So It's Not Photogenic!

YIPES! YOU WANT ME TO PHOTOGRAPH WHAT?

A friend of mine was intrigued with an unusual flower in her garden and she wanted me to photograph it.

When I got to the house my friend's daughter had already picked the flower along with a few other flowers and had brought them inside.
But I inwardly groaned when I saw the flower.

It was weird looking and all I saw was the ugly thing in the middle of the flower (stamen???) coming straight out towards me!

There was NO position I could get the orange flower into to make it pretty. Sure, I could do as my friend WISHED - JUST PHOTOGRAPH IT.

BUT I WANTED TO MAKE THE FLOWER PRETTY!

So I did what my friend wanted. I photographed it in all of its original design.

Then I did what I wanted.

I placed the weird flower in a vase along with a prettier blossom.

Then I had a different problem.......Where should I put the vase to photograph the flowers?

I had no movable table to place the vase on so I could photograph facing a blank wall, but my friend had an enclosed screen porch with lawn chairs.

I picked out two matching chair cushions and balanced the vase on one of the pads and the other chair pad served as the background.

I was pleased with the result! The weird flower was pretty enough in this image and helped to balance the other blossom!

Later I used a different layer to give extra color to the chair cushions.

Challenge for the day:

Take an object and make it photogenic.

Difficulty with the Simple Things in Life

SIMPLE OBJECTS MADE TO LOOK UNIQUE IS A HARD ACHIEVEMENT!

How would YOU have photographed the first few eggs of your very own chickens? Would you have photographed them in the barn? Would you have photographed the eggs still in the various nests?

JUST HOW WOULD YOU HAVE HANDLED THIS PHOTOGRAPHIC SITUATION?

Now, whatever you would have done is still part of your own unique creative mind. What you would have done would have been fine! It would have been great!

I just wanted some pretty eggs.

So, I tried to create a pretty setting and then I photographed the scene.

I then just used the "smudge tool" and there.......I have a photograph fresh chicken eggs.


Challenge for today:

Easter is coming up. Photograph some of those pretty eggs.

EXPERIMENTS MAKES EXPERIENCES

YES, THAT'S RIGHT! TURN YOUR PHOTO EXPERIMENTS INTO EXPERIENCES FOR YOUR BENEFIT!

Now, the above example doesn't look much like an experiment does it?

Outside of a playing around with colors the photo looks pretty simple.

Before I go any further let me stress here:

MANY TIMES THE BEAUTY OF A PHOTO IS BECAUSE IT IS SO SIMPLE!

Now I'm not saying the image above is beautiful - but it is simple.

But it DOES incorporate something that you can do - but have never thought about utilizing!

Why not use some of your own photos as the background in some of your upcoming photo sessions?

That is what I did here.

And I think the orange in the background worked well in this overall photo!

Now if you own a printer which can print an 13 by 19 inch photo you're all set. You can even use an 8 by 10 photo if you work with small enough subjects.


Challenge for today:

Go through your own photos and pick out some you can use as backgrounds. Then try one or two or three.

SHAPES AND ANGLES

MATERIAL FROM AN OUTFIT CAN REALLY MAKE THE PHOTOGRAPH STAND OUT LIKE THIS BLOUSE IN THIS IMAGE.

Composing this image was so simple.

I loved the angles, shapes, and colors in this blouse.

I chose a bottle which was very simple and kinda had the same color as the background. (There is no design on the bottle so it does not detract from the overall photo.)

The jewelry placed around the bottle kinda matches up with some of the designs on the material.

The only extra thing I did with this photo after I decided which pose to use was I used the "smudge" tool to smudge the table top the bottle was standing on.


Challenge for Today:

Take some material and photograph it with a simple vase or bottle.

SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

THERE IS SOMETHING MAGICAL ABOUT SEEING SOMETHING TODAY THAT WASN'T THERE YESTERDAY!

And yet, that is the wonder of surprise lilies.

This photo is made of one image but utilizes parts of another photo.

I placed the lily on a large plate which has a few designs.

I then took a few poses of this lily and plate.

