Fall Color in the Park

Here I have some photos I took while roaming a park in North East Minneapolis as the sun had begun to set. I wouldn't say that they are my best work but I like the colors in them. Dont' really have much to say about them...I felt solemn and peaceful as I was there...not needing any words...just out there, me and my camera and a slight chill in the air as the sun melted into the horizon. So here they are...

 

Beauty of the Structure

As promised in my previous post, I have here some images of the beautiful building behind the maple trees with the captivating yellow leaves. 

I really like the way the light brick is illuminated in these images. Being that this series of buildings is a Catholic Church complex seems very fitting for the effect. 

I am finding that I like to take my photos on a tilt. Seems like this works sometimes and not so much in others. Anyway, I found the detail in the architecture of the buildings very interesting. I have always loved old buildings. Especially churches...there is alway wonderful intricacies for the eyes to ponder and appreciate. I think about the artist that created it. How did they "see" that...another thing I have thought about many times. I just don't know how sculptors do it! To be able to see what it will be when its just a lump of clay or stone. I guess thats why I take pictures instead...LOL!

 I liked this little still life just sitting there for someone to find it. The pretty cascading flowers and spikes holding on just a little longer until the autumn, then winter weather over come them. 

Autumn Texture

Here I have been experimenting with the textures and colors of Autumn...working on my photoshop skill as well in these. I am trying to get away from just using actions and doing my own adjustments for each image. I think that by doing this I am starting to understand photoshop more than just the basics. I also started doing some adjustments in RAW (havent' really utilized this before)...I was able to fix a few  "settings" mistakes made during shooting. Here we go...

I was captivated by the sun catching the vibrant color of the leaves in these maple trees. And the stark contrast between the dark chocolate color of the bark and the florescent yellow the of the leaves. I could have stayed with these trees for a long time...soaking up their beauty. It was a bit brisk out but it was easily ignored in the presence of these trees. It was a somewhat cloudy afternoon, so it was a though these trees had stollen all the golden warmth from the sun and reflected it back in their own flora. Not only were their colors catching but the size of the canopy was also what kept the looking. It was a grouping of about 5 or 6 trees that were just massive in size. They made the builiding that they were adjacent to seem diminished...the it was actually a complex that made us a Catholic church and school (this builing was also quite beautiful, I will have another post including those photos later).

As I was looking for parts of nature that merited a photo I began to notice the intricacy of shapes created in nature. Each leaf from a tree, a bush, a flower or any plant has its own unique design. I think this is something that we don't notice. The first shape I encountered was the odd fan like shape of a leaves that had fallen from a tree along the sidewalk. I have never see this kind of leave before and it doesn't even really look like something you would find in Minnesota. Its fan-like shape with a little V snipped out from the center of the arc makes it look like a heart...sort of. They don't seem to color before they drop from the tree so most were still rather green and blended into the grass somewhat. Anyway I thought it was very pretty how the water drops looked sitting atop the pile of decaying leaves on the ground.

Next I came across some shrubs with almond shaped leaves. These were very very very brightly colored. Warm yellows, reds, and oranges all intermingled on the same plant and even on the same leaf. Very eye-catching and exactly what you should expect from such foliage in the fall.

Then later on another adventure outdoors in the garden at my parents house I found the spent rhubarb plants that provided an excellent crop this year. These plants have been in the garden for as long as I can remember...they have made some re-locations but all ways come back year after year. And even though I have never really noticed them in the fall. I did not know that they too change their colors in anticipation of the winter hibernation. They went from the lush green of the summer to the vivid red with streaks of yellow where the veins are on the leaf. Beautiful.

Yeah I know its been a while again...and your are right there really is no excuse. If I'm going to make this photography thing get off the ground at some point I really do need to make it a bigger priority. Life just gets busy some times. Well, due to Halloween being such a big deal with a 2 year old...she really is the only thing I have photographed recently. So...here are some photos I have of her. I'm kinda working on getting better with portraits (and a moving target).

 

I used a quick edge burn on most of these photos. It really seemed to focus the eye onto the subject. There are a lot of lines going on in the photo and a lot of peripheral junk that was detracting and distracting to the main even happening. I tried to keep it on the soft side so that it isn't so obvious that it has been altered in that way. That worked better in some photos than others. 

Here I had been trying to follow the action to get a her in focus and the rest of it in a slight blur but I think I had my shutter speed to fast for that (typical for photographing toddlers though...have to be faster than the busy busy little girl). The shot did turn out as it is though, just not exactly as I wanted it to look.

I like that this came out looking very candid (which it was) but I am trying to hone the skill of capturing moments...its seems like I just miss them sometimes. I think that is due to a lack of mechanical skill with the camera. Sometimes it seems like I'm spending too much time trying to figure out the stop i want or shutter speed and then I end up missing things.

Another good candid. I hate that blurry hand though...always hate blurriness in my photos. It seems a little yellow but I don't seem to mind in here. Makes it feel warm and cozy. Hmmm....I do think this photo could benefit from some cropping...get those cabinets out of there, they are a bit distracting.

OK. I feel good about that. I'm going to try and not make a habit of using my daughter as by subject matter for this blog. I'm not here to brag about my cute daughter...she just seemed to take over my camera these past couple of weeks.

