• flowers,  Photography,  Plants

    Dreams

    May 12, 2010

    Dreamy

    “…most people are accustomed to setting goals and not achieving them. It’s easy to lose focus: something in real life comes up that needs your immediate attention, so all of those future plans become pipe dreams and eventually fade away, leaving us where we were in the beginning.”

    This is a recurring theme in my life: unfulfilled dreams and ideas. Unfulfilled because I failed to set goals, take action and move towards those dreams and ideas. Sound familiar? I’ve always wondered if I could have been the athlete who wins the big one but was afraid to fail. Could I have been an “A” student had I only put in the effort and time? We all have dreams, some we have brought to fulfillment and some we have not. The older I get the closer I come to fulfilling more of these dreams.

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  • Photography,  Plants

    Allium

    May 1, 2010
    Allium

    Took this image at Inniswood Gardens last summer. One of those images I shrugged off when first looking at it then found something I liked about it a year later. I did some slight cropping and adjusted the contrast. It’s good to revisit the archives.

    I also want to share this quote of Galen Rowell’s I found on a post by David Hyde. “The most meaningful photographic styles are always reflections of the internal. We react not so much to what an outdoor photographer sees, but to how he or she sees and renders the subject for us. Personal style comes from within, from a photographer’s unconscious and conscious choices.”  Galen Rowell’s Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography

    Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

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  • Art/Design,  Photography

    Investing in Photography

    April 30, 2010
    Coins

    A couple of days ago, Sabrina Henry had a good post about what tempts us. It allowed me to reflect back on my temptations in this passion of photography. I have purchased several cameras and lens over the years, trying to find what works for me and with the idea the tool will make me better. And, in this digital era the technology is changing so fast, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the latest gear. With money tight, I’m not able to buy the newest lens or camera but must use what I have. So the best investment I can make in my photography is to practice with what I have.

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  • Photography,  Plants

    Looking back

    April 29, 2010
    Purple

    I do have a lot of images in my archives and am tempted to delete them and save disc space. However, before I deleted them I spent some time looking at the images I passed over asking myself several questions. What was there about the image I did not like? Did I expose it properly? How as the composition, the background? What could I do next time to improve it? And, what could I do now with the knowledge I’ve gained with software such as Lightroom and Photoshop Elements, that will improve what I’ve already got? It turned out to be a good exercise and was fun to experiment with Lightroom. this is one from the past. I cropped the image, adjusted the contrast, brush a bit more detail in the petals and posted it.

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  • Photography

    Pick a color…

    April 25, 2010
    Pick a Color

    … and have a seat.  This scene is unusual as there is almost always someone sitting in one of these chairs. The store that sells these chairs always has them outside on the side walk so people use them. As I came out of the coffee shop there was a small young girl engulfed by the chairs. By the time I retrieved my camera she and her family had moved on. But I figured what the heck and took a few shots. Love colors!

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  • Photography

    Edge of the Pond

    April 18, 2010
    Edge of the Pond

    Here is an observation of my photography I’ve notice over the past few weeks. It seems my photographers eye has evolved over the last three years and my approach to my images has moved in a different direction. Some of this change is due to the equipment I have decided to use. I carry a small prime 35mm lens rather than a large zoom. With the faster prime I can create some interesting images with the shallow depth of field, bringing more focus to my subjects. Also, the faster lens allows me to work better in situations where I have less light. It is less intrusive to subjects and in some conditions is not even noticed.

    And, some is due to the environment I shoot in. My work places me in metropolitan areas without transportation so I walk a lot. Therefore the wide open landscapes, such as my sunrises and sunsets, are almost non-existent. If I look at the sunrises and sunsets taken in the past three years, they are taken from a different perspective than I had back in Colorado. There is also a greater challenge to shoot images that do not have the footprint of man. So what I look for in images has changed. An example is the above image taken in Savannah in back of our hotel. It is a holding pond surrounded by other hotels and businesses. I love the lighting but needed to take a bit more care to eliminate the foot print of man.

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