One More Vote

Thank you my family and friends for your input.  I had forgotten to read the fine print and realized that several of the photos from last time were taken more than 2 years ago. Based on the votes, I have narrowed the images down to these 3. The "point" image is not the same as the last time and there is one new one.  Many of you voted for #1 and I will submit that one. I just want to maximize my chance to get in so please let me know your favorite between 2 and 3.

#1 Viewpoint

#2 Winter's Blanket

#3 To the Point

Biting the bullet

Ok, so I am going for it.  I am entering a photo in a contest. The criteria is a photo that depicts sculpture taken in NJ within the past two years or presents an image in a sculptural manner.  Here are my choices.  I can submit two. Please help me by choosing the one or two that you think are the best.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6

Learning New Techniques

I am the perennial student. Although I chose not to continue higher education after receiving my bachelor's degree, I continued to take classes all through my adulthood related to my interests which for the most part are art related.

While I still continue to take one day seminars and some local classes, I am hooked on internet classes. They are reasonably priced, offer flexible times and can often be reviewed (the videos)  multiple times so I can "get" it.

My goal these past few months was to learn some new software and really improve my photoshop skills. I have learned some new "tricks" to fix photos and also create photo collages.


My go to techniques in photoshop have helped me to process my images better. I find that I am constantly enhancing the images by using high pass to sharpen them and adjusting the levels and curves.  I do feel it makes the difference between and good photo and a great one.

Below is an example of the same photo with some very simple processing.

Before Image

After processing

Stop Apologizing

I am not sure that I apologize for what I don't know about photography. To be honest, I really don't care if I call myself a photographer.  I am an artist and whether my art measures up to other people's standards does concern me (I want the gratification of the "applause") but ultimately I define myself as an artist.

 I admit, I am an admiration junkie. I want lots of people to admire my photos and make wonderful comments. So I do critically look at each image that I post (on flickr) and I post what I consider the best of my images.  Some get a lot of recognition and others only a few diehard "friends" comment on.  I wish that didn't matter, but it does.

My paralysis beyond wanting everyone to "like" my work is on how do I get recognition for my art. I want to send in images for juried shows, but I need to push beyond the fear of rejection.  In a past career I dealt with that and it is tough because in some ways, it is a rejection of ME! This is where I feel most inadequate.

There are a couple of people on flickr that I follow whose work makes my heart sing. Each photo is a masterpiece of light, color and amazing locale.  I want to be able to capture light like that.


And I do feel that I need to know more.  I want to understand lenses, focus and even metering (the technical) better. I want to be able to take photos that match what is in my mind when I am seeing something.

I have a vague plan in progress where I am taking both internet and in person classes to learn what I don't know. I will push through my fears and send in work for some juried shows. And hopefully I will be comfortable with what I do whether I get into the shows, or have lots of "likes."

The one thing I do know is that I am enjoying this journey.

Drawing

I chose some flowers I picked up at the local market for my "drawing" exploration. It is autumn and I was drawn to everything in oranges, yellow, and red, so I chose mini mums and Gerbera daisies.  My focus was on the daisies for this exercise, but I used the mums to help me create colored backgrounds for the photos.

I took a few photos before I started to draw the daisies.  The photos were ok, nothing special.  Then I spent about 45 minutes drawing.  I only did one drawing.  The most obvious element to me about the daisies is their brilliant red fading into golden yellow.  As I looked I could see shadows on the petals, the beautiful shapes of the petals, the roundness overall of the flower.  I even found the leaves with their curves to be interesting.

When I went back to taking pictures, I used natural sunlight, to emphasize the brilliant colors of the flowers.  I tried for a lot of macros, since this was my drawing view.

The drawing was a great way to really focus on the detail and figure out how to enhance what I was seeing.

Creative Breakthroughs

After struggling with contrasts, thinking about breakthroughs was a snap.  Unfortunately, it does not happen as much as I would like.

The past few weeks I have been working on my latest photo shoots. I don't feel that the photos really resonate, in any special way. That's not to say the photos are bad, they are just nor really in the exciting range for me.

So one day when I really wanted (needed) the accolades, I reviewed old photos from a photo shoot that was a breakthrough day and posted to flickr so my friends would make comments.  (Yes, I am a comment junkie waiting all day to see who "liked" my work).

The scene:
A cold gray spring day
It had just rained and there were huge water droplets all over the flowers
I was with a group of photographers at a specular iris garden
I rented a macro lens for the day

I shot pictures until the card was full.  Alternating between the macro and the 200 mm lens.  Lots of great bokah, lots of water droplets, tons of gorgeous well framed irises in all colors.

So what was the breakthrough? I concentrated on specific areas of focus deliberately allowing for softness in the macro images. This gave me several photos that have great color but an almost an abstract feeling. An entire day of wonderful photos of my favorite flowers and many that really take my breath away.

