Picture Inspiration - Week 13

I have noticed a trend in my Picture Inspiration posts. I am starting to only post on the odd numbered weeks. The reasons for my oddly timed posted are either that I haven't been particularly inspired by the even week's assignment (that has happened) or that I am too busy during the even week to get a submission together. Whatever the reason, I hope I can at least keep up on these odd weeks.

So here we are for Week 13, "From the Ground Up". This week is again about perspective: what angle are you seeing things from? Ain't that what life's all about? If you change your perspective, issues and items look a bit differently than from your comfortable old standpoint. The assignment is to capture the world from way down low and see what it looks like from an ankle-high perspective.

I like to get down low for my images as you have seen before. Here are a few more where I asked myself, "How low can you go?"

This Foothills sunrise looks nice even for a snake in the grass.

I like the way the ladies (the flowers) seem to be thumbin' a ride down this East Tennessee mountain road.

Picture Inspiration - Week 11

Looking into the distance was the assignment this week. The prompt initially made me think of broad expanses and landscapes. I do some of that and you can see a few of them on my website. 

I looked in my recent archives for some newer shots that might qualify for this assignment. This shot was taken on a road I travel multiple times a day, shuttling the boys hither and yon. Late one February afternoon, I found the sun and clouds competing for bragging rights. I can't take credit for this beauty. While the image is SOOC (straight out of camera), nature was in full control of this one.

This next image is a fun shot I took while hiking the Grotto Falls Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My hubby and sons hiked ahead while I was sidetracked by some interesting roots. As I looked up from the dirt, I spied them walking away. Perfection for me...close focus with some mystery in the background. My favorite.

The above image garnered a comment from my class instructor ("Fantastic perspective!"). This was a first for me. I don't know if she passes those out frequently as I haven't seen many of her comments on other assignments. But it could be like at my kids' schools where every child gets a "Character" award at some point during the year. Possibly, but I'll just continue to think that she just really likes this image.

And finally, I submitted this stunning yellow field that sits on the banks of the Shenandoah River near Luray, Virginia.

Gesundheit!

Picture Inspiration - Week 9

One of the fun things about photography is many times you actually get to be the proverbial fly on the wall. In documentary photography, your purpose is to capture scenes without impacting them. Take shots as the moments unfold. Week 9's assignment was to do just that. Conveniently for me, I had an event that week that would allow me to be a documentary photographer for a day. Here are my offerings from a live webcast recording on Knoxivi.com's Eleven O'Clock Rock daily web show featuring  Bo Weevil.

Picture Inspiration - Week 8

The assignment of the week was to look at the world through new eyes, new creative ones, and through that new view, make beauty or interest out of the seemingly nonsensical randomness that abounds in the world.  We humans leave our mark on the world wherever we go. I was not sure what I would find at the start of the week but felt sure someone would leave a mark for me that would fit well with this task.

Yesterday I was in a recording studio taking photos of a live internet broadcast session. I was taking a few shots from outside the booth when one of the employees at the studio said to me, "Sorry about the smudge on the glass. I never have any glass cleaner around when I think to clean it." On closer look, the "smudge" was actually lip prints, very heavily glossed lip prints, left by someone who clearly had affection for someone inside the booth. I snapped a shot of the random kiss and submitted it as my weekly assignment.

Mmmmwwwwwaaaaaah! Thank you Groupie Girl, whoever you are!

Picture Inspiration - Week 7

I'm cheating on my assignment this week. This is a crazy busy week so I have reached back into my archives for my submission rather than actually shooting something new. The assignment was a further study on capturing reflections but with the twist of not including the reflected object in the image composition. By excluding the reflected object, you can add a little mystery and surrealism to the shot. So here is what I found from 2009:

This is a reflection of a foot bridge and lamppost situated on our little hometown downtown water way. I inverted the image to make it work. I hope to create something new next week!

Picture Inspiration - Week 6

I had fun with this week's assignment - Seeing Double. There are reflections everywhere and once I started to look for them, I saw them in some surpising places. I call this one "Double Fishin'". If you say that really fast, it sounds like "Double Vision" which kind of makes me laugh. But seriously, the reflections are subtle and I like the solitary mood of this image.

Here's Double Duck and his silhouette reflection gliding in the pale blue water which also holds a reflection of the clouds.

Candlelight reflected in glass creates multiple reflections like this.



And in a surprising find, the side of my minivan reflects my pay at the pump experience in an abstract modern art way.

