Magnolias ~ Floral Friday

Magnolias in Rain, a photo by C.Duncan's Photography on Flickr.

Magnolias. They ooze old world romance and purity. I love trying to capture those things in the lens. I can spend hours photographing magnolias. And feel renewed afterwards. I was thrilled working on this image for today. Thrilled and ..... giddy. I just love magnolias.

The weather cooperated for once. I love photographing flowers after lazy rain showers, the sky still overcast. The colors are cleaner, no high contrast to work around, and a few rain drops still clinging. Add a little, and I mean little, fill flash to erase deep shadow on the subject and you have the makings of a fine photograph. Had my trusty tripod, plus bumped the ISO up to 320 since there was a slight breeze and I needed my shutter speed to freeze the blossom without loosing the exposure I wanted. It's extremely rewarding to see the image in your mind become the final product on the screen without excessive processing.

Now on to other news. You may have noticed that today's image has been posted through another source other than blogger itself. I want to thank Flickr for providing photographers with the option to post images through their site for a very important reason. I've noticed recently in my blog feed that someone is "lurking" about the blog, waiting for me to post images here, then googling the titles and copying my images on the google search site. NOT cool friends. I don't know what this person is using them for, but it's the sneaky way to ignore the copyright of any of my images. For the most part it's not a huge issue as I have been posting small resolution images, and I'm not naive about what happens in Internet land, but still. So posting through Flickr has eliminated a good portion of this problem as far as I know. And we need to spread the word... photographers work just as hard as anyone, the minute you take their images without permission, you devalue every photographer out there. We already struggle with being asked for free photographs every time we turn around. So let's enjoy the images, and if you're super attached to one, contact me, we'll work something out.

Thanks for the ramble today gang! I appreciate each and every one of you who show up to read the blog and let it inspire you somehow. Thanks! 

Crazy Days ~ Telephoto Tuesday

"Dandie & Penny Forever"

Things around here have been nuts. Between tax season, approaching weddings, kids getting ready for secondary and post secondary education, working on our house, trying to lose weight, starting a new photography portfolio and attempting to maintain my stats in scrabble (vitally important I know), you can start losing perspective on what's important. Every day feels crazy, or busy, or both.

That is, until you wander through the local cemetery one day with the camera. Suddenly what seemed important and what IS important becomes super clear as you stand surrounded by nothing but graves. Dandie and Penny don't get a second chance to switch perspectives. But we do.

Now I'm not going to go all morbid or mushy on you. But sometimes I'll be honest, I get caught up in the wrong things that vie for my attention either work related or day to day. I'll be keeping this image somewhere close to my work area from now on. It's going to be my reminder to strive for what's most important in my family and my work, and to remember that the fluff, the extras, and the frills are okay but should never hinder the journey.

As we like to say in the photography world (and in all cheesiness), "Let's stay focused!"

I think Dandie and Penny would heartily agree don't you?

In The Corners of Your City ~Mono Monday

"Ornate Mausoleum"

I was actually on the hunt for magnolias in the rain. That was the goal. Can I help it that some of the biggest and oldest magnolias are in the massive Hamilton Cemetery? Can I help it that beside some of these ancient trees stood equally ancient columns decorating family grave sites? Can I help that I had to point my camera up at all the details, and instead of mauves and rich pinks of flowering trees, I saw things in B&W?

Can I stop posing everything in the form of a question now? Never mind.

It was funny though. I kept my eye on another person walking through the cemetery with their own camera. I love observing others when they're photographing a location. What makes them stop at certain things, while I keep moving and notice something else, and vice versa. They were only there for the spring flowers popping out here and there on the grounds. Never once pausing to look at the ornate or decaying graves, stones, moss, statues. Where as I couldn't get my fill of all of that. It always amazes me how individual our perspectives can be.

That's why I'm forever telling my fellow photographers, no matter how often a location has been photographed before, only YOU have your perspective, only YOU have your timing, only YOU have your vision for the final edits. I could go on and on. You will always find me roaming my own city. Frequenting the historical AND the mundane And the beautiful AND the busy locations. It's all there to be explored the way only you know how.

What'cha waiting for?

Thanks for the ramble, and have a super Monday.