Summer
It’s summer flowers. Details. Close-ups. Color. I like water – shooting the droplets on the petals. You can do it after the rain, after watering, or just use the mist setting on the water nozzle. Parts: a detail of the flowers – stamens, etc., is always worth a moment’s effort. Same ole’? I try for something different. No matter. The color palette will always keep you interested. Alas, the days are getting shorter once again. My thoughts turn to fall.
Out of print
Things jump out – sometimes, literally. Ha ha, another Photoshop trick (not!)? The frame was set up to take a portrait and to make it look elaborately framed. I would never be so subtle. Ha ha. It was colonial day on the green. People were dressed in Revolutionary war style fashion – a snake oil salesman, etc, It was still fall. I was still chasing color. In this case I settled for a closeup in order to avoid the vast areas of drab brown leaves. Autumn color was scarce around these parts.
Colour
Ansel Adams could photograph stunning black and white photos of clouds. I do not think in black and white since I started using (and developing my own) color slides. Sunrise, sunset, these are colors that are simply not seen the rest of the day. It is ephemeral often lasting only a few minutes. Some days I am fortunate to witness the display. I am thankful for the show just outside my window. Purists among you would mount the camera to a tripod and carefully document the moment capturing the peak color. Me? I pick up whatever camera is at hand – I have four or five (cameras) in the rotation – and shoot away thru the dirty glass of any window (car or home). Cringe! Yes, I said dirty glass. The spots are hardly noticeable. It’s all about the subtle shades of color.
Got one
I have been seeking the quintessential fall color image of the year. In the parking lot behind a bank this scene snuck up on me. There are many other shots and many other candidates all over and around Maine from our trip. All worthy images, but, this one jumped out at this point, right now. Yes, it was tweaked a bit to focus on the richness of color in the scene. It reaches an emotional level beyond prose. Ok!
Stopping
You simply cannot not stop at every potential photo-op. Even while I drove alone, I did not do it. Traveling with your wife is enough to try her patience many times over. Colleen is such a good sport. I am careful not to overdo things? Ha! Have I been known to be moderate? You can see some of the results of stopping by the roadside. And, you may ascertain some of the image shot thru the windshield on the go. Actually, Colleen has acquired some skill shooting on the go. She thinks she’s better than if I try to drive and shoot. Stop, go, hey! It’s all the same when I edit the images. Good, or, bad? Keep it, or, discard it? Sometimes, it’s hard to tell. I will readily admit that I tend to draw a crowd while I am stopped by the roadside.
Chasing fall
New England, Maine, in the fall (every family relative asked) – have you seen the leaves change? Yet? Climate change, it’s been whacky. When we arrived, we were definitely too early. There was barely a hint of color change. As the weeks passed (yes, we were here for a few weeks) colors changed subtly. And, then, suddenly they were here/changed, only to fade quickly. Within the span of the few times we passed by, a tree in Rockland faded drastically losing its leaves. I shot individual trees; I shot individual leaves; I shot scenes; I shot reflections; I shot fog. Quintessential?! Sort of. I feel vaguely unrequited. I did get color. For sure. I’ve done better. And, I’ve done worse. I hate the randomness of my finding a suitable scene. Mostly, we were on the way to somewhere else and I shot out the from the car window or we stopped, paused, shot, and then quickly drove onward. I cannot say that I ever got that “Ah!!” shot. Otherwise, if I were chasing wool (fiber), I would say we were successful. Priorities! Keep priority straight and it’s a completely different picture. (pun intended)
Color
Define white. You would naturally describe it in terms of what we identify as white. A white wall, white paper, white box, white flower. All different? Oh, so shades – light white, bright white, gray white, yellowish white… Ha! It’s not so easy. Avocado pits/skins and cherry pits will dye fiber pink. Each skein comes out subtly different from the next. But they are all pink in total. Subtle, barely distinguishable from one another, it’s the same for flowers. Time of day, sun or shade, will all change the color I capture in my camera. The color and the details and the focus are even subtly different from one image to the next. My image is captured in a fraction of a second. The moment passes and the scene has changed. What’s white?
Run
A run: as in trip; errand; mission. We were on a typical run – over the strenuous objection of Colleen. We needed things. Don’t we all? Plants and planters…. and so forth. Groceries! Man’s gotta eat. Colleen is very fond of eating. (Shhh! I didn’t say that.) So, masks. I never miss a photo op. Flowers. Color combos. It’s challenging to take a pic in the blowing wind. You contend with motion blur. Not enough blur to be interesting, it’s more like a bad photo blur. We were out and about during corona and hopefully it was a successful run.
The good news? You have a 90%+ survival rate if you get corona. And the death rate is less than 10%. That’s very good! Good math! Go out an’ hug someone. Somehow, I think I will pass on hugging, for now.
White balance
It’s a term. Light has color. Tungsten and daylight, remember the lesson from a few days back? Here’s another example. Color corrected for ambient lamp light the flowers look decidedly different. And, it is especially so because these are silk flowers. Maybe not silk, but realistic enough looking, I am recently impressed to feel they are no longer to be ignored. Oh, light? The light is the same. The camera corrected for the color difference between room lights and daylight, Photoshop in the camera if you will.
Monotone
Here’s something more artistic. We were returning to the car after dinner. There! Monotone. Powerful.
Color – Patch
Ha ha! A white cat – in shades of grey. Funny?! Pardon the extreme ISO. If you are iPhone ignore the last completely. Color has subtle ways of drawing viewer attention. BxW is about grey – shades. Different vibe, your choice. My preference? I yield to well made, well exposed, well printed BxW. I’m color. Maybe I can think again in BxW. For now, my work is 99.9% color. Patch is the name of my cat.
Out of range
Ansel Adams I am not. Good cat portrait? See the white fur. The digital sensor is not capable of shooting extended range. It’s complicated. But so, it has always been. The human eye is better in some instances. The white fur is overexposed. In black and white this is the first thing I noticed. In color it’s ok by me to notice the eyes first. Color, black and white, it’s different in so many ways. It’s easy enough to do, why not keep experimenting?
Leaf
Go small. The display of fall color eluded me this year. I saw lots of leaves and lots of color. I was just never on time or in the right location. We were passing through too early or too late or could not stop. So basically I missed the foliage display. There is still an opportunity to catch something. I resorted to single leaves. But even then the bar is high. Find a perfect leaf and isolate it. Hard to do, I did not really accomplish that either. It’s ok. There’s always next year. …I hope.
Red
Stonefish are not bright red. They are bright red. How? Well, the light is filtered and red color fades as you go deeper under the sea. A flash will bring out what would otherwise be a dull colored fish and make it really stand out. Under the sea it actually looks pretty dull.
Sometimes the stonefish is really pretty ugly. And color can do it no improvement. This guy was posturing. He lifted his head as I took his pic. So I got a bit of pink. He did not intentionally pose for me. He wasn’t warning me off. Stonefish are pretty mellow. Both fish are very easy to miss. They don’t move. The human eye is sensitive to movement. It’s about survival. Something moving is a potential threat. These fish just lie still and blend into the surrounding coral. It’s worth a picture anytime we see one. It’s so nice that they pose for me.
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