Week 34 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 231

This is the week of flowers. But more importantly for me it has be the summer of flowers. I seem to have finally proven my mother wrong. I do not have a brown thumb. There have been some failures in the vegetable garden because of too hot too early. Seems to have been been a good combination, however, for the flowers.

In my studio I have a wide assortment of plants which fall into that category of those which thrive on neglect. Outside I have finally found those which grow like weeds.

And all of them fall into the classification of being great to photograph.

Day 232

Day 233

Day 234

Day 235

Day 236

Day 237

Next week back to landscapes and trees.

Week 32 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 217

 I toyed recently with doing a week of at home snaps. But these are at home snaps. My snaps are just different I suppose. Four of this week's photos were taken while standing on my deck. I had to be a bit off the deck to take the rest.

Day 218

 Upon moving into my house in 1998 I discovered I had the gift of dawns through the eastern window. That window is now a doorway into my studio which has four windows and a glass French door which face the same way.

The studio windows

And outside of those windows used to be a small temporary stoop upon which I stood in bare feet to record clouds and dawns. It took years to convert that stoop to the deck I currently enjoy. With a heated door mat so I don't freeze my bare feet in the winter.

The deck also provides space and reasons for container gardens. I have to walk to the far end of the deck to capture the African Daisies which grown in a container. The earth upon which my house, and deck, are built is not good at yielding to shovels so it is containers or raised beds.

Day 219

And the deck looks over the valley of the Little Coyote and a very large fenced yard where I entertain the my friends' dogs. They of course frequently become subjects of my photographs.

Day 220
Lucy, Metta, and Dottie

But the expansive vista of the eastern and southern sky rarely disappoints. I still am enchanted with the dawns and I have always loved clouds. The photo below was a record for my pleasure of some particularly peculiar clouds before a storm. The bird was a bonus.

Day 221

And if you stare at the photograph below and let your creative mind float you will see a huge bird in the clouds.

Day 222

And beside my lower deck, under those four windows of the studio is the hollyhock bed. I have loved hollyhocks since I was a child. The studio wall provides them protection from the winds and they gratefully pose for me in the summer. 

Day 223

Welcome to my snaps from home. BTW on September 29 and 30 my deck and studio will be open for the second annual Angel Fire Studio Tour. My studio is open by appointment most afternoons through the summer, but the studio tour is special. I will have my artist friends Carol Rupp and Judy Kosanovich showing their work too. Note the photo of Judy and Boca was taken on my deck. And of course there will be my work there too.

Week 37 - 2017 in photographs

Day 252

Except for Day 255, the pink Hollyhock, this week was about the color yellow. It seems to be everywhere as the seasons begin to change. Sunflowers figure large in this week because it was the first time I had planted them and so a new captive photographic model. Georgia O'Keeffe once said she was not particularly fond of painting flowers but they were cheap models. I can see her point. With me it has been a time factor. The flowers are just right there outside the studio door.

Day 253

Day 254

Day 255

 And the trees are beginning to turn yellow.

Day 256

Day 257

 And the grasses. And some days it seems the very light itself is yellow.

Day 258

Week 35 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 238

Began this week with a portrait of the photographer. The clouds, the reflection and the hollyhocks and hummingbirds with the polytunnel behind define this summer. And this summer of photographs. I have been a home body more than normal and so my photographic subjects have been those I can get from the deck or close jaunts. No physical reason. Just busy. If I did not have the goal of posting a photograph a day I might have gone days without taking a photo.

There is something to be said for narrowing the photographic opportunities. It encourages an in depth  exploration of the subjects. A summer of clouds and hollyhocks. And sitting on my deck in the sun.

Day 239

Day 240

Day 241

Day 242

Week 243

 And for a change of pace pansies.

