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.

Images Au Naturale

I swore I would never do it, but I did. After countless hours of photography classes, hundreds of cannisters of film, and thousands of prints, I was sure I would not like digital. But a few years ago, I got a really nice digital SLR and I liked it. A lot.

Then I swore I would never do the other thing that happens after you go digitial...use photo editing software. I might have agreed to crop an image here or there, but I swore I would go au naturale and not play with my colors and use photo effects. But about three months ago, I bought Adobe Lightroom and I liked it. A lot.

So I play with my images. I admit it. But I don't do it a great deal. I can't do it that much because I am still learning how to use Lightroom.

But I still love to get shots that I don't want to tweak. Straight out of the camera (SOOC) images that need no assistance are exciting to capture. To harken back to my days of au naturale, here are a few SOOC images.

The early morning light and the stunning mountains need no correction.

The steam off this mountain lake and the rise of the foothills are perfect without any help from me.

And the agency who did the "Go RVing" campaign couldn't have asked for a better sunset.