creative pursuits
Another leek blossom photo from 2014. I forgot I took this one. I never did anything with it at the time but liked how I was able to edit it today, so I include it here. I softened the flowers and background and enhanced the bee just enough to make her pop.
Sometimes it’s about eliminating distractions.
I really liked the idea of this image. I saw the leaf in the mud and loved the texture and color. I took my time and arranged it just so. I photographed it from a number of angles.
But when I went into Lightroom to edit it, nothing felt right to me. Black and white, sepia tones, vignettes, desaturated, various presets; something was just off about it each time.
I eventually gave up and went on to other things. I just came back to it today (a week or so later) and realized what it was I was missing.
There were little bits in the background that were distracting me (and, frankly, pissing me off). The little bits of green grass clippings didn’t belong.
So I removed them!
How easy is that? (sometimes the simplest things escape me…)
There are probably still lots of things that could be done to improve this image (and, like many of my other images, I may revisit in the future when I’ve got some more experience and work with it again) but I’m much happier with it now. It looks more like I wanted it to.
Sometimes all it takes is just eliminating small distractions, tidying up so that the bigger picture makes sense. I have found this to be true in my day to day life as well, so this was a poignant lesson for me today.
I took one of these on my iTouch (you can see it on my Instagram page) and decided I wanted to see what I could do with it from my camera in Lightroom.
It’s exactly the same image, just taken with a different camera and edited in a different program (I use Snapseed on my iTouch, Lightroom and Photoshop on my computer). I wanted to see if I could bring out the texture in the feather while keeping the background blurry.
Just a fun experiment!
Another one of my favorite things; feathers. Normally grungy tattered feathers would offend me (I like my feathers pristine, straight and clean!) but they are uniquely photogenic. I discovered this one in the mud after a rainy night and the combination of the lines, holes and sharp points displayed in the feather and the roundness of the water droplets (plus that dark, dark background) was compelling to me. I think it makes an interesting image.
I got a new toy! I ordered a set of cheap-o macro filters and got a chance to really try them out today. Here are some photos I took in the backyard using the 10x filter. I love these things! Now I can finally get really close and get those lovely smeary backgrounds I have been craving for so long…
This tough little sprig of peppermint is growing despite being hauled from the earth and transplanted twice. I’m very fond of the purple in the stem.
Detail of a dreamcatcher I made with burgundy embroidery floss and garnet beads against a cardboard box. (the beads could be in better focus)