Day 244

Week 32 - 2016 in Photographs

Day 218

Another great week with my new camera. And really pointing it at everything. How else am I suppose to find out what it can and cannot do.  I seriously don't know if there is anything it cannot do but some things it is really just going to do better than others. It is fantastic at closeups and love the definition even in long shots. But I find myself yearning for a new wide angle lens.

Day 219

 A raven hit a power line and died on my property. It was a great opportunity for a photographer. And I definitely could not pass it up as a test of the sharpness of the image I could capture.

Day 220

 But it also does great landscapes and I live in an area with great landscapes to capture.

Day 221

Day 222

 Dawn and dusk settings are great. 

Day 223

Day 224

My Favorites of 2015

Clouds' Illusions 

Maybe this blog is less about good photographs than the soul of an artistic mind. I posted 365 photographs in 2015 as photographs of the day. To get those 365 I was out with a camera or in front of my computer post processing some portion of every day. I would daresay I took thousands of photographs. Some I posted on other platforms and for other reasons than the 365 Day Challenge. 

And there are always other reasons to take photos. Reasons people with iPhones take pictures; a great garden, a special flower, a new kitten, selfies, self portraits, great sunrise, WIP photos of art work or home projects. Occasionally those personal snaps make it into the 365 Day Challenge just because it is a reflection of who I am. And the same is true of these favorites in this blog. They were photo of day for one of the days of this year. But they are also the ones I remember most. And the are mostly those closest to home. The opening cloud formation is one of many which rises over the Sentinel Tree on the hill across from my house. There is something about the shape of the hill or the land behind it which creates currents that builds fantastic clouds.

And the two photographs below are from my garden. I don't paint flowers. I do not pretend to be Georgia O'Keeffe (besides I like her landscape work better), but I photograph flowers. It is a relatively new focus for me. My sister, Deborah Binford Baker, is the flower photographer. It is not as easy as it looks. So many variables to factor in not the least of which is breeze with large petal flowers like poppies. The one below owes a lot of its charm to the light, and using a very fast speed. My camera thinks flowers are sporting events.

First poppy

Poppies and hollyhocks grow like weeds. I am not a gardener of Prima Donnas. I will spend more effort on vegetables but flowers need to volunteer. I also do not spend a lot of time in capturing their digital images. The hollyhocks before were a quick snap of a stalk bent under the weight of an afternoon rain. Before I staked the stalk I took its picture.

My other favorites are experiments. Frequent followers of my blogs will know I love to do reflections. There are a whole bunch of rules on reflections oddly enough. When I began taking them I followed those rules. Now I am into breaking them. Number one rule is never flip a water reflection. Reflections look upside down. The one below I flipped. The trees are never right side up in a pond reflection. A little accentuation of the ripple effect using a filter and instant Monet.

It is wise to remember at this point that I am a painter first. Well, that is a matter of focus. Pun intended. Photography was a hobby and a support for my paintings. I do not like plein aire painting for myself. Outdoors is for movement. So I take pictures and take them back to my studio. The advent of digital cameras and post processing programs gave me the luxury of playing with my pictures before I played with my pictures. Lately this playing around has given me an itch to paint with oils. Now I just need a small business expansion loan.

Monet's Pond

Meanwhile I am turning some of my photographs into faux oil paintings. Yes, I could just print the photograph on canvas. And I have done that. And is that any different than doing the painting, taking the photograph of the painting, and then doing a giclee (just French for ink jet) print of the painting?

On the icy shore

Another of my learning curves has been in black and white images. Here again my sister is the master as it were. But I have been working at black and white post processing of some of my images for some time. And taking blacks and whites. Yes, my camera has a setting which would allow me to skip right around color. And yes, a photo is better in black and white if you have that intent. By intent I mean looking for certain elements of design which make a good strong black and white. Elements like noisy sky (or background) and strong light and shadows. The original digital image is in color but from the moment I aimed my camera my mind said black and white for the photograph below.

