Petunias bedazzled…

I recently read another photo blog that was discussing the art of shooting ordinary objects and through the photographer’s eye, creating something extraordinary. This theme really resonates with me; I often find myself yearning to act on my creative impulses photographically, but finding myself “limited” to house and home. I say “limited” in quotations because I am using that term in an ironic sense. There really is nothing limiting about photographing your everyday environs. In fact, as I have said here before, it’s perhaps the highest form of challenge to seek and find creative subject matter right under your nose, as compared to iconic national park scenes or exotic wildlife on safari. (Not that I’d turn down a chance to shoot either!) My subject for today is my very non-exotic petunia pots on my front porch. They’ve been bedazzled with a soft misting bottle to create a little sparkle and drama. I also experimented with some depth-of-field layering, and while I have a lot more to learn about that technique (this is my first attempt), I think it holds some real creative possibilities especially for macro photography. It’s always exciting when you teach yourself something new. So to get back to my original point, as a photographer, whether you are born with a photographer’s eye, or you develop one over time, take that eye, and make sure you really “see” the world. It’s right in front of you. Hope you enjoy…

Blue view….

Photography is all about creativity, as well as documentation. And most of the time,  interesting images emerge at the intersection of those two aspects. I know some folks are purists, and feel photography should be documenting the truth; others feel it’s entirely a creative art, with no boundaries at all. For me, it’s all about creating emotion and mood–something evocative. I photographed the Golden Gate Bridge quite a bit on my visit  last year, and tried in my limited time to find many different ways to portray it. This shot has been processed to emulate twilight, although admittedly, the blue atmosphere is entirely of my own making. It does bring out a different essence to the bridge, however, and in the end, I quite liked the alternative portrayal. It’s not something I’d go overboard with, but it’s certainly interesting to push the boundaries within yourself, from time to time. Hope you enjoy…

Leading lines …

No matter how many times I visit the city, especially midtown Manhattan, I never tire of the visual wonderment offered by those sweeping big buildings. Yes, I know I risk looking like a hack tourist, but … who cares? They are truly awe inspiring and I am not afraid to just stand there and take it in. The experience doesn’t quite match to the near spiritual state of drinking in a natural wonder (think Niagara, Grand Canyon, or even a beautiful tree at sunset) but staring up at skyscrapers is facinating, all the same. In this image, I was struck by the convergence of leading lines… which were apparent in the original color version, but which I pulled out to an extreme degree in post processing. I like the effect, as it seems to draw the eye straight up to the clouds above. I am pretty sure, it’s exactly what the building architects had in mind all along. Hope you enjoy…

Walkway to the stars…

One last image in my arch series… This time, I changed my processing technique and the image resulted in an entirely different feel. Still ghostly, but this time, almost otherworldly, very abstract. Looks a bit like a pathway to the moon… Hope you enjoy…

Framing your perspective…

I am in the midst of organizing and archiving my collection of photographs and while the task is a bit overwhelming (even tedious at times), I have enjoyed finding a few nuggets I’d filed and forgotten about. The images posted here are from some photographs shot about a year ago, quickly snapped as some colorful balloons passed over my house. I managed to grab a half dozen of them, trying hard to focus on a moving target and get the entire balloon in frame–I even got details of the folks inside waving down to me. Nice! The colors were gorgeous, and I was satisfied that I captured that moment with vivid clarity. However, looking back a year later, I realized that the compositions were pretty, well, safe…they really didn’t break any new ground or evoke any emotion other than the memory of the balloon. Then I really looked again. I focused on the lines, the curves, the bands of color, the geometry, and what I see now is much more interesting. My posts today are two of my re-edits from my “nice” balloon photographs. This is one of the many things I find so engaging about photography…It’s all about seeing, and sometimes “re-seeing” again and again. Hope you enjoy…

1) f/13, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, 210 mm
2) f/18, 1/125 sec, ISO 400, 120 mm

Double identity…

This image was shot during a recent hike at a nearby state park, originally I liked the color version, which gave a realistic rendition of the plant itself. But when I tried a variation of the image in black and white, it really took on a new tone. All of a sudden it appeared much more sinister, with the shadows providing an eerie, film noir effect. While there is always room to debate such things, I think one of the truly fun aspects of photography is to see where my mind can creatively take it. In this case, I have a beautiful color close up of some local flora… or a sense of danger, lurking behind the thorny shadows!
Hope you enjoy…

f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 200, 275mm

The artist’s eye…

Anyone viewing this photoblog on a regular basis probably knows by now I enjoy nature, travel, and landscape photography. My aim is to create a composition that portrays an artistic rendering of a scene through an understanding of the use of light, and the mastery of the technology used to capture it–my camera. Most often, my scenes while hopefully artistic, are fairly realistic, but sometimes composition lends itself to more surreal treatment. This is one such photograph that was admittedly, fairly mundane in its original state, but the use of post processing truly brought out the sense of what I felt, and indeed “saw” when I clicked the shutter. That process, to me, is what it’s all about. Hope you enjoy…

f/5.6, 640th sec, ISO 100, 285 mm