Banana World

[Don Ellis]

I'm down out of the trees now and I spent the last couple of days creating a new gallery at...
http://www.kleptography.com/gallery-bananaland.htm

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/bananaland.jpg

The notes will explain...
http://www.kleptography.com/notes-bananaland.htm

Cheers,

Don

[eland]

A very interesting and polished presentation, Don.
Well done.

Regards
eland

[henkbos]

Very well done and great shots. Thought for an instant that kleptography was done by a kleptomaniac!

[Jorge]

The gallery surely is an interesting and well-told tale from the treetops. The combination of artistic, illustrative and story telling elements are very well integrated – and highly original too in the way that the concept of “macro” is taken beyond the usual numb flower shot. Makes me want to climb a tree and dig out the world from a banana bulb.

[Don Ellis]

Just when I think that nobody checks in here -- or any other forum -- over the weekend, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Thanks, eland... high praise from a very particular person. I appreciate the compliment. I still need to tweak a few things -- like offering metric as well as English units and expanding a bit on my comments -- but I wanted to get it up.

Henk... much appreciated... thank you. "Kleptography" was something I created in my own little mind and referred to the American Indian belief that a photograph stole your soul. It was only after registering the name and putting up the website and a few months later searching Google to see if it appeared that I found that kleptography is the art of "using cryptology against cryptology." Had I known that originally, I would have thought up another name -- as it is, however, the galleries have become a more popular search item than the secret stuff.

Jorge... thank you for taking the time to tell me what you liked. I'm glad you liked the macros -- I should have probably weeded a few more out, but you can never tell what people like, so I left them in. I've never been a "big bug" guy... there has to be a little more going on in the photo to make it interesting for me. When you climb that tree remember that this whole show unfolds in about four days and those flowers (and their visitors) dry up fast. Good luck -- I found it fascinating.

Bookmarking -- in case anyone has bookmarked the gallery, I've changed the name and the URL (changed in the original message as well). The original "banana life" was supposed to be a take-off on "banana leaf" but I decided that no one but me is going to get it and it doesn't really roll off the tongue. So it's now "banana land" which is a bit more euphonic and much better than "going bananas."

Thanks again for visiting and for writing.

Don

[slejhamer]

Great work, Don. Nice to see your themed galleries again; I hadn't looked in a while. Some of the new banana shots are almost 3-D in appearance - creative shooting angles and good color saturation.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I saw my first Banana tree in a Hot house when I was about 9. I had just seen the movie,. "Day of the Triphids"

They are absolutely astonishing plants and truly look as if they came form another world. Most of us have no Idea while slicing them on our cereal.... we just picture a cartoon palm with bananas hanging off....

Wonderfull pictures!

[Don Ellis]

slejhamer wrote:
Great work, Don. Nice to see your themed galleries again; I hadn't looked in a while. Some of the new banana shots are almost 3-D in appearance - creative shooting angles and good color saturation.

Very kind of you to take the time to itemize. :) Thanks for your generous comments.

I will say that while it's nice to add a picture here or there to individual galleries, it's a greater pleasure to focus on a single subject and take enough photographs to create a new gallery. There's something very satisfying about shooting and unveiling an entire project -- especially in less than a week -- and this one rekindled my interest in photographing the unseen lives around us.

Cheers,

Don

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Very nicely executed, Don.

Regards,

[marie]

don

last evening when I tried to view all the pictures the computer was really playing up, on a go slow , a go slow to beat all go slows
zzzzzzzz
it was very difficult to get things moving at all.
took hours to do certain things which should have took around twenty minutes . so I only got seeing one or two pictures,

but I got the whole lot of your photographs now and see all your comments on them ,
and loved all as it makes a great difference to read the remarks accompanying each picture

some favourites
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_wasp9669.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_context9479.htm (like choir boys )
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_context9738.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_stalk0007.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_bulb9839.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_red9895.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_red9533.htm

http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_japanese0114.htm

http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_wasp9861.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_wasp9489.htm
sorry for putting all these here but I hadn't seen all the pictures properly
they came in lovely and easy this evening. it made such a difference
the colours and presentation are unbelievable.
those colours all blend so well together.
really so beautiful.
nature shows us what colours really match up .
some of the shots show the bananas looking like a group of choir boys. sometimes they are like ribs (joint of meat ribs) sticking out
all are beautiful, most unusual and very interesting.
marie

[pappy]

What a fantastic series Mr. Ellis, amazing prhotographs.

Your site is very professionally presented and I view the photos often and find them a tremendous source of inspiration.

Regards,
Peter

[Don Ellis]

First all, thanks to everyone for stopping by the banana tree... specifically...

CyberDyne -- thank you for your very kind words. Glad you enjoyed the photos.

Roger -- thanks, as always, for your comments; it's always good to hear from you.

Peter -- praise to live up to... thank you. I'm glad you find the site useful and I appreciate your comments.

And Marie -- what would we do without our indefatigable photographer, reporter, and muse. I always love hearing from you, even if, in the back of my mind, I wonder if you shouldn't be spending more time doing something other that keeping us company. But forget I said that... your thoughts, digressions, critiques and observations are very welcome. It was especially kind of you to link to the images you like best. I'm always surprised and pleased when someone points out a personal favorite that I was thinking it was just average -- it reminds me not to be quite so severe when separating the keepers from the discards. That's why I left in so many wasp photos -- I figured people would have their favorites. Thanks as well for pointing out the missing "a" on "camera."

I don't know when everyone looked at the gallery but it was probably not in the last few hours. I knew I was missing one piece in the banana puzzle but didn't find it until last night. I had taken a casual shot of the bud over a week before I decided to get serious about shooting the new bananas. It's not a brilliant picture, but it's the only one I have of the bud before it starts opening, so it's really the beginning of the story...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fm/banana_bud640.jpg

A slightly larger version is at http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_context9442.htm

Cheers,

Don

[bgaras2001]

hey..really enjoyed that. great stuff

[marie]

thank you so much don
I appreciate very much what you said

http://www.pbase.com/image/16079587

this little banana thanks you very very much also

http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_context9738.htm
http://www.kleptography.com/bananaland_bulb9839.htm
the colours in these ( your shots ) are really beautiful
I already have them on above post but just to emphasis them . their colour and detail.
hard to pick out any real favourites
I only didn't put more on in the other post because I thought it was not the thing to do. at all
: )
am glad it was ok
lucky you didn't put on all the shots, which you took and discarded : )
must have been a difficult job sorting them all.
all of us see different things in different pictures and deciding what others may like is difficult.
you obviously loved all of these.
it shows

many thanks again
marie
thanks for the last picture here
great info