Grace Note

 Nature  3 Responses »
Nov 222009
 

Gracenote (c)2009 by April Siegfried

Color swatch green Color swatch brown Color swatch yellow [¹]

Our neighbors have a beautiful holly bush with rich red berries against glossy green leaves. I couldn’t help but think, “Holiday card!” Concerns about the sun getting high, and setting up a tripod near their front porch early on a Sunday morning, suggested a hand held combination of lenses I’ve not worked with in quite a while: 18-200mm VR zoom with a Canon 500D Closeup Lens and (thin) polarizing filter.

Nothing much resulted from photographing the holly, but that did point the way to other possibilities on this mild, clear day with no wind. Think bokeh! 🙂

I’ll try the holly bush again after a snowfall. Cliché, sure; but a challenge to do well. As a fellow-photographer once said, “It will be my holly.”

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¹Colors of the day:

  • Green R:67 G:64 B:20
  • Brown R:140 G:86 B:46
  • Yellow R:203 G:164 B:110

Presage of Snow

 Nature  4 Responses »
Nov 202009
 

Presage of Snow (c)2009 by April Siegfried

Color swatch brown Color swatch green Color swatch gray [¹]

{click image to view large}

Photographing outdoors in November is helping me appreciate the subtle hues and textures of the season, though that’s challenging to bring out in an image. (Suggestions welcomed!)

Recently, in a nature sanctuary, I chatted briefly with a man who mentioned several other locations we both like to visit. After parting, I kicked myself for not asking if there were any others he could recommend. A few days later, I was fortunate to cross paths with him again and discovered that he is both a painter and maintains a web site listing his favorite walking trails in Chicago. Thank you, Thomas, for sharing some of your discoveries! This image was photographed in Ronan Park.

Flo, the story will ring a bell with you. 🙂

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¹Colors of the day:

  • Brown R:132 G:121 B:115
  • Green R:140 G:136 B:119
  • Gray R:161 G:158 B:157

First Frost

 Nature  4 Responses »
Nov 122009
 

First Frost (c)2009 by April Siegfried

Color swatch blue Color swatch green Color swatch white [¹]

This morning I visited a nearby bird and butterfly sanctuary—my new favorite place to photograph—and it was a treat to discover frost on the ground. (Click on the image to view a larger size.)

Lesson of the day: remember to switch Image Stabilization back on when removing the camera from the tripod to shoot handheld. 😛

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¹Colors of the day:

  • Blue R:118 G:138 B:143
  • Green R:127 G:136 B:114
  • White R:185 G:196 B:209

Low-Hanging Fruit

 Nature  3 Responses »
Nov 052009
 

Low Lying Fruit (c)2009 by April Siegfried

Color swatch yellow Color swatch red [¹]

Scouting a new location while our cat was at “the spa” (more on that tomorrow), there wasn’t much time to photograph. Hence the title of this image.

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¹Colors of the day:

  • Yellow R:178 G:134 B:46
  • Red R:190 G:39 B:52

“Just Show Up”

 Nature  10 Responses »
Nov 012009
 

A photograph of a single autumn leaf on a twig above a blurred background of fallen leaves.

Color swatch yellow Color swatch green Color swatch brown [¹]

“Just show up!”, said Craig Tanner during a photography workshop last year. Sounds simple enough. Yet those three words have stayed with me ever since, because it’s not always easy and has many levels of meaning.

In another workshop two years ago, Freeman Patterson said he still makes it a point to photograph every single day—as a concert pianist will practice scales.

“Just show up” is my plan for the month of November: to photograph, process and post an image here, every day.

I hope you’ll join me and share your experience with daily photo projects in the comment section: tips, revelations, and links to your project sites are all welcome!

For inspiration, three links to other “daily” projects I’ve been following:

  • Andreas Manessinger—3 years and going strong
  • Ed-K—has posted an image to his site every day for five years!
  • SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month)—”A group event where a bunch of photographers all make solo photo books start to finish, in 31 days, at more or less the same time.”

Plus André Gallant, who is my inspiration for the “November” challenge with a series of some of the most beautiful photographs I have ever seen.

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¹ Colors of the day extracted using ColorSuckr. Though the name is funky, it did a nice job on this image from within Firefox as an add-on.

  • Yellow R:210 G:182 B:96
  • Green R:124 G:128 B:94
  • Brown R:104 G:80 B:49
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