Really?... I haven't posted anything here in 7 years? Really?
That doesn't seem possible.
As I said in the last post (7 freaking years ago), I haven't been doing a whole lot of photography recently, or at least not consistently. I've certainly had some intense photo projects (Chemo Characters - more on that in a later post; sister-in-law's wedding, etc.), and have had the occasional fun day of shooting, but I haven't been consistent. The usual combinations of weak excuses and valid reasons... been busy, conflicting commitments, dire health issues (hopefully resolved now!), other interests, and generally not photo-motivated. Also, I was running into the same issues that I described before... getting caught up in and/or discouraged by the technical issues and not focusing on the artsy and fun sides of why I got into it.
So, I will try to focus on 'good' art instead of the 'perfect' photograph - that seems more fun. (That doesn't mean I intend to take bad photos... I still want them to be really good.)
In this spirit, today I submitted a photo to the 2024 Munson Arts Festival. The original photo admittedly wasn't great... technically speaking, it was even pretty bad. I took it with my phone instead of my regular camera, through a dirty window and screen, with only a few seconds to get the shot before the bird flew away. But I got it. In the moment, I was struck by how spectacularly vivid the colors of the goldfinch had been amongst the pink apple blossoms, with dark green tones of the sprouting leaves within the tree. I took the photo for the colors and the simplicity of the subject, so I knew immediately what I planned to do in post-processing - accentuate the colors and abstract composition, giving it the feel of a painting, without worrying about having tack-sharp detail. Details weren't the point.
Here is this year's submission.
