Tina of Travels and Trifles is an award-winning photographer. Her challenge this week is a tough one: “choose up to a MAXIMUM OF TEN images which are your all-time favorites. No matter the subject or how long ago they were taken, you need to TELL US WHY you chose them. If you select images for their sentimental value they should still be strong from a technical perspective.“
This one always gets great reviews, and I’ve posted it a few times. It’s got the “WOW!” factor of an exceptional landscape that shows depth, scale, color, and unique geographical features. Steve is the human scale model in the lower third, perfectly placed. I love how it turned out! I also love that it was an absolute WOW moment in real life. We’d driven a long way from Wisconsin to the Badlands of South Dakota, and this was our first view of the Sage Creek Wilderness, where we’d be camping. We pulled over at this vista to stretch our legs and take a look. And yes, WOW!
This one is a shot that I was really excited about. I had just bought myself my first digital camera for my 50th birthday and was learning how to use it. We were out on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail when these sandhill cranes suddenly took flight just yards away from us. I quickly shot off my new Canon without even looking at the settings, and this is what I got. I was thrilled! The clarity, color, wing position, composition with birds and clouds…everything came together in an instant without any forethought. What luck!
I think I did a pretty good job depicting this iconic Wisconsin landmark. I got the rule of thirds in the composition, great Fall color, and an interesting sky. After I posted it, someone contacted me asking to use the image on a Memorial Service leaflet. I consented proudly.
I was both thrilled and terrified when my son asked me to do his wedding photo shoot. Outdoors, to boot. I’d never studied portrait photography, never even played around with it much. The weather was perfect, fill-in flash helped eliminate shadows, somehow I got the lighting to work with their very contrasting skin tones, but the fact that they’re both ridiculously photogenic was my absolute best strategy. It all worked out beautifully! I love the old-fashioned lace and the Mona Lisa smile in this one.
This one may be my technical best. I took a long time playing with exposure settings to get the water to do that impressive silky thing. Then a Lens-Artist Challenge taught me how to soften the image in post processing (thank you, Bren Brashley!) to create a dreamy look that I really love. This is Alsea Falls in Oregon, my new home state, so it also represents a journey.
These four just prove that there are plenty of fascinating things in the natural world that make great images when you capture them in their ordinary splendor. Color, depth of field, cropping, and getting close make them stand out.
scillagrace 