I’m in Santa Rosa visiting my friend Honora. Tonight we’re going to see chefs Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert at the Wells Fargo Center. Honora just poured us glasses of Sangiovese and served a platter of cheeses, Le Roule, a French cow’s milk cheese with herbs, Manchego, a Spanish sheep’s milk cheese, and Le Coeur d’Alvingnac, a goat’s milk cheese. I can’t report how they tasted (but the wine is pretty good) because I wanted a pristine photo.
“Selfies”—United Kingdom slang for self portraits— are next to impossible for me. In May of last year, we had an assignment to try self portraits which I dutifully tried and mostly failed except for one freakish photo out of many in which my eyes were in perfect focus:“The Eyes Have It”. Today’s daily challenge assignment is a “self portrait” or as close to a self portrait as we’re comfortable posting. My self portraits have not improved since last year and this time none of the photos I took had much in focus. It is next to impossible to focus on and pose yourself when you’re not there to focus on or pose, so substitutes are necessary and mine (a tote bag with flowers on it) today was not quite up to the challenge. I guess I need to acquire a mannequin head for such things or at least a balloon with a happy face drawn on it, but for today, this portrait will have to do.
For a brief time, the late afternoon light was perfect except the window mullions created shadows that in this photo make it appear that I have a goiter. And clouds kept drifting by so the brightness of the light changed every few seconds. I had to adjust the brightness in this one using levels and I cropped it slightly. Other than those two modifications, here I am, warts and all!
. . .My pretty little poppy. I saw this Icelandic poppy outside my dentist’s office in the afternoon sun and thought it was quite lovely and that song has been running through my head ever since.
Focal Length 170mm
ISO 100
f/11
1/200
I cropped it slightly but made no other changes to the photo.
For the past couple of days, I have had a mental block of some sort and cannot find an inspiration for photos. Today’s challenge is “starts with ‘m'” but once again, the inspiration wasn’t there. When I went to the grocery store late this afternoon I noticed a pile of mangos and bought one.
This week’s theme in my other Flickr group, Recording Images, is “negative space” so I thought I’d try it with my mango. I found it is not an easy task to create negative space. What I am discovering lately is that I am trying too hard to achieve a result and my photos are suffering. Today’s photo is a bit contrived, not to mention conventional, but I’m done for the day and ready to pour a glass of my old vine Zin.
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/18
1 second
Those are the opening lines of one of my favorite poems, “Trees,” by Joyce Kilmer, written about 1914. I took this shot because I liked the stark contrast between the dark night sky and the subtly lit branches. It is not well-focused but I like the composition. I changed it to black and white, then applied a preset cyanotype effect. I think it turned my out-of-focus tree into an interesting photograph. Besides, it is all I managed to capture today.
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/40
Today’s daily challenge is “six.” I found that photographing six things in an interesting way is quite difficult. At first I thought I might combine this week’s Recording Images assignment, “negative space,” with six things but I was unsuccessful. I photographed six blueberries strewn on the cutting board, six miniature bell peppers lined up and then, randomly placed, six seeds from one of Bobo’s peppers, six small cedar balls on velvet, a half dozen eggs in a bowl and on the cutting board. After an hour of fiddling and finding absolutely no inspiration in any of my photos, I returned the eggs to their carton and decided that might be the best because it was not contrived at all, just six brown eggs nestled in their cardboard carton. Why didn’t that occur to me an hour ago?
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/16
1.3 seconds
Levels
I had lunch in Auburn today with a friend who suggested that I might find the Sierra landscape views I sought at the American River Canyon Overlook Park. I did get a few there but despite the brilliant blue of the sky, it was hazy in the direction of the Sierras and the majestic views I thought I’d find were pretty blah. As I returned to my car, I noticed a concrete wall and some skateboarders. It drew my attention and I discovered a skateboard park there.
I have wanted to photograph skateboarders since I started my blog last year. I have always thought it would be the perfect venue to practice stopping motion. I watched for a while, then asked a few of the guys there if they minded if I took some photos. They were all very polite and friendly and didn’t object and were pleased that I didn’t ask them to pose. In addition to the daredevil moves, I thought the shadows really made these photos spectacular.
I don’t know skateboarding lingo. A quick Google search turned up a couple of possibilities for the move I photographed this afternoon, “air” and “ollie,” although neither one may be correct. I chose to believe that James, the skater I photographed, was doing an “ollie” because I like “Ollie Ollie Oxen Free” for the blog post title better than “Air Force One.” So, James, if you remembered my blog’s name, and you are able find it, please comment and let me know what move you were doing in this photo. I forgot to ask you. And, thanks again for letting me photograph you today.
The first and the third photos were taken a fraction of a second apart. The middle photo was from a previous jump but I loved the shadows in this one and thought it would make an acceptable transition shot between the two and it is my favorite shot from today.
All photos:
Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/10
1/500
Cropped
In search of a photo to meet the day’s challenge topic, “weather,” I drove across Dry Creek on Vernon Street in Roseville in search of something that might show we have winter weather here. No clouds today, no rain, highs in the mid 60’s, no wind, nothing to indicate winter weather. The creek had water and the trees were barren of leaves and there was lots of moss on the banks so I thought it might make a decent photo, not exactly weather related but it’s all I managed to capture today.
Focal Length 18mm
ISO 100
f/10
1/100
Cropped
Today’s challenge topic is foliage. It’s not a particularly good time of year for lush foliage photos so I focused my lens on some of the succulents I have in pots around my yard. I have no idea what this is but I like the colors.
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/125
Cropped, levels
The daily challenge topic today is “handle with care” so I chose to photograph a deteriorating piece of sheet music, the Black and White Rag, which was published in 1908 by George Botsford, a contemporary of Scott Joplin’s, and, which obviously, was NOT handled with care. It is 104 years old and I acquired it at an estate sale about 15 years ago in this deteriorated condition. I must admit I have done nothing to preserve it but it hasn’t gotten any worse because I scanned the music then so I could play it. I’m glad I did because it’s a lively and fun piece to play. No wonder it was Botsford’s most famous composition.
I photographed this on my dining room table with natural window light. Because it was overcast and cloudy, I set the white balance to cloudy which resulted in perfectly rendered colors of the yellowing pages.
Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/16
3 seconds
WB-Cloudy
SOOC