Just Play

By Cathy

Summertime and playing go hand in hand. Summertime brings baseball, pool time, picnics, and vacations; lots of fun and lots of playing time. I can remember when I was a child looking forward to summer, because we could play all day. And play we did! I remember hours of sitting on a hot sidewalk playing Jacks. I even remember one summer my sister and I played a game of Monopoly all summer. That’s right, the game went on all summer. We just kept borrowing money from the bank!! I’m sure you have fond memories of playing as a child and even as an adult.

My goal this summer is to have fun and play with my camera. The idea of playing and having fun with my camera came as I was reading a photography book written by Kim Manley Ort, who is a contemplative photographer and author. There is a chapter in her book, Adventures In Seeing, where Kim reminds us to “never lose that sense of play, curiosity, exploration, and discovery.” On Kim's blog she has a very good article on The Value of Play in Photography.

I was flipping through a book about my camera while thinking of a way to play and discovered a feature that allows me to create photos with special effects provided by the camera processor; not in post-processing. The one I chose to play with first was Watercolor which creates a look with blurring and runny colors. I’ve been spending time outside creating watercolor pictures of everything I can think of. Did I get any breathtaking photos? No, but that wasn’t the purpose. The purpose was to have a little fun and I definitely did that. I’m even going to print some of them to remind me to play more often.

How long has it been since you just had fun and played with your camera? I’m not talking about taking pictures with it. I’m talking about having fun and playing! How long since you took a picture that made you laugh out loud because you were having so much fun? If you’re like me it’s probably been a while. One of the photos I took did make me laugh! I took a picture of a small piece of lichen floating in water. When I pulled it up on my computer it looked like the face of some a happy monster. Think Sesame Street Monsters!

To get your creative juices flowing, I’ve made a short list of photography projects that would be fun.

• go on a scavenger hunt with a list of objects to find
• photograph only one color
• shoot only reflections
• create abstract photos
• shoot without looking into the viewfinder or the LCD screen
• photograph children’s toys

Summertime is a great time to play a little with our cameras. Try it! You might just find yourself smiling or laughing at what you create or discover.

Embrace The Wind

By Cathy

The day is unusually warm as I sit in my swing. The afternoon sun peeking over the tops of the trees is a little too hot for me. I’ve taken off my shoes and my bare toes skim the still cool ground as I push the swing back and forth. My swing hangs from the branch of a large oak tree, but the bare limbs provide no shade. The only thing that keeps me outside is the breeze. It brings much needed coolness as it blows in my face. I love the wind. I love the sound as it rushes through the pine trees.  I laugh at the new green leaves on my Bradford Pear as they perform a wind dance.  I enjoy watching the birds high above as they catch a wind current and glide through the air. I listen to the music created as the wind swirls through my wind chimes; the smaller chimes tinkle, while the large ones play a deeper song. That same breeze that cools me and relaxes me has also been a challenge to my photography this spring. The wind just keeps blowing and blowing and blowing!  Because of the wind, I haven’t taken many pictures of the pretty spring colors.

I realized this week that if I waited for a day with no wind, I wouldn’t take any pictures at all. Much of the early spring blooms are already gone. They didn’t last long this year due to days of rain, high winds, and frosty nights. I decided if I wanted some spring color I’d just have to embrace the wind, so my pictures are different this year. I’m calling my collection of spring pictures Spring Abstracts and Impressions. I decided to just have fun with it, forget trying to get the perfect tack sharp image, and concentrate on shapes and colors. I went out with the idea of taking blurry pictures. Imagine that! I tried intentional camera motion where I used a slow shutter speed and gently moved the camera in a vertical motion. That picture is the one at the top of the post. Still using the slow shutter speed, I gently zoomed the lens out which created a burst effect.

Using my tripod, I set my camera on a slow shutter speed and just let the wind control the blur. This was harder than I thought. You have to find the best speed to create a pleasant blur, not a she-took-a-blurry-picture blur.

An unexpected surprise happened when I took a picture through the bottom of a clear, small drinking class that I’d placed over a flower. I'll be trying this more often, as I really like it!

