Quote of the day: “It’s often about the simple things, isn’t it? Painting and photography are first about seeing, they say. Writing is about observing. Technique is secondary. Sometimes the simple is the most difficult.” ― Linda Olsson

Delicate ferns

Today has been a gray November day, complete with a little drizzle and fog this morning. In search of some brightness, I headed out to Como Park to make photos in the Conservatory.

Stepping into the moist warm air was like stepping into another world. Even though the cloudy skies made it a little less bright in the conservatory today, I felt almost as if I had stepped straight from Minnesota to Akiko’s Buddhist Bed and Breakfast north of Hilo, Hawaii. The humid air and tropical plants gave me a taste of the rain forest.

Water lily leaf and reflections

It’s less than a month until I will be on my winter walk-about in Hawaii.  Can you tell that I’m starting to get excited?

Simple Photos, Simple Stories

As I was making photos today, my thoughts were on simplicity – how to capture the essence of what I was seeing, how to keep my photos simple, yet tell a story of beauty and wonder.

Here is one example of how I kept making the frame smaller and smaller to create a simpler image. I love the statue in the sunken garden, especially, the curve of the neck, the up-swept hair, the tilt of her shoulders.

Statue in Sunken Garden

But the photo above just doesn’t capture my vision of her. So I try a different composition.

Second photo of statue in Sunken Garden

I like this one better, but it’s still not right.

Tighter shot of statue

I go in tighter, and I like it better, but it’s still not what I want.

Final Shot – my favorite

With a really shallow depth of field, I keep the statue in focus while blurring the background. I’ve captured a view of how I see this wonderful statue, even though I’ve left out more of the statue than I’ve shown.

Here is another example of simplification. I spotted a woman making a small watercolor painting and wanted to capture her painting in this beautiful place. But I found that when I showed the greenery around her, you couldn’t really tell that she was painting and the photo was not effective at all.

Watercolor painter in the conservatory

I moved closer to her and asked if I could photograph her as she was painting.

A Closer View

I still wasn’t happy with the result, so I tightened the shot even more.

Third try – still not happy with my shot

And tightened even more…

Focusing on her hands and the watercolor painting

This tells the story that I want to tell…almost. I converted the photo to black and white. Yes! This is it.

Converted to Black and White – my favorite version

The koi in the pond were very active. I wanted to capture their frenzied swimming. I tried many shots of them swimming as a group, but found each one of them too busy, too distracting.

Finally, I focused on one fish – voila. You can sense the movement, see its open mouth and eyes, and feel a bit of the like you’re there.

Koi swimming in the conservatory

More simplicity practice…

Leaf Designs

Decorative Chard in the Sunken Garden

Water Lily Leaves in Sunken Garden


Marilyn

Photographer sharing beauty, grace & joy in photographs and blog posts. I live in the Twin Cites in Minnesota, the land of lakes, trees, and wonderful nature.

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