nature in black and white
Almost a week ago my blogging friend Nancy from Two Trails One Road challenged me to the 5 Day B&W Challenge. I’m late to the party, and I’m breaking the rules. I should post five photos for five consecutive days — but you’re going to get them all today. And I’m supposed to tag five others to take part in the challenge — but those I would tag have already posted theirs. (That’s what I get for being late!)
I love photography, and enjoy using Inkscape to manipulate images into a vector format. But although I use GIMP (the open source equivalent of Photoshop), I’ve not explored photographic enhancement too deeply, and wasn’t quite sure how black and white images would turn out.
Since most of my “enhancement” is by Mother Nature, I decided to take a few of her shots and convert them to black and white. It was fun picking out four of my favorite nature photos to see what they’d look like with the color striped away, making the lines and texture front and center.
I also have a “true” black and white image, one with bare December winter trees and snow covered landscape, taken with my old film camera (and real black and white film) while visiting family in upstate New York in 2002. I don’t have the original any longer to scan at a higher resolution, but the snow, tree, footprints, house, and snow fence (to stop the white stuff from drifting across the road after its journey over the unbroken farmland) are a powerful combination for me when mixed with the emotions and memories of many visits. I’m glad it’s found a place on my blog!
Thank you, Nancy, for inviting me to join you in your black and white images fun. Head over to her blog to take a look at what she’s posted!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Minimalist
Jen’s Photo Challenge this week is Minimalist.
“Minimalist photography is characterized by a large portion of negative space, a fairly monochromatic color palette … and an interesting subject that is able to stand on its own to capture the interest of the viewer … A minimalist photo can also effectively tell a story, in spite of its relative simplicity, and it is anything but ‘plain’.”
I had fun looking through photos to find a few that fit this challenge, and decided to take the definition of “minimalist” apart and find images that fit specific qualities better, but still have the overall minimalist look. Does this one fit the description of “a large portion of negative space”?
Lysekloster moon on January 14, 2014 at 7:52 pm
I found two that I think are a good representation of “a fairly monochromatic color palette,” one with warm tones and the other with cool. Which do you prefer?
May 24, 2014 – warm sunshine through a Lysekloster pine tree’s new growth
January 16, 2010 – ice crystals on a below freezing Langeskogen walk
And then for the last one, “an interesting subject that is able to stand on its own to capture the interest of the viewer” … if you hadn’t already joined me vicariously on the journey, would this photo capture your curiosity as to what we were going to see?
August 20, 2014 – a peek towards the journey
Which photo is your favorite? And, if you’d like, share why it is!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Refraction
For this week’s photo challenge, Kevin asks us to show what refraction means to us.
One of the definitions of refraction in Merriam-Webster states that it could be a “deflection from a straight path …” Do the distorted shadows from these content ducks, taking an early-morning swim in the pool during our Wisconsin Dells vacation back in 2008, fit that description?
Another Merriam-Webster definition is “… the action of distorting an image by viewing through a medium.” How about a window seen through a delicious liquid medium, pictured here on the enclosed porch of the Kafè Ole B during last year’s Julebord celebration?
Or the distortion of the trees as seen through one of my glass window ornaments hanging in my home office window?
Another of my glass ornaments seems to have an internal glow created by the sunlight passing through it, and the refracted combination of that light and the trees; it creates a warmth very appropriate for the heart shape!
My last image is one I’ve shared before from a Viking and Medieval festival; it represents an example that Kevin gives in his challenge: “… an image taken in a reflective surface.”
The physics of “refraction” fascinate me. It can change an ordinary, common object to something unique and artistic.
What refractions do you see in your environment right now?
Swans and the Pøyla inlet in Lysekloster
Twice this past week I explored a part of Lysekloster that I hadn’t been to yet. I discovered something peaceful and colorful that we’ve driven by often but hadn’t really stopped to savor other than one quick visit back in February to capture images of the local swan family. You saw a sneak peek of last week’s first visit a couple days ago, and on Thursday I went back to explore the trail that begins just past this Pøyla inlet further in anticipation of a future “paintings and photographs” post. But the vividness of the just-past-peak Fall Colors, and especially the swan family and ducks seeming to pose for their photo ops, almost demands its own post.
So here it is. (Click on an image to open the carousel gallery.)
October 13, 2014
October 15, 2014
I sat for quite a while watching the swan family; their grace is something I can’t get tired of, and the cygnets have grown so much they look like small gray adults. But if you listen at 0:33 in this video, you’ll hear a very tiny “peep” — these large children sound just like a tiny chick! And later I was focusing to take a photo of the ducks as they lazily swam in the colorful reflection and heard a loud noise — and looked over to see Papa Swan taking off for a brief flight, his heavy wings beating the water. I didn’t get much of it, but it’s at 1:23.
I’ll leave you with my favorite image from the set. It was going to be my next Wordless Wednesday photo … but I can’t wait that long to share it!
I’m glad I got out there when I did. We’re getting slammed with wind and rain over the next few days, and I’m sure all the leaves will be blown away and the color will be gone!
(Here is where Pøyla inlet is located on the map.)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreamy
When I think of the word dreamy I mentally picture a haze over a specific object. Since one of the definitions of dreamy is “pleasant, peaceful, and relaxing,” I thought I’d respond to this week’s photo challenge by sharing images with different aspects of that haze … and where I’ve also found peaceful relaxation.
In Modalen in 2007, watching the small clouds drift between the mountains and me as I was out throwing the ball for MacKenzie …
In the southern Bergen valley in 2009, when the low-lying clouds filled the valley and I watched the setting sun from my perspective above them …
Here in Lysekloster this past year, with the air and water temperatures creating interesting fog shapes that advanced and receded on the fjord …
… or the late spring or early fall temperatures and sun creating a haze in the sky.
And probably my favorite “dreamy” time, when the rising moon and setting sun mixed with the clouds and created something almost magical, captured both in Bergen and in Lysekloster …
Life is busy. It’s nice to stop and be dreamy for a while, isn’t it?
Norway: A Time-Lapse Adventure from Rustad Media
No commercials this Thursday. No artists’ paintings either. This week, I’m sharing a photographer’s time-lapse art.
A little background from Morten, the photographer behind Rustad Media:
This is a time-lapse video resulting from a 15,000 km (almost 10,000 miles) long road trip and tens of thousands of images taken along the way over the last 5 months. The journey has covered all of Norway’s 19 counties, from the far south to the Russian border in the Northeast. The Aim of this 5 minute short film is to show the variety of Norway, everything from the deep fjords in the Southwest, to the moon landscape in the North, the Aurora Borealis (Nothern Lights) and the settlements and cities around the country, both in summer and wintertime.
Turn up your speakers and experience this time-lapse tour. It is worth every second of your time.
(Read the behind-the-scenes background here: the places seen, the journey between, the equipment used, the interaction with nature encountered. It will help you appreciate what you see even more!)
Wordless Wednesday: colors
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