Four things contributed to the breakthrough.
1-All my photoshop and lightroom learning has made me a better darkroom processor.  While most of these photos only needed a slight tweak, that makes all the difference in the finished product.
2-The photo shoot was the result of an evening workshop on shooting flowers and a morning visit with the teacher and class to the garden.  Small hints on how to take better photos (more dramatic lighting, remember to change your perspective, etc) gave me a bit more confidence and more knowledge as I was taking pictures.
3-I just finished looking at a flower photography book. The lighting and colors in the book inspired me and I realized that is what I am trying to achieve. So instead of just pretty flowers, I am searching for soft colored backgrounds and light that really add to the image.
4-It was the perfect day and location to take pictures.  Nature was with me.

Very narrow DoF

Brilliant color saturation great contrast with green background

I like how I caught the color and light in this photo

Contrasts

Searching deliberately for contrasts does not come naturally to me. I have put off thinking about this idea or even going out and looking for contrasts to capture.

So I was surprised the other day when a friend commented about a photo of mine, saying that she liked the contrast between the hard sculptural and the soft natural elements. And then I thought I do see contrasts!

So I went looking at images in my library to see what other contrasts I had captured.

I see this as an ongoing challenge. What adds interest? What is the dynamic of the contrast in the image?  This is one of the ideas that I need to really think about...and spend some time letting it evolve. I imagine (down the road) that I will have a lot more to say about contrasts. And ultimately use this idea to create interesting photos.

Red / Green-Light / Dark

Manmade / Natural-Soft / Hard

Lines / Shapes 

Regrets

In photography I do have missed moments and mistakes. As a result, I take many terrible photos.  Do I have regrets over these setbacks?  Not at all, because I can’t change what has passed, I can only learn from the mistakes.  Three big “mistakes” that I have made in the past and try not to repeat:

1-I shot an entire afternoon of gorgeous flowering spring trees and blue skies with the white balance set to Fluorescent light.  All the beautiful spring colors came out with a very blue / cyan tone.  Of course, I was able to make corrections in Photoshop, but I kind of liked the resulting images.  Now this is not an experiment that I would want to repeat, so I try to remember the mantra to check your settings before I starting shooting images.  Lesson learned:  Check your settings. 

2-Not taking enough photos of images I really like.  Invariably what was most inspiring looks terrible when I see the image. Or I have focus issues and I have not shot any back up images that might have turned out better.  With digital photography it is so easy to shoot multiples that this lesson is a no brainer.  Shoot more, vary the settings and the view point (if possible).  This way I optimize the chance to have that one perfect shot!  Lesson learned:  Shoot more pictures of what I really like.

3-Not having a camera when an images catches my eye.  Nowadays this is not an issue as I have my phone with me all the time and can always use that to shoot the image.  Of course, it might not be the right “camera” for what I envision, so I may not really get the shot I want.  I tried to solve for this by buying a point and shoot.  While I do like it (it’s got great zoom capacities), I hate that it only shoots jpgs and that it does not have a view finder. They seem to have eliminated the viewfinder from the point and shoot cameras and I find that a real detriment. 

Thirty-eight years ago I was in a beautiful place and saw 2  images where I regretted not having a camera.  I told myself to memorize these glorious images.  One was just a photo image of the full moon rising over the  main town in Ibiza lit by late afternoon light.  The other image included the sounds of the waves as they lapped over the rocks at the site where the “sirens” supposedly lured Odysseus.  What is so amazing it that I still remember these images in my mind’s eye, so many years later. 

The lesson here is obviously to make sure I have an all-purpose camera (for my needs) on me at all times.  But I am not sure I am ready for that. And there is something so magical in the fact that I remember those 2 missed images from a long time ago. 

Incorrect White Balance mode

White Balance adjusted but still too blue

My inspiration files

I have 3 inspiration files at this point in time. I created one in Lightroom based on the last few photos I have taken. I chose not to sort or organize my original Inspiration file from a few years ago figuring that would be my historical snapshot to see where and how I have changed. Then I made an Inspiration file out of my favorite Flickr photos. That was easy because I only post what I like the best to flickr. flickr inspiration file

What I know about myself and my style. I like color and focus. Most of my favorite images have rich saturated color and sharp focus (at least at the center of interest.

I tend to take a lot of flower photos because I just love the beauty of flowers. Lately, I am trying to make the photos more than just a pretty photo of a flower. I was inspired by a flower photography book that had wonderful colors and bokah behind the flowers and I want to create images that do that also.

I prefer pictures of landscapes, flowers, reflections, architecture, and animals and I am not so good with people. What drives me seems to be texture, color, reflections.

I chose 3 images to cover the range of what I like. The biggest themes or similarities are color and composition. These images have linear elements with strong diagonals and fill the entire space.

I love the colors and the repeating shapes in the spiral flower image.  I even like the fact that some of the image is out of focus and some is in focus.

Overall, I like the composition of the gator, the colors, the reflection, and those awesome teeth.

In the image of the wagon there is something about the composition and textures that I find compelling.

These are my first raw impressions of what I most like about my photos. As I think more on the subject and review the images, I am curious as to what additional insights I may have.

Another blog

This blog is my attempt to talk about the photography, what is means to me and where it is going.  The past 6 months have been about change in my photographic attempts.  I have gained more knowledge and skills and tried to show more of my vision in the images.