As an aside, class participants are allowed and encouraged to comment on each others submissions. Out of all of my submissions for Week 6, the gas pump image garnered the most comments (all positive). I was not expecting that many comments on it. But it's everyday-ness must have struck a chord.

Picture Inspiration - Week 5

Last week was a busy one so I didn't spend much time on the assignment. Actually, I did the Week 5 assignment during Week 6. Luckily in online workshops you are not penalized for late submissions. The fifth assignment was to make use of strong diagonal lines to create a sense of perspective, leading the viewer's eye to where the diagonal points. Here's my submission of the week.

Some of you might recognize this. Some of you have even had the pleasure of swinging on this.

The Swing, both in this image and in reality, is a study in perspective.

Picture Inspiration - Week 4

This week's assignment was to again take the concept of rhythm and play photo stylist by manipulating the rhythm and pattern of the everyday to study color, shape and design. Plainly stated, assemble layers of stuff to see how things stack up photographically.

I learned a lot from this week's assignment. I learned that I don't have a future career as a photo stylist. While I love the many looks that others can create making vignettes of everyday objects and scenes, I had a difficult time making something interesting out of the mundane. Most of the shots left me saying things like, "Why did I take a picture of my plates?" or "What's interesting about that stack of bills?"

To get happy with this assignment, I had to stop thinking about the objects and start thinking about the lines and shapes I could create with those objects. I had to zoom in real close. I had to focus on small spots. I had to blur the lines. I had to make objects do things they don't normally do. I ended up pretty pleased with this one image. My stacked forks.

I like the lines. I like the bokeh. I like that it is graphic. I like that I am done with this assignment.

I submitted a second image of a bird feeder at a new local nature center. Someone had taken great care to layer the bird seed in the feeders for the aesthetically discerning birds here in Maryland. I'm not sure the birds noticed, but the patterns caught my eye.

Picture Inspiration - Week 3

This week's assignment delved deeper into the concept of rhythm, taking it a layer further into "motif" as in a distinctive and recurring form, shape, figure, etc, in a design, as in a painting or on wallpaper. This definition brings to mind all the 1980s Waverly wallpaper that we removed when we moved into our house. Not a fan of that type of motif. But what I am a fan of is the patterns and shapes that light and shadow give to ordinary things. Like this sunbleached wooden footbridge decorated with the shadow of its knotted rope siding.

I'm also a fan of getting really close to things and seeing how they look from different angles.

I also get real excited when I can actually stop time and movement and see what my eye can't normally see. Like this waterfall stopped mid-fall.

And I thoroughly love finding patterns in nature.

Those are just a few examples of motif that I found this week.

Picture Inspiration - Week 2

This week's assignment was to capture rhythm in an image per this definition:

"a harmonious sequence or pattern of masses alternating with voids, of light alternating with shade, of alternating colors, etc."

Here are my two submissions so far.

I like the birds added in to break up the geometry of the shot.

This one reminds me of the neck of a guitar. Hear the rhythm?

Picture Inspiration - Week 1

I needed a jump start to my creativity. The winter had brought my motivation to a slow and sluggish pace. So I signed up for an online photography workshop entitled Picture Inspiration. This is the first online workshop I've participated in so I don't really know fully what to expect or how my follow through will be (ahem..). But as soon as I processed my online registration, I felt a spark of enthusiasm and excitement about this new creative challenge. It's 52 weeks of creative prompts, assignments and challenges led by Tracey Clark of Shutter Sisters and her own other creative fame.

Week 1 assignment was a good way to start off but not my, or probably most photographers' favorite thing to do: a self-portrait. Hey, there's a reason why we are photographers and thus on the viewfinder side of the camera. For me as a photographer, a self-portrait is nothing if not a good exercise in optimism and objectivity. I started off with forced optimism that I could get a decent, interesting shot of myself and I had to use every ounce of objectivity I could muster to forget that it was my face I was looking at. There's nothing wrong with my face other than the fact that it is mine and oh how critical of it I can be.

After countless attempts and deletions, I ended up with a shot I really like. It's a reflection in my big kitchen window late at night. It was completely dark outside and well lit in the room thus the window acted like a mirror. Here's the final version

I chose black and white for its forgiving qualities. The part I like best of this image is that it looks to me like someone else could have taken it. It doesn't have an obvious self-portrait feel to me.

I have to share one of the rejected shots because it is funny. It is one of the early shots I took experimenting with the reflection in the kitchen window. Our cat Max was outside and popped up on the window sill to beg to be let back in. I like all that is going on in this shot.

Come back and see what Week 2 holds.