Essay #79: Red & Ripe

The farmer's market is open for the season! And it seems the outlook is very rosy indeed.

Essay #78: In loving memory

"In our grief, we know that death must be liar, when no goodbye is ever good enough."

-Jason Gray

 Rachel Hecker Kirchner, 8/3/1983-1/24/2011

My dear friend Rachel went to be with the Lord yesterday after a nine-month battle with cancer. Rachel was an amazing woman filled with life, love, laughter, and joy. We lived together while I was in grad school and she was finishing her bachelor's degree, and she was the sunshine of our house, always warm and welcoming. I will always cherish her friendship.

I had the immense honor to photograph Rachel's wedding to her husband Matt. My favorite shots from their wedding are actually not the pretty portraits that I gave to the couple on the CD, but all the tiny, sparkling moments that are just so very Rachel.

Rachel was also an amazing woman of faith, with great confidence in the God she loved. To read more about her prayer-filled journey with cancer, please visit her blog, For the Warriors.

"As I wander the streets of gold,

Talk to all the friends I've known

We'll go adore the Master King

Then, only then, I'll be breathing in."

-Downhere

Essay #77: A book by its cover

Another thing I love about used bookstores: Rows and rows of beautifully bound old books.

 

Spine artwork is making a resurgence, but publishers insist on covering it with dust jackets. But I think there's a real beauty in an embossed volume, and it only grows with age and wear. 

 

A well-loved book is a story in itself. I look at this worn set of "Popular Travel" and imagine a child spending the long, snowy prairie winters sprawled in front of the fire, poring over tales of far-off places and dreaming of becoming a world traveler.

Essay #76: New Start to Start

Happy New Year!

"Blank page, clean slate, new beginning, paths to create.

Let's get a move on, we've got a new start to start." 

                          -Hark the Herons 

A new year. A fresh start. Time for resolutions, goals, evaluations. Perfect for an introspective overthinker like me.  2010 was a year I wouldn't care to repeat, but I'm glad I lived it.

I'm not much for resolutions - they're usually broken nearly before they're made - but I am a goal setter. My goals for 2011 are pretty simple: Take more photos, get in shape, actually use my vacation time and not feel guilty about it, travel just because I can.

What kinds of thoughts does the new year inspire in you?

Essay #75: So this is Christmas

"Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, pace, goodwill to men on whom his favor rests."

Peace and goodwill? Have those angels ever tried to find a parking spot at the mall in December?

But as I sit here surrounded by family, snow falling outside, Christmas brunch in the oven, all of the stress and craziness leading up to this point are overshadowed by the simple truth of the angels' statement. Peace on Earth. Emmanuel, God is with us. Arise, shine for your light has come!


1/125 f/5.6, flash bounced of walls behind the camera

Essay #74: Christmas concert

I haven't updated this blog in a while. Sorry about that. I promise I'll have a holiday-themed post or two, but for now, I'll give you this merry little photo from the downhere Christmas tour.

Essay #73: Concert drama

I think that one of the reasons I love concert photos is that they're so dramatic. With all the lights and fog and showmanship, there are easy ways to add drama to the shot.

If the lights are bright, lens flare can be nearly inescapable, so you might as well work with it

The extremes of light and shadow can be a bane for metering, but high contrast makes for high drama

And then there's my personal favorite: the camera tilt.

The third photo is downhere (yes, again); the rest are of the band Rush of Fools. Taken at a concert last weekend.

Essay #72: Fall colors

The trees here haven't changed much yet, but we've no shortage of fall colors!

Essay #71: Spice of Life

 

Peppers were ubiquitous at the farmer's market this week. All shapes, colors, and degrees of heat. 

There was a very interesting article in the New York Times this week about hot peppers and why people love to consume these barely edible little bundles of fire. Pleasure in pain seems kind of masochistic to me. I've never understood the appeal of food that makes you cry, but I've never ventured much beyond medium salsa. What I found interesting about the article was the science of how a vegetable can mimic the sensation of setting one's tongue ablaze. Capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers "hot," triggers the heat receptors in the mouth, making the brain think you're chewing glowing coals regardless of the actual temperature of the food. Here's another fact that a spice-wimp like me learned early on: Reach for milk, not water. Water won't dissolve capsaicin or lessen the burn (although the ice may feel good while it's in your mouth), but milk proteins will tame the flame.  

I haven't done this in a while, but here's the specs: 1/60 f/4.4 28mm ISO200

Essay #70: How much is too much?

One thing I'd forgotten about Photoshop is how easily time is frittered away tweaking tiny details that only I will probably ever notice. Yet I'm never entirely satisfied.

For example, I spent about an hour piecing together this photo from three different frames:

And I could have spent more by pulling the obscured bridesmaid from another shot. But at some point you just have to say enough is enough.

