Taking Stock…..

Fall, in all its glory, is a beautiful season. One of my favorites. Leaves change color, flaming crimson and bright, newly-minted gold, lending the trees the appearance of large, glorious bouquets. Days grow shorter, temperatures cooler. The large crab apple trees at the end of the driveway were the first to drop their leaves and I walk to the mailbox on a crisp carpet of curled brown husks that crackle underfoot. It’s football season. Days of cozy, comfortable clothing, long sleeves and sweaters, before the need for heavier outer wear. Chili-making days, apple crisp-baking days, scenting the house with mouth-watering aromas. The Pumpkin Spice craze is in full swing.

We draw inward in cooler weather, contemplating the season just past (where did Summer go, anyway?!). It’s a time to take stock, to reflect on what no longer serves us…to leave behind old ways of being and doing and find the courage to embrace a truer path. To begin building the chrysalis in which we will slumber for a time, emerging renewed in the light of a distant Spring.

As so often happens when I sit down to write, this post has taken a different pathway than the one I originally envisioned. Fall and its beauty are fleeting, over before we can reach out to grasp it as it passes by, and I am reminded that time waits for no one. My wish for you–my readers and friends– is that you will be present to each new day and the gifts it contains, because it will not come again.

Peony

Sweetest Song

One Shot, Three Applications

I love the range of applications available in editing my images. I don’t always use one; it depends on the look I’m trying to achieve, the audience I want to reach. Black and white is a timeless, classic look.

And there’s no denying that full color shots can be show-stoppers, but if an image is too saturated it doesn’t always print well–at least in my experience. I strive for a natural look and sometimes that means toning down the color a bit.

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There's a third option–and I doubt I'm the first to think of it–that I refer to as "color wash." I take the saturation all the way down to black and white and then add just the tiniest bit of color back. It's a different approach, a softer look, and again, it depends on your audience. And personal choice. I like giving my viewers, and my clients, choices.

Which one speaks to you? I’d love to know. Comments always welcome.

Say Cheese!

Image shot at Reiman Garden, Ames, Iowa, in the butterfly house. I liked the way this butterfly seemed to be facing the camera and chose to make that my emphasis.

Columbine

Another image from my “Seduced by the Dark Side” collection. I’ve mentioned before how important clarity is but sometimes, the shot dictates the mood and in this case, a softer focus seemed appropriate.

Ruffled Feathers

When I’m shooting photos, about 90% of what I end up with is throw-away, shots I’ll never use. Some are merely passable; some are pretty good. Others are out of focus, or just not what I was aiming for (no pun intended). Photographers don’t strive to take photos that are “pretty good.” They strive for the best–in composition and clarity, images that don’t require a lot of editing to make them shine. That doesn’t happen every day…but when it does, you recognize it, because the image gives you goosebumps.

Over the past several days I’ve been documenting the nest-choosing process of a pair of wrens. Most of them fall into the “pretty good,” category and a few are fun, if for nothing else than the poses of the birds. Today, I happened to catch a solo wren as it went about its grooming process–ruffling its feathers, ridding itself of opportunistic insects. I took a total of thirteen photos; these two are the best of the lot. They represent the pinnacle, what every photographer hopes to see when he or she puts his shots on the computer, and so seldom does.

As shot, cropped and enlarged.

Thanks for viewing–comments always welcome.