Constraints

I pulled into the parking lot just as the golden light crept over the edge of the horizon.

I had discovered this sparkling jewel of a park this past spring while participating in an eight-week group walking program. I had explored the lower half of this park in years past, in the autumn and winter months. Always avoiding the warm summer months, certain that a large snake was lurking somewhere in the mown grassy paths waiting to slither across my foot and up my pant leg. The upper part of this park, where I was now, had installed wide, paved paths in the last couple of years. So much easier to spot a snake without the hinderance of grass.

Climbing out of the car, I reached into the back seat to unzip my camera bag. It had been so long since I had been out shooting landscapes with my big camera. I knew my camera bag contained my camera, which might seem obvious, but trust me I have unzipped that bag before to discover than I had left my camera sitting on my desk at home. I also knew there was a picture card in the camera, that has been forgotten before too, and I had an extra battery, just in case. 

What I hadn't given any consideration to was what lenses were in my bag. As I unzipped my bag, I remembered the last time I had used my camera was a few weeks before when I had done some head shots for a friend of mine at her house. There were not going to be any wide-angle, landscape loving lenses in that bag.

Just the day before I had watched a youtube video by David duChemin on Seeing More Creatively in your photography by embracing constraints. Pick one lens and shoot with it for the whole day. So I searched through my bag and settled on the 55-250mm telephoto lens. I have no idea why that lens was even in the bag, it definitely wasn't for the head shots, and it is probably one of my least used lenses.

My photography has run into so many constraints this summer; the heat and humidity, too much sun, not enough time, there is never enough time. I decided to finally embrace a constraint and see what this challenge could bring me. I put the 55-250mm lens on my camera and set off down the wide, paved, snake-free path.

What constraints have you been dealing with lately?

Ladder Love and a Lesson

I have been delaying doing this week's lesson for our Flickr group - The Visual Workbench - for a couple of reasons.

1. I was impatiently waiting for the summer people to have their last hurrah on Labor Day. Labor Day is over and they have gone home. Yay!
2. The instructions for the lesson were a little long, and I was having a hard time remembering them every time I was out shooting. I solved that problem by printing out the instructions and carrying them with me in my coat pocket.

Here is the first part of the instructions, the part I was planning on tackling first:

• Concentrate on one element. The simpler the scene, the better. Now make six to eight different photographs, changing only the position of the camera relative to your subject. Get higher. Get lower. Move left. Move right. Walk around it. The element might not move in a hundred years, but you have astonishing control over its shape relative to the frame.
• Study those six to eight frames. How does the energy and balance change? How does the shape of that primary element change as your position changes?

 Here is my primary element and my simple scene...

I am in love with these orange ladders that are on the edge of the pier at our State Park.

This is shooting from the left to the right of my element, the sun, if it was out, would be behind me.

Shooting from above. It makes me a little nervous to be so close to the edge.

Changing energy and direction, shooting from right to left of my element. I would never shoot this direction normally, because the sun, if it was shining, would be shining directly into my face. It also feels more chaotic shooting this direction, even without people, compared to the peaceful scene shot from the opposite direction.

If I hadn't done this exercise, and studied this one element, I might not have noticed the thin piece of rope tied to the ladder. This additional element became my favorite part of the photographs.

It is still the surprise discoveries and the little details that delight me the most.

The Start of a New Year

Just as January 1st is the start of a new year for health goals; healthy eating, exercise, losing weight, etc. September 1st is the start of my Creative New Year.

September just seems like a good time to start anew. My daughter is back at school. A somewhat normal routine returns to my life, and I have extra time to work on new projects.

Just like setting goals for my physical health, I am also setting goals for my creative health. Here are some of the things that are in the works:

• 365 Photography Project. I am joining my friend Susan, who has put together a small intimate group of us to participate in the project together. I like being part of a group of 10 vs. a group of 5,000. This will be my first 365 project. I am confident that with the support of this group, that I will be able to complete it.
• Printing. It's not that I think that my stuff isn't good enough, it's that the printing process scares me. It is time though to move some of my favorite photographs from my external hard drive unto my walls. The hardest part might be picking my favorites.
• Creative Inspiration Days. My goal is to make every Friday my day. A day to go out and photograph, explore, observe, write and interact with the world around me.
• New Blog Series. I was inspired while we were traveling some backroads on our recent vacation to get out at home and explore the backroads near me. There are so many interesting things to see once you get off the expressways. I want to interact with the locals of the town and explore their local establishments.  I lean towards calling this series "Small Towns and Backroads of Michigan" and shooting it exclusively in Black and White. 

Those are the big goals. I am sure some new ones will appear as I get going. I feel these are good ones to start with and they will hopefully continue to push me to grow and learn new creative things.