Wandering

Every day after work, I step down from my heels, put on jeans and go for a walk. (Okay, not every day, but nearly.) I've joked with my husband that we need to move to Grandview because I've exhausted the 'material' in this neighborhood. But I do manage to see new things all the time; how people try to bring a little beauty in their lives; the textures and lines most people ignore; the stray cats with their territorial politics.

What do you see?

Pairing Pictures: Lines

I've got this thing for lines lately; straight lines, curvy lines, willowy lines, broken lines ...

Pairing Pictures: Turquoise

You remember back in December when I learned that Pantone would make 2010 the year of turquoise? (Wow, I wish I'd worked on that shot a little more ...) Well, I thought I'd do a little homage to turquoise.

I'm thinking August is the month for orange. August feels orange to me. What color do you think August is?

Pairing Pictures V

There are some images that are quintessentially summer; the reflection of trees in water, reflections in anything really, and the vinyl car seats which, if you are wearing shorts, your legs stick to on a hot day. Why is it that reflections seem so much more pronounced? But then, colors, textures, smells and tastes seem more pronounced in the summer too.

The Essence of Summer

As we head into the general elections, I thought I'd give you all an opportunity to practice voting. There's a new photo contest at Midwest Photo Exchange, and they want pictures of summer. There are all sorts of interpretations being submitted, but I wanted to submit something that reminded me of childhood, when I could experience summer fully, without the cares that maturity brings. A bumble bee, the smell of home-grown tomatoes, and crab apples that have fallen to the ground. So, please, go here and vote for me and I promise to lower your taxes and improve the education system. Or at least take more pictures.

How do you envision summer?

Buggyworks

I was looking for interesting textures the other day and decided to go to the Buggyworks Building. This feels like cheating because the place is just rich with textures and interesting angles, and wow, is it different from back in the day when it was just a bunch of artists studios! Now it has sleek loft condominiums and office spaces to give it some legitimacy. Would I live there? Perhaps if they installed a coffee shop on the ground floor and I tired of gardening ...

My book!

Hello, my friends. After weeks of hard work, I've created a book of my photos. Actually, it's a little more than that. Please take a look. Up in the upper right-hand corner is an option to view it full screen. It's worth it. Enjoy!

Low Contrast

These are my candidates for B&W "low contrast" photos. They are supposed to have a silky feel to them, a sort of ephemeral quality. Like I said, I have difficulty with these because I'm not sure where the eye is supposed to go. Your thoughts?

"Hot" Contrast

Hi, friends. My assignment for this weekend is actually a little more involved than I originally explained. I also need to come up with a B&W high- (or "hot") contrast image, a B&W low-contrast image, and an image with one color dominant. Yes, this is quite a tall order. The high-contrast I find easier because I'm naturally drawn to bright whites and dark blacks. So, which do you think is the strongest candidate?

With My Compliments ...

I've been obsessing about this weekend's assignment all week; complimentary colors. I was being a bit of a philistine about it, thinking that I should just magically stumble upon my source of inspiration without having to create it. "Food." I thought. Purple plums and yellow ... yellow what? Well plums aren't in season anyway. Okay, strawberries and leafy green lettuce. Who doesn't love red and green? So I went to the grocery store, but the emergency squad was there and I'm allergic to what they were dealing with, so I promptly left for another store. I arrived home with my produce in hand, and saw that my neighbor was mowing his lawn. His green lawn. With a red mower. So naturally I stopped him to capture the essence of a late Spring afternoon. I shot the berries and lettuce too. Still, nothing was doing it for me. And I thought of my sister reminding me that I have a green purse. More than one actually, but I digress. I also have a red shawl. But that came out too much red and not enough green. Finally, I looked around, exasperated. Books! We only have a hundred-thousand books ... so I arranged them just so.

Electric

You know when your driving 65 mph down the highway and the car in front of you slams on his breaks and you slam on your brakes and you think you're going to crash but you don't and you get this sort of electric shock in your finger tips from the moment? That's the feeling I got when I took this picture.

Have you ever felt that?

I Dreamed of a Circle

Hi friends. My class is moving fast and furious as I scurry to keep up. My current assignment; circles, triangles, rectangles. Real and implied. I wanted to play the 10,000 Maniacs Circle song for you as you think of what an 'implied' circle means, but alas, you'll have to go here if you want to sample it.

* A special note to Stephanie. Thank you for visiting and thank you for taking the time to comment. Blogspot would not allow me to post your comment but I hope you keep coming!

Searching for Order

The other night, my husband and I were listening to music together (Beethoven, to be specific), and he said, "Listen ... he's searching for order." And then it hit me - that's what I'm doing when I take a picture. Searching for order. 

And I'm sure it's different for every photgrapher, professional or amateur. What is it that you are doing when you take a picture?

Line, Pattern, Texture, Rhythm

Years ago, as a first year art student, I remember leaving my first oil painting class with something of an epiphany. I walked around seeing the whole world differently; infused with qualities I hadn't noticed before. I saw bands of light dragged across a green lawn, and the curly darkness of leaves against the sky. Photography provides some of the same heightened sensory experience. The difference, in my mind, is that photography isn't so much an art of creating, but an art of seeing and editing.

Last week I was asked to focus on line, pattern, texture and rhythm. Once I get into a project, I see the things all around me and try to fit it into a visual framework. But then I'm asked to focus on something else entirely and want to protest because I still have all this line, pattern, texture and rhythm to explore. The idea, I suppose, is to incorporate all of these ideas into a single vision.

Framing

One of my favorite things about photography is that you can frame each image exactly how you want a viewer to see the subject. You can include, or leave out, details to tell the story just as you want it told. It can be as beautiful, ugly, or complicated as you wish.

This is just as interesting to me in life. We shape how the world sees us by giving a glimpse of only the artifacts we deem interesting or noteworthy, or artifacts that make us popular, feared, or respected. On the receiving end, we are only given access to limited information. Whether we are witnessing something lovely, angry, amusing, or blameworthy; we are only seeing a fraction of the full picture. To participate in life, we must understand that we are only given a small part of the story. The rest requires generosity and patience.

Abstract

Every new photography class presents interesting challenges; learning about the instructor's philosophical approach to capturing the visual world, what is important to him/her, and what is unacceptable subject matter (pets, flowers, babies, and ceiling fans). This class is no exception, and has had me hitting the streets for new ways of looking at the same materials that have been around since photography was invented.

This week's mission? Abstract images in which you cannot discern what you are actually looking at, with emphasis on color, line, and texture. What works for you? What doesn't? Why?