Photo Assignment 03/23/08

[SNC1923]

We're beginning to thaw! While winter no doubt still holds some in its icy grip, signs of spring abound. Now we can finally get out a ride, and perhaps take a few pictures for a new photo challenge. To that end, please allow me to remind you of these simple rules:

• Photos must be shot between Fri. 03/14/08 and Sun. 03/23/08--10 days.
• You must provide the EXIF information if asked (we'll help you, if you'd like to know how to get it).
• No photoshop alteration (we're looking to improve your skills with your camera, not software).
• Your photograph must adhere to the theme, which will be described below.
• Post only one photo per post, so that commentary can be easily provided for that photo. You may post more than one photo, but try to keep it to a handful.
• Title your photo so it can be referred to later.
• Post two or three of your best photos in this thread. Please post series, experiments, and photos for comment and criticism in the PHOTO COMMENTARY thread.
• And, the most important rule: have fun! We're looking to spread the joy that many of us derive from taking pictures, particularly ones that tell a story of some kind.

This week's theme: "Unexpected Beauty"

This week's theme was suggested by Bob Rippy, MLS2GO--and much appreciated. The idea is to photographic beauty where you might least expect to find it.

Shakespeare wrote that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Joyce went further to define proper art as that which "does not pull the observer toward it or push the observer away from it, but rather holds them still in aesthetic arrest of the moment."

Where can you find unexpected beauty?

Remember Ansel Adam's admonition, "You don't take a photograph, you make it."

As you hunt for your perfect subject, bear in mind some of the principles we've been working on:

• Rule of thirds
• Think foregrounds
• Shooting during the "golden hours"
• Look for a focal point
• Consider a high or lower vantage point
• Seek diagonal lines
• Frame your subject

Thanks again to Bob for suggesting this week's theme. If you have a theme to suggest, please feel free to PM me or Rocketman.

NOTE: Please use the COMMENTARY THREAD to post multiple efforts and to discuss techniques, ask questions, make comments, etc. Please reserve this thread to post one or two of your final efforts, the photos you're really proud of and want feedback on. Thanks!

Now get out there and find beauty!

[txtinman]

I thought the colors of this abandoned building were beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

I used UFRaw to load the RAW image into GIMP and then used GIMP to convert the image to a JPEG. I shot the photo using a high iso hoping to get a bit of grainy look to it.

[bmwdean]

Unexpected beauty in the eye of this beholder

Some might call it headlight wiring in an R75/5.

I call it "fit to be tied," or "bureaucracy," or "the path of the law" ... an image that suggests something beyond wiring in a headlight bucket.

[bmwdean]

The Sonoran desert is awash in wildflowers this spring, due to significant winter rainfaill. There are more wildflowers about than I have ever seen in my dozen years coming to Tucson. I expected to see many varieties of colorful flowers, but one was unexpected

Fifty miles north-northwest of Tucson is Picacho Peak State Park. It is famous for being blanketed with Mexican Gold Poppies in the spring, if there was sufficient rainfall the previous winter. Of course, this year the poppies are abundant at Picacho Peak.

What was unexpected to me, however, was finding several beautiful Mexican Gold Poppies right in my back yard. They are the yellow flowers below. In the upper right hand corner you can see a purple Phacelia. These are very abundant, as are dozens of other species in our "yard," including hedgehog cactus blossoms, desert zinnia, Fremont pincushion, brittlebush, penstemon, mojave desert star, primrose, mariposa lily, odora, spiny yellow daisy, hibiscus, fairy duster, desert hyacinth, prickly pear blossoms, ocotillo blossoms (see my post below), bahia, trixis, and many more.

[Voni]

Delicate wildflowers in the desert

[sniderl]

Garage beauty

[darcym]

Barrel Cactus Bloom


Ocotillo:


Bountiful

[bmwdean]

I took a photo of an Ocotillo branch. When I got back home and put it up on the computer I saw the bee. Now, that was unexpected!

[BEEMERCHEF]

I (we) stopped today seeing this rain tunnel (I know there must be a name for it!) to get on the other side... decided to take some shots while walking through it... there was seriously no beauty to it... till I saw this on the screen...

The bottom small picture is the gutter (???) to give you an idea of what it is...






Be well...

Ara & Spirit

[130253]

PAN.jpg

[130253]

creek112.jpg

[boney]

BeemerChef and I seem to have been in similar places! This pipe is considerably smaller, most obvious by the extremely shallow depth of field. This didn't turn out like I had wished, but it's not bad.

Pipe

[boney]

This is the most unexpected beauty I could come up with. I'm learning a new camera and the shot was an apparent failure, until I looked at the background.

[grossjohann]

[grossjohann]