I’ve been feeling a void in taking pictures lately. I don’t know why, but somehow, I haven’t felt very inspired. My camera has sat in the cabinet for over a month and the only pictures I have taken have been with my cell phone. It’s “ok” but I knew I needed to push myself and pull out the “real” camera. So, what better way to challenge myself than to start a 30-Day Photography Challenge. Since July has 31 days, let’s just call it a 31-Day Photography Challenge. 😉
Here’s to Day 1, a Gray House Finch hanging out on the bird feeder.
Anne challenges us this week with one of my all-time ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) techniques……Zooming. It’s fun, challenging and the results can be quite spectacular. You can learn more about the specific technique in Anne’s post.
It’s been a while since I played around with zooming, so when Anne’s challenge came out, I took the opportunity to take some new images. It took me a couple of shots to get the hang of it again, but I really like how these Lilypad images turned out.
In the first image below, I like how a single leaf is in focus and the rest of the leaves show increasing movement from there.
Creatively cropping your images can also give you some added depth and movement. The image below reminds me of a kaleidoscope.
There are so many fun things you can do when editing your zooming images. In the photo below, I applied the “Orton Effect” and also added a little more blur. I like the brighter, dreamy look to the image on the right.
For my last image, I have cropped it a little differently and applied a “watercolor” texture. I feel like I’m in the middle of a wheat filed with the one on the right.
Thank you, Anne for the reminder of this fun technique. I can’t wait to keep applying it to other photos.
Ritva leads next week so be sure you’re subscribed to her site The World as I See It when she posts the challenge Saturday, noon EST.
I may have mentioned that I rarely take my camera with me on our daily walks. They’re long and the camera gets to be a little much to carry at times, especially when it’s hot. Thankfully, I always have my cell phone to capture our encounters with Mother Nature.
One day, a couple of weeks ago as we were heading back to the car, I heard a rustling noise. I knew it wasn’t a squirrel or bird because it was more of a slow-moving rustling and sounded like something crawling over and through the brush. I looked to my right and saw a huge turtle. The huge kind of turtle you approach cautiously. I pulled out my phone and snapped off a couple of photos. He just sat there, patiently not moving.
“Take a walk with a turtle and behold the world in pause.”
~Bruce Feiler
The original photos were fine, but I knew I could make them a little better in Photoshop Elements.
With both photos I first cropped them and then removed the haze. This made them a little sharper and gave them each more defined/richer colors. I then used the Depth of Field Tool, the Orton Tool, the Vignette Tool, added a few color corrections and eliminated some brush that was a distraction to the eye (I’ve used the “compare slider” to help you see the before and after).
I really like how these turned out as the turtle has a “fairy tale” look about him. What do you think?
Did someone say, “break the rules?” Why, YES! Yes, they did! Ritva leads this week, and she is challenging us to break the rules of photography! As Ritva goes on to say in her challenge, “Photography is as much about emotion and instinct to me as it is about technical skill. In those moments when we abandon the constraints of traditional guidelines, we open ourselves up to unexpected and beautiful outcomes in my case many times by mistake.”
So, what rules have I broken?
Perfect Patterns: This little seagull greeted us one morning when we were in Malibu many years ago. He was so cute, and I couldn’t resist taking the photo before he flew away. Goodness knows I wasn’t even thinking about the rules I was breaking (look at all the squares, lines, rectangles and diamonds). I just wanted the shot.
Rule of Thirds: Next up, a macro shot gone bad. During a visit to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, I was experimenting with my new macro lens. I don’t remember what type of plant this was, I just saw an opportunity to practice shooting macro from a top-down view of the bud. The end result looks a little bit like something floating in outer space. I still thought it was a pretty cool shot, so I kept it.
Don’t Shoot into the Sun: A very BIG rule was broken on the next image, but quite honestly it couldn’t be helped. When you’re lucky enough to have an airshow fly directly over your house you have no time to think and have to be very quick with your shot. Because they are flying directly above you, it’s almost impossible not to shoot into the sun. What really works about this image is the silhouette of the pilots.
Blurry Photos: My last image of broken rules was a poor attempt at catching a Mourning Dove bathing in the bird bath. Instead, he took off and I caught him in mid-flight. Yep, the image is blurry, but do you see what I see?
What photography rules have you broken lately where you opened yourself up to an unexpected and beautiful outcome?
Be sure to check-out Ritva’s original post to view her wonderful examples of broken rules. Next week, Edigio (Through Brazilian Eyes) leads.
If you want to know more about the Lens-Artists Challenge, please click here.
It’s a new week of the Lens Artist Challenge and John from Travels with JohnBo has us sharing our “Go to Places” for photography (you can read John’s original post here). It’s a wonderful theme and one that I didn’t have to think too much about, because really any place I have my camera becomes my “go to place.” But specifically, my “go to place” is anywhere I can be outside connecting with nature.
It can be in a garden enjoying the blooms and color while watching the birds and insects gathering food and nectar:
Macro Photography of a Sunflower with a BugBee Pollenating on Rododendron
It can be a walk in the park on a Fall Day enjoying the crisp air and changing colors of the leaves:
IMG 8175
Or walks along the beach taking in the salt air and ocean breezes.
So where is your “Go to Place” when you need inspiration?
Many thanks to John for this wonderful challenge. Next week, Sofia will host. Be sure to follow her here so you don’t miss her post, which will go live next Saturday at noon Eastern time.
Well, Anne sent me heading down a rabbit hole this week. A rabbit hole that almost had me on a point of no return. A rabbit hole that had me traveling back in time twenty (20) plus years. A rabbit hole full of memories and painstaking regrets of not being more organized with my photos. Nonetheless, I somehow managed to pull myself up out of the hole and focus on the challenge at hand!
This week Anne challenges us to think about abandonment in photography. You can read her full post here. I doubt there is a single photographer who isn’t drawn to “things” or “properties” that are abandoned. Afterall, photographers are curious by nature, always looking for the next photo and always looking to tell (or create a story) with their images.
Take for instance this abandoned train car, Michael and I stumbled upon in Hartwell, SC. Why it’s there I have no idea, but as I wandered around it, I couldn’t help but to think about the many passengers who traveled on this car. Who were they? Where were they going? How long had they been traveling? Why was the train left on the tracks in the middle of a field? So many questions to be answered.
Sometimes, we stumble upon unfortunate, temporary circumstances of abandonment. Take his mail carrier, who abandoned his vehicle in the midst of an unexpected Atlanta ice storm. Looks like he decided to heck with the postman’s motto “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But there are still questions like “Where did he go?” “What happened to the mail left unattended?” I guess I can’t blame this postal carrier too much. Ice in Atlanta is not a force to be messed with.
Other times, new life is breathed into the old and abandoned when communities find a way to repurpose them while preserving their original characteristics and a little bit of their history. Whether an old mill or laundry center like the photos below, you can’t help but wonder who the people were that filled these places so many years ago. What was life like during their respective time periods?
Oftentimes, abandoned places offer up great photography backdrops like the one below. Can’t you just imagine this as a backdrop for senior portraits or perhaps a movie setting? Located in the small town of Senoia, Georgia I took this photo of abandoned railroad tracks thirteen (13) years ago on one of our day trips. Little did I know at the time we would one day call this home. I’m still learning about all the history of this small town and I’m hopeful one day I’ll be able to uncover the story behind these abandoned tracks.
Thank you, Anne for this wonderful challenge and trip down memory lane. It was fun to scroll through many forgotten images and revisit days gone by. For those of you who would like to join in on this challenge, be sure to link to Anne’s post in the “comments” section and also use the Lens-Artist tag.
Donna Robinson Photography 