Today was a great day for a nature walk, with camera in hand, accompanied by two friends, two dogs (one we are dog sitting for a few days), and one adolescent who is a camera enthusiast. About 200 photos or so later, I decided my theme for the next few days will be 'nature.' I did delete about 40 photos immediately, was able to identify about 10 with possibilities (not sure if that should depress me or make me feel okay, with that low 'hit' rate), so look forward to working with these photos over the next few days and hoping some of the others prove to be more interesting than I currently think. Two-thirds of Beaver Island is state forest and this is a typical inland trail.
Green, summer green, so beautiful!!! I love that pathway and gorgeous lighting and shadows! Looks very inviting to take a walk and explore nature!! FAV!
Beautiful trail Taffy. I love the way the path leads your eye on through the picture and they way you have captured the height of the trees as well. Not easy to get both. Fav
Such a tranquil scene. Great perspective. I have days when no matter what pictures I have taken nothing impresses me! Other days I only take a few and I like them all! Personally I wouln't panic about the low 'hit' rate.
I am so behind on culling and processing it is impossible to think I might ever get caught up. Oh, maybe when I am snow bound. Like your leading line photo.
I don't know Beaver Island at all, but I am surprised to see the size of the trees and read about the percentage covered by forest - I have always imagined a small, open island! Sifting through images like you describe, used to take me hours. With LR and Scott Kelby's guidelines it became much faster and less tedious, but in all honesty, with these "see what I can find" outings I probably have about the same hit rate.
@ericdibosco Interesting to read your image of the island! Yep, it's mostly forested, with people's homes along the coast, in acreage blocks that used to be working farms, and around one of the inland lakes (there are five of them, but 3 have some homes around them. It's actually the size of Manhattan, but with under 500 full time residents. In the summer it gets up to about 3000 at various points in time (like this week when there is a music festival starting). There is a paved road in town and down the middle 2/3 of the island, but the rest of dirt roads. Very old-time feel here...though there is a state of the art school serving a small group of 50 kids! They have 9 teachers in the school...amazing ratio!
nice capture of the canopied forrest! have to say, much as i love being "away" from work and the city, i find cottage country and the bush a tad dull from a photographic perspective...
@northy I agree...I find variation and possibilities in the city. In nature, it's fun, but it becomes a question of how to capture a bug, flower, or sunset so that it isn't simply documentation or so that it contributes something new to the range of nature shots that already exist.
@taffy Thanks for explaining - you have described your island so well, it feels like I can see, smell and taste it! The fact that 2/3 are state forest, probably means that overdevelopment is unlikely - what a great place then to own property! Pity that the mozzies keep you away for such a long time, but poor permanent residents!
The light and colours are wonderful and I was very interested to read about the forest on the island. That is good to hear. good luck with the photo selection process.
Reading your comments with Eric and Northy, I am tempted to add a little something that I have been trying as a way to get a different perspective on nature and I have posted a few but I am still getting to grips with the idea and style.
Its the idea of doing a de-constucted landscape, as a way of focussing oneself when going on an outing such as this by creating a composite of multiple fragments of it that you’ve taken during a walk. I have found some interesting articles but this one is a useful starter. http://www.wexphotographic.com/blog/deconstruction-a-simple-trick-for-different-landscapes
May be completely different to what you are grappling with though! @ericdibosco@northy
@dibzgreasley Thanks Debs! I'm going to Big Field this morning with friend Vickey to find, we hope, sandhill cranes. I'm going to try to take a lot of photos with this in mind and see what I can do -- so if there are no cranes, maybe not so disappointing. It looks like a good combination of telephoto and macro shots, rather than wide angle...a whole different way to think about landscape. Very cool!!
@taffy Cool. Hope you have fun with it, let me know how you get on. I'd be interested to hear your views, as like I said, it is something I am still trying to get my head around.
@dibzgreasley I sent the article to Vickey, and am taking my macro and telephoto, and threw in the lensbaby just as a possibility. It's a huge field with, we hope, the cranes as well as bugs, snakes, etc. Tall grasses, trees, open field, so if I can get the shots, it could be fun. The sky is bland today, unfortunately. Thanks so much for posting this. I'm more excited about a photo walk than I've been in a long time -- so even if nothing comes of it, it's great to have a new way of thinking about what I'm seeing!
@dibzgreasley This is going to be a lot harder than it looks!!! Have to go through the photos, but think it will take multiple trips to get sufficient photos, then working each one, and then combining...a lot! But it's going to be fun. I like the two you've done -- conceptually they work well. Trying to do this in a grid, though, I think adds another element of complexity as I realized you need even numbers for each row of the same object. Thanks for getting me started on this!
@taffy@dibzgreasley hmmm... interesting and cool! not sure if it's for me - i'd have to give it some thought... i don't like making collages as a rule... but maybe if i thought of it as a tapestry or quilt or something... kind of too late now as i am back in the big bad city... but definitely something to contemplate...
What a beautiful photo and a wonderful place to take a walk. No wonder you love it there so much. Such a different side of you. Hope you are or did have a great time. I delete photos right away too. It can be really hard getting those photos that one really likes. I keep some in the event I learn new ways to process them. FAV
Wow, this is amazingly beautiful....love the diffuse light through the trees and the scale. I had the same impression of Beaver Island as some of the other commenters above. I imagined it being a small and arid island with a seasonal population, but obviously that is not the case. An island the size of Manhattan is huge, and even in high season the entire population could fit in a couple blocks of highrises! So, I am looking forward to seeing the lakes and the forests that you mentioned. It's been a while since I visited such a magical place...
July 28th, 2015
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Reading your comments with Eric and Northy, I am tempted to add a little something that I have been trying as a way to get a different perspective on nature and I have posted a few but I am still getting to grips with the idea and style.
Its the idea of doing a de-constucted landscape, as a way of focussing oneself when going on an outing such as this by creating a composite of multiple fragments of it that you’ve taken during a walk. I have found some interesting articles but this one is a useful starter. http://www.wexphotographic.com/blog/deconstruction-a-simple-trick-for-different-landscapes
May be completely different to what you are grappling with though!
@ericdibosco @northy
These are the two I've tried so far ... both without too much sky. I did these before I found the article I shared with you, so kinda different... http://365project.org/dibzgreasley/365/2015-05-07 and http://365project.org/dibzgreasley/365/2015-05-24