Of course, spring is the perfect time for finding beautiful water reflections where blur definitely adds to the picture.

Sometimes a person has to just go with the flow and find beauty in a unique way!

I’m wishing all of you a beautiful, happy spring whether it’s tack-sharp or blurry!

“March brings breezes loud and shrill,

Stirs the dancing daffodil.”

~ Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)

“The Months,” Pretty Lessons In Verse,

For Good Children; With Some Lessons In Latin,

In Easy Rhyme, 1834

Stories Through a Glass Window

by Carol

Since our Focus On You theme this month is Glass, I thought I would say a few words about a photography subject I have long enjoyed playing with - stained glass windows. If you have ever tried photographing stained glass - you quickly found out it's not for sissies! The challenges encountered are many!  The overly bright light streaming through the windows, while standing in a darkened church wreaks havoc with exposure. The fact that you are taking the shot from below, and at a distance makes alignment a factor, and distortion very  likely.  Often historical buildings and churches forbid the use of tripods, creating a real issue when you are trying to overcome the darkness. The sheer size of many of the windows is overwhelming. How do you choose what to include to give the viewer the appreciation for the size of the overall window, yet the intricacy of the detail? All of this must often be accomplished while respecting the people who are in these places for prayer and contemplation. Please don't ever lose awareness that there may be people in the pews praying for grace during a life crisis - and certainly getting your shot should not EVER encroach on the dignity and privacy of those moments.

And yet these windows can be incredible subjects. They are full of color and history. They are intricate examples of the most delicate of arts, representing hours and sometimes years of artistic creation. They are lessons in symbolic story-telling. They are studies in symmetry and pattern. So lets explore some ground rules for capturing their essence.

First lets deal with finding the best place to stand. Professional window photographers use scaffolding or ladders to get level with the window and reduce the distortion, but you can achieve decent results by getting as far back from the window as you can, and using a telephoto zoom lens. It's best to look for a spot that lines you up with the center of the window. Even so, you may have to play in post-processing with straightening your vertical lines. You can use a wide-angle lens, but chances are that you won't get the full window in anyway without great distortion.

Of course, it is preferable to use a tripod. With the surrounding darkness, long exposures most certainly would be beneficial, and hand-held shots are tough! If tripods are banned, see if you can support your camera on a post or pew. If the camera is in a steady enough spot, use a remote shutter release, so that the added vibration of you pushing the shutter button doesn't add to the difficulty. At the very least, lean back against a wall, steady those elbows against your body , and release your breath.

As for exposure. if you have the choice, it simplifies things to shoot on on overcast day, or in the early morning or evening to reduce the brightness of the sun. When you are aiming to highlight the glass itself, and you don't mind if it is floating in a black background, you can under-expose by a few stops. But if you want to include the frame or building structure as well as the window, your task is harder.  I find it is best to use a small aperture with f-stops of  f16 or f-22, at least. Use center-weighted or spot  metering and expose for the mid-tone colors - usually the yellow, gold or red. This assures that everything from the bottom to the top of a large window will be in focus. If however, you are focusing on a small area within the design, using matrix metering works and shots can be successful with even a 50 mm prime lens to work with. Just remain aware of what the camera is using to meter and work around it's demands. Camera exposure meters are easily fooled if we aren't paying attention. Of course you can always bracket, particularly if you are on a tripod. Take one exposed for the surrounding frame and one exposed for the bright window, and combine them later. Don't be afraid of doing something different - black and white photos of stained glass compositions can be stunning! And playing with the symmetry with twisty filters can yield some great abstracts!

Finally - be alert to what your artistic goal is in this particular exposure. Are you trying to highlight the story within the window. Is color exploration your goal? Are you after the patterns? Are you making abstracts? Are you using the window like a mandala to communicate peace and contemplation? I love exploring all of these possibilities, and my travel companions usually have to drag me away from the world's gorgeous cathedrals so I don't miss the rest of the country!

Give it a shot in a local church or in your future travels, and post your results in our gallery hash-tagged glass. You may find yourself in our Friday Focus On You gallery!