Finally spring wildflowers are kicking into gear around here. Yesterday I ventured out with an idea in my head of doing something a bit different this year. It seems as if I go through this every year, wanting to create something a bit different than last season on the same flowers. I suppose I use it to push myself creatively and to not get in a rut of photographing things the same way over and over. Sometimes I go through this type of process where I have a very basic idea, and then it seems like a treasure hunt in attempt to find a subject that fits the idea like a missing piece of a puzzle.
Lone Bloodroot and sunlight
Well, this year the idea came before actually applying it to a subject. I have been learning slowly what works and what doesn’t using my 24mm f1.4 lens wide open. I simply love this lens. Using f1.4 seems to work well if you have a fairly isolated subject in the context of its larger environment. That seems rather common sense I suppose – isolate your subject. I found it harder to accomplish in practice because at 24 mm you are taking in a lot of environment. For wildflowers, you typically get around this by using longer focal length lenses and actually looking for backgrounds that are far away from the flower. You make a tight portrait of a flower, or just use a wide angle and a lot of depth of field for flowers in a landscape. My idea was going in the opposite direction of both of those things.
Once I had a subject, I wanted to then use some textures in post to accent the out of focus background. Now I just needed a subject that worked into this basic concept. It didn’t really matter what it was, but it had to work into that basic framework.
I encountered quite a few lone flowers, but they just had too many other objects around them that would compete in the scene. It might be a dominant tree that is too close, other surrounding flowers or other plants, or distracting angular lines in the background – all were working against the idea I had.
Read MoreCertainly every day needs to be Earth Day, but if there is one thing to rally around and show your appreciation for, it is certainly our planet. I am off today to do a little cleanup around my neighborhood as soon as the rain passes. Every spring after the snow is finally gone, there seems to be ample evidence of the carelessness of human beings along our roadside. I am dumbfounded about what goes through the mind of someone who simply throws trash out their car window. Drunk teenagers? Careless adults? I see this little piece of trash dumped on the side of the road and it is irritating to me. How dare someone throw trash in my line of sight?!
I have often wondered if it is a plot by birds. It is pretty easy for us to haul trash to the curb, a truck comes by and takes it away. Problem solved right? Out of sight, out of mind. It seems so easy for us to forget that it is actually going somewhere. So my theory is that birds are witnessing this little shell game played by us humans. Many of them have very keen eyesight. We take garbage and dump it somewhere out of sight to us, but certainly not out of sight to them.
So their plan to foil our little game of hide and seek is to pick up the discarded objects from where we dumped them and drop them back in our neighborhoods. We get irritated at other humans for dumping the trash, arguments break out, conflicts escalate, war ensues, and we kill each other. Dumping stops all around. Win-Win for the birds.
Earth Day 2011 Commemorative image: Delicate Strength
About this image: I am thinking about doing a yearly Earth Day commemorative image, and I am going to call this my first one – Earth Day 2011, and have titled it “Delicate Strength.”
Spring seems to be off to a slow start around here in Michigan due to the cold weather we have been having. So I dug this out of my archives from last year around the same time and processed it this morning. As resilient as the Earth is in handling what we throw at it, we also take that for granted.
Happy Earth Day, and beware of the birds… they are up to something.
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Schoenherr wetland with phragmites and cattails, backlit by morning sunlight
As a follow-on to my previous post, I thought of a situation that I encounter quite frequently, and imagine other photographers do also. (At least I hope they do!). If it all comes naturally, then keep it to yourself ok? It will be your little secret. :-)
On my many hikes in the woods, I will look at a scene and all I see is a chaotic mess. Nature is a pretty bad housekeeper around here. Twigs, logs, sticks, thorny vines, downed trees, rotting logs, messy ponds all can be hard to make any sense of. Sheesh, this place needs a maid.
When I encounter situations like this, I often ask myself “What is the connection in what I am seeing?” If there is no connection, then a chaotic scene will probably make for a chaotic photograph. If you can’t formulate an answer to that question, then it may be time to move on, or realize you aren’t looking deep enough.
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This Leaf and log have visual character, are complimentary to each other, and balance each other in the composition.
Looking for subjects in the woods can be a bit like a treasure hunt sometimes. I suppose you could photograph any ordinary ol’ leaf, or any log, any flower -but then what you might end up with is an ordinary photograph. Finding subjects with visual character requires a bit more searching. When I started to think about what leads up to finding such subjects, I noted these three basic premises:
I am quite familiar with the woods around where I live. I have hiked through them so much it sometimes feels like staring at the back of my hand. Despite being familiar with the territory and habitats, walking through them to find photographs can be a little like finding a needle in a haystack. Sure there are a lot of trees, leaves, logs, ponds – but many of them look ordinary to me by now. Perhaps it is because I am overly familiar with them. So I really look for details that are a bit different, details that give the subject some character.
Walking through the woods becomes like having a conversation with them. A lot of small talk going on, but after awhile, something interesting is revealed. An interrogation is taking place whether you consciously acknowledge it or not.
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Rugged coral beach with rainbow, Bonaire, Netherland Antilles
There is an interesting dichotomy between the shoreline and the life existing not too far away underneath the water’s surface. The shoreline… a rough, textured crusty surface that is for the most part, dead rock. Remnants of animal life that used to exist around and on these large hard structures. In essence, it is a boneyard. Walking through here is like walking through a graveyard of history of many shapes and forms.
Walking along here isn’t just your casual stroll along the beach. You definitely feel the uneven surface beneath your shoes. No barefoot walks here. It becomes a little more unnerving when you start to think about what you are walking on. Skeletons of a reef long gone.
I saw a lot of ironies in making this image. The rainbow in the distance often associated with happy feelings, hope, a refreshing rain, and bringing of life giving water. Yet scattered across the foreground, lit with warm morning light, are these reminders of life that is often hidden from our view. Life that once needed the water so close by to survive.
So many questions come to mind. What animals used to call this “rock” home? How long ago was this piece of dead coral surrounded with vibrant life? Were human beings even present when this piece was thriving at its prime? It is a lot to wrap your head around for a simple walk along a shoreline just looking for pretty pictures.
Venture a bit off shore, and travel downward about 50 feet, and you see the structures you saw on shore hosting the most diverse set of life one can imagine. Living structures that are likely hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years old.
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