creative pursuits
I took this back in April of 2013. While we lived in this house this was one of my favorite subjects. It is a window on the outside of our barn and had this moss on the outside and some kind of green weed growing just on the inside. The glass panes were grungy, the frame was chipped and peeling and I just found it so incredibly photogenic.
This one I took in January of 2014. One of the first times I experimented with shadow and shape. I really liked the combination of the shape and varying tones of the shadows cast by the plant and my window frame and the texture of the painted wall they fall on.
It was a photo I took on a whim that I never wound up doing anything with, but I find that I actually really like it, despite the fact that it’s a departure from the kinds of photos I generally like to make.
This is one I took back in July of 2014. It was the first year we planted a garden and I let my leeks overgrow and bloom. I love the shape and color of the flowers, so unusual!
I overlooked this because there were others I liked better at the time. But when I came across it today I saw its potential and lightened it up and adjusted the color and tone a bit. I’m happy with the result. It’s a simple photo but I really enjoy the structure of the flowers and the color of the overall image.
I was playing in Lightroom today and going through some of my older photos to see if I could make them better now that I have a little more editing experience under my belt (and since Lightroom has improved).
In the process, I realized that I have a lot of photos that I really like! Not only that, but the majority of images on this site are from my practice month and don’t necessarily represent my better work.
So I’m going to upload some of my better images, even though they are older, so I can populate my site with work I like!
I had considered post-dating them to when I actually took them, but I’ve decided against that. I’ll just post them as I go and write what date I took them.
So, to start (and in no particular order) here is one I took in July of 2016. It is the back window in a barn where some little opportunistic plant had taken hold inside and grew happily throughout the winter. I liked the combination of the darkness, texture and reflections from the glass and the color and texture of the moss in front, all framed by the grungy, peeling window frame. I edited it to enhance the contrast and textures.
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’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!
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.
One of the new little pitchers on my Nepenthes (at night, of course, under my compact fluo).
Morning sun shining through this random grass flower on our chain link fence.
Found this little plant growing on the wrong side of the window in our barn. It seems to be looking wistfully out the window at the outdoors where it should be growing. I edited it to accentuate the textures, contrast, bokeh and desatureted it to add a that feeling.
Emergent water plant in my planted bowl. Another late night looking for something to photograph….
This is an Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar. I was very excited to find two of these guys on my rue plant this morning. One of my favorite butterflies! I made a few images that I like and it took me a long time to decide but there’s something striking about the image in black and white so I chose this one.
This was the only photo I took today! Not on purpose, I was called in the moment after I made this shot. Glad it came out somewhat decent (though I would have made a better image if I had a bit more time). I think I made up for it by putting some fun effects on it.
Somewhat of a departure from my regular focal length, I brought it all the way out to 18 instead of 55 so I could get the other lilies in the background. I really like the result. Especially after tweaking it in Lightroom to bring up the clarity of the foremost lily.
I had the pleasure of spending the day at a beautiful farm today. There were some lovely reclaimed gardens around the property and I got to wander around with my camera during golden hour. This was my favorite.
I love that yard behind the porch gets covered with violets this time of year. When they are all in bloom it looks positively magical!
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.
Wilted and withered bloom on my Peace Lily plant.
New fern fronds growing at the base of Moss (the maple tree) caught in the afternoon sunlight.
Periwinkle flower after a brief rainstorm this afternoon.
Cactus in a plastic-covered, streaky window in the late afternoon. Lots of textures and light-play.
This is one of last year’s sunflowers left outside over the winter for the chipmunks. It startled me when I first saw it, I thought it was an animal! I like the contrast in textures between the sunflower head and the rock, and the shape of the leaf between them. I tried processing it as black and white but I think the muted colors add more to the image.