Goal is to edit and post some of the photos I took while roaming Saint Anthony Village in October. Hopefully I got some good shots of the fall colors. Oh...something to add that I have learned recently. I absolutely love my 50mm prime lens however I think I need to invest in something a little wider. I noticed that I had to get so far away from the subject I was photographing that other things got in the fram (like lamp posts and cars). So I have put a 35mm prime on my Christmas wish list with hopes that Santa will bring me one this year.

The House on the Rock

Just a few weeks ago my husband and I went the Wisconsin Dells with some friends of ours. Not a whole lot to do in the Dells in the off season...plus I was getting around on a scooter due to my severely sprained ankle and our friends we were with are expecting a baby around Thanksgiving..."Prego & Gimpy" that was our little nickname for ourselves. Needless to say we weren't having any crazy adventures. While we were out there we ventured out to The House on the Rock. We only took the tour of the house itself and walked through the gate house and the gardens but it was still very interesting. It was kinda cramped in the house but there were many things that were very unique that we saw. BUT what I really enjoyed about our tour were the gardens. I took the opportunity to try out my new lens (50mm f/1.8 prime lens).  I really like the blurring affect with the shallow dept of field. So the following are a few of the flowers I found in the garden that inspired me.

I have no idea what kind of flower this is but I LOVED IT! I have always been a fan of draping, willowy greenery. Its just so beautiful how they gracefully fall to the ground. I also found the texture of these flowers very unique...they looked soft and fuzzy but brittle and crispy at the same time...I thought they were cool! But there's more...

I think I have seen these type of flowers before but still don't know what these are either. Anyway, aside from the flowers themselves being pretty I thought the shapes they formed were very playful. They actually remind me a little of the mythical greek creature the "Hydra" with all its heads and necks that would multiply each time one was cut off...or perhaps the snakes that were atop  Medusa's head. The shot above I liked because of the dark background that silhouettes the playful arms of the plant create. It is as though they are dancing infront of you. I took another shot that captured the whole plant and I think that I should have closed the aperture some on the camera because I'm not sure I like the fuzziness of one of the arms reaching forward toward the camera. I think it would have had a more striking appearance if all the tentacles were in focus. Here's that one.

It still looks cool...just not as much as I think it could...the blurred ones in front are distracting from the image as a whole. 

Those were my two favorites, I felt like they were the "stronges" images I look in the garden. There were some others that were nice too. Just not quite as striking or interesting...still pretty though.

Ok...the next one was just kinda funny...looks a bit like a Jack-O-Lantern. Well here it is.

Thats all I've got for now. I'm still planning on trying to keep to my once a week plan. I did spend some time on Friday taking photos but haven't gotten to sorting through them yet...so hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some of those up. 

Its Been a While

Ok...so I kinda fell behind here. I'm just not great at the whole blogging thing. Also I severely sprained my ankle so generally everything seemed to take three times as long to do around the house....hence my absence. But I am back and have a plan for this blog...assuming I can follow it :) I am going to try to take photos every week and post them. I would like input but since I only have three follower (whom are all related to me) that will just have to wait (unless they want to comment...hint hint) until I have a larger following for this site. So anyway...goal here is to have a minimum of one post a week and to have photos on it. I need to learn how to talk about my photos and express them in words...I really want to stay focused on this endeavor. I'm setting a tentative goal for myself to be selling prints or having some kind of business set up with in 2 years. I have saut out the help and advice of a photographer that I know whom started her own business. Ginger (http://www.gingermurrayphotography.com/) was our wedding photographer and someone I was aquatinted with from college. She is not only an amazing photographer but also an amazing person in general...I admire her in many ways. Hopefully with the advice I have gotten from her (and other photographers I admire) something will happen with this creative passion that has been festering inside of me.

Anywho...I spent about almost 2 hours roaming in my car yesterday looking for interesting photos so there will be photos coming soon...so stay tuned!

The Lake

These were just some experiments with using photoshop actions...trying to get a feel for how to use them to get different feelings or effects. 

#1: Vibrant...Great Outdoors Beauty...sense of grandeur...thinking of the great vastness of nature and how small we are inside of its splendor

#2: Same effect but added this frame just to see if it did anything for the image...i think it adds something but i'm not quite sure if it is good or not

#3:I was going for a pioneer days look...old western, faded photo kind of thing


What do you think? Is it something you would look at in a gallery...a magazine...could you see it in your house (or someone else's if it does not fit your style)...???

Thanks for Joining!

Thanks for following my blog. I hope to really get this going. Planning on posting some more photos tonight so look for them coming up.

On another note what do you think of the name "splendiferous photographie" ...we are working on getting a regular website set up perhaps with some galleries to sell photos. i've gotten some recommendations to shorten/change it to one of these:

Splendiferous photo
Splendiferous photos
Splendiferous photography

what about Photography Splendiferous???

My little Mushrooms

One day I noticed in our front yard there were these funny little mushrooms that randomly popped up. Very odd as we have actually had a rather dry summer but the past week we had gotten rain several days (probably why they all of a sudden appeared) Anyway...I thought they had a very interesting beauty to them. So I tried taking some photos of them (with my new lens I had just got) and did some editing in photoshop. So here are a few of them...

This one wasn't really my favorite photo, but I got all of them in it...

What I really found enjoyable abou these photos was the contrast of textures. The soft white marshmallowy appearance of the mushrooms against the vibrant green spikes of grass.

Here we go...

Ok, so I've never really been big on the whole blogging thing...but I'm going to try it anyway and see what happens. The idea is to put "stuff"out there and see what people think and if others like the pretty pictures I like to take :)

I don't know how often I will post but you have to start somewhere right...