"Looking In" - Seedlings

This winter I went out to the tobacco fields in my area to take some photos. Among my favorites was this one, which showed the fields covered in snow and ice.

I went back to the farm last week.

They are in the process of planting the tiny seedlings right now, and I thought it would be interesting to see how different things look when they are awake and alive.

This is the photo I took, straight out of the camera. I miss the trees in the distance, but because I wanted to see what was actually under the tent, I couldn't get too high.

Obviously, the light coming from my right makes the barn too dark, but I boosted the contrast to make up for it as best I could.

I also cropped out most of the dirt road in the foreground and ended up with this:

It's okay, but only just okay, in my opinion. I didn't anticipate that the difference in light outside the shade would make it so difficult to get nice shots of the green tobacco within. Obviously, since I work in the tobacco business myself, I wanted to make the tobacco look as nice as possible.

I took some closer shots of the tobacco itself, but that's not for this assignment. Today I am "looking in."

Again, in order to "look in" I needed to stand in the bright sunlight and take pictures into the shade. I am not sure if a better camera (DSLR) would be able to help with this problem, but since I don't have one of those, I tried to do the best with what I have.

I adjusted and cropped again, hoping to make the soil look rich and the plants look vibrant.

Better, but somehow the focus got too tight on the nets and the plants look somewhat mushy.

Trying again...

Straight out of the camera, above, and edited for color below.

Still disappointing, so I drove around until I found another field that I liked.

I took this from my car, using the open window as a tripod. The foreground is the other side of the road, so I cropped it out to make the story about the tobacco.

This is the final image, and I'm happiest with this shot. I like the lines and the colors are closer to what I actually saw in the field.

I plan to go back to this farm over the next several months to see the progression of the crop. Hopefully by the end I will have found a solution for my lighting issues. Stay tuned.

"Temptation" - Apple

The problem with cliches is that they're the first things that pop into my mind when I see these assignments sometimes. This week, for example, I haven't been able to get past the connection between Temptation and Adam and Eve.

If I'd had access to a serpent I'd probably have used it in the photo too.

Anyway, I asked my husband to buy me a few perfect apples for this assignment, and in the end I decided to use a beautifully round Cortland apple.

At least, I think it's a Cortland.

All I did to edit the shot was straighten it and deepen the contrast a touch.

I resisted the urge to saturate the colors. I wanted them to be bright, but I was afraid they'd look fake if I made them any more vivid.

The red of the apple pops against the green of the new growth on the trees - just as I hoped they would.

I have a small island in the yard where we have planted some shrubs and perennials. I took my apple there and balanced it on a mossy rock and used the leaves of our iris plant to accent it.

I love the texture of the rock, but I hate the glare on the apple. I only had a short time to take photos (while the kids took a nap) so I didn't have the time or means to prevent it, but it does bother me.

Cropped a little tighter, and with colors boosted slightly, I like this shot. I like the vertical lines of the leaves in contrast with the horizontal line of the rock.

If I could remove the glare I'd be very happy with this shot.

Finally, I decided to look at the variety of apples my husband brought for me.

I call it "Pick Your Poison."

Getting Back Into It - Bald Head Island

I have fallen off the photography wagon, so to speak. For the past several weeks I've watched the themes pass by on my calendar but haven't managed to do much more about them than think of photos I'd like to take.

The week of vacation I spent with my daughters and my mom (and my sister and father) would have been an ideal opportunity to gather some good shots for the "Mother" assignment, for example.  And I think that I could have done some interesting things with the balloons I got for my daughter's birthday for the "Up" theme from last week.

Of course, I didn't do any of those things. I hit a funk of sorts. The illness of a friend and her ultimate passing last week has kept me from accomplishing much beyond the basic tasks that keep a family of five running.

I've decided that I need to get back into this project. I think that it will help me to spend some time alone with my camera, so I'm going to ignore the assignments that I have missed and go forward with the remaining ones.

The theme for next week is "Temptation". I have some ideas.

In the meantime, I have taken a few photos that I'd like to share.

I mentioned that I was on vacation with my daughters. The boys stayed home to enjoy a week of drinking milk from the carton and eating cold raviolis out of the can. (I actually don't know what they did together, but I'm sure table manners were not a high priority.)

This is where we went. It is the beach of Bald Head Island, North Carolina.

Granted, this is not a particularly original subject or framing for a shot, but I always liked to see the sand, surf, sky, and grasses of the beach put together.

The sky was so perfect that day. "Not a cloud," as they say.

I walked closer to the water, turned to my right, and saw this scene.

I actually really like this shot. I like the color (this is completely untouched), and I love the one person sitting under an umbrella on the right side. I started to walk down the beach to get a little closer so the figure and umbrella would be clearer, but before I took two steps she stood up, collapsed her umbrella, and packed up her things to leave the beach.

I tried to crop the photo to bring the umbrella closer, but I always lost too much of something else so I left it as-is.

Before I left the beach I happened to see a piece of driftwood that looked interesting.

I love the texture of driftwood. So much contrast.

I wanted to see the wood in the context of the beach, so first I tried to frame it so that I could still see a lot of the sand and surf behind it.

I'd set my area of focus to the lower left corner and then held my breath to try and get a steady shot without a tripod.

Then I went to the other end of the log and focused on the texture I found there.

The closer I got, the more I wanted to shoot from a lower angle to really capture the grooves in the wood.

Nope. Lower.

Even lower.

Okay, maybe that's too low.

In the end, I think this one is my favorite of the bunch. I increased the contrast and sharpness a tad.

Overall, I'm happy with the few shots I was able to take on my own while on vacation. I am excited to get out and rejoin this project. Next up..."Temptation."