It has been a busy fall. After just shy of four weeks on the road and some 6,700-plus miles, we returned home on Tuesday night to find that MooseCat, our Maine Coon Cat, was actually still speaking to us. Usually, he greets us at the door, then after appropriate scratches, hellos, and treats, he gives us the cold shoulder, letting us know that he was not pleased with our absence. Of course, by the time we are in bed, so is he. It’s just one of those things that cats do. This time, he skipped the “hmph” bit and let us know he was happy to see us.
We had friends arrive the next evening who are moving down to our area, but their new house is still devoid of furniture, and they needed a bed and fun place to stay while they transplanted a car-full of perennials and shrubs they had crammed into their large SUV and brought down from New England.
These are friends who are very artistic. She is a quilter, knitter, master gardener, etc., while he loves photography. Whenever he comes to visit, we talk cars, politics, and photography. As another photographer who has had several exhibits of his work, he was eager to see what our students had produced in our Arches and Moab workshop, so I brought the laptop in from my office and ran our final slide show.
He was quite impressed with the students’ work, and he could see that each had found his own vision. As I indicated in last week’s blog, there weren’t any repeats of a scene. Sure, some were similar, but there were significant differences in composition, approach, and/or processing.
He was also interested in our latest photographs and our processing of them, including some HDR images. Most of the ones in this blog, he will be seeing for the first time; others he will recognize.
One photograph that caught our friend’s eye was what he called my “Olivia Parker” arch. Those who know Olivia Parker’s photographs will understand his label. One of the challenges of photographing oft-photographed subjects is making them different, making them one’s own. Here are two different versions of what I did at this one arch, including the “Olivia Parker” version.
It was interesting for me to note, that HDR can bring out colors that exist but that are lost to the naked eye at certain times of day, to wit my post-production of this image done mid-day. Is it as dramatic as a sunrise shot? No, but it still makes a good shot.
One of attractions about the Southwest is all the layers. In one of the locations we visited, I saw this different version of layers.
After the Arches & Moab workshop, while talking a walk up in the hills above my younger daughter’s house in Colorado, Arnie and I both saw a late-40s-ish, rusty car nestled among the rabbit bush and sagebrush. Its now-faded original green color contrasted wonderfully with the rusty tones of age. Miraculously, the chrome was in good condition, probably due to the dry climate. I can’t believe that neither Arnie nor I checked on the make and model, but we were so engrossed in the photographic possibilities that we never did look. We made a few photographs, knowing that we would have to return when the light was better. These are a couple of our shots that show two different approaches for the same subject (and we still never checked the make and model!)
Anytime we can spend time in Colorado, we find great images. My “Black Sky,” a photograph in our website gallery, is one that is familiar to some of you, is one. We are usually in Colorado for Turkey Day when many of the passes are closed. In September, we did not have these constraints, so we headed north to areas we usually cross-country ski. The Aspens and Cottonwoods were glorious in their luminous yellows, golds, and coppers. It was all a feast for the eye. We came upon a grove carpeted with back-lit ferns.
There were other areas where that magic of light produced different effects, from a river snaking through shadow patches down a valley to shadows on hillsides under an ominous sky.
My favorite shot from Colorado, though, is one my younger daughter and her husband have already requested to have framed to hang in their house. This is the only present they want!
As I type this, we are headed to New England, first to have a short visit with family and friends, then do run our New England Fall Foliage workshop followed by a three-day private photo workshop in the same area. It will be fun to be back in Northern New England where I spent the majority of my adult life in a small town started by my ancestors back in 1761.
I can’t wait to return to my old haunts, reconnect with the people who have given me permission to photograph on their property year after year, and enjoy the spectacular foliage that is unique to New England because of all the sugar maples and plethora of other hardwoods and conifers. Most of all, I look forward to the fun time we will have with our next crop of students, watching them grow, find their own vision, and start repeating the mantras we give them, adopting them as their own. Hopefully, we’ll have time to make a few images of our own!
Remaining 2008 workshops: New England Fall Foliage (NH & VT); and Lighthouses of the Outer Banks (NC). For more information, including some of our 2009 offerings, go to the Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures website.
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