The World Through My Lens, 10.14.2018

Sweet readers and shutter bugs,

Had high hopes of posting photos I have taken in a new series dedicated to The World Through My Lens but life.  You know LIFE?  There aren’t enough waking hours in a day!  In July, I shared the first post of what I had hoped would be a series.  But then LIFE.  Going to try a new post today.  Maybe by the year’s end, I can get the series going.

The World Through My Lens, 10.2018

For the first half of the year, I participated in the 52Frames photo challenge, where we took a weekly photo to fit a theme or photography technique.  I was very much out of my league with that group of photographers, gals!  Let me tell you! I did learn a lot and became less intimidated by my good camera.  But it was kind of a downer to try hard each week then see how so many of the others (hundreds of photographers, real photographers) could take the theme to this incredible level.  And there I was just struggling to decide whether I should use the flash.  Ha!  So, when LIFE got crazy this summer, I bowed out.  Can still see the photos and prompts from the challenge but haven’t been sharing anything of my own.

Sunday Stills

Enter my friend Terri at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives.  She has a wonderful eye for photography!  Such a talent.  And Terri is hosting a series called Sunday Stills.  She provides prompts for the week and shares her images on Sunday.  For October, the prompts are:

October 7     Pink
October 14   Texture
October 21   Photo-editor
October 28  Orange

Today, I am sharing my photos for pink and texture in one post.  Because LIFE.  Can’t seem to get posts written!  Being out of town this week and the blue screen of death that my computer keeps offering when I turn it on are interfering with my blogging.  But I guess that’s….LIFE!

Pink

Have taken lots of pictures this week, some intentionally for Sunday Stills and some just for fun.  This is one I took of Lucia, coincidentally wearing pink and holding a butterfly wand I bought for her at the balloon fiesta.

Enjoyed the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque SO MUCH!  It was such fun to see the delight in Lucia’s face.  And I was mesmerized by the balloons!  I like this photo below because the arrangement of the balloon, the shadows of the people in the foreground, the man in the red jacket make your eyes move around the photograph.  Even the smaller balloons to the left of the photo kind of work to refocus your attention back on the main image.

I think this next photo works in the same way.  Of course, there’s the PINK balloon…which was a darling kitty.  But your eye is drawn to the balloon by the other images in the photo.  Not that you could exactly ignore or not notice the balloon on its own!

The quality of this next photo is lacking.  Partly because we were zooming down I-40 at 85 mph when I snapped it.  Hard to hold the steering wheel, keep the car on the road and get a good photo.  Just kidding.  PC was driving.  The rocks and even the soil had a pink tinge in this area near Gallup, New Mexico.  If you squint, the grass and clouds even take on a rosy tint.  Or am I just looking through a rose-colored camera lens?

I was conscious of trying not to divide the photo in half with ground on the bottom and sky above.  Have learned about the rule of thirds.  That means that the subject isn’t centered in the image and the composition is broken down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts.  Horizontally, I have 1/3 grass, 1/3 mesa and mountains with the clouds directly above them and 1/3 sky.  At 85 mph.

This is basically the same photo below as the one above but divided more in half than thirds.  I think the first image works better.  What do you think?

Although, I think the quality of the photo above might be a little better.  Maybe PC had tapped the brakes and we were only doing 75 mph?

Texture

The prompt for this week’s Sunday Still is texture.  I took the photo below when we stopped for gas between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Mesa, Arizona.  This image was on the side of an abandoned building.  Would love to know what it symbolizes.  This photo could serve for last week’s pink prompt, too!

The texture of the old, sun-baked stucco was interesting but then when I looked at the image again on my laptop I liked the texture of the blowing grass, too.  Had thought I would crop the grass out but it works to draw your eye up to the stucco.  Ha!  Accidentally, of course.

The terrain between NM and AZ was so varied.  Desert, forest, mountains, flat lands, mesas.  Lots of textures.  But I was in a car so capturing them wasn’t easy.  In the image below, I liked the contrast between the smooth rocks and the cactus.  Usually, rocks would have the jagged, spiked textures and the plants would have softer lines.

My last attempt at capturing texture was taken on our way out to dinner tonight.  We are staying in an Air BnB apartment and these palm trees were lit at the entrance.  Not sure how much texture there is but I sure liked the way the photo turned out!!

Hope to remember to take photos for the prompts for the second half of the month.  Need to find out more about photo-editor for the coming week.  Sounds like fun.  And then orange for the end of October.  That one should be easy as pie!

Your Turn

Hope you will run by to check out the fabulous photographs Terri has taken.  She is the queen of macro photography…her up close pictures of sunflowers are my favorites.  And maybe you can join the fun for the rest of the month?

The weather has been just crazy out here in Arizona.  Ball games have been postponed because of rain!  Rain?  Rain!  But that’s LIFE.  Hoping they will get underway tomorrow with a double-header.  Keep your fingers crossed for the Austin Express, PC’s team.

Hugs and kisses,