Photography – Page 5 – Deidre Adams

Where does the time go?

Good intentions out the window. Distractions abound. So many things needing to get done, paralysis sets in. My goal of doing at least one post per week is woefully unfulfilled, but does anyone besides me care? I promised myself I would not use the blog to whine or to navel-gaze, though, so no excuses.

One of the things we try to do every summer is go on a photographic scouting road trip. Due to me taking a summer class, though, and fall semester starting way early this year, a road trip just didn’t happen. But the good news is, I have lots of photos from past trips that I need to do something with. So I’ll start posting some of these on a regular basis.

The above was taken on last year’s trip. The location is in eastern Wyoming, on a 2-lane highway, slightly north of a town called Douglas. The clouds were looking quite photogenic that day. The above image is enhanced in my very favorite toy, Photoshop Lightroom. I recently upgraded to version 2.0; still need to figure out all the great new stuff it does. But in the meantime, you can do some very amazing things to your images, all non-destructively and completely reversible.

Below is the original image:

It’s not horrible, but the clouds look rather flat and the whole thing needs some punch. A few quick tweaks in Lightroom, and the added contrast results in the top image — much more interesting. I love Photoshop, but it does have a steep learning curve and simple editing tasks take a lot longer. For quick editing and amazing organizational capabilities, Lightroom is the way to go.

And you can push it a lot further to get some very creative effects. Here’s an experiment with the parameters taken well beyond “normal” limits:

Other fun activities this week included getting my Quilt National entry in just under the wire (due date Sept. 5), and shipping my work for the 12 Voices show, which opens next week at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City. Also, tomorrow is the opening for Threadlines 2008, an exhibit sponsored by Uncommon Threads at the Missouri State University Art & Design Gallery, September 5-29, 2008, co-organized by Pam RuBert and Emmie Seaman. My piece, Chroma Study #2: Blue and Red, will be a part of the exhibition.

September 4th, 2008|Photography|7 Comments

Maybe I really am crazy …

Work glove ©2008 Deidre C. Adams

Closely related to the one-shoe phenomenon is the one-glove phenomenon. This particular specimen was located at a new-home construction site near my dad’s house in Albuquerque, where I had been visiting him a couple of weeks ago. In all the time I was growing up in that neighborhood and for many years afterward, there was nothing but sand and hills and tumblewoods for as far as you could see across the street from his house. Now they’re finally starting to put up a development there.

So while on that visit, my husband and my dad and I went for a walk to see what was going on over there in the mesa. I brought along my pocket camera because you never know what great things you might find. Other great finds on that walk were this:

Dead bird ©2008 Deidre C. Adams

And this:

Marlboro Country ©2008 Deidre C. Adams

It was while waiting for me to take the third one that it finally dawned on my dad that there was a pattern going on here. He turned to my husband and in a voice he must have thought was quiet enough for me not to hear, he said “What is she doing? She’s just taking pictures of junk!” Would he ever have thought to ask me about anything that ever motivated me in life? Nah… We finished our walk without the subject coming up again.

April 6th, 2008|Inspiration, Photography|4 Comments

The one-shoe-in-the-road phenomenon

Why are there so many single shoes out there in the universe? This is a question that has always plagued me. I’m not the only one who thinks about this, as evidenced by the great discussion of the question at The Straight Dope.

I wish I had a photo of every single shoe I’ve seen lying by the side of the road, sadly forlorn and bereft of its mate. Unfortunately, the single shoe rarely appears when I’m prepared with camera in hand, as it did for this extreme example in the photo above. But still, every time I see one, I have a burning desire to know how that shoe got there. This one must have been here in this exact spot, less than 500 feet from the road on Interstate 25 just north of Pueblo, Colorado, for many years, completely undisturbed. What’s the story?

Well, I think I’ve found the answer, in this video by Spike Jonze.

March 27th, 2008|Miscellaneous, Photography|2 Comments