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.
So, I have nearly 15,000 images in my file for 2019. Is it time to do some culling? Yes. Is this the best image I made this year? Probably not. But when I tried to think of stand out images this one came to mind. I like the subject, I like the pop of color, I like that it represents dabbling in experimental and artistic photography, I like that it was made on my birthday in Arles, France on a magical, wonderful morning camera walk. For me, photography is about creating art and enjoying the process, not about competition or perfection. This image makes me feel good on many levels because I so enjoyed the process of creating it and everything that went into getting me to a point where I could create it.
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?
Every day I think I really need to get out there and take some new images. But I haven’t been able to think of much that I haven’t already done. And every day jet lag kicks in a little later but it still knocks me out by 4pm. So, then I start rooting around in the archives for something interesting. Any guesses as to what this is? Well, the answer is it is a stainless steel wall texture at the entrance to the ladies room. I blew out the saturation and vibrance to emphasize the colors reflected in the otherwise silver wall. I’m not sure at this point if I was using the Sweet50 or the Trio28, probably the latter.
Well, I think I’ve about milked the camera walk in Arles for all it’s worth. Jet lag is still with me and I could not find the energy to go out and shoot today. But tomorrow I have something in mind so I hope it won’t be raining in the morning when I’m most awake. this one I processed in Topaz Studio to give it a grungy look. I just liked the blue which came out of nowhere.
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.
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.
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.
Arles is a wonderful old town dating to Roman times with lots of windy alleys and stone buildings. I opted to treat this one as a black and white but gave it a yellow tone to represent the tone of the city and sunny Provence.
I took the Sweet50 for a walk yesterday in Carcasonne. I found lots of fun things to photograph in shop windows, not to mention the medieval towers and buildings of the town. But this cat charmed me. I might have liked the focus point to be just a little lower but the cat was on the move so I only had one shot at it. In post I added contrast and detail and a vignette to put the spotlight on the cat.