To me, taking pictures of flowers is like picking low hanging fruit. The flowers are already gorgeous & it seems like most flower pictures are no more than glorified snap shots. Then I see an image from a photographer that inspires me and reminds me that flower pictures can be art as well.
Here then, is my attempt to make art with a picture of a flower. I hope it doesn't look like a simple snaptshot.
This morning, I woke up early, as usual and headed to the lake for a walk along the water. There is not much that I like more than seeing the sunrise reflected on water. Lately, we have had foggy or over cast mornings and I really enjoyed having a clear view of Mother Nature's display.
Everywhere you look, the Canada geese have returned form there southern migration.
There is not a single rock, lawn, or field that has not been claimed. I know they can be a nuisance, but I really like them.
Today I woke up early to venture into the morning & hopefully catch the sunrise. Unfortunately, we never really saw much of the sun today. Instead, we had dreary skies and rain. Late afternoon, I ventured out again to wander around the yard. That's when I spied the pink blossoms on one of our new dogwoods. Thought you might like to see them, so here I am sharing. Tell my kindergarten teacher that I still play well with others. Thank you.
This is Sheep to Shawl weekend at Carriage Hill Farm. That means that the sheep are being shorn, some of the ladies are spinning the merino wool into yarn while others are weaving the yarn into shawls on the loom.
My good friend Debbie told me that she would be working her great wheel and asked me if I would like to come in early to take photos before the public arrived. I was pretty excited because I had never seen the great wheel in use and we would be shooting in the natural morning light from my favorite window.
The challenges started very early. The morning turned out to be rainy and the light from the window was weaker than normal. I had to run back to the car to get my tripod. I had hoped to shoot a little more agile, but I would rather be tied to the tripod than get shaky shots. I really don't like to shoot handheld slower than 1/30th of a second.
While Debbie prepared to spin, I set up the camera gear.
The great wheel is also called a walking wheel because the spinner walks back and forth while spinning the wheel by hand.
The larger wheel causes the spindle to spin very fast, adding a lot of twist to the yarn, perfect for wool.
Debbie made fast work of the wool and before long, she had a skein ready to go. For me, the shoot was as much about post processing as it was about taking the photos. I converted the images to black and white and thought they looked pretty good, I decided that they could use a little warmth. I decided to then add a little sepia tone, finally deciding on only 15% level. I didn't want the images to be brown.
Finally, I wanted to throw the viewer back in time and anchor them there. So, I added a vignette to each of the images.
I hope you like the images. Drop me a comment to let me know what you think.
Tim
Last night the Spring hafla was held over in Tipp City. This is the first dance gig of the season for many of the area belly dance troops.
The event was open to friends and family and the crowd was pretty big. The audience flowed out onto the street.
Tipp City is a pretty small town and on a Saturday night, the sudden appearance of dozens of belly dancers attracted quite a few of the local townspeople, Some of whom were colorful in their own way.
The dancing was very good (we will cover that at another time). However, you can’t please everybody and some folks found other things to look at. To each his own, I suppose.
Tonight is the spring hafla and I am looking forward to seeing Jodi and the rest of her dance troupe in action. Remember last fall's hafla on my birthday?
Our dogwood is in full bloom. One more confirmation that the weather is a month ahead of where we normally are. I'm not complaining about the warmth. However, I am wondering what the summer will be like.
tim mcmurdo 