Exploration Thursday!

"In the Square"

Something fun for today. A bit of city life inside the glass front of an office building in London to be exact. Where I wandered around for a day on my own, riding the tubes (wee! love the underground) and trying not to get so lost that I'd miss my flight. The next morning. But that's another story.

I love reflections. As if you can't tell. This one is more fun than most because of the way the building is constructed. It is a massive compilation of angles and rectangles jutting out in intervals all the way up the building. And it sits in a corner. So this shot gives you views down two different street corners. The obvious being the scene that includes the bus and another tourist photographing something across from a cathedral. The other view being a glimpse of the newer office buildings across from it all, blue against the sky. A sort of contrast, and yet very complimentary. And the image serves as a great reminder of that wonderful day out.

I wandered the whole area. And I did find my way back to the hotel. And I did make my flight that morning. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Have I told you about the time before that, when I lost my passport?

Maybe next time.

Have a great day folks, and thanks for the ramble.



Flavored by History ~Mono Mondays!

"Up Against The Wall"

(1/25 sec.@ F/6.3, ISO 100, 18mm fl, 18-55mm Nikkor kit zoom, pattern metering, dusk light)

Monochromatic. It's almost safe to say that I see equally the scenes before my camera in color and black n' white wherever I go. Perhaps because my first foray into the art world was me at 11 yrs. armed with a pencil and a sketch pad. I sketched everything and anything. The neighbor's dog, my Nana's budgie Mike, a ceramic rooster in the kitchen. Later, it'd be dancers in charcoal, garden scenes in pastels, and a portrait of what I thought I'd look like at 70 yrs old. And is it really a surprise that the guy I fell for in high school who I'd eventually marry, was just as agile with a #2 pencil and could sketch the components of the exterior of the local hydro building, in perspective, in under 20 minutes, from memory... just for fun?

My first photography classes taught me even more about the beauty of B&W, but in film. Developing my own prints taught me to appreciate the entire process of photography, from hearing the film roll click into place inside the camera, to using a light touch and restraint while hand tinting an image I developed myself, with colored inks. Many of which still hang in my house today. There's just history within them.

Which is what I thought about when taking this image two years ago on Regent St. in England. Regent is lined for as far the eye can see with architecture that just seeps out history. I had a few hours to roam the area, and I almost didn't know where to start. I immediately did the tourist thing, getting as much of the street in my shots as possible... but my art brain eventually got hold of my frantic snapshot brain. I started to select angles, details, and better perspectives.This was one of those first "art brain" shots. I've always wanted to share this image. It represents everything I've ever learned I guess.

I haven't revealed this photo before now. It was sitting in an unused folder because it had a rather distracting flaw I initially never spotted in my gleeful photo marathon. At one point it had a rather long flag pole attached to the stone work. It's always bothered me that it was too much work to fix. But over the last couple years, I've learned how to wield the cloning tool just enough that I've managed to rescue the odd photo. And so I was able this past weekend to rescue this shot from becoming "history" and winding up in delete-land. (The first one to guess where the pole was gets my deepest congrats!) And now converted to B&W, it just feels like it contains a certain history... it's own, and mine as well.

Are you letting your story, your history, flavor your endeavors behind the camera? You are anyways, whether you know it or not. Draw the best from it and let it help inspire you.

Thanks for letting me ramble on for another day. Have a good one folks!

Up and Away ~ Exploration Thursday!

"My Blue Heaven"

(1/125 sec @ F6.3, ISO 160, 28mm fl, 18-55 mm Nikkor kit zoom, pattern metering)

Once in a blue moon I catch myself daydreaming. Sometimes I'm craving traveling to distant destinations, often because I've hit on a case of cabin fever. Sometimes I need a change of pace to get motivated, to be creative when everything begins to feel static. Sometimes I peruse all the lenses I could add to my kit, thinking of all the crazy optical options I still need from all the catalogues and sites. Think of the images I could make then! But, it's only daydreaming, because I know great photography doesn't come from the latest glass or gadget or guru. It comes comes from constant learning and never letting something as material as the next new gizmo take the place of your passion. I've known this simple truth since way back in Mr.Shoveller's high school photography class, where he would walk the classroom, orating that the only real tool you needed to hone was "vision" while he waved the broom handle at you that never left his hand while he taught... (on the off chance he'd need to slap it across a sleeping students desk).

So for this post, I once again have dug deep into my files, but have only just edited this shot this week. So technically, it's new. I simply let my daydreaming inspire me! This is an image taken in London, England. This particular building with it's retro patterns and walls the color of sky sits tucked in behind the Tate Modern (think modern art and design on regal display) ... and unless you take the most round-about path you can possibly find to the Tate, as I did (story of my life), you'd never see it.

For me, I'd always wished I'd a had a more creative, fun lens with me that day. After a while, no matter how cool the buildings are, they can all start looking the same. For ages now I've often thought about fisheye lenses. They give you a sprawling view, but in order for that to happen there's this wonderful circular or spherical distortion to your composition. Alas, money never has grown on trees. And in the interim I've begun to play with similar effects but in my editing program. And suddenly, the sky's the limit!

Now playing and manipulating an image is all well and good, but I'm going to say this; you still need a plan. Going in to this edit I knew what I was wanting to achieve. I knew I wanted the perspective to stretch up and out, I knew I wanted it to feel like it could grow right into the sky, unhindered. It's how it felt when I first saw it shining in the sunlight. I also knew I didn't want it looking so fantastical that it wasn't a believable perspective or shape anymore. With all that in mind, I applied PSPx3's simple perspective distortion tool and used the fisheye fx in the drop down menu. It took some playing with the sliders back and forth till I got a sweeping point of view that still utilized the clouds up in the corner, and didn't so badly distort that it no longer looked like architecture. It wasn't difficult, since I had already shot the composition on this angle anyway. I only enhanced it. Now when I look at it, it feels new and exciting. Found me a creative way to be, well, more creative. And so much better than trying to dig up several hundred dollars for a lens... although it's been ages since I checked the couch cushions. Hmmm...

A simple change, but a dramatic one, and now it's got me daydreaming about new possibilities.

Thanks for the exploratory ramble folks! Have a good one!