elementals

I'm going to make the claim, for the fun of it, that all 4 elements are represented below:

water 

(fairly obvious)

air 

(as in damn cold air)

earth 

(a little back story here: this tug was run aground by an intoxicated skipper last fall. he did get a DUI ticket for the occurrence)

fire 

(subtle)

fire 

(smokin')

4 Elements & Panning

Since it finally stopped raining here, I headed to the woods today to try to transform my brilliant idea for panning into a reality. Turns out, as it always seems to be with my photography, that my idea was a lot harder to make a reality than I anticipated. Normally Maci stays right with me on the trails but Orzo can be counted on to race all over the woods. I had illusions of catching him as he raced about, but of course today he stayed right with me. When he did venture off, it was always in a position that made panning impossible. Below is the best attempt of the many shots I tried to get. Clearly he is out of focus, but I liked the image anyway. Since it quickly became clear that my panning plans were going to be a flop, I decided to move over to the 4 elements topic and try that instead. I wasn't inspired at all (which is part of the reason I was doing panning) but I was getting desperate. I snapped the water picture below intending for it to be the first in a series of 4 individual images for each element. I took the model boat picture earlier in the day today, initially hoping to get a good panning shot of the fleet but they were finishing up just as I arrived.  It became "Wind" instead.  I took a few 'earth' pictures while out hiking, but nothing too inspirational, so I quickly lost my enthusiasm for the subject. So I am admitting defeat and simply submitting what I have thus far. I may revisit the panning topic again as I would love to catch Orzo mid-leap as he frolicks in the woods, looks just like a little deer..... Unfortunately nothing too inspirational this week.....

Gratitude & Photographer in the picture

Killing two birds with one stone here. While I used to love to ham it up in pictures when I was younger, age and self-consciousness has changed that position for me. Over recent years I find I am reluctant to put myself in front of the camera's often unflattering focus preferring instead to be the creator, not the subject. However, in keeping with both topics this week, I thought it would be appropriate to change that stance for this one instance. Given the various traumas in my life this Fall, I find I am feeling a lot of gratitute for my good health, the blessings that my family and friends provide me and the simple beauty of some peaceful time alone. Time to contemplate, replenish, rejoice.

gratitude

I wanted to re-do "smile," but just didn't get around to asking anyone to model for me. I was at a coffee shop & saw the cutest young woman, thought I could get "smile" & "coffee" all in one swoop! But a failure of nerve stopped me from asking her for permission (& there was no way to be discrete about lifting the camera...she was sitting right beside me!). So gratitude.

I am grateful for the snow, mountains, trees, & the sunrise

...and I am grateful for my little Moe.

smile 1.0

My husband, featured in the first picture below, took two days to give me permission to post this picture. It is my contribution to "smile," as it is about as close to a smile as anyone (besides me) might witness of my husband...smiling. It is possible that my husband has two expressions: stony face; and stony face. So. There you have it.

This is not related to the theme at all. I was shoveling the deck & there was a hole in the stack of snow on the rail (this photo is tweaked - seriously tweaked!)

Smile

While these photos are probably not technically what was intended by "Smile", I am taking a bit of artistic liscence and interpreting SMILE in my own fashion. Orzo behaves like a cat. We have discovered that he will chase a laser dot ALL OVER THE PLACE just like a cat. Up the walls, across the yard, under furniture. I keep waiting for him to wake up and realize that this is going no where, yet he continues to amuse. I do think he understands that I am the creator of this diversion, but he is happy to oblige regardless. I have been entertaining myself for days, not only smiling but totally belly-laughing. Seemed an appropriate submission for SMILE.

As a continuation of our tweaking conversation, I discovered that I am really bad at it! Turns out that taking the pic itself was a photographic challenge since I had to try to capture the laser dot and the fast moving dog in dim light (gloomy here today).  I tried unsuccessfully to lighten up these pics by tweaking but all I discovered is I really don't know how to do it properly!  No matter what combination I tried they came out too pixelated. I know there is a lesson in there somewhere but since my family is dancing from foot to foot waiting to be entertained, I will have to revisit the topic at a later date. Off I go!

tweakin'

The comparison between these shots is an exploration into the question: to tweak or not to tweak?

before

after

This may not be a very good photograph to use as an example. Although I like this picture, I find it hard to like. That's part of why I used it last week - it felt like a risk to put up a picture I was unsure whether anyone else would see value in.

In truth these are two separate shots, but they can still be used for this comparison (I must have not saved the original for the "after" shot, though normally that is my habit). Still, the natural lighting in both shots was the same as they were taken only seconds apart and the camera settings were identical. What they illustrate is the difference manipulating cropping, brightness, contrast, & gamma correct can make after the shot has been taken.

Coming to photography after decades of being a writer seems to make this potential issue of "to tweak or not to tweak" a non-issue for me. Editing, after all, can be a wildly magical process where the initial nugget of inspiration gets polished & brought to a shine. That shine is inherent in the original, couldn't come from anywhere except the original. Editing a photo feels like an integral process very much the same as editing a piece of writing.

If you don't like this photo then the differences between the two shots here are barely noticeable! Yet to me the "after" shot brings the viewer in. Just this movement of coming in, allows the picture go from "a picture of a dead leaf" to an invitation to meet an entity (albeit that entity happens to be a dead leaf!). Once cropped for this "invitation" the brightness was enhanced & contrast increased. The invitation to meet this entity is enhanced by allowing more detail to be delineated.

This is a subtle perspective, a picture of something v an invitation to meet someone, and it is likely that such subtleties exist merely in the eye of the beholder. Which, moving from the issue of to tweak or not to tweak, expands this exercise to the value of art regardless of editing!

Mastering the masters is a delicious exercise for our growth. To play with mimicking the work of others can be a fantastic way to try things for ourselves and extend & enlarge our awareness. More than editing, tweaking, or any academic knowledge, expanding awareness is what art, making it and viewing it, can do. To tweak or not to tweak... lay in the eye of the beholder. Art is a prayer that the eye of the beholder is ever maturing by risk of failure to find vision & voice.