"The one phrase you can use is that success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan.
Alan Price
I've noted before on this blog site my gratitude for those that have played a part in my growth in the photographic art, whether artist, teacher or friend and the blog image is no exception. As many of you know I'm a follower of the work and teachings of Tony Sweet and Susan Milestone, Tony's partner. Their expertise, as well as that of many others listed in the upper right column of this blog, have been instrumental in my growth as well as the growth of many other photographers.
The concept for this particular image came from one of Tony's instructional DVD's "Flower Photography Artistry" that is available for purchase on his website. The image here is a combination of a flower in front of one of my prints from a while back. The print was of a field of yellow coneflowers and had been blurred in Photoshop Elements as a creative measure.
After fighting the wind on several days in the attempt to capture some images of tulips around our house I decided that indoors shooting was going to be the answer. Our tulip beds are new and therefore don't offer a lot of background color due to the sparse populations (this will be improved over the next few years with more plantings). I had wanted to use the background print on several occasions and this became the appropriate time to experiment.
In this case the distance of the tulip from the background is probably double the distance of the tulip from the camera and the setup is catching soft ambient light from a window to the right. As many of you know I really enjoy doing still life photography in natural light since it is such an exceptional light full of color and softness.
Since I was working with a recently purchased used Nikon D300s I also practice the use of the overlay program which is a fabulous in camera tool that I have high hopes for as well as other camera adjustments that come with this camera. My thanks again to Tony for his advice and guidence in this selection.
While we all are affected in some way by those that pass through our lives it is often forgotten the role, however incidental, these wonderful "exclamation points" play in ones development. To all those in the right hand column, as well as many others, a big thank you.
Sic 'em Bears!
Thanks for visiting and enjoy this beautiful Spring.
My book "Places I've Been, Things I've Seen" and new book "Take What's Given" can be purchased online at- http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1868649
For more views of my work visit;
"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa http://www.apieceofworkinc.com
Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota www.lanesboroarts.org
BetterPhoto.com http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V
http://500px.com/pigs4u