Then in my computer I did the following:

1. Used the smudge tool to smudge the flower and the plate.

2. I then went to another photo I had previously taken of some decorative old wood.

3. I copied only some of the scrolled portion of the wood.

4. I made what I had copied as a new image.

5. I resized the "new image."

6. I copied and pasted the "new image" as a new layer to the smudged flower and plate photo.

7. I then adjusted the opacity of the wood scroll layer so that it was faint, but yet not too faint.

8. I went back to the "new image" and after rotating it and copying it I repeated steps 6 and 7.

9. When I was satisfied with the results, I merged all the layers and presto I saved the resulting "new surprised lily."


Challenge for today:

See if you can photograph some decorative wood scrolls you can add later to another photo.

TAKE SOME MATERIAL AND MAKE SOME MEMORIES

TAKE A CLEAR PLATE, SOME MATERIAL, A FRESH FLOWER.......

And there you have the makings of a photography session.

My mother has been in heaven for a long, but that doesn't mean I don't want to keep her memory alive.

On this particular day I decided to photograph a quilt she never finished.

But........I wanted the photo to be different.

I got out the quilt.

I retrieved a fairly fresh flower. I then placed a large clear plate upside down.

I ended up with many different photos I liked.

But I settled for this....but then again, I think I never could make up my mind.

Challenge for Today:

Take some a dress, a quilt, a scarf, etc., and make some memories.

UNCOMMON COMMON THINGS

I was helping clean up a vacant, littered, dirty house and then I saw IT on the ceiling........

There IT was in all its unkempt, dirty originality.....

A ceiling lamp with a vacated bird's nest!

SUCH AN UNCOMMON COMMON THING

I took it home in a large yellow trash bag.

However, when it came to photograph it, I had several problems.

1. The ceiling lamp was meant to hang from a ceiling. It wouldn't stand up by itself on a table.

2. How could I make capture the bird's nest so it would really show up?

3. How could I photograph the ceiling lamp so other people would know what it actually was?

I finally propped it up against a wall and took many photo angles of the bird's nest.

I ended up liking this image because it shows enough of the ceiling lamp to show where the bird's nest really was built.

I then did the trick of using Corel Paint Shop Pro's "arithmetic" tool to enhance the whole bird's nest and light. (See March 20 to get an idea of this technique.)


Challenge for today:

Look for and photograph the UNCOMMON COMMON THINGS

PROBLEMS OF HAVING TOO LITTLE

You know what it's like. And it's no fun having to deal with having too little.

And it was a problem I had been faced with many times previously.

Somehow, though, this time seemed SO different!

I was in an outbuilding that had pretty yellow walls and a shelf!

I had a green bottle.

I had purple flowers.

The colors would go great together!

What more could any photographer need?

What was the CHALLENGE of the day?

SPACE...........SPACE..................SPACE....................SPACE

The shelf was only 4 inches deep at the most.

I was to "compose" and "create" a photo right there?

I took a deep breath and set to work.

I placed the bottle on its side at a slight angle.

I then put some of the flowers in front of the bottle and then I placed some flowers all along the length of the bottle.

Just doing these simple steps made the photo "look" more roomy than it actually was.


Challenge of the Day:

Take an area that has little depth and make it appear like it has a lot.

EVERYONE LOVES ROSES - BUT WHAT ABOUT THE COMMON FLOWER

EVERYONE loves to photograph roses! They're SO romantic!

But don't forget the common "unromantic" daylily beause:

1. You can purchase 2 or 3 plants for under $10

2. They spread easily if you grow them

3. The plants need very little care

4. Blossoms are large

5. The plants can create quite a focal point in your yard

6. They have no thorns!


Note about the image:

I wanted to take a common flower and make it "uncommon" by playing with colors.

So, I took a skirt I bought at a thrift store. (Remember the posting a few days ago about the green dress?)

The orange flowers and the skirt's colors complemented each other.

And an uncommon skirt and uncommon daylilies became something of worth.


Challenge for today: Make what is common into something of worth.

Sleeping Cat Rules the Photo

Sometimes you stumble upon a scene you "have" to photograph even though you know it won't be great.

So, always keep film in your camera, batteries fresh and if you use a digial camera enough memory left on your memory card.

Now to Today's Photo:

I loved the play of the color of my cat sleeping against a chair's cushion. The chair was sitting facing my bay windows and space was so limited. I knew the photo wouldn't be very good, because of that limitation. Also, I was at a disadvantage because the 3 windows didn't have blinds to curtail the light.

