nashville wedding

i'm off in just five hours—off on a road trip to nashville for a wedding {this girl's}. i was hoping to get a good post in before i left, but i have not prioritized my time very well. so this is all i can squeeze in.

i wrote more about this image here and posted the original color photo with it. but someone had given me a link to a web site that will take your photos and "age" them with some sepia coloring and some texture. i thought it would lend itself to this image, so i'm posting the manipulated version of it on this blog.

but you should go check out the story behind this little window display... especially if you like girly stuff and wedding-related things like me. =)

see you all on monday—which is when i will announce which two winners won my framed photos. {by the way, you can still enter—just leave a comment here.}

i'll miss reading your blogs and will have much catching up to do. but it will be worth it! have a great weekend! {which reminds me . . . thank you all for your long and thoughtful comments on posts lately. it makes me know that you are reading and taking a true interest! and i love the feedback i am getting. i've been learning a lot through my readers and your comments. thank you!}

eh . . . it's just okay

has anyone ever posted some pictures and gotten comments like, "i don't like these" or "they are just okay".

i got one yesterday—from my sister of all people. now maybe some would be offended at this, and to be quite honest, i was almost offended at first. but then i realized that i appreciated her honesty. if you think about it, we bloggers go to other blogs and comment and compliment all the time. i can honestly say that i have sincerely meant every comment i have ever made. and i believe that the comments that have been left about my photos or posts have always been sincere.

but it is refreshing to hear from a sister who will tell you like it is—or at least how she sees it. it's funny, because i had started to write a post a while back about this. what makes a photo good? it can't be good or great to everyone who sees it. so in my opinion, a good photo is what i like—what makes me feel or think or both. what makes me see more than what meets the eye. whether i take it or someone else does.

here is what i had started writing on that post a while back:

i've been thinking the last couple of days about what makes a photograph good—what makes it art. it started when i read the thought-provoking "excite me" post that my blogging pal and diptych blog partner posted on her photography blog. i have to say, pretty much every photo jamie posts on her blog excites me. her artistic eye and technical ability are something i aspire to. just going to her blog is exciting, because i can't wait to see what she comes up with next—plus, i really enjoy her writing.

but it was the quote she wrote about in her post that got me thinking and even questioning why i take pictures. i know some photography is just to make a visual record of something—a newspaper photo, a business portrait, etc. but it seems to me that any and all other kinds of photography are art—they are as diverse as songs that are written or canvases that are painted.

the quote or poem {by jay maisel} was this. "if it doesn’t excite you, this thing that you see, why in the world, would it excite me?"

i'm not sure what the context that his words came out of or what led him to write this, but i had issues with it as soon as i read it.

take for instance this photo of the river above. technically it's not a good photo. in fact it's really lousy! something really weird happened with the settings to make the color and exposure come out so off. but when i saw it on the computer, i thought "wow. this is so cool." i'm not sure why. the result was obviously not intentional. but there is something about it that just made me love it!

it may not excite you in the least. but it excited me so much. so does that make it a good photo? i really don't have the answer to that. what are your thoughts—not on the photo, but on the subject?

negative space

i was going to post these shots soon, but had not planned on it today. but i just read today's post on shutter sisters, and i immediately thought of these shots. the post was about the art of the vignette—whether created through processing techniques or built in to the shooting. i'm not even sure if these shots are exactly what tracey was talking about, but like i said, these are what i thought of when i read her post.

i was so pleased with how these turned out for a few reasons. i love the color. the softness of the background and even the foreground in one of them {which is what made me think of them while reading the s.s. post}.

but it is this that made me love them the most—the shapes that the negative space creates. in design school {specifically in drawing and painting and graphic design courses}, i learned how negative space can be used or even brought to attention for a wonderful artistic effect. an example of negative space would be the white areas {or background} of an ad with type and images. in this case, it is the green areas and shapes that are created by the "holes" of the wrought-iron planter. i purposefully zoomed in on the planter to create this effect.

i have a friend who did not understand why i take these kind of pictures—you know, where you don't even know what the subject is because you are zoomed in so far as to not recognize the subject. i explained that this is exactly why. i see shapes and forms everywhere i look. some created by objects and others by the negative space of those objects. it's why i love powerlines against sky/cloud shots. those lines break up the sky into so many wonderful planes and pieces.

so you may see a lot of these kinds of shots from me on this here blog. now you know why. it's one of my favorite things about photographing. it's something i LOVE to play with.

{and, speaking of shutter sisters and tracey clark, she informed me yesterday that i won a color photo printer over on s.s. as a result of being entered to win when i nominated beth's photo—which also happens to be a lovely vignette shot—for one sweet shot. i was so excited! i just wanted to thank shutter sisters here and now. thank you. thank you. thank you.}

bright as yellow {by the innocence mission} + a bunch of pics of my friend's little darlings

some lyrics to a favorite song
by a favorite group
to go with a favorite picture

and you live your life with
your arms stretched out.
eye to eye when speaking.
enter rooms with great joy shouts,
happy to be meeting.
and bright,
bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.

and i do not want to be a rose.
i do not wish to be pale pink,
but flower scarlet, flower gold.
and have no thorns to distance me,

but be bright,
bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.

even if i'm shouting, even if i'm shouting here inside.
even if i'm shouting, do you see that i'm wanting,
that i want to be so
bright,
bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.

~ ~ ~

warning: this is another long post {but this time it's many pictures instead of many words}

a good friend that i recently connected with on facebook—{she found me, and i'm so glad she did}—was kind enough to let me meet up with her and her two daughters at the park to let me practice taking photos of kids—something i would like to get better at.

they had no problem with me taking their pictures. i think they quite enjoyed it, actually. i thought i would have to really work on them to get them to come out of their shell and be natural around the camera. but they were ready and willing and had a blast just being themselves at the lovely nature preserve that i like to go to. we had so much fun!

aren't they sweet? they are very photogenic, no?

i'm happy with the composition and how i captured them smiling or in action. but i was disappointed by the lighting in many of the shots. several of them were in the shadows. this is something i will pay more attention to next time. practice, practice practice.

we started taking pictures at 4:30 p.m. a few hours before sundown. have you any tips for me—on when and how to get good lighting for outdoor people shots?

thank you, julie, for giving me the opportunity to practice. i hope you like your photos! i'll send you any that you like. for everyone else, i'm sorry there are so many. i just wanted to get them all posted for julie so that she can choose whichever she likes.

florida 4: macro 2 {macro monday}

more hibiscus. i told you, they were everywhere in every color.

happy memorial day! {and macro monday}

i don't, but i do

i don't have an i-phone,
but i do have a voice.

i don't have a pool,
but i do have clean water.

i don't have a job,
but i do have an education.

i don't have many diamonds,
but i do have many friends.

i don't have a flat screen television,
but i do have a camera and eyes to use it.

i don't have my dream car,
but i do have the ability to walk.

i don't have the money to take yearly vacations,
but i do have places to go.

i don't have my father,
but i do have wonderful memories of him.

i don't have children,
but i do still have a child-like spirit.

i don't have a master's or doctorate degree,
but i do have a mind that works.

i don't have an expensive espresso machine,
but i do have someone who makes me coffee every morning.

i don't have a great performance computer,
but i do have so many great friends through my blogs.

i don't have a fancy house,
but i do have a place to lay my head.

i don't have the art studio of my dreams,
but i do have so many ideas and abilities.

i don't have perfect health,
but i do have the opportunity to lead a healthy life.

i don't have the chance to do my days over,
but i do have so much to look forward to.

i don't have everything,
but i do have so much.