would do? I wonder what I would do?

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

raindrop

2006-07-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

This photograph was captured in Juneau, Alaska last summer.

The days there during the summer are different…it is light there all day. The sun plays this childlike game with the horizon as it pretends like it is going to rest for the night…only to run again to the top of the sky. This particular day it was rainy…and cold.

I remember I was peopled out…do you ever get like that? It had been a long time since I had been alone and so I went for a walk. I had my camera under my rain jacket so that it wouldn’t get wet.

I remember I was pretending that I was Peter from Chronicles of Narnia and I was on this quest to find Aslan. I never did find him that day.

The rain there was funny…just as fast as it would start…it would stop. It reminded me of the weather in the movie Back To The Future…remember when Doc had the weather timed to his wristwatch.

I was on my way back to camp, after I had been exploring for some time. I found myself walking through a field with these plants that were dark green in color and they were all over the place. I took a brake from walking (I have to take lots of breaks when I walk...maybe it's a mixture of cigars and pipes) and it just so happened I was in the middle of this field. While I was looking around I noticed that there was water in these plants. I guess I should say on these plants. It was strange because the water wasn’t falling out of the plants…rather it was resting right in the center. It didn’t make sense. I mean you could see the openings through the water and yet it didn’t fall through.

Because of the height of the plants I had to get on my knees to take this picture. One thing I have noticed while taking pictues is that sometimes all you have to do to change a photograph from an alright photo to a beautiful photo is just look at it from different viewpoints...in this case it was different heights. The closer I got to this plant the more beautiful it became...not because the plant changed, but rather I changed.

So thats how beauty was found in this photo...it was found in change...

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

childlike

2006-07-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

This was such a great day. I remember it well, I remember I was with some friends…some old…some new…we were at the ocean on Coronado Island. We always go to this place right in front of The Hotel Del. It is great being on this particular stretch of sand, reason being it is right in the flight pattern of all the fighter jets as they come in to land. They always come screaming by and then they bank to the left only to make this huge circle as they prepare to land.

The day was prefect for being around the ocean. I remember the sky being really clear and the air smelt so good. So fresh and clean! This is strange I know, one might even use the word odd, but for some reason I get really scared of getting burned. Maybe it is the red hair…I don’t know. Because of this I always wear long sleeve shirts and a hat while being in the presence of the sun. There is this grocery store in town that sells $9.99 umbrellas and so I pick one of those up so I can sit under it and read. Books are great by the ocean…not heavy books just fun books, books that you can walk away from and not be worried you are going to forget everything. I remember at that time I was reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series.

I don’t know about you but when I read I have to have other things going on around me. I get so distracted and my mind wonders if it is to quiet. Because of this I tend to listen to music and go to public places if I want to read. The music has to be instrumental…it can’t have words in it. And so with the sound of instruments and people around it calms my mind down enough so that I can concentrate on reading. It is like this crazy equalizer. I remember being introduced to The Album Leaf and so I was listening to them while I was reading that day.

I remember this little girl…

I remember looking up and seeing her. She was with her dad and they were walking down to the edge of the water as it rushed up the sand towards them. She was carrying this little tiny purse while she was holding her dads hand. She was very timid of the water and didn’t want to be disconnected from her father.

As I was watching them I decided to grab my camera and I started to walk towards them. I really wanted to try and see if I could catch in some way the manner in which they interacted with each other (which isn’t normal because I don’t like taking pictures of people). So I walked over and I started to hold the camera up to my face as if I was taking pictures of all sorts of random things (when really I wasn’t even taking any pictures). As I was doing this I was watching this father and daughter through the lens of the camera.

I noticed that this little girl was talking to her father…I don’t know what she was saying to her dad (I wish I did). I remember seeing her give her little purse to her dad to hold. Then she started to walk down to where the water was until eventually it consumed her feet. It was great…the water was so far from getting her dress wet but she still naturally picked up one side of her dress so that it wouldn’t get wet.

As she stood there in the water she seemed to pause and stare. And that is where I captured her. Staring out and into the ocean. She seemed to be taking in all its beauty. Almost as if she new there was something more…something that she didn’t know the full extent of just yet.

I loved getting to watch this father and daughter laugh together and hold hands. And even though I missed the photograph of them together I still captured something that day. I just don’t know the full extent just yet.

I guess some things are just left to children.

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts

every photograph has a story

2006-07-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

I love to take pictures...just not of people. For some reason people clutter up the beauty in a photograph in my mind (now I do understand that there are exceptions to this thought and so I am not speaking of all photographs).

But have you ever noticed that once you take a picture life goes back to normal?

What I mean by that is there is always someone who is pulling the people together for the photograph (what does this person ever do with all those pictures anyways??) and so either by force or by their will people cram together…only to wait for the count down…1…2…(then everyone smiles)…3…and the picture is captured. And once we see the flash or the camera is moved in a downward motion the smiles on our faces tend to go away. Not because we aren’t happy but rather we are done posing. I wonder when ‘the smile’ became the norm for a picture pose. Remember those old pictures you see of people, the black and white ones, who have this straight face while they are being photographed? Those pictures are kind of scary because the whole family will be standing next to each other all crammed together and all their faces have that same straight face to them. Do you ever wonder if when the picture was done being taken they all immediately started laughing at the fact that they had to stand still for so long and not smile??

Anyways…I love photography. The nature kind...you know the one without people..

I became aware of this like 4 years ago. I was on a trip and I had my camera with me and it just so happened that the sun was calling it a day. Off into the distance there was this boat that was crossing the horizon and because the sun was behind the boat it made the boat appear to be black like a silhouette or a shadow. I remember looking around to see if anyone else could see what I was looking at (but of course not, they were all taking pictures of each other instead!) and I remember thinking how beautiful this scene looked right in front of me.

I had my camera around my neck so that if anyone were wondering who the tourist was they wouldn’t have any trouble guessing.

And so I picked up my camera and pointed it toward this silhouette riding above the ocean.

I captured it…and the rest is history…

I get really mad at myself because I lost that picture and I have no way of recovering it. But I guess not every picture is meant to be shared. Some are just left for me to remember. It’s funny because every time I think about that picture the sun gets brighter, the colors in the sky that sunset become more vibrant, and the sailboat seems to transcend water.

So I want to share my passion with you…I may not be the best...but that’s okay. I love it nevertheless.

Every photograph has a story…and stories are meant to be told…

heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts