Quotes of the day: 

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliot Erwitt

“This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Shallow Depth of Field

More depth of field

More Macro Play With The Color Purple

It was my second day of playing with lovely purple wild phlox flowers. A few of the flowers had already wilted so all of my photographs were extreme closeups on this day.

I’m a little happier with the purple color I’ve captured in these shots. It is closer to my vision of how the real flowers look than the photos I took the first day.

In the two shots above, I’m still trying to decide if I prefer one or the other. At first glance I prefer the second shot, but the longer I look at the first shot, the more I’m drawn to the dreamy softness of the out-of-focus flower in the background.

Love the softness of this and the color blending

Very little of the photo above is in focus but the center of the flower is tack sharp and I think it serves as an anchor for the eye and makes the rest of the softness almost work. I think this may be one of the keys to working with very shallow depth of field.

Make sure the part of the photo the eyes are most drawn to is in focus

Can you see the tiny webs my little spider friend made on these flowers (top center of picture)? I find them very distracting. I am constantly surprised by how many little things like dust or stray hairs or fuzz that my eye misses but the camera always sees.

I am working on training myself to slow down enough to notice these fine details.

Shot from above

In the photo above, I managed to get one main flower in focus and all the rest have a very soft look. The top of the tiny aqua vase the flowers are in has become a soft aqua blur. I like this shot from above and I like the soft colors in it.

It’s day five of my little 40-day experiment to make at least 25 photos each day of something in my house that has heart and meaning for me.

What a shift I’ve experienced in just 5 days!

Focusing (yup, I made a little pun here 🙂 ) on what I love, doing what I love, and really working to expand my skills lights me up and brings me great joy.

Can you see my spider friend’s legs on front center flower?

Another experiment