Week 11 of the 365 Day Challenge

Day 70

Took a break this week from lessons as it were and just played around with my camera, taking a picture of whatever I wanted. The above urn has been a frequent focus but I have always been trying to delete the railing in my photographs. This time I embraced it. Really like the result.

Day 71

There is what we think the week is about and what it turns out to be about. I thought I was giving myself free rein but in fact I ended up revisiting subjects of stopping to take pictures of familiar views or objects I had driven by so many times; always saying I should stop. The above mining car fits into the latter category. It is on the lawn of the Raton Visitor's Center. I stopped finally.

Day 73

And another picture taken on the day I stopped. I love the abstract nature of this photo. I used to diligently post process a whole upload of photos (or ignore them because of my schedule), but what is working for me now is rating the photos on the first pass through and then going back and post processing one or a few at a time. Yesterday I took over 500 photos of Big Horn Sheep. (See Binford-Bell Studio/Big Horn Sheep on the Rio Grande). Just one pass to delete the obvious and rate the others was exhausting enough. By picking at my food as it were, what I do with one photo does not influence what I do with its neighbors in the file. You can begin to see an image as too precious to play with.

Day 72

This French door on a greenhouse I visit often is a frequent subject of my photos. Most images are taken from the outside. And I like it especially when the humidity in the green house causes the condensation on the panes of glass. Works best when it is a grey day outside. The sun was shining weakly on this day and the light it cast across the sandstone caused me to change my perspective from outside to inside. The image required the cloning out of several annoying distractions on the floor but I needed the practice and the final result seemed worth it. Next grey day I want to put some dead leafs from the plants on the floor under the bench. A week of still life images has made me think about setting up a photo.

Day 74

I love the placement of this picnic table. And like the French doors I have taken so many pictures of it. Mostly all from a different perspective; downhill looking up. The shadows on the snow caught my attention this day as I was walking down the hill toward the pond.

Day 75

The above picture was just because it was there. I like the bud, the flower and the died dead blossom all in the same frame. I usually try to tone down geraniums. Their colors are too showy for me. But in this photo I upped that showiness. I used an enamel effect because it also turned the plain stucco wall into a bloom to rival the geranium. The same post processing program effect was used on the photograph below but this time to add color to dry twigs and their shadows against a stucco wall.

Day 76