Egidio, who is leading our photo challenge this week, suggests we show pictures emphasizing two rectangles. He says, “By two rectangles, I mean you have two dominant rectangular areas in your image. For many people, this is one of those compositional tools we use without thinking about it. These rectangles give balance, harmony, and unity to a composition.” The image of these carps shows two pairs of rectangular areas created by contrasting light and shadows. Ever noticed the numerous rectangular areas on a baseball field? Large billboards, advertisements around the seating area, division of seating sections in the stands and even grassy rectangular patterns on the field. Overall, these pleasing…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #303 Connections
“The connections we make to people, places, things, and ideas, are what give purpose and meaning to our lives.” – Donna The connections we chose in our lives are very powerful. My connection with family, other people, my community, places I love and ideas I hold dear is the sum total of who I am. And it is my connection and relationship with nature that gives me a sense of calm and inner peacefulness. Whether watching a butterfly dart from flower to flower or listening to the constant rhythm of waves beating on the sand as birds fly about. I am continually reminded of the joy and wonder that can…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #302 Artificial Intelligence and Photography
The header shot is a “pure” Artificial Intelligence photo! It began with a blank page in Adobe PhotoShop. The page was selected by the Lasso Tool and AI Contextual Task Bar Tool was instructed to create an “ocean background sea oats foreground”. And this is what was created! For this week John has suggested we explore Artificial Intelligence techniques found in various software programs such as Adobe PhotoShop and others. Some software programs have had AI editing around for several years and is regularly used to remove digital noise, distractive objects and enhancing details. I use it in this context along with Dodge and Burning Tools when posting images on…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #300 Delicate
Our host this week, Ann-Christine, suggests we think about the word Delicate and what it means to us. I generally tend to think about certain creatures seen in nature that appear fragile and delicate. Some actually are delicate while others look that way even though they are strong, For example, the sun shining on the wings of this egret shows off the delicate structure of its strong wings. Even though Dragonflies have translucent and fragile looking wings, they are much stronger than they appear. This caterpillar stranded on these few twigs below is quite fragile and delicate and probably not able to take care of itself. These fragile Loggerhead Turtles…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #298 To Be Young Again
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson Tina, who is hosting this week, suggests we feature children in our pictures. I rarely photograph people so this topic required a bit of searching through photo archives. My first thought was to look for pictures taken during the summer months that included water. From personal experience children love to play in water on a hot, steamy summer days! The perfect activities at the beach include building sandcastles, skimming the surf on a board, swimming in shallow waves or just enjoying the cool breeze blowing off the ocean. This taken near our house on Kiawah Island…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #296 Abstracts
“Abstract art was the equivalent of poetic expression; I didn’t need to use words, but colors and lines. I didn’t need to belong to a language-oriented culture but to an open form of expression.” – Etel Adnan This week Ritva of Ritva Sillanmaki Photography selected Abstracts as the photo challenge. Much has been written on this subject, Ritva describes abstracts as “photography which breaks the normal rules of realism. It turns everyday scenes, objects, or textures into visual poetry, inviting viewers to see beyond the surface. It is a genre of photography that focuses on the shapes, colors, textures, and patterns of the subject, rather than its literal representation.” It…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #295 Rocks
“The most beautiful stones have been tossed by the wind, washed by the water and polished to brilliance by life’s strongest storms.” – unknown I have always enjoyed photographing interesting looking rocks. They have Rocks such a variety of unique colors, patterns and shapes based on where they were formed. Looking through my photo archives here are a few favorites taken over the years. I will begin with the Natural Bridge in Aruba, one of the largest of its kind several years ago. It measured approximately 25 feet high (7.6 meters) and 100 feet long (30 meters. This rocky land formation was originally part of an ancient cave and made…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #293 Water in Motion
This opening shot captures one of many beautiful designs that can be created by splashing pool water in the sunlight as a person goes down a water slide and hits the water! As I thought about different ways water could be in motion a few adjectives came to mind. For example, the two pictures below show how powerful and dangerous an ocean can become at times. Or, how graceful and beautuful it can appear with lovely reflections on the surface. Water in Motion can also create momentary feelings of comfort and energy as soft, hypnotic sounding waves wash up on the shore. Heavy rain beating on a wooden deck during…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #290 Circular Wonders
“The whole universe is based on rhythms. Everything happens in circles, in spirals.” – John Hartford When thinking about the photo challenge topic this week, everywhere I looked I saw Circles! I have been to the beach a lot lately, our dogs love it there plus it is a beautiful place to take long walks early in the morning. The other day after a recent storm a lot of sea foam had washed up on the sand. The foam was particularly interesting this morning because the early sun was reflecting off hundreds of tiny circular bubbles giving the appearance of lovely arrangements of colorful jewels all along the beach. The…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #289 Tools of Composition
“The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?” – Edward Weston John of photobyjohnbo is hosting the challenge this week and he suggests we focus on only four compositional factors in photography; Shape, Form, Texture and Light of objects. The first two, Shape and Form, are occasionally used interchangeably although they have two distinct visual characteristics which is determined by the way light strikes the object. A Shape looks flat or two-dimensional where as a Form is an object that is emphasized by shadows and highlights creating depth or a three-dimensional look. Let’s compare a few pictures to show how to determine the difference…