This is my love/hate relationship with Photoshop. I like playing with some of the special effects, and I like that I can make adjustments when the original shot wasn't as optimal as I'd like. But it's easy to get sucked into trying to make every shot "better" when my year-long hiatus from software showed me that I was more satisfied with the end product when shooting without the safety net of post-processing. When does it cross the line from optimization to obsession? Ten minutes? An hour? When does it turn from tool to crutch? When I'm too lazy to take a picture right the first time - or worse, forget how?

Oh, Photoshop. Blessing and bane wrapped up in a slick Adobe package.

Essay #69:

Today was the Downtown Festival of the Arts, a street fair for local artisans to sell their crafts.

I was hoping to find a painting to liven the barren walls of my living room, but didn't find any that both appealed to me and matched my furniture. Ah well, the quest continues!

I love seeing the sheer variety of creative talent represented in any art fair. To see others' passion, skill and unique vision expressed in all sorts of media is both humbling and inspiring. Art can be a communication between the artist and the viewer, although a piece rarely says the same thing to both parties. That's part of why I enjoy comments on my own photos, as well. It's always a bit surprising to look at my own work through someone else's eyes.

Essay #68: Make way for ducklings!

The end of July is a bit late for hatchlings, but it seems nobody told the ducks. 

These were actually taken last summer. I was going through some files looking for a concert I shot, and found these. Another case of the forgotten files. It makes me wonder how many of my current photos I dismiss now but will discover later with new appreciation? Sometimes fresh perspective isn't only found through the viewfinder.

Essay #67: Summer sunflowers

Sunflowers are such happy flowers. Not that the flowers themselves feel emotion, of course, but that they symbolize happiness and bright, sunny summer days.

I'm not much of a "flowery" or "frilly" girl, but I do appreciate fresh flowers. I'm considering decorating my dining room with sunflower photos to give the space a kiss of summer sun even in the midst of winter. I'm expecting better results with photos than my attempts at keeping houseplants that unfailingly meet tragic ends after a short time in my care. I could make a centerpiece from artificial flowers, but silk just can't replicate the life, character, and perfect imperfection of real flowers.

Essay #66: Fun with Photoshop

After over a year of being without editing software, I now have a new computer and a fresh install of CS4! Woohoo! Being without software did teach me a lot of valuable lessons and made me realize how easy it is to be lazy and take bad pictures with the intent to "fix" them in post-processing. That said, Photoshop does have some fun toys.

For example, I can take this portrait

And turn it into a lovely black and white (which I like better)

Or do some "special effects" 

Although, with this kind of effect, less is more, in my opinion. It works better with small splashes of color than large swaths. 

 Like so. 

Do you have a favorite Photoshop effect?

Essay #65: Fireworks on a windy night

I don't dabble much in the abstract. But fireworks + high winds =

Essay #64: Fun with backlight

Who says portrait lighting has to be traditional?

Yes, those are the bridesmaids waiting patiently in the chairs while I got the bride in position. I wanted to achieve a kind of light silhouette on the bride, so I had her stand on the edge of the stage and I turned around to face the lights. Result?

There's a little bit of glare on the floor in the background, but overall I think it's a cool picture.

Essay #63: Lost in the shuffle

I took some pictures a couple of weeks ago on a trip back up to Wisconsin and dumped them on my hard drive sight unseen. I never do this. I often do stumble across photos I'd forgotten about (in fact, I recently found photos from not one, but two downhere concerts that I never uploaded anywhere), but I've at least looked at them before. Tonight, while putting files into folders, I realized that I need to pay better attention to what I've got and not just dump them and move on. Because otherwise I'm prone to miss things like this, and the learning opportunities that they present.

Essay #62: Peaches

I went to the farmer's market on Saturday in search of fresh spinach to make a salad for dinner. To my great disappointment, there was not a single leaf to be found. However, one vendor had something I'd never seen in a Wisconsin market:

Peaches! Fresh, warm, and juicy. The perfect summertime treat.

Essay #61: Time to play!

Summer just seems more relaxed than winter. It's time for everyone to get out and play!

Take a walk in the grass.

Get started on your summer reading list.

Laugh

And enjoy life with a good friend!

Essay #60: Summer's sweet

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions (and do keep adding them!). A couple of you mentioned trying a summer theme. Summer is in full swing here, and you know what that means: the farmer's market!

Mmm, strawberries...

I decided to explore the area farmer's market this weekend, and I was a bit surprised to find it significantly more stocked with goods than produce - especially since this is, after all, a predominantly agricultural region - and not a single cheese curd to be found. But I did find these gorgeous strawberries, one of my favorite summertime delights. I wonder if there are any pick-your-own strawberry patches around here?