But I knew I had to act quickly before my cat moved. (You know how cats are. They can sleep for hours and move just when you want to photograph them.)

Anyway, I took the photo. It isn't great.....but the sleeping cat matched so well with his surroundings!

Cheap Props

Spend a lot and get little?

Spend a lot and get much?

Sometimes the choice is up to you.

A thrift store is a great places to purchase clothes, vases, curtains, etc.

You can even shop for things to wear yourself and still use them as props. I've used sweaters, dresses, skirts, and blouses as background material.

I've even bought a shower curtain which ended up being in the background of a wedding invitation.

Now information about this image:

I had purchased a dress at a thrift store and I hung it up to photograph. I placed many different necklaces around the hanger. Nothing thrilled me.

Suddenly I remembered I had a cameo from my grandmother and I knew it had some green in it. I got out the cameo and pinned it to the dress....and I liked what I saw!

Consider Yourself as an Artist

Photography IS considered an art so now....... consider yourself as an artist.

(Hopefully by now you have determined what your photography interest is. Then you can start admiring and you can start learning from a different source - admiration!)

So, get out an old notebook or buy a new one. Get some sheet protectors. Then go looking for examples of what you admire in photography. (The best source of finding examples is by looking in magazines.)

I subscribe to some garden, camera, antique, and art magazines. I regularly look through them and tear out "images or pages I pant over." I then put them into my sheet protectors and put them into my "personal notebook."

See, by creating a notebook I've a handy research area that gives me ideas! (You never copy work of other individuals.)

Also, check out your local library. Some libraries have a magazine exchange section. You bring in a magazine and leave it and walk away with a magazine someone else left.

Before I go any further I want to stress 3 things here.

1. Never work from the original photo. ALWAYS! ALWAYS make copies and work from your copies.

Today you may like what you created. Tomorrow may be a different story. So, if you have made copies of the different stages of your photo reworking there will always be a point where you can go to change what you have previously done.

2. Always work from photos of the same size.

3. Wait till you think you have the "final" image. Make a copy of it and THEN crop the copy if you must. (Of course make a copy of the cropped image.)

Now on to the final competition image. (See yesterday's posted image.)

I took a photo of flowers I really liked. I made a copy of that image and from that copy I then smudged it with a now outdated software.

I made a copy of the smudged result and went onto my next step.

In order to hide all of the green leaves, I made copies of the lavender flowers and arranged them as layers. The result was I had a photo which didn't look like much, but all of the green was missing.

I made a copy of that image and then I went on.

I went into the software program Corel Paint Shop Pro.

I took the two images I was now going to work with: the white flower image and the completely reworked lavender flower image.

Since these two images were the same size, I could then utilize a wonderful feature that Corel Paint Shop Pro offers called - "arithmetic." I chose "lightest" and then the software automatically reworked the 2 same size images and gave me a "new image." Since I chose "lightest" the darkest part of the images disappeared and only the "lightest" portions showed. The black counter disappeared and the lavender appeared!

I liked what I got so I then made a copy of the new image.

I then really reworked that new image for competition purposes.

Then a wonderful Master Photographer got the image ready for competition mounting. Then on the day of competition "White Delight" got the highest score!

I later used the original white flower image and an image of a field, did an "arithmetic" and then got a totally different image.

Flower Photography

THE FIRST THING IN STARTING OUT IN PHOTOGRAPHY STARTS OUT WITH ONE QUESTION. What do I want to photograph?

The answer to that question leads you in determining what equipment to
purchase, what to zero in on learning, what to practice, etc.

I love flowers. That has led me into photography competition, some awards and a constant trying to do more and more in photography.

The nice thing about digital cameras is that you can "practice" a lot without spending a lot. And you don't have to wait till the photos are processed. You can take the photos and put the images in your computer right away without leaving your home/studio.

STORY BEHIND THIS PHOTO:

I had a friend that wanted some flowers photographed. I went to her house, but it was too windy to photograph outside. She had some flowers inside. Her daughter watched me as I gathered up 1 flower and placed it against the black counter top stove.

Much later I did a special effects with this image and it received the highest score in a local photography competition.

TODAY'S PROJECT - Zero in on what you want to photograph.

TOMORROW - I'll post the competition version of this photo and explain briefly how it was done.