Blogging & Photography

 Of the many things I have learned by blogging....and believe me I have learned so much...

 first is the importance of photography  

I started my blog on April 16th, 2009 and here is the first post...

 don't spend too much time...my first few posts were pretty awful

 But lets get back to photography...when I first began the blog I was using a very uncomplicated but actually not all that bad
Olympus point and shoot style camera.

I now use a Canon XTi  Rebel and have two lenses
The Canon is a hybrid of sorts, in that you can use it off manual and change your speed and f-stop if you dare!

It's a "middle of the road" camera
and there are some newer XTi models that are even better

I usually just shoot on manual and swap out lenses

sooooo any hooo

I have a neighbor in Ojai who is 100 years old, named Mary

and she has some amazing gigantic Agave in her yard...which may be as old as Mary

 So how should I photograph these?
and do I need to tell a story about Mary or are the photos of this plant enough?

I took a total of 33 shots 

 and narrowed it down to these, to try to tell a story about Agave
and how beautiful they are

 I took this shot of this sunburned stalk and I sort of like it
but it too needs cropping and the photo is not all that interesting

 Here is Mary's gigantic Agave...about  25 feet across

The smaller plants in the front are the children or the "pups"

What I don't like about this shot is the mess in the background 

but that is Mary's yard
I guess at 100 or 90 or maybe even 80,
gardening just isn't as important as it used to be!

These shots are interesting in that they show the growth pattern of these huge Agave,
with the center stalk growing straight up (probably 25 feet at least) and then the leaves peeling away into this massive jumble

The stalks are really interesting and lyrical when they get this big

 Now I think I might get a bit more artistic and
use some of the really simple editing tools I have on  iphoto

 Agave stalks leave these tracks and patterns as they peel away
and the stripes are amazing 

The photo below reveals the edges of the thorns

I played around with color saturation and shadow...

Using a macro lens can give you wonderful close ups

These photos are a bit more abstract 

 I shot all of these in an auto shoot mode   

but focus manually

The photo below is a dying stalk and the wrinkles seemed really interesting  

This final photo of a very large blue Agave in Mary's front yard 

It tells the entire story of how the plant reveals itself

and how even the thorns are beautiful

I really like this photo

I have two lenses:

a 50 mm for close ups 

and

a 18-55 mm standard lens 

for all around photography

I keep thinking I need to upgrade my camera

but these really work well for me 

and I can use them for just about every thing I need! 

Have a wonderful and photographic weekend....
is summer really over?

; 0 )

kelley