BIDING ONE'S TIME

"Biding One's Time" (10-27-15 041v3) is a new pic, just worked on this morning. Not much to say, as it's clearly another pic of one of my favorite things to photograph: the stairs/railings around our retirement community grounds. Although I will add I was rather surprised that the dark and light sides of this pic came out in decent balance. It was really a "throw away" shot I'd thoroughly expected not to work at all. I also like the full color version. But black and white better brings out that slightly lonely or waiting aspect I see in this view, which is what drew me to take the shot. And on another topic all together: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

THE LEAST ROSE

"The Least Rose" (10-27-15 032v2) is from that same batch of new pix I've been posting from here for a few days. Very little done to it, mostly just a major and careful cropping. I also had to paint out some very tiny white spots (dust? paint flakes?) on the leaves. Then I used that current favorite filter of mine for softening and smoothing out a pic, diffuse. Followed by a wee bit of sharpening. Ooops! Just remembered I also darkened the midtones somewhat, which helped to drop out the far background and bring out the rose's colors. Guess I did do more to this pic than I'd realized. Smile. BTW, I always try to get shots of this kind of sweet, oddly shaped, tiny bud when I come across one. This is the first that's been decent in years.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

FALL SHADOWS

"Fall Shadows" (10-27-15 012v5) is one of those pix that definitely looks better in a larger version. So click on the pic if your're curious. As usual when I suggest this it's because the details are an important part of the overall effect. Although still a "realistic" pic, I did a good amount of fussing. The cropping process was a nightmare. Then getting the contrasts right so that no particular area took over the pic. I also sharpened and used diffuse; I've grown fond of that combination's effect. Oh, and painted out some distracting bits in the black background. Sigh. Now I wonder if the result was worth all that effort. I often have that feeling about my pix. Maybe it's more that a pic's stimulating novelty has worn off after so much looking at it, than that it doesn't "work." I usually have this same let down about my poems, too.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

THE WAY HOME

"The Way Home" (10-27-15 014v2) is another brand new pic to which I did very little. Basically just a slight cropping, mild contrast adjustment, and then conversion to black and white. If it looks familiar it's because I take lots of pix of these stairs/shadows; they're a favorite photo subject of mine. I had to stop myself right now from morphing it into other versions, from playing around with those contrasts and angles. There's time for that later. I'm also curious about a sepia toned one ... and when I inverted the original full color one, well, lots of ideas started popping there for additional fudging. Smile. (BTW, the full color version doesn't quite work. That area in the upper right stands out too much as it's a slightly different color than anywhere else in the pic. And no matter how I tried to adjust that, I couldn't get it right without it messing with the other colors in the pic as well. I even tried a somewhat smaller crop to reduce that area's portion of the total photo. That just ruined the overall impact of the pic.)

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

WALL PAINTING

"Wall Painting" (10-27-15 004v2) was just taken yesterday and cleaned up a wee bit today. This is a rare creature among my pix; so little was done to it. A small amount of cropping to balance it, and a wee bit of sharpening and selective color saturation. I came very late this year to these trees behind a building on our grounds. So I was delighted that there were still some fall leaves left to get pix of. I'll probably be posting other shots in the future that make clear just how late I was to this year's show. It was also not the best time of day, as the afternoon sunlight was pretty much right behind these trees. But I worked to frame shots that had more shadow/darkness in them, and including as little of the bright light areas as possible. (I've found that "tricks" the auto focus sometimes into a less bleached out pic.) Of course, were I more of a camera techie there are probably other ways to compensate a bit for overly bright sections of light. Even in post-processing. But, hey, "I yam what I yam," as Popeye said. And that is, not all that interested in manuals and tech stuff. Even to make my life easier it seems. Smile.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,

[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

MOTHER & CHILD

"Mother & Child" (10-24-15 004v2) is one of three different shots of this new table display. (If you'd like to see one of those others, check out today's post to my dreams & poetry blog.) Lighting was problematic with this indoor shot. (There was strong mid-day outdoor light coming in on the left, and some wan artificial ceiling light, as well.) I've just not taken enough indoor pix with my new camera to develop even mediocre skills at choosing the best setting for indoors, much less with two light sources. So I had to do a bit of fussing with color saturation and contrast, also focus. But I'm at least reasonably content with the results.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****

THE HEART OF SHADOW

"The Heart of Shadow" (10-24-15 010v2) is from a new photo batch. It was a delightful surprise to find that our memorial rose garden has managed to produce a bunch of new blossoms. Despite the drought (and other issues). Nothing like past years. But that makes these new ones all the more precious. Especially as the days of non-drought resistant flora, such as roses, may be numbered here in water-poor CA. And reasonably, if sadly, so. BTW, this pic was fussed with, but only to try to bring out its beauty. Not to follow some odd, artistic urge as is my usual wont. Though I don't promise to leave this new batch of rose pix unexperimented with once I've tried to honor them realistically. Smile.

NOTE: In most browsers you can click on a photo to view a larger version. There are many more photos posted here than show at any given time in this left-hand column. See the Archives listing (below “Previous Posts”) in the right hand column. And here’s the link if you wish to read an Introduction, Background, & Technical Aspects post about this blog.

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‘til next take, may you enjoy life in the ever changing light,





[aka: Patricia Kelly] **** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or photos, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”) ****