Photography

Lens Artist Challenge #209 – Surrealism

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 5 Comments

This week our guest host, Tracy over at “Reflections of an Untidy Mind” challenges us with the theme of “surrealism.” Be sure to read her post, it’s quite interesting and chock full of fun examples: Lens-Artists Challenge #209 – Surreal – Reflections of An Untidy Mind

Photoshop and other editing software are great tools to help a photographer distort or recreate their images. But I found a unique setting in my camera several years ago which lends itself to creating surreal images. I shoot with a Canon DSLR 6D and within the camera is a multi-exposure setting and it lets me choose up to 9 exposures in creating one image. You can read my original post here to learn more about multi-exposure in camera art.

Below are the images from my original post:

First up, yellow daisy in the birdbath. My base/background image was the birdbath with some leaves floating in the water. I then took the second image, the yellow daisy. As you can see the final image looks like the daisy is floating along with the leaves in the birdbath.

Next up, fire in a glass vase. The base image was the glass vase, and the fireplace was the overlay. I suppose with photoshop I could really get creative with this image and make some smoke out of it or change the background.

My last image is the same glass vase but with a glass of chilled wine as the overlay. Again, I suppose I could get a little more creative with the image in photoshop.

If your DSLR has this capability you should give it a try. I know after revisiting my original post I’m ready to start playing around with this setting again to see where my creativity takes me!

Until next time,

~donna

P.S. If you would like to participate in our weekly Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us on Saturdays at noon EST: Lens-Artist Challenge

P.S.S. If you are interested in purchasing unique notecards, photography or digital artwork please visit my Etsy shop by clicking on the button below.

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Lens-Artist 204 – Doors

/ Donna Robinson Photography / 12 Comments

“When life shuts a door…. open it again. It’s a door, that’s how they work!”

This week Sylvia (My Colorful Expression) encourages us to explore doors/doorways that have drawn your photographic eye. Another fun challenge for me because it gave me a chance to go through my archives and revisit some favorite places.

Like these images of an old house rapidly deteriorating on the side of HWY 341 in South Georgia. Michael and I traveled it most every time we visited St. Simons Island. It was a beautiful stretch of highway lined with farmsteads old and new, pecan groves and cotton fields. We must have passed this particular site about a dozen times before we finally stopped to take these photos.

What really stood out to me on the house was this faded blue door. Can’t you just visualize a cute, white or gray house with a bright blue door?

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Luke 11:9 NIV

I love old churches because of the stories they tell about the communities where they were built. Early into my transition to digital photography I became obsessed with taking photos of churches. So much so I had envisioned creating a coffee table book and naming it “Steeples I have Chased.” With the idea in my head, it wasn’t unusual for me to have Michael randomly stop so I could photograph the church. Like this one “Log Cabin Community Church.” It’s very near to where we live and has been around since 1912. Don’t you just love the bright, red doors?

What I did learn about my photography of churches (after searching through three external hard drives and my Shutterfly account) is that I haven’t done a really good job of taking photos of just the doors. Windows and alters, “yes.” But doors not so much.

I did manage to find this one from our trip to London (2010) of the main entrance to Westminster Abby. It’s definitely not my best, but that’s why we work at photography every…. single….day! Right?!?!

“The happiest of people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.”

Sometimes a door really isn’t a door. It could be the front porch or simply the doorway to the home. This photo was taken at the Atlanta History Center gardens the summer I began my “re-wirement” journey. I don’t recall where the cabin originated from but what drew me in was the opposite doorway with the colorful, tattered fabric hanging on the railing. I began to imagine what the activity in the cabin was like. I’m sure to us it was a simpler way of life, but to the early settlers it was just life.

In the photo below do you see what I mean about the porch being the doorway to the home in this photo? It’s so welcoming and inviting and draws you further into the cabin.

So that’s my photo journey of doors. Lesson learned; I need to pay more attention to doors. Afterall, you never know which one will be yours to open!

Until next time,

~donna

P. S. Next week, Tina will be our host. She is a wonderful photographer so be sure to visit her site.

P.S.S. If you would like to participate in our weekly Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us on Saturdays at noon EST: Lens-Artist Challenge

P.S.S.S. If you are interested in purchasing unique notecards, photography or digital artwork please visit my Etsy shop by clicking on the button below.

Shop Donna Robinson Photo

“A Photograph is…

/ Donna Robinson Photography / Leave a comment

I remember taking this photo. It was 11 years ago next month on Singer Island, Florida.  We were there for my husband’s family reunion. 

There was something so picturesque and peaceful about the sailboats in the background, the blue water, and the waves crashing on the beach.  I’m glad I took this picture and pushed the “pause button of life” that day. It’s a memory that I will always cherish!

Have you “pushed the pause button of life,” lately and captured that special memory?

~donna

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