Meeting room at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico

Another area of exploration has been the DSLR selfie, a self portrait without aid of tripod. I do not mean to be anti tripod. I own three. I just often find them more work than aid. And with the selfie they do not give you the deer in the headlights look of the iPhone. And unlike the iphone the DSLR selfie gives you the chance to include context. At the very least the "I am a photographer" element. I like the one below because it seems more like a painter's self portrait than a profile shot for a web page. Well, except for the DSLR.

Selfie with Camera

I don't take portraits. Used to do a lot of candid portrait work. Seemed to open me up for requests to do weddings. I don't do weddings. Or children. But I do fur kids. And I currently have a kitten, Thicke, who is a ham. He loves to pose in bowls, baskets, basins, and boxes.

Thicke in the Basin

So now in addition to my camera going in the car with me it goes around the house with me. 

To sum up these favorites of 2015 are very personal to me because of subject matter or as milestones on my path to being a better photographer. 

Week 33 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 225
Hummingbirds waiting their turn

The first two photographs were actually taken this week. The remainder are finds during my culling of photographs. I found during this process that especially in large folders from treks that yielded a lot of photographs that I would just post process the highlights and move on with a mental promise to return for a second pass at some time in the future. Hypothetically the next very windy and cold day when I did not want to go outside.

There were so many of these gems lying undiscovered in folders next week will be totally from that resource. All photographers must have treasure troves of unrealized brilliance. It was true in film days. And in digital era it remains true. To save developing and printing costs during film era I used to have a contact sheet or a box of slides. I would look at them through a magnifying viewing scope for contact sheets or a small manual projector for slides. Uploading from scan disc to computer is probably the equivalent. There is even a function in your photo editing software called slide show. You rate with stars or scribble a list on scrap paper beside your keyboard. And then post process those.

I have begun a notebook where I scribbled down dates or file numbers which have gems to go back too. And I have gotten better in rating current photos because it is a gold mine of 4 and 5 stars cached away to post process on a blizzard day.

Or a rainy day like days 225 and 226. But I took the first from inside my studio with door open. And the second rushing just outside in bare feet with raincoat over head.

Day 226
Hollyhocks after the rain

A day trip to Las Vegas, NM yielded a lot of photographs already heralded in these blogs. But even in this well mined open pit, to continue the mining analogies, I found others of merit like the antique store front of an antiques store.

Day 227
Antique shop in Las Vegas, New Mexico

 I bypassed it the first time because I did not like the closed sign. So I tried a filter to make it less prominent. A friend says she doesn't notice it but I know it is there. Yes, I could clone it out but given its location it would be less than successful. I find cloning is less detectable on edges of photographs, definitely off center or in a background.

I figured it might just be the color, so I tried a black and white treatment. Closed is more insistence but so is other lettering like on the marque reflection across the street. All this raised another issue in the order in which I process new uploads of photographs (or is it downloads). Yes, I go for the spectacular in my mind, but I will also go for the easiest.

There much to be gained by fiddling with the less than perfect image. It can be a huge learning experience.

Day 228
Same shop in black and white

I have taken lots of photographs of this old tractor. But I am always sure I can take a better one. And as I have access to it I can always come back in better light and try again. Besides it is there in the photo files to go back to. Ergo I deduce that in addition to being lazy I am also rather jaded at times. I will treasure the images I captured on a day trip or vacation over those of a walk about in the hood.

But Ansel Adams proved the merit of photographing the same thing like the Ranchos Mission or the National parks. Familiarity with your subject can give you valuable clues as to how to get a better shot of it.

Day 229
Neighbor's tractor

The crumbling hamburger joint below comes from a huge file of photographs taken on a trek with a photography buddy, Terry Atkins Rowe. I admit to coming back exhausted and euphoric from these treks with an impossible number of photos. More photos to mine from this Trek with Terry folder.

Day 230
Specials at the Crossroad

Next week more of Las Vegas and the three day trips there. And a couple from the Zuni Mountains with my sister, another great photo trek companion.