Sometimes it’s just about what we like. I like cosmos. And I like this image.
Nor much more to it than that.
bookmark_borderCosmic cosmos
Tag: nifty 50
bookmark_borderPlaying with color
I’m always a little self-conscious when I put up a photo that I like “just because”. I always think Is it good enough to display? Will people think I’m amaturish for putting up such an image?
But what does it matter, really? Taste is subjective. We like what we like and there isn’t always an explanation for it. I choose subjects that speak to me. Maybe they don’t speak to you the same way (or maybe they do; if so, cheers!) but something about them is beautiful to me.
This image caught my eye this morning as I was making breakfast. I love this plant and I had placed these little cuttings into a tiny terracotta pot on the kitchen window, in hopes that they might take (they have). Something about the light, the colors and the distant, pastel background really struck me as beautiful.
I actually used it as a practice piece in Lightroom, as I wanted to tweak the colors a bit more to accentuate them (it was the color that got me in the first place). I used the Color and the Calibration sliders to get the feel I wanted. I also ran it through Photoshop to remove a couple of small elements that I found distracting.
Here’s the original:
I wanted a warmer, brighter, summer sun feeling. I’m pretty happy with it, though I feel it could be better. But I’m learning, and that’s what this project is all about!
bookmark_borderMaribou on grass
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!
bookmark_borderWhite campion wildflowers
You know I like flowers. I won’t apologize for the amount of flower images you will see on this site.
These little guys are in bloom right now all over our property. The nice thing about photographing wildflowers to put up on line is that I have to do some research to find out what the heck they are.
Turns out these guys are an alien from Europe but are now widespread over the US. They don’t seem to have too many uses, but extracts from their roots and leaves are extremely toxic to mosquitoes.
You learn something new every day.
bookmark_borderDid I mention I love daisies?
I can’t help it. They are what is blooming right now and I am constantly drawn back to them, no matter how many photos I’ve taken of them already.
I love their bright sunny faces.
I just remembered that they are from the family asteraceae, which includes sunflowers, calendula, echinacea, chrisanthamums, dahlias and zinnias, all of which I also love.
Guess you’ll be seeing a lot of asteraceae images from me.
bookmark_borderBlack eyed Susans forest
I really like this image, but it feels like something isn’t quite right to me…
I got excited photographing these because of the shapes and the early morning light and the lovely smeary background (thanks to my new 50mm Nikkor lens, which I ADORE). I had something in mind for how I wanted to process them, but it was a rather nebulous idea and I wasn’t able to match what I was feeling during the editing process.
Does that ever happen to you?
I had this image in my head that was bluish and very moody but nothing I did seemed to evoke that feeling so I gave up and just went with what what I felt looked best.
I still really like the image, it just didn’t turn out the way I had expected/hoped/tried.
Maybe I’ll visit it again at a later date with new eyes (or more experience) and match my vision for it.