I think it was last year at this time that I discovered that Trader Joe’s sold ranunculus, my favorite childhood flower. I went looking for them the other day and discovered just a few almost wilted bunches. I picked one in shades of hot pink and orange to take home to enjoy for a few days. I took them outside for the sidelit, golden hour shot above.
I love how tightly the petals are nestled on this dark pink beauty.
I’m no longer a child, but I still love these beautiful flowers.
This little gate caught my eye as we were walking to the petroglyph site the other day.
Yesterday, I spent the morning with some friends at the V Bar V Heritage site near the Verde Valley, about an hour from home, and saw some spectacular petroglyphs. These petroglyphs were made by the Sinaguan people in what has been termed the Beaver Creek Rock Art style (dating from about 1100 AD). What was fascinating to me was that they have discovered sunbeams hitting certain parts of a stair-step type design on certain days of the years, which experts believe are signs of when planting should occur. There is also a small area that has been carved out that casts a shadow resembling the San Francisco peaks, a sacred site to local native populations.
If you look closely at the upper right part of the photo above, you can see the stair step (zigzag) glyph, each step of which is lit by sunbeams on a specific day during the growing season. Early calendar!
My friend, Debbie gave me some pussy willow branches, which I placed in water in the kitchen window. The buds are starting to open, so I took a few minutes to capture this one with my Lensbaby Velvet 56 in macro mode.
… at the Desert Botanical Garden!
Even in the day time the water towers in the Sonoran Light exhibit at Phoenix’s DBG were impressive.
There were other light installations besides the wonderful water towers. Here’s that bejeweled hill again- this time with cacti in the foreground.
The lights continually changed colors, making an ever-changing display.
Here’s what the lights at the bottom of the hill look like up close. Notice that they have changed color!
And last, but not least, here is one of several beautiful hanging light sculptures, which rotated slowly as we walked by:
Sunday night we visited Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden for the Sonoran Light exhibit by Bruce Munro. We got there around 5pm, before sunset to see the plants and to preview the installation before it got dark. We stopped for snacks after the sun went down- and then ventured back out on the now dim and crowded garden paths.
This post could easily be titled “Stumbling Around in the Dark.” I have new appreciation for my photo buddy, Carol, of In Focus Daily as she walks along jungle paths at night lugging all her camera gear. At one point I simply lost my balance and fell over! And then there was the problem of attaching my camera to the tripod and adjusting my settings in the dark! Lonnie learned how to work the flashlight on his new iPhone finally which helped- but didn’t save me from accidentally changing from RAW to jpg file format in the dark.
Below are some images of Water Towers, a huge installation of water bottles that lit up and changed color. Using a long exposure was a bit tricky as people continually walked in front of the lens- sometimes not even showing up in the photo. I am not very experienced in night photography, so I just went with the flow- and it was fun!
Here is a view of the general scene- note the lights on the hill in the background!
A closer look:
And even closer:
I’ll be posting more photos from Sonoran Light as the week goes by. By the way- these were all jpgs.
I was somehow compelled to stick a sunflower in with my branches and kind of liked the contrast between the shapes (and of course the lensbaby blur). So here is the result- two ways.
Just a book and a rose. . .
More branches in a jar. This was shot with the Lensbaby Edge 80 again, but then I used an oil painting filter in Topaz Impression and a Flypaper texture after that. Yup- just playing with sticks. . .
I found a couple other shots I took when I was taking my berry still life for my class. These were taken before or after- without a tripod, because I couldn’t get high enough with the tripod. I used a shallow depth of field for fun- and I guess I wasn’t very steady on the stepstool, because these would definitely not pass the sharpness test! I like them anyway.
BTW, my hummingbird passed muster yesterday in my new photo class. I wondered how people (especially the instructor) would respond to the background, which had been edited using Topaz Impression- but they were fine with it. If you read my blog regularly, you’ll recognize this photo from last summer. The only critiques were some thought the little twig under the hummingbird could be cloned out, and one person would have liked a closed beak. One thing I’m learning is that people have differing opinions of each other’s work- and it’s all ok. It’s a very nice group of people, which makes it all easier.
About three weeks ago I was invited to join an advanced photography group here in town. The group is made up of people who have gone through all the photography and photo-editing classes offered at our local college. After their instructor retired, they formed a private group which contracts with the retired instructor to lead the group in their weekly 2 1/2 hour sessions. I got to know a few of the members of this group through AAUW and my photo club, but had no idea that the class they were in was something that would one day be available to me. These people have been studying photography together for years! I have never taken a photography class that wasn’t online. My experiences with being critiqued have been in the photo club- and I’ve never felt quite up to snuff there. But. . . it will be good for me!
Before my first class, I was given an external drive to copy; it was full of videos, mostly on photo-editing. Most (all?) of the students use the Nik Collection to enhance their photoshop editing, so I bought it (I had an old version) and Tony Kuyper’s TKA actions (luminosity masks and more- I had an old version of that as well). I haven’t made a dent in watching the videos; there is only so much my brain can absorb.
I didn’t have much time to prepare for my first class, so I matted and brought a golden hour photo of Willow Lake I took last year. I’m never confident about landscape photography, but I really liked the clouds in that one.
Right off the bat, the instructor said it was “soft”- there wasn’t anything sharp in the photo (and he was right. . .). I’m not sure why I didn’t check it for sharpness, before I printed it. I KNOW that in photography, especially traditional photography, sharpness is the first requirement.
And the work of the other students was sharp, of course, and also very professional and creative. It’s going to be a steep learning curve for me!
For my second week, I took a new photo- a still life, somewhat of a comfort zone for me. It is not my usual style- I attempted to get EVERYTHING in focus- no dreamy, shallow depth of field! I needed to establish some credibility after my disastrous first attempt.
This simple still life has AT LEAST 20 layers of work done in photoshop! Massive amounts of cloning and dodging and burning- and special work in Nik Color Efex Pro and Viveza. It was generally very well-received- it is sharp (but the instructor did say it needed extra sharpening for print. . .). The criticisms (from the teacher and class members) were that the reflection was confusing and the bottom of the photo too dark and also confusing. Some said I should have extended the reflection through cloning. I think the consensus was I should have cropped off the part where the black top meets the wood on the bottom (I had considered that). Also, the silver cups behind the glass are confusing- or maybe the etching on the glass is. I should have mentioned that my Photoshop file was projected on a big screen, and then they went through it layer by layer, evaluating what I did. I am learning to look at my photos very closely- zoomed in.
I am definitely out of my comfort zone in this group- but I am really enjoying it! It is fascinating to see what others choose to shoot and how- and how they edit their work. I used split toning in my first effort- and no one else had EVER used it- including the teacher! Someone else commented on my use of blend modes- like it was unusual. Very few spend much time in Lightroom- a few steps and on to Photoshop! So I am going to definitely be learning a whole new way of approaching things. My intention is to learn all these techniques and see how I can incorporate them into my own style. I have learned that I really like the Nik products and am using them frequently now in my regular Photoshop editing.
I did find the need to get away from SHARPNESS to go off into the land of blur with my Lensbaby this week (see yesterday’s photo)- so my blog may look a bit schizophrenic over the next few months. This week I’m bringing an old (sharp, I hope) photo of a hummingbird that I have re-edited. We’ll see what happens. . .
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape.
Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.”
– Andrew Wyeth
I had some fun with the edit on this iris photo. I took it into Topaz Impression twice (two different layers in Photoshop) and added a texture as well. This is therapy for me!
melinda anderson photography 