OK, so my Birthday was in May. Those of us that use film know that rolls sometimes aren’t finished in a timely fashion. But these were beautiful, sent to me by my eldest brother and his wife………….Back in May. It was my 60th Birthday, so I wanted to highlight them:
From my X-700, HP5 Film and 50 mm Minolta MD f/3.5 Macros Lens.
I’ve done a lot of photography at Walker Ranch. I’ve printed and displayed some too, but never focussed on the Doors…….So Let’s Go Crazy at the Ranch for this week’s Thursday Doors!
A close-up of the Featured Door (above) and the Featured Door (below).
Two of my favorite Doors (above and below).
And, below, some general shots around the Ranch, but still with doors visible….
Taken a few years ago on a Denver After Dark Workshop with Christopher James: The Denver University Club….
A quote from Linda Ronstadt:
“You do it for the work. If you are doing it for the prizes, you are in big trouble”
and a Quote from Cole Thompson:
“In the past I’ve considered those accolades as the evidence of my success, but I now think differently. My success is no longer measured by the length of my resume, but rather by how I feel about the art that I create. While I do enjoy exhibiting, seeing my work published and meeting people who appreciate my art, this is an extra benefit of creating, but not success itself.”
I’ve been through this thought process before. But this time a different twist. Now showing will be going dark for a while. I haven’t deleted it. Just hidden. As I mentioned before, I always get the sam level of award. They know I’m good enough to deserve some attention, but my personal style and personal vision are obviously NOT in vogue right now. So do I stick with what I enjoy or literally ‘shoot for the hip and trendy’?
My husband recently found an interesting blog post on this very subject by Ellen Borggreve. From “Photography is not a Competition”:
“Even though there are photographic competitions, photography itself and art in general is not a competition. In the creative process there is no finish line, no competitors, no comparison. All creative endeavours are in their essence subjective, personal and incomparable. Yet the modern digital reality has created this sense of urgency and competition which I feel is hugely detrimental to art.”
Honestly I wouldn’t know how to shoot for the ‘hip and trendy’ because I do photography to make myself happy. As Comfort and a personal creative outlet. I find online activities like the recent #camerachallenge add some spice and allow me to interact with more like-minded photographers. I will be keeping my Publications Page, because that actually does matter.
If I enter a contest I will still post the results here. But no more “Now Showing” because I don’t want THAT to be my focus……..And what people on Twitter, Instagram, Blogspot or WordPress find interesting, may not be what’s interesting TO ME.
Sacred Datura from my Garden; Kodak T-MAX 400; cropped from a Mamiya 645 frame with 80 mm Macro Lens.
My Emulsive Secret Santa sent me one roll each of 35 mm and 120 size film. I know about the FP4 Party on Twitter, but had never participated and never shot any of this film before. This Month I did post my best FP4 35 mm images.
So I was shooting on a drive through the mountains north of Phoenix. We ended up at Roosevelt Lake (water very low as you can see) and the Salt River Dam and Bridge:
But my real interest was the Bridge. So I did a study of it. First, a panorama made from two images using Photomerge:
Remember when making a Panorama your images must overlap by ~30%, as you can see from the parts below:
And the most wide angle I could get from a single shot using my Minolta X-700 and Tamron 28-200 zoom lens with a nice reflection:
A slightly different view, with interesting vegetation:
As my Previous Post suggested, I’ll try the 120 FP4 film that I was given, but I’m probably going to stick with Delta100 or 400 when I want lower contrast than T-MAX 400.
After discussing the “Contest Trap” in previous posts….. of course I have just entered another contest for the Denver Architecture Foundation, sponsors of Doors Open Denver. My interests in the contest was two-fold: I’m a member of DAF and the co-sponsor Colorado Photographic Arts Center (aka CPAC, and unfortunate acronym): I love photographing Architecture…….Also it was open to any architecture within the Denver City limits, no stated time limit. So although the Clock Tower was taken at a DAF Open House, none of the images are from the actual Doors Open Denver Event.
I tried to avoid cliched images….Did I Succeed?
My Expectation is that I will again fall into the “Special Merit Category” which means, OK but not our style……..
It’s Doors Open Denver Weekend, sponsored by the Denver Architecture Foundation……And I’ll be very busy making new images. One Event that I’ve particularly enjoyed is their Daniels and Fisher Tower Open House. We have attended it twice……
See more from Past Events here.
Here are my submissions for the Moab Photo symposium Wrap-up Book:
Counter Clockwise, beginning in the Upper Left:
And my ‘action’ portrait, From Courthouse Wash, Arches National Park.
I’ll post and update when the book comes out…………..
Submitted last week to Light Space Time Online Gallery. I’ve had some success with them, and they provide a lot of follow-up information on the strategy of preparing contest entries.
So here goes the Landscape Edition:
Two perspectives on the same scene: one with T-Max 400, the other Digital Infrared:
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