"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly." John F. Kennedy
Whenever I start to fill my truck with camera packs and tripods a real sense of excitement takes over about the journey ahead. Where am I going to go, what's the light like, do I have my boots are some of the many questions on a checklist that are the prelude to what I perceive as exciting adventures. Once I hit the field I found it's often necessary to take a "deep cleansing breath" in order to slow down my senses. All too often, especially in my early learning years, it was easy to take the big landscape view and totally miss some of the real intimate portraits that are often times at our feet. It is in these places that the beautiful light of early morning or late evening is dancing about painting hues of extraordinary color just waiting to be captured. This blog image is such an example in which I quite literally was staring through this setting to another larger subject just beyond. Had I not refocused on the foreground in front of me I probably would have walked right on by. So, take the time, let your eyes take the adventure and thereby open some other tiny worlds to your attention.
The other reason for using this image is for a very simple lesson, but very important lesson, that I stress when I'm teaching my beginning digital workshop classes at A Piece Of Work gallery. The title of the lesson is "watch the edges" and once I launch into this subject I hear a few snickers and comments about my excessive pickiness.
If you note at the bottom, center edge there are a couple of highlighted twigs that are jutting into the picture. These kind of things just drive me crazy and, in an often subtle way, can or will redirect the eye to an area away from the main character of the image. There is also another non contributing highlight in the bottom left quadrant that I feel annoying and then, and a much "quieter" glint in the bottom right corner. While these may seem minor in themselves, they serve as huge distractions as a whole. Lucky for me that digital editing provides a simple way to "clone" out these little irritants, but the real lesson is to search the edges of the viewfinder at point of capture, which may even force you to a better position for the final capture.
The quality of work that separates us from the big boys is more often the handling of the subtle intricacies of an image rather than the choice of subject in some exotic land.
For more views of my work visit;
"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa http://www.apieceofworkinc.com
"Art On 16th" http://www.hankhallarton16th.com
Artisans Road Trip www.artisansroadtrip.com
Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota www.lanesboroarts.org
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