Author: brenda

lens-artists photo challenge: a glimpse into your world

This weeks lens-artists photo challenge is hosted by Sheetal who invites us to “show us the things you love that makes your world spin or things about your world that make you delirious with joy.”

An afternoon drive through Poudre Canyon for a lunch in Walden, Colorado. Or better yet, having lunch in Walden while on a camping trip through the Rocky Mountains.

The Poudre Canyon is a narrow verdant canyon, approximately 40 miles long, on the upper Cache la Poudre River in Larimer County, Colorado in the United States. The canyon is a glacier-formed valley through the foothills of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains northwest of Fort Collins.

watching the river
through a window of trees…
spring rain falls ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)

Cache la Poudre River

Driving west through the canyon, one will be enticed to pull off the road to view the clouds traveling across Cameron Peak. Cameron Peak is within the Medicine Bow Mountains which are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend for 100-mile from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming.

a glimpse of moon
over my home village…
then clouds ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)

Cameron Peak

A westerly Sunday drive through Poudre Canyon will invite you to stop for lunch in the small town of Walden, Colorado. Walden is located in Jackson County, an amazing sub-alpine valley in Northern Colorado.

evening’s fall colors–
the rainbow in the valley
fades away ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)

As of the 2010 census, the population of Walden was 1,394; the fourth least populated in the state of Colorado.

white clouds of mist
blow away…
the village’s mountain ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)

The county contains the Never Summer Wilderness, the 71,000-acre Colorado State Forest, and the Arapapho National Wildlife Refuge.

this mountain rain
and the deer’s tears
must be mingling ~ Issa (cited: haikuguy.com)

welcome to Walden

During the summer of 2020, the Cameron Peak fire began about 25 miles east of Walden and 15 miles southwest of  Red Feather Lakes near Cameron Pass. It is reported that this fire burnt 208,663 acres (326 sq mi.) through the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in Larimer and Jackson Counties and Rocky Mountain National Park.  The fire became the largest wildfire in Colorado history.

cameron peak fire

lens-artists photo challenge: from forgettable to favorite

This week’s lens-artists photo challenge (Travels and Trifles) invites us to share our photo editing process that aids in the realization of our artistic interpretations.

The side-by-side images below (Nikon D750) were part of a nature walk that began with an intention to create in-camera double exposure photographs. As you will notice only one of the photographs below was created in camera.

After the initial adjustment and cropping edits within Capture One 21, the final images were created using the Analog Efex Pro 2 software.

f/8 1/250s 38mm 100 ISO

f/8 1/320s 38mm 100 ISO

f/8 1/125s 38mm 100 ISO

Often when I walk away from the editing process with a bit of frustration, I call to mind a mantra introduced to me by the photographer, Bruce Percey, “you can’t make a bad photograph good, but you can make a good photograph bad.

I have often found that what is “forgettable” and that which is “favorite” often times is grounded in the subjective experiences of the photographer and the viewers.

Be safe, be well, be sage.

lens-artists: my journey

Two Sonys, one Ricoh, one Lumix, one Leica, two Nikons, and one iPhone have been my photography companions over the past 10 years. Our wanderings has had its ups and downs … losing files, grieving of Aperture, diving into various software editing programs, a self-learning photography project, breaking rules, being obsessed with various subjects, experimenting various techniques, and being awed by multiple photographers, world wide.

It has been a journey! Let’s begin with one of my first macros with a Ricoh.

macro
Exploring monochrome
motion blur photography
portraiture
wide open aperture
point of view photography
double exposure

…and there were the obsessions with…

the dandelion family
egg obsession

and during this pandemic…

skyscape obsession

and the list goes on and on. Thank you Amy for the invitation pause for a bit to reflect on where I’ve been and to share a bit of my photo journey.

remembering Margret 

Looking backward ... I cannot see the ancients of days.
Looking forward ... I cannot see ages yet to come.
Only heaven and earth have remained,
And will remain forever ...
I am alone, I grieve, I drop tears into the dust ~Chen Tzu-ang

(cited: Trans: Anonymous, The Jade Flute Chinese Poems in Prose. The Project Gutenberg

Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/400s 300mm 






					

	
	



			
				


			
				



			
	
	
	
	

		

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"...I told Mrs. Linden that I thought I was ready to retire, as I knew I should have an exciting and unusual day on the morrow.
'Very well,' she replied in her sweet way. She escorted me to a small elevator, which, by the way, was to be found in every home of the 2905 type. This I thought was a good idea too, as many women were actually tired out in my day, by going up and down stairs.
I remarked to Mrs. Linden the convenience of it. She replied that the people used elevators more than stairs, and that they, too, were put in during the construction of the house. 'Did you not have elevators in your day, Miss Tillman?'
'Certainly.' I answered, "'In public buildings, but they were not common in private houses.' 
'Queer,' she replied, 'that they did not think of putting them into use in all homes.'..." 

~ Bessie Story Rogers, As it may be A Story of the Future, 1905 (excerpt from: A Celebration of Women Writers)
 










Photograph submitted in response to The Life of B’s monthly square challenge … the absolute rule – Your main photograph must be square in shape!






					

	
	



			
				



			
	
	
	
	

		

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Because of this, sad, sad has the whole day been to me.
You must go forth and journey, far, very far.
The time has come when you, the maiden, must go.
The light boat ascends the great river.
Your particular bitterness is to have none from whom you may claim support.
I have cherished you. I have pondered over you. I have been increasingly gentle and tender to you.
A child taken from those who have cared for it—
On both sides separation brings the tears which will not cease.
Facing this, the very centre of the bowels is knotted.
It is your duty, you must go. It is scarcely possible to delay farther. ... ~Wei Ying-Wu 
(cited: Trans: F Ayscough & A Lowell, Fir-Flower Tablets 










Photograph submitted in response to The Life of B’s monthly square challenge … the absolute rule – Your main photograph must be square in shape!






					

	
	



			
				


			
				



			
	
	
	
	

		

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When I look up at
The wide-stretched plain of heaven,
Is the moon the same
That rose on Mount Mikasa
In the land of Kasuga? ~ Abe no Nakamaro (cited: http://jti.lib.virginia.edu)





skyscape … Leica D-Lux 7  f/5.6   1/400s   34mm   100 ISO 





skyscape photograph submitted in response to The Life of B’s monthly square challenge … the absolute rule – Your main photograph must be square in shape!






					

	
	



			
				


			
				


			
				



			
	
	
	
	

		

			lens artists photo challenge:  striped and checked
		

	


			

			

Once upon a time
A tiny striped caterpillar
Burst from the egg
Which had been home 
For so long.
"Hello world," he said. 
"It sure is bright out here in the sun."
(excerpt from Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers)






Nikon D750  f/5.6   1/500s   85mm   100 ISO





Nikon D750   f/5   1/400s   56mm   100 ISO





Nikon D750   f/1.8   1/4000s   35mm   200 ISO










Fun striped and checked findings for Leya’s lens-artists photo challenge!