Category: Architecture

Day 52 McKee Bridge

McKeeBridge

I don’t know about you but I am getting bored with flowers. I almost went off the rails today and dredged up something from France or Japan to treat artistically. I may yet. This one is from my early April trip to the Applegate Valley. When I was a child we used to take a picnic to McKee Bridge and swim in the river. The bridge was painted white then and had only recently been closed to traffic so my Dad loved to tell stories of driving over it. The light was very harsh this day and it took quite a bit of work in Photoshop and a trip through Topaz Impression to make this somewhat presentable.

Today’s quote is from Mary Oliver:

In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator.
In every hear there is a god of flowers just waiting
to come out of its cud and lift its wings.

Day 2 – Quality Used Books

Qualityw

I’m embarrassed to admit that I have lived 3 blocks from Quality Used Books for 6 1/2 years and have never been inside. It’s that darned Highway you have to cross to get there adding another two blocks to the trip to get to a traffic light. I know, very lame. But now that it is an official survivor of the Alameda Fire I plan to become a regular, assuming it survives the pandemic as well.

So, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that Quality Used Books would make a great subject. This is how I want to wake up in the middle of the night, not thinking about all the stuff I have to do or worrying about when I’m going to get vaccinated. So, I took the M3 out with the Lensbaby Sweet 50 (sans dog, I felt so free) and got a great photo with blurry edges to start with. Then I took it into Topaz Texture Effects for a slightly painterly look and finally added a texture. The fact that it snowed overnight in the mountains just added as certain je ne sais quoi.

Today’s quote I found in a book called Photography and the Creative Life by one of my all time favorite photographers, Nancy Rotenberg. We lost Nancy to breast cancer, all too soon, about 10 years ago. I cherish her book and try to read it again at least once a year.

The quote, however is from Anna Freud:

Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.

 

 

Bayeaux Cathedral

BayeauxCathedralw

I’ve been neglecting the Image of the Week lately mainly because I haven’t been doing much photography. What I have been doing is creating a series of digital art pieces from my trip to France last year. So, even if it is not a photograph it is still an image. If you have been following me for awhile you may remember seeing the original of this one about a year ago.

Day 49 – Gargoyle

Gargoyle

Oh, sigh, here it is 10:30pm and I had to jump out of bed because I forgot to post a lensbaby image. I was working with my France pictures to make a scrapbook and came across this one yesterday that I had forgotten about. It is rare in Lensbaby world to get exactly what you want in focus. In this case I nailed it with the Sweet 50. I just adjusted the exposure a bit and added clarity and sharpening. It might look better with a vignette but I need to get my beauty sleep so I can go to the coast tomorrow and stock up on more Lensbaby images. I can’t believe I’m not even half way through this project. Whose idea was this anyway?

Day 40 – Purple Shutter – Arles

PurpleShutter

It’s only 10 am and my energy is already flagging so in the interest of getting caught up I decided to offer up one more image from my camera walk with the sweet 50 in Arles. In this case I added clarity and vibrance and a little saturation and then added a texture which I think added a little interest. I made quite a study of street lamps in France. In Arles for some reason all of the glass had been removed but the frames remained decorative.

Day 38 – Shuttered Window – Arles

ShutteredWindowArles

So, if my calculations are correct, yesterday was day 38. I got up in Arles at 3am to get to the Marsailles airport and went to bed in Portland, Oregon at 9:30pm Pacific which was about 5:30am the next day in Arles. Three airplanes, three countries, and three security lines did not give much time, not to mention energy for photography so here’s one more from my camera walk in Arles. The streets were so narrow it was hard to get these shutters fully in the frame. But I thought they had a lot of character and I love how the rough walls frame the blue shutters. Just added some clarity and vibrance and a touch of saturation. It is raining in Portland and will be apparently throughout my trek down the Willamette valley. I think Lensbaby and rain may be a match made in heaven but we’ll see what the day brings as I strive to come up with something new for day 39.

Day 37 – Window and Door – Arles

WindowanddoorArles

Those last few days in France were so busy there wasn’t much time to think about Lensbaby and of course the internet was hopeless so I’m still playing catch up from my hotel room in Portland. This is another one from my morning camera walk in Arles on my birthday. Arles is a big photography center and I can certainly see why. I would love to go back and spend a week or two exploring it’s scenic back streets. Again monotone seemed the right approach and this time I chose a sepia tone which almost captures the true color of the door.

Day 27 – Bayeaux Cathedral

BayeauxCathedral

So, as far as I’m concerned the highlight of the trip so far has been the Cathedral here in Bayeux. I saw and photographed the outside this morning, the inside this evening. And then after dinner it turned out they were lighting it up with colored lights. I had been working with the Sol45 earlier in the day but the Trio28 is what I happened to take with me to dinner so that is what I used to capture this one. I added a little contrast and clarity as well as some vibrance and saturation and opened the shadows a bit. 

Le Tour Eiffel

LeTourEiffel

We had a whirlwind tour of Paris this morning. The only place we were allowed off the bus was for a photo of the Eiffel Tower. I’m not sure why it had such a strong vignette on the left but it gave it a sort of old timey look so I decided to go with it and processed it in Silver Efex Pro with a Sepia tone and a frame. This was shot with the Trio 28 by the way. I had to crop it some and added a high pass filter as well. I like that the people were in blur. I’m pretty sure I had it on sweet. After dinner I will get my travel blog going so if you want to see more of Paris go to http://jeannehoadley.com/Travel.