Howard Grill had written previously about some challenges he was facing in trying to come up with new ways to photograph trillium that is in bloom this time of year. I had commented on one of his original posts that I often face the same creative block with certain subjects. At the time I was speaking specifically of wide angle views of trillium, which I don’t have that many of because it is rare I find a situation that works for me. This season I tried to challenge myself to look at this flower in ways I have not in the past. While not wide angle shots, I think I did come up with some shots that are more unique than anything I have done before with this wildflower.
I have already missed Blootroot and Hepatica this year due to being sick at the peak time. It doesn’t take long to miss something during springtime. So I wanted to get out and take advantage of the next group of spring blooms. It also gave me a chance to play a little bit with a reversed Nikon 50 mm f1.4 on the end of my 105 f2.8 macro lens for some extreme closeups. The shot of the stamen here is with that combination. The others are just my 105 alone.
So I hope you enjoy these three different looks at a fairly common wildflower and my continued pursuit of looking at the graphical nature of plants.Â. Â. Should you experience the same creative blocks – try to break old habits and look at your subject at different angles, from behind, from below.Â. Try to highlight features of the flower that interest you the most, just necessarily just the entire plant.
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During my flu ‘break’ last week I came across a nice interview with Anthony Hopkins on daytime television. Normally I think they should just save the airwaves with most things found on daytime television, but that is another matter. Anyway, I had learned that Anthony Hopkins is also an avid painter. You can see some of his work here.Â. He of course sells them, offers for charity benefits, and not for out of this world prices either.Â. Perhaps this is old news and I am just behind the times because I don’t pay attention to a lot of celebrity news, but I thought it was neat to come across this alternative pursuit of an already famous person. I thought some of it was quite good, and he is already of course a talented actor.
In the past, I also learned that Andy Summers, of the rock group, The Police, and independent musician, is also an avid photographer. I think it is quite interesting to learn of these other artistic talents of artists that are more known for something completely different. Do you think their claim to fame helps or hinders their alternate pursuits? Certainly it must help for publicity purposes if their ‘hidden’ work has some commercial aspect to it. I remember seeing an interview with Andy where he talked about sometimes the two conflicted with each other in trying to ‘channel creativity.’ He would often need to put away photography to concentrate on his music.
Are there other well known artists that you know of with similar cases? I think I know a lot of photographers that dabble also in music in some way or another. What about perhaps someone who is known for a non-creative pusuit, but does something creative ‘on the side?’ All of this has me thinking about creative pursuits – can they play well together? Can one feed the other? Are there certain types of activities that could come in direct conflict with each other – where you wouldn’t find the same person doing both things? Like say perhaps a famous athlete that is also an artist? Just some interesting things to think about. If you have discovered someone’s ‘hidden’ talent, please share.
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I have been out of commission the past few days with a bad case of the flu, and unfortunately more concerned about coughing up a lung than getting out in the great spring weather we have started to have here.
I just snagged a 1978 Nikon 50 mm 1.4 lens off of Ebay that I plan on reversing and doing some extreme closeup work with. Michael Brown finally mentioned it enough that I bid on one. He seems to know a thing or two about macro work. 
It is amazing how many of these things are for sale there, and all still fetching some good prices, even at nearly 30 years old! I don’t think I got the best deal, but I was tired of waiting through the cut-throat auctions that happen on these things.Â. Some wiseguy bumped the auction price up by 30% in the last 10 seconds.Â. So I have an itch to play with that a little.
Hepatica are one of the great starts to spring in Michigan for a nature photographer, so I scanned this one from the archives – was shot back in May 2000 (on film of course, Fuji Velvia). Much of the dreamy appearance is from a multiple exposure – an effect I still like doing in-camera today. Far from being an extreme closeup, but a reminder that spring is definitely here at last.
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Just sharing an interesting link to a list over on Wikipedia. I don’t suppose I will ever understand why these images fetch the prices they do. I can understand some of them hold fairly significant historical reference, like one of the first color photographs. Ansel Adam’s Moonrise is on the list, and never struck me as one of his better images. But that isn’t what it is all about right?
Of course there is more tied to the price of these photographs than their asthetic appeal. And it has me thinking what types of images made today might make this pretigious list in 50 years or so. Of course, one of the prerequisites is you might have to die first. OK, we don’t want to explore that one further. At the top of the list, the photographer is still living. But what about the next great milestones in photographic history? Given we are in the dawn of the digital age, would the first digital image be one worth such noteriety? And how would one buy such a thing in 50 years? Just throw that flash card with the original up on the auction block?
I am curious as to what others think about this list, and if you want to take a guess at some future predictions just for fun.Â. Â. I can make an “Edition of One” version of any image on this site available for a meager bid of $500,000.Â. 
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I shot this ice image along with my other ice patterns back last month. This one sat in my ‘to-do’ que for awhile. I go back to these over time and determine how I want to handle some images that just don’t thrill me out of the camera. I have images sitting since last year that I am still contemplating. There were subtle hints of some of the natural oils/bacterial films I was playing with before mixed in with some rather interesting ice patterns. I sensed potential for it to be something, but just wasn’t sure what it would be.
So I sat down to work on this one, did some layer blends here and there, some masking and selective color adjustments. I began reinterpreting the image. I was really just having some fun playing. Then it started to develop into something quite interesting, uniquely bizarre, and I began thinking I was designing props for the movie series “Alien.” So here is my Alien Ice – perhaps this is what ice looked like when it was on Mars.
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