There is a junk yard in Belton that specializes in Classic Cars. The Temple Photography Meetup Group held a group shoot there last Saturday.
To me, these represent the certainty of decay. All of these were once bright, shiny, and new. Now they are in various stages of decay.
There were far too many cars there that brought back memories – cars I owned, cars owned by someone I knew, cars I wanted.
I have converted some of the pictures of the old farm to Black and White.
I really like the atmosphere of these.
I have been intrigued by the idea of fine art prints. A CreativeLive seminar with Doug Landreth explored how he goes about making them. It was interesting, but there was not nearly enough explanation. In Photoshop, he overlays images with layers that he manipulates into patterns that add barely visible elements and textures to the image. The result is quite good.
As a first step in looking at that, I took some of the pictures I took last week on Highway 6, and transformed them into Black and White.
It turns out there are a variety of ways of producing Black and White images. One is simply to reduce the color saturation of the image. There are other “effects” in Aperture. They somehow use selective filters in the operation. For these, the one that I liked the most used a Red filter. I am not sure what that really means, but it had the effect of darkening areas of the sky until they were almost black.
It is almost like using a polarizing filter. The rest seemed to exaggerate the starkness of the image.
Looking at these calls to mind scenes from the old John Ford Westerns.
On my trip on Highway 6 to photograph trees, I happened to notice this old, derelict farm. There is something about the interaction of the decaying of the structures and the vegetation around them that make for an interesting combination.
Trees in winter display a delicacy that is not present when they have their leaves. Last week, I took a quick drive down Hwy 6 and photographed some of the trees. This one was south of Marlin, on the west side of the road.
This one was at the Falls County/Robinson County line on the east side of the highway.
This one was on the east side of the highway. You can really see the effects of the prevailing South winds with most of the branching being on the North side of the tree.
This one was also on the East side of the highway. The character in this tree is remarkable. It is obvious that this tree has been severaly damaged, but has survived the damage with new growth.
As we left Galveston this morning, the wind was so calm that the water was still. I took this picture of Galveston Bay from the bridge on 61st St.
We awoke this morning to an absolutely beautiful sunrise. I am behind in my blogging, but I wanted to post this picture. It was taken at about 7:30.
I just came back upon Don Giannatti’s “Project 52” web site. I had seen the site several months ago, but it slipped from my memory. I have been a member of the flickr group for a long time, but, I can’t remember the last time I actually visited the group page. On this site, there is a weekly photography assignment. The assignments for this year start on February 1. So, I looked at the 2012 assignments.
The first assignment is to create a Vision Statement. This is basically a statement describing why it is that I take pictures. As described on the web site, “Tell us with a single paragraph what you want to be able to do with your images. Tell us what you do without telling us you are a photographer. Accompany that message with a single image taken around your home.”
To me, the reason I enjoy photography is it differs from other modes of expression, and there is something that is transcendently stimulating when I see a really great image I have taken. In 2012, my Aperture Library has over 7700 images. Every once in a while, as the image would come up on the screen, there was a moment of awe. Kind of, “Oh boy. That is good!”
It is becoming easier to take technically perfect images – those with proper exposure, composition, lighting, whatever. I can look at those and think, “That’s a good image.” But there is the added, intangible element that is included in an image that is really great. I take photographs because I enjoy that feeling of producing a picture that is really great.
Now, what kind of image around the house can I make that illustrates that?
I have gone through the over 7000 images from this year and chosen five that I think are the best. I am not going to rank them. Rather, I will present them chronologically.
The first one is from Galveston. Earlier this Spring, Debbie was walking on the beach and saw that someone had started to pile rocks on each other. As other people came along, they created their own piles of rocks to the point where eventually, there were hundreds of piles of rocks. I took this picture of one of the piles. I used a strobe and softbox to help me make the sky a little darker and to help define the surfaces of the rocks.
Earlier this Summer, Pat Jones asked me to serve as a second shooter at a wedding. I enjoyed the process. The wedding was at an interesting outdoor area in Roundrock. As the sun was going down, we got the couple to walk with us. There was a place in the woods where the setting sun was coming through a break in the leaves of a tree. I positioned them in the spot where the sun hit their faces and got this picture.
For the Waco Wild West 100 Bike Ride, last year, I stood at the end of the Washington St, Bridge and tried to get pictures of the cyclists with the suspension bridge and the Hilton in the background. I got some similar shots this year, but noticed that the river was absolutely still. So, I went down along the river and shot up at the cyclists on the bridge, with the reflection in the still water.
Ashley Henager wanted to get some pics at an old house in Speegleville. A couple days before, she contacted me and asked it we could change and shoot with her husband and son. I loved the idea. We shot at Midway Park. Noah was as cute as could be, but he really wanted to get in the water. He kept trying to get away and get in the water, and at one point, the tug between them resulted in this picture.
Finally, the last shoot with a model I did was with Heather Lynn Johnson. I have already discussed the lighting issues, but this shot was really great.
