The first of the school year germs have found me and I am home sick, hacking up lungs as I type. My kids are all out on play dates, I have read through my new Coastal Living magazine, and have attempted to watch "Seven Years in Tibet" with Brad Pitt. (I said, attempted. I am having a hard time listening to his awful try at a German accent while coming across as a 1942 prisoner of war. I am just not believing it Brad.)
Anyhoo, with no energy to pick up my camera, let alone the two pound lens, I was going through old pictures and discarding, cleaning, and purging my computer of needless pixels to store. I came across these outtakes of my blog banner and thought I would share them like they do in one of my favorite photo mags where the photographer offers
insights into how a picture came about.
So, on this specific beach excursion I was with my family in the late afternoon at one of our favorite beaches. The tide was waaaaaaay out and my kids were elated with the hundreds (not kidding) of whole sand dollars that the low tide was revealing. As I was capturing my kids I happened to turn around and discover a group of horseback riders exploring the same glistening sand. The mist was dense and the sun caught them as silhouettes. I loved the composition but I kinda wished that the people walking out of the pic would move just a little faster so I could just have the horses.
Here the people are almost gone. By the time they were out of the picture my horse riders had moved on, except for that one on the far right. She's heading out farther into the tide. My banner pic is the one I snapped when she had separated herself from the pack. I love it the most because it looked as if she was out there all by herself with not a nary a soul around her, on the edge of the world, her vision unobstructed, the horizon stretching on forever. What a cool cool place to be...to be just a small observer on the edge of vast expanse of life.
Because the mist was so thick and the horses so faint, I had to employ a multiplying layer trick when I got it into my editing software. I also played around with filters, you can tell each photo has a different filter on it. Oh, and I cropped it because I was far far away and the stretch of sand leading up to them distracted the eye.
So. There you go! My commentary over with, I am now moving on to my next project: attempting to find a way to build a personal website to display my photos. Like a gallery of sorts. I have been wanting to do this forever.
We'll see. I may try and finish that Brad Pitt movie.
3 comments:
These shots are cool. I like that the people are in them. makes me wonder about them...how far they're able to walk out there...& who they are..
That's funny that you're not buying Brad P's accent. ;) I'm going to watch his new movie tomorrow night. Hopefully no accent necessary.
i hate bad fake accents - i unfortunately saw the preview for his new WWII movie and he has a trying-to-hard southern accent.
on the flip: i love this shot and your banner! So serene + the ocean, which i adore! Stefan's never been anywhere out West and our dream trip is to do the PCH along the west coast. I know he'd love it. He says if we move back to the US that'll be our first trip =)
I love reading about process, personally.
As far as building a photography website goes, you should check out http://www.squarespace.com.
I don't use it (yet) but it appears to be extremely user-friendly, and the photography sites I found there were very professional looking.
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