Hello Jonathan

Pulling from my archives for this wonderful Wednesday.

Goodbye Jonathan! 

Enjoy The Day!

Creative Processing

One Photograph - Three Images

Whether you are working with film and chemically processing your photos or are strictly digital, how you complete your post processing determines the final outcome of your photographs.

Original image

Cropped image

Artistic rendition

Sometimes I already have a plan for the post processing in mind when I take a photo and other times I just let the photo 'talk' to me. In this case it was definitely the photograph that inspired me to go more creative with the post processing. To me the original was nice but nothing special. The crop... well that is just boring! But this dark stroke artist rendition is eye catching and by far my favorite version of this photograph.

Changing Focal Point

I often take multiple photos of a scene or object changing the focus or perspective in each shot. I do this because I have found that sometimes my original "focus" vision for the shot isn't always the one that turns out to be the most striking image. Here is an example using some more of my air show photos.

While walking underneath these jet engines my eyes were drawn to the propeller on the next plane.

I thought it would make a cool shot to use the jet engines overhead as a half frame for the propeller of the next plane.

My main dilemma was deciding if I wanted the propeller blurry or sharp. Which wasn't much of a dilemma at the time as like I said before I generally take multiple shots with varied focus. It became more of a dilemma while going through my photos to decide which I liked best and wanted to share.

I keep going back and forth. One minute I like the sharp photo, the next I am drawn back to the blurry one. For me the blurry one has this aura about it. Be it a sense of urgency or maybe power, I can't quite figure it out. But whatever it is the blurry shot definitely captured my attention. 
 

What do you think? Sharp or Blurry?
Do you also change up your focus?

South Dakota Sunday: Peaceful Turbulence

As I no longer post to my South Dakota Photo Blog I thought it would be nice to have one day each week that I post a South Dakota scenic or nature photo. To start South Dakota Sunday off I have chosen a few peaceful photos of the turbulent waterfalls on the Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls, SD.

May your week be filled with peacefulness and very little turbulence.

Do You See What I See

Sometimes we can see what others see even if we aren't looking in the same direction thanks to reflections like this one in my grandson's glasses. 

"Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky, little lamb,
Do you see what I see?"

Okay, I know Christmas is way off but this sky photo reminded me of this line in the Christmas Carol 'Do you hear what I hear?"

While looking for the exact line I came across this song I had never heard by an Australian rock band titled "Do you see what I see?". While the meaning of song doesn't fit with my photos it's a pretty good song so I thought I would share it.

 

Sharing with:

Jame's Weekend Reflection

and

Friday Skywatch

Back To School Portraits

My grandson did not want his photo taken.

But I convinced him his mom would like a picture without a frown.

 

He was much more willing to let me take portraits of him with his sister.

Of course that meant some pretty silly shots.

 

The gap in this photo may look odd but there was a good reason for it. We were setting up for a group shot of the three of us. I took this then set it on timer and attempted to run and get in position between the two before the next shot was taken. It didn't work. This old lady is just too slow. So we opted for me to stay in position and Sissy to run down and push the shutter button. She was faster but almost not fast enough.

The Challenge: Self Portrait

30 day photo challenge

1st challenge: Self Portraiture

Instead of doing one challenge a day, I have decided to just focus on each challenge as time permits.
 

I combined my first attempt at this challenge with taking portraits of one of my granddaughters. I am much happier with her portraits which I will share later. 

This is a shot from that first attempt. I shared a better shot Here. I definitely chose the wrong time of day and the wrong location. In addition my attempt to get the focus set properly wasn't very successful. Not to be beaten by a challenge I had to give it a few more tries.

On my second attempt, I headed out with two of my grandchildren. Once again, I captured some good portraits of the kids. As for the self portraits, they were better than my first attempts. However, I was still not satisfied.

Although it was about the same time of day as in the first attempts, this time I chose a location that had more trees to diffuse the harsh light. Thanks to the children, who agreed to sit where I planned on sitting, I was able to set the focus better this time. Although still not satisfied, I am happier with this than with my first attempts. Maybe if I had posed differently I might like it. But the way I am sitting almost makes me look pregnant! Thank God that isn't possible. LOL

For my final attempt I decided to go for a completely different type of self portrait. I did a series of shots that will be used for a project I am doing about living with Narcolepsy. I am very satisfied with the results. 



This challenge definitely took me out of my comfort zone (behind the lens). It also gave me a chance to work on conceptualizing the portrait instead of relying solely on what I see through the view finder to compose the portrait.  

At first I thought this took me out of my comfort zone because I am getting older and like mirrors I can't hide that from a photo. Then I realized that isn't it, because I have never liked having my photo taken. It seems to me many photographers feel the same way. So I ask, why is it photographers are more comfortable taking photos of other people than they are of themselves? 

WW: Protesting School

Pulling from my archives for this weeks Wordless Wednesday.

 

European Hornet

Typically Bee's and Wasps don't worry me. I may hold real still if one is very close to me but otherwise I just go by the premise that if I don't bother it then it isn't likely to bother me. Usually that is. I will admit though, if this thing had been alive I would have jumped back in my car and rolled up the windows. Most likely shaking like a leaf.

for size comparison my little finger is 2 inches long

bottle cap for size comparison

It was bigger than any wasp I had ever seen so I did a bit of digging and I do believe it is a European Hornet. 

Happy

As the song says:

If you're happy and you know it 

clap your hands

Quiet Beauty

Two very different locations caught during a quiet moment. 

 

The Terry Redlin Art Center is a very beautiful place but can be very busy.

 

The Empire Mall parking lot, taken this morning before the mall opened. 

For me the lack of people in these photos add a quiet beauty to the already beautiful scenes.

What do you think?

 

Sharing with:

Jame's Weekend Reflection

and

Friday Skywatch

Connections

With so many people present at the airshow capturing people as they connected with each other and their environment was both easy and enjoyable. 
 

The three women and small girl walking toward the aircraft is my favorite, although the young family runs a close second. I think the photo of the young family would be much better if I took out the two distractions in the upper left corner. What do you think? Which photo do you like best?

Bowen N Esten

When I heard that Clare Bowen and Charles (Chip) Esten from the TV show Nashville were going to be preforming at our local fair I was very excited. Nashville is one of my favorite shows and Clare is one of my favorite singers on the show, so being able to see and hear her in person was a real treat. Documenting the experience with my camera was icing on the cake. 

This handsome young guitar player singing with Clare has a great voice and has written a number of beautiful songs for Clare, but that isn't all he is also engaged to Clare!

This is my second favorite photo of I took of Clare. I shared my very favorite one in a post Here about why I think she is an amazing person which has nothing to do with her singing or acting.

Now for some of Chip Esten. Although he is not my favorite male singer on the show I do still like his singing very much. I have to say he was very entertaining.

 

My favorite photo of Charles Esten