A figurative feather in my cap, a literal one in my hand
A wanderer in nature is inevitably a finder of feathers. When I came upon this one in my neighborhood on January 2nd, I held it up in front of me and made a portrait. Call so close and tight a view monumental, and you may have given an idea to a sculptor or architect. Actually that feathered inspiration isn’t new.
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You can’t make this stuff up.
If you or I want to fly on a commercial airplane in the United States we have to show a picture ID, typically a driver’s license or passport. Now the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has confirmed that it allows illegal immigrants to use arrest warrants as an alternative form of ID to enter airports and board airplanes. You can read about that or watch a 4-minute video about it.
© 2022 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
LOL, the world is getting very strange! And why would anyone with an arrest warrant be allowed to get on a plane rather than be arrested???
Ann Mackay
January 22, 2022 at 6:35 AM
Strange indeed! I never thought I’d live to see such lawlessness in my country. Many people have needlessly been suffering and in some cases dying as a result of it.
Steve Schwartzman
January 22, 2022 at 6:52 AM
I can see how an architect could be inspired to design a magnificent tower.
Peter Klopp
January 22, 2022 at 9:31 AM
That was my vision, too. Now I wonder how wind would affect it.
Steve Schwartzman
January 22, 2022 at 9:59 AM
Such great detail; I almost can feel the texture. Between your photo of the feather and your mention of your cap, I wondered briefly whether we should call you Macaroni.
One of my readers is a glass artist, and she’s done a whole series of what she calls drowned feathers. Feathers seem to be attractive to artists across the creative spectrum. Even Emily Dickinson wrote of hope as “a thing with feathers.”
shoreacres
January 22, 2022 at 9:59 AM
“Texture, texture, read all about it” cries the newsboy on the street and the photographer in nature. Macaroni would serve as a fit reward after hours out in the field.
After I did a little searching I saw that feathers have inspired artists in various media. Scientists seem to be coming around to the idea—or already to have accepted it—that feathers originated as a means of keeping warm and only later enabled flight.
Steve Schwartzman
January 22, 2022 at 10:18 AM
Beautiful photo
prejila
January 22, 2022 at 10:04 AM
Thanks. Simplicity is an effective artistic technique.
Steve Schwartzman
January 22, 2022 at 10:19 AM
I am certain you’ve already heard of Chris Maynard. If you haven’t he does some extraordinary things with feathers and scalpel. If you’ve never looked at a feather through a microscope, I highly recommend it!
Shannon
January 23, 2022 at 9:38 AM
I have to admit I’d not heard of Chris Maynard or seen any of his work. Now I have.
As for feathers seen though a microscope, I hadn’t done that either, but I found plenty of images online.
Good suggestions.
Steve Schwartzman
January 23, 2022 at 12:12 PM