Category: close up

Everything Interesting Is In The Cracks

Day 5, Dawn

Cracks

In lowlands between dunes you can find solid pressed fine grained sand. I always start working with a subject from far a way, since once I get closer I won’t be able to erase my tracks in case I want to step back. So, I started by photographing one of these islands as a part of landscape, then I got closer.

First that caught my eye, as I got close to it, was little domes and shadows around them. It looks like they were pieces in large puzzle. I tried to photograph those domes but photos ended up borings with a piece straight in the middle. I tried to shift them off center in my frame. That was when I realized that the really interesting thing in that puzzle were cracks in between the pieces.

Seeing Big and Seeing Small

Day 2, Late Morning

To photograph Badwater at sunrise I went far into salt flats. On my way back I started paying more attention at the variety of structures built by water, salt and wind. About a size of human hair whiter than white these crystals were creating islands of shimmery white in salt flats.

Salt Crystals Shaped by Wind
Salt Crystals Shaped by Wind

Simplicity

… Still going thru my photo archives (posted about it before in The Art of… Clean up) cleaning up photos that I feel I would not be interested in looking at ever again, categorizing those I’d like to keep and assigning keywords to them. While doing this I find some little gems that I feel deserved sharing.

Here is one of such photos. This photos is about simplicity; simplicity of color and curve. I like pure yellow of the flower. I like light blue sitting in a shade between petals. The colors themselves bring me some joy but then there is also the perfect curve of the flower petal which is a pleasure to follow.

Color and Curve

Step out of the Door (part II)

One of the advantages of having a great place to photograph close to my home is that I can always quickly get there. Brooks Jensen – one of the photographers I highly regard – likes to say “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. Well, I’m always prepared. All my photo gear is in the car. As soon as I see a great sunset, I hop into my car and take off to those flower fields that I mentioned in the previous post.

Here is one of the lucky moments I think:

Chamomile at Sunset
Chamomile at Sunset

Step Out of the Door

Sometime all it takes to get a nice photo is to step out of your door.

I live in an area that had a lot of construction sites in hey days of housing bubble. When recession started a lot of them were abandoned. In just a couple of years nature reclaimed them and turned them into meadows with a beautiful display of wild flowers. There are lots and lots of different kinds of flowers. What’s interesting is that every year there is a predominant flower. This year is a year of lupines.

Now I don’t need to drive or fly far away – it takes only 5 minutes to get into a wild flower meadow. I guess there is something good about recession after all.

Not Like Others
Not Like Others

Naïve and Romantic

Recently I got a link to a somewhat interesting article Preparation In Fine Art Landscape Photography. While I found it interesting (I do myself lots of the things listed in the article and find them useful), at the same time I thought it is too simplistic and pragmatic.

The most important thing I do in the field is missing from the article’s list: connecting with a landscape. Before I even take my camera out of a bag I spend time observing landscape that surround me – from tiny flowers to tall mountains to high sky up above. What’s interesting in it, how do I feel about it, is it a happy place or a sad place, is it powerful or weak? I spend as much time as I need to feel the things that surround me, walking around or simply sitting. I may even close my eyes and focus on scents or sounds of birds singing or waves crashing onto the shore. Can you imagine that – a photographer with his eyes closed?

Call me naïve and romantic – because quite frankly that who I am – but when I photograph I don’t follow any specific list of steps, I follow my emotions.

Two Trees on a Hill at Sunset
Two Trees on a Hill at Sunset

Zen

The question that I here the most is where do I get an inspiration. The answer is simple – I don’t get it, I wait for it.

When I’m on a photo trip I start photographing without inspiration, even without clear goal in my mind. I’m photographing and waiting; waiting for that one image after which everything becomes clear. Suddenly, my mind and my soul opens up to the world. I start seeing everything differently. The world becomes part of me and I become part of it.

Here is that photo from my last trip to California. After it I started seeing beyond flowers; seeing lines shapes and light.

California Poppy

What if that doesn’t happen, you may ask. Well, that means I was not in tune with the world was around me. Maybe next time or next place.

In a Flower Field

Remember the times when we were kids and it was so much fun to run into the middle of a flower field and lye down on your back and look into the sky? I remember it.

The same works very well in photography too: get down to the ground, to flower level and feel the connection. Look at the flowers, breath flower scent filled air, listen to the field.

In the morning the ground is cold and the air is fresh. Dew drops are covering flowers that are still asleep. Air is filled with birds singing.

In a Flower Field

As the sun gets higher it gets warmer. Flowers open up and flies wake up. Buzzing is all around.

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When it gets closer to the dusk the field goes to sleep. It gets quieter and quieter. Flowers close up. Only lonely crickets disturb the stillness.

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Long Trip for Dandelion

Dandelions are everywhere. I even have them in my backyard and yet I have not taken a single photo of them where I live. At the same time on my last photo trip to central Washington and Oregon thousands of kilometers from home I was stuck around a dandelion parachute ball for an hour taking photo after photo – searching for best angle and experimenting with different depth of field. I found it to be extremely interesting. Why is that?

I have two states of mind – daily routine and photographic creativity. While in the first state I’m completely consumed by the daily errands, not having time for anything beyond that. On a photo trip on the other hand I start seeing interesting photos in even simple and widespread things. Driving or flying away from home is my trigger that opens my vision to a different perception of the world around me. I need to put a significant time and distance between me and home to isolate myself from daily routine and start thinking photographically.

Being able to isolate and focus on photography is very important to me and I suggest you try to find your own trigger that will help you with that.

Dandelion

Subject, Texture and Color

When I go to botanical garden with a camera I feel like an explorer looking for specimens. I don’t take picture of flowers and leaves – there are enough of those already. I’m collecting subjects, textures and colors to work with later at home.

Here are three photos (subject, texture and color):

subject texture color

I turned those into this image:

This image might be a beginning of a new project. I even have a name for it: “Primary Colors”.