And now... out of the zone.

I have had a few good days of shooting in the last couple weeks as I have previously mentioned, and for the those days I am grateful.  I was able to take a number of photos that I think turned out well - 'in the zone' so to speak.  The last 48 hours have been a mixed bag, photographically speaking.  I took a number of nice shots yesterday, but also a few clunkers.  Then, I found out that one of my photos was used to help advertise a photo contest (great news!) that I am not really eligible to enter it (what?? are you kidding me??)!!! So that was a half-full / half-empty kind of deal. Now, today I get notification that none of the three pieces I entered into a regional art exhibit were accepted for the show. I didn't exactly play it 'safe' with the pieces I entered and so knew that it was a risk. As it turns out, it was apparently a colossal waste of my time and money. Next week I will have to do the 'walk of shame' when I pick up the rejected pieces. In order to be even more unpleasant than I am right now, I will ask what the acceptance rate for the show was so that I can get really mad. While the salt is out and the wounds open, I also submitted a number of photos to some microstock agencies over the last couple days and they have been overwhelmingly rejected.

Green

In today's post, green is the theme. Green is the commonality in the compositions of the photos though its role varies in each. In the first photo (Clear to land on daisy #3), green provides a dark out of focus background that contrasts the brightness of the flowers and the detail of the fly. Green is a vital characteristic of the simple elements in the second photo (grass tree cloud sky) against the brilliance of the blue sky. The third photo (Long Road Home) is overwhelmingly awash in green tones.

In The Zone?

To say "the planets were aligned just right" was true both literally and figuratively last Tuesday.  As you may have seen from the previous post, I was able to take a photo of the Venus transit that pleases me. Obviously, the planets really do have to be aligned just right for that!  But in addition to that photo, I was able to take a fairly large number of other photos that came out quite well.  It was one of those days that, at least for a couple of hours, where ever I looked there was something that would make a great photo and I could practically do no wrong. (This is in contrast to most times I try shooting and end up with one good one if I am lucky.)  So here are a couple more photos from my own personal Super Tuesday. The first is entitled "Still" and the second is as yet untitled.

Once in a Lifetime - Venus Transit

Hello everyone.  It has been too long since I posted anything, and I have a fair number of photos taken over the last month or two that I will post soon. But I had to put this one up!  Yesterday (June 5, 2012) was the Venus Transit -  an event during which the planet Venus passes directly between the Earth and the Sun so that the silhouette of Venus is visible against the disk of the Sun.  There has been a bunch of information in the news about this over the last couple of days so I won't get into that. So... given the rainy weather the last few days I did not expect to be able to see the event, but the skies cleared in the afternoon.  Just as it was about to start (literally, about to the minute), a rain cloud blocked out the skies again. Luckily the skies cleared and I was able to take this shot not too long before sunset.  Venus is the small dot in the upper right of the Sun. Enjoy.

View(s)

A little experimentation with alternative world views...

View

 Dark View

Altered View

Simplistic View

So... huh...

Here are a few recent shots that have really nothing to do with each other aside from being completely different. I have been striving to produce better images and I guess I am having mixed results.  I am gaining a better understanding of what needs to be fixed to make an image technically sound, but my ability to actually do it seems to be slower to develop. That is frustrating.

And then there is the question of what is art? What makes something aesthetically interesting and artistic? Why do I like some images and no one else seems to care for them? (And artistically, is 'indifference' by the viewer worse than a strong dislike of an image?) Why does "everybody" seem to like an image, while I am indifferent about it?

Anyway, here are some recent 'experiments':

No

Bumblebee

Deliberation

In a previous posting I showed the unedited version of a photo of a light post with the full moon just below the light itself.  After some number of hours of fiddling around with it, I removed the trees and a second light post that were present in the shot. I wanted this to have a very simple composition without the other elements distracting from the moon and light (though I did think about leaving the tree branches in the upper right corner). I also 'replaced' the over-exposed moon with a full moon from another photo (the perigee full moon, actually) and played with the sky a bit. I am not sure whether I am done with it, but here is the result: Moonlighting.