Week 47 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 322
Paph Petula's Dandy Lady Slipper Orchid

This week is about color. And dawns and orchids. It was also about getting the breaks fixed on my pickup and finally having a supply of firewood delivered. These activities kept me home bound or on a short leash. Three of this last week's photographs were taken from the studio deck where I have installed the new heated door mat. That means I can stand barefooted and take pictures of the dawn. It is November and we should have snow. But we don't. Which is good since I was totally out of firewood. 

I was chained at home waiting for a delivery of two cords which did not happen. In exasperation I sought another supplier. The last photo in this blog is a progress picture of stacking firewood. I take pride in stacking my own. And I was waiting for the call from my mechanic on the replacement of the master brake cylinder on my truck. So time to sit before the computer and play with photographs. Four of this week's photos are digitally manipulated. I am, after all, a painter. And I pour my skies in a landscape painting. And they can look a lot like Day 323 and 328.

Day 323

Day 324
Phalaenopsis

Day 325
Cattleya

Day 326
New Mexico Ranch Pickup

Day 327
New Mexico dawn

Day 328

Firewood being stacked

Week 46 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 315

Going to get this week's photo blog done early. And interject a bit of a change up from my usual count down. Several of this week's images have another version and, as in the case of the photograph below, have appeared in a weekly blog in that other treatment.

Day 316

Week 44 - Black and White

I think in the case of the old Questa church there is merit in either version.

Day 317

Day 318

The color original

And while I am a lover of color I find the black and white version of this cottonwood grove better artistically. Maybe I will have to try the same thing with dawns. Though that seems unthinkable. 

Day 319

Day 320

The original photograph

In this day of photoshopping everyone asks, "But what did the original photograph look like. And above you have the answer. I also did this one in black and white.  Which brings us to the question of why? Sometimes a photograph has good bones. There is something in the photograph you liked when you took it, and even when it was uploaded to the computer but it just does not shine through. In day 320 it was the lines of the trees and their reflections in the water. The version I finally posted shows that off best.

In black and white

Below is the caretaker's old red pickup. If you are a follower of my photographic blogs or Facebook page you will recognize this truck. But I am still looking for the ultimate picture of it. I love the red on freshly fallen snow but mostly the red gets in the way. There is another picture of this truck coming this week in my daily posts.

Day 321

The old red pickup

Week 45 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 308

My weekly blog is late. And I was rather winging it all week long. Too much going on. Focus elsewhere, pun intended. Sorry but next week is going to be the same. My biggest piece of photographic equipment, Big Blue, is getting another mechanical fix. So no photo trek. All these are taken as I was traveling along going else where for other reasons, or off the studio deck. To facilitate that latter photographic platform I have the new heated door mat to stand on in my stocking feet and snap pictures of the dawn without freezing feet.

Day 309

Day 310

Day 311

Day 312

Day 313

And Thicke continues to pose although sometimes reluctantly. 

Day 314

Week 44 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 301
St. Anthony Catholic Church

In one of the many digital photography books I have read the writer maintained you should know if you were going to process in black and white or in color. That was certainly true in the days of film. But that decision was largely made for not just one photo but a whole roll of film because it was what you had loaded in the camera.

I will be honest and if it was not a requirement for a photography assignment I seldom used black and white film. Every once in a while I would feel guilty about not being a true photographer like Ansel Adams and shoot a row of black and white.

Digital photography and control of the "post processing" means you can do whatever you want with your images. You can make the decision on photograph at a time. The same rules of composition apply. Images with strong elements are generally my choice for black and white. But I have often taken an image or a subject and processed it in both color and without color.

Color is still my favorite. Black and white is still an exercise I give myself.

Day 302

Day 303

Day 304

Day 305

Day 306

Day 307