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June 13, 2013 by tomdalzell

Ma #1: Cream of the Ma Crop

I shouldn’t say cream of the crop should I?  Now who will want to see other ma after I have identified this as cream of the crop ma?

Ma

I remind you, or tell you in the event that you haven’t looked at shutter ma, that “ma” is a Japanese word for space, negative space – and that I may well be using the word incorrectly.  However I am using it, I am not using it as in Ma and Pa Kettle and their math  – which you have to see if you haven’t.  Ma = space, got it?

These photos show gates and fences and other structures where spaces,  negative spaces, define the image.  The first, these penguins, is unusually representational:

1415 Acton

1415 Acton

Penguins!   “Wow” is what I said to myself when I saw these.  Wow indeed.  More swirls:

2237 Prince

2237 Prince

1520 Cornell

1520 Cornell

677 Spruce

677 Spruce

90 Poplar

90 Poplar

1568 Juanita

1568 Juanita

2209 Vine

2209 Vine

Moving from swirls to above-average negative spaces, let’s start with this gem from a Julian Hodges gate.  Hodges is as cool and excellent as you get with gates:

2815 Woolsey

2815 Woolsey

That’s the best.  The rest aren’t bad:

2124 Ashby

2124 Ashby

984 Spruce

984 Spruce

714 Euclid

714 Euclid

752 Santa Barbara

752 Santa Barbara

2742 King

2742 King

End of short first essay on ma.  They are great fun to look for.  Train your eye.  Look for the negative space.

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