Flowers along the sidewalk Uptown
Mother and daughter enjoy flowers at Talbots Flowers in Uptown Westerville
Flowers along the sidewalk Uptown
Mother and daughter enjoy flowers at Talbots Flowers in Uptown Westerville
Choosing colorful subjects to not illustrate the story
Red wagons with yellow daisy plant – My Final Photo for May 11, 2013
It’s a cold day in May. What to do except go to the garden store to see what people are buying?
They were buying what you would expect from greenhouses filled to overflowing with flowering annuals and perennials, and vegetable plants.
There is really not anything new you can shoot at a garden center with the exception of some new type of plant with a strange, genetically varied blossom. Hoover Gardens is one of the places I haunt, visiting often during the year to see what may be different.
Searching for the perfect plant
Today was no different so I decided to do a still-life using three of the stored red wagons and one of the yellow daisy plants instead of continuing to watch for someone sorting their way through pink, purple, yellow, white, and variegated varieties of spring plants.
If this were a standard news feature assignment any photo I shot of shoppers would have been publishable. It’s difficult to shoot a bad photo with so many repeating patterns, colors, design shapes, and people available. Setting up a still-life as I planned would have stepped out of the bounds of photojournalism and not be permitted. I wasn’t on assignment but shooting for a personal journal and possible;e stock sales.
The composition began with a great deal of luck. There were three unused wagons sitting next to each other in the open shade on the northern side of the outdoor shelter.
I chose a single plant with the tallest and most prominent flower placing it just off center in the center wagon.
Shot with the 70-200mm lens with a narrow depth of field. Shot a variety of focal lengths sometimes tight on the plant with others frames wide enough to include more of the background.
My final edit is a horizontal frame that cropped out the distracting background. It also leaves space around the slightly off-center plant for headline or story type that might be necessary.
You can see the variations and other photos at The Gardiner Collection.
No photos of my sister! Put the camera away!
Baby crying in stroller at farmers market – My Final Photo for May 8, 2013
Wednesday beginning in spring means the Uptown Westerville Farmers Market where I spend several hours each week talking with farmers and their customers. Usually I come away with photos of the latest crops or someone inspecting fruits and vegetables or carrying their selections to their cars.
Today was different from the summer when I photographed the hands of farmers with their produce.
I heard the low volume cries of a baby in the stroller next to me at the last booth in the market. It was a cry just loud enough to be heard but not of such a volume that the baby sounded in distress.
The lower section of the stroller held an older child who was too involved eating the recently purchased cookie to care about her sibling crying just over her head in the second compartment. I couldn’t see the crier because the sun shield was folded over her.
Her mom, taking a break from deciding which breads to buy, folded down the shield to make sure everything was OK. It was, except the baby began to cry louder once she saw mom. Mom, recognizing the increased volume and intensity as a feined attempt at physical distress, went back to her shopping.
The tears, the expression, and her reaction when the baby saw mom intrigued me.
I got two frames before the oldest child, a sister holding a cookie and standing beside the stroller looked at me like the grenade boy by Diane Arbus, reached over and closed the shield. She then looked at me, tilted her as if to say “Go away! This is my sister and you’re not going to be taking pictures of her crying!”
She turned and walked away shoulders held high and the cookie slowly moving toward her grinning mouth.
The photo is ordinary but the story elevates it to My Final Photo for May 8, 2013.
No photos of my sister! Put the camera away!
Baby crying in stroller at farmers market – My Final Photo for May 8, 2013
Wednesday beginning in spring means the Uptown Westerville Farmers Market where I spend several hours each week talking with farmers and their customers. Usually I come away with photos of the latest crops or someone inspecting fruits and vegetables or carrying their selections to their cars.
Today was different from the summer when I photographed the hands of farmers with their produce.
I heard the low volume cries of a baby in the stroller next to me at the last booth in the market. It was a cry just loud enough to be heard but not of such a volume that the baby sounded in distress.
The lower section of the stroller held an older child who was too involved eating the recently purchased cookie to care about her sibling crying just over her head in the second compartment. I couldn’t see the crier because the sun shield was folded over her.
Her mom, taking a break from deciding which breads to buy, folded down the shield to make sure everything was OK. It was, except the baby began to cry louder once she saw mom. Mom, recognizing the increased volume and intensity as a feined attempt at physical distress, went back to her shopping.
The tears, the expression, and her reaction when the baby saw mom intrigued me.
I got two frames before the oldest child, a sister holding a cookie and standing beside the stroller looked at me like the grenade boy by Diane Arbus, reached over and closed the shield. She then looked at me, tilted her as if to say “Go away! This is my sister and you’re not going to be taking pictures of her crying!”
She turned and walked away shoulders held high and the cookie slowly moving toward her grinning mouth.
The photo is ordinary but the story elevates it to My Final Photo for May 8, 2013.
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