Mixed Emotions

I have a few things on my mind but really being inspired by the change in weather yesterday where we had rain and lovely mist over the last of the autumn leaves.
Today the sun is out but there is also wind and I am sure that some of the beautiful leaves I have had my eye on may not be there much longer.  So, inspired by some work last weekend with my lensbaby and imagining the effect of bright blue sky (today's weather) gusty breeze moving the leaves and glorious colour I've just zipped outside, taken a few lensbaby shots with my 5Dmk11 (I usually just pop it on the smaller sensor body) because I can see some magic happening so want as many pixels as possible to play with.
AND I wasn't disappointed.  I'm going to find another 30 minutes later today to have another go.

Here is my meagre offering that's had a fast and furious edit in LR4 and Nik Color 4.0.


Enjoy!!  I certainly did.

Creative Energy

I often wondered where artists and musicians got their inspiration.  I have always been in awe of these creative souls whose productivity often astounds.  Not only do they produce beautiful work but they seem to do it so regularly.

Gradually over the past few months I've begun to realise that I might have finally discovered a few tricks of my own that help me to sift through the thoughts and ideas, the visual inspirations, the deeper tracks that run through my mind each day.

For me it is all quite connected.  Thoughts, images, ideas come and go but somehow the "dreamcatcher" or the "ideas basket" has to be with me at all times and if I'm smart, I'll lock away these small moments for a later time when I can sit and dream and imagine.  However, as a photographer I can't just pull out a pen or paintbrush and paper and "create."  It's not often that I will photograph from a setup.  My work is usually outdoors and on the go.  So it's become even more important to me to have a way of managing my creative side in photography.

So, how does it all happen??  Notebooks, notebooks and notebooks! Or maybe the notepad on my iphone ....  maybe my iphone camera to get quick snap of an idea to use at a later time.  On my computer I keep a word document that I just copy and paste into from websites when I see something that I want to keep.  My notebooks often make little sense, they are somewhat disorganised ... new headings, new pages, repeated headings, repeated ideas.  BUT .. they are all recorded in some way and as I open the notebook I carry in my bag and I open to write down an idea, I see the words from the day before and the circle of connection begins.

So, why this ramble today?  The other very important part of my creativity is being able to hang around other photographers.  They inspire me and I learn something every time I do.  It is often the time when I make the big connections in my head about new pathways and directions to take.

Last weekend my local photography club shared a weekend away just devoted to photography.  We looked for places to shoot, we talked about what we were doing, we commiserated when we missed good opportunities and we all seemed to try out a few new ideas.  And we had lots of fun!!

So maybe that's why artists often hang around other creative people???

When I returned and began to upload my images I was initially a little disappointed that I didn't seem to have that "amazing image" that we all aim for.  I had too many pelicans - I just couldn't resist??  I had too many of the same sunset - I just loved hearing the shutter click as the sky lit up??  But encouraged by another photographer I pulled out my lensbaby and used it for the first time in quite a while and between the intentional blurred images that I love to take, I bagged a couple of lensbaby shots that I quite liked.

Thanks to the group who ventured away last weekend.  You added to my enjoyment but you also added to my "creativity" and artistic intent.

A couple of images that I have been able to edit.... Enjoy!

Late Autumn Light

It's Mothers' Day and it's been glorious.  Blue skies, crisp clean air, cool enough for a coat but warm enough to enjoy being outside.

I've recently been discovering some of my older images and looking at them with clean eyes.  It's so easy to get immersed in some newer work that you lose a bit of perspective - are they really that good?  maybe not? or maybe they are.  However, I find that when images are put aside for some time, fresher eyes are often a better judge.

So what have I been enjoying?  I've really loved finding some of the older images from the local area here in the Blue Mountains.  I'd completely forgotten that some of them even existed.  One of the joys of this sort of reminiscing is that now my skills in editing are far better than they were even a couple of years ago.

I've loved working with Nik software and have made a real effort recently to dig a bit deeper and learn more about the tools on offer.  Nik Silver Efex is a great B&W help.  Because I was never a darkroom person I avoided a few of the film effects that are hidden in the palette but recently I did a couple of webinars and have found so much more that I had been using.  Color Efex is my other current favourite.  Version 4.0 allows so much more than the earlier version so I've been working my way through it slowly and finding the ability to use multiple filters in an image quite beautiful.

So, today, with the last of the sunshine lighting up a couple of my maples, I grabbed the camera determined to take a shot for posterity.

Here are a couple of my favourites - real quick and dirty shooting and a bit of lick and polish thanks to Nik.


Enjoy!!