I love bokeh!
For this last assignment in C & C’s workshop, I wanted to photograph a flower I had never shot before and I found one pretty easily a few blocks from home. I’m not very good at identifying flowers and a quick look through my garden book didn’t give me an answer. Do one of you know what this flower is? [Edited on 5/1: my former next-door neighbor informed me that this flower is a butterfly iris and I googled it and sure enough, it is. Thanks, Shere.] Shooting in aperture priority yielded these results…shadows and bokeh.
Next, I found a pond and a fountain close to the flowers. It turns out, I love reflections, too! And sunflares.
The play of the sunlight on the water as the sun faded away was compelling. The reflections of buildings and trees formed an endless variety of patterns.
I do like collages a lot.
But…I never got to a landscape photo. I was going to go out shooting again later in the week but just didn’t have the time.
Here are some of the things I learned:
1. If I ever have photographer’s block, I’ll get the eggs out. Eggs are beautiful in texture and form and beg to be photographed and you’re sure to get some good photos.
2. I love blur! I’ve not used it much and I have a hard time choosing blur over sharp but I like the result when I do.
3. Still lifes aren’t boring so you should technically always be able to find something to shoot.
4. Having an assignment makes it easier to photograph instead of being limiting as one would think.
5. Looking at the work of thirty plus other people who are doing the same assignment is very inspiring. To see how many different ways different people interpret and see is revealing. The creative process is fascinating in yourself and others.
6. Four weeks was just the right amount of time for the workshop…not so long that you feel overwhelmed or over-committed but long enough to get familiar with the other participants’ work and want to add them all to your blogroll.
Thank you, Camilla and Carolyn, for a fun and interesting 4 weeks. And I enjoyed seeing all the great photographers that participated. I’ll be checking out your blogs on a regular basis.
Filed under: Photography | Tags: C&C Workshop, Flora, Learning, Photography
You damn right, I’ve got the blues,
From my head down to my shoes.
You damn right, I’ve got the blues,
From my head down to my shoes.
I can’t win, cause I don’t have a thing to lose.
Buddy Guy
I’ve been gravitating toward blue all my life…from my first bedroom when I was little until now…clothes, jewelry, furniture (like my fish chair above), sheets, dishes, glasses, purses. I like all blues but shades of turquoise/teal are probably my favorites. The first diptych shows these shades of blue with their color complement of orange, with the photo on the left also illustrating negative space.
There’s also complementary color going on here with this Navajo necklace…
And some turquoise earrings, shown in this square-cropped photo, show a person…or part of one (me), as well as showing the subject…the stone in the earring…with negative space, as learned in Lesson #2.
The hardest part was only selecting a few turquoise/teal things to photograph. I could have gone on and on.
Another diptych shows outdoor dishware with me reflected in the glass and also blurred.
This was a fun assignment; I shot almost every night after work but have weeded the shots down to these few. I’m eager to see all the other participants’ colors. You can see them, too, by going to C and C’s photography blog and linking to the participants. We only have one more assignment, what will Camilla have in store for us?
Filed under: Photography | Tags: C&C Workshop, Holidays, Learning, Photography
Assignment #2 of 4 from Carolyn and Camilla’s photo workshop is a still life, taken from many angles, for composition and perspective.
Then a bird’s eye view:
A little negative space, the sunlight was fading here so there’s a little fill flash involved:
And some blur, for the painterly effect, to see shapes and forms:
This was really just going to be my practice run but time slipped away, you know how that goes, so this is it. The hardest part was choosing objects for the still life. I tried to find objects that would look shapely from any angle, similar tones, as I wanted it a little muted, but I also wanted dramatic shadows. The little stone bunny got added as an Easter bonus. Happy Easter!
Filed under: Arizona, Blogging, Photography | Tags: Arizona, Blogging, C&C Workshop, Learning, Photoblogging, Photography
I didn’t know until last Thursday that I loved eggs so much. They’re okay to eat but they’re awesome to photograph. Something about their form and texture begs to be photographed. I’m participating in Carolyn and Camilla’s online workshop and our first assignment was to photograph a white egg on a white background, then on a black one and, after that, we were free to photograph any egg anywhere. Who’d have thought it would be so fun and addictive?!? It was very hard to pare down the 100 plus photos I took to those I’m posting here.
Local eggs, of course. So, here’s the first part of the assignment. I really liked Carolyn’s photos of eggs in a carton so I had to do that, too. In fact, those are my favorites of my own egg photos.
Our kitchen has almost no natural light so I photographed on my patio (shown). Instead of the usual bright, sunny weather we normally have in AZ, the first few days of this week were partly cloudy when I got home from work so the late afternoon shadows that I like were not there. The light was more diffused but I sort of like the effect anyway.
However, Friday afternoon, it was very sunny again so I did some outdoor shots around my immediate neighborhood with the white egg and its brown friend.
If you ever have photographer’s block or can’t think of anything to photograph, grab an egg and go wild. It was too fun, the possibilities are endless, and eggs look good just about anywhere you take ‘em.
Ask me to do this again in about 3 months and the egg may wind up fried. You really can fry an egg on the sidewalk in the summer in Arizona. The news people do it all the time.
Check out some of the other 40 participants’ assignments, too. We’re all supposed to look at and comment on everyone else’s work so I hope I haven’t rambled on too long. Thank you, Carolyn and Camilla, for such an interesting and enjoyable assignment.
