iPhoneography Challenge: Macro

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This gravestone marker from a New England cemetery caught my eye.  It symbolizes the Lady Bird, which appeared on gravestones in the colonial era and represents the soul flying to heaven.  Another message in the image is the bird looking at its tail–which is a mark of prosperity.  An interesting mix of the secular and the spiritual!

Lady Bird from a colonial-era grave

Lady Bird from a colonial-era grave

Here’s a closeup of Lady Bird shot with a macro lens.  I think it’s interesting, but almost too close to be meaningful.  It’s hard to figure out what you’re seeing, but still I like the texture of the stone, which almost looks like granite.    In the balance, I  prefer the first shot taken at a distance.  Do you?

Lady Bird macro

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting

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Absolut Vodka Bus Stop Decor in Chicago

Absolut Vodka Bus Stop in Chicago

One of the joys of photography is capturing a slice of time.

To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.–Henri Cartier-Bresson 

Here’s my memory of this photo.  It was a frigid night in Chicago several winters ago, when my son and I stood on a street, our cameras poised, waiting for just the right shot.  He was teaching me about motion blur.  I was a willing student, but couldn’t wait to get out of the cold!  Our patience was rewarded when we captured a man running past this bus stop.

I love photography for another reason:  it fuses both my personal recollection of what I was doing at the moment I took the shot, as well as the memory of the subject hurrying home on this cold winter night.  Is this true for you too?  Does photography join in time both your personal memory of what you were doing at the moment you took the shot as well as the contents of the photo?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here are some wonderful posts on this same topic:

  1. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/weekly-photo-challenge-fleeting/
  2. http://mothergrogan.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/weekly-photo-challenge-fleeting/
  3. fleeting sunlight | Flickr Comments
  4. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | cet4k cet1k cet0k
  5. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting – Vehicle Missing | Required Writing
  6. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | Nature Mom
  7. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment | Mike Hardisty Photography
  8. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | Anotherdayinparadise2′s Blog
  9. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting (aka Shutter Lag) | Iam Who Iam
  10. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | flowing design by suri
  11. Fleeing, Fleeting | Love in the Spaces
  12. Weekly phot Challenge : Fleeting | Denis Danze Photographe Freelance
  13. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | Blessings through raindrops…
  14. Weekly Photo Challenge / B4 Retouch: Fleeting / Mont Beuvray View | What’s (in) the picture?
  15. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | Across the Bored
  16. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | atreegrowsinbklyn
  17. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: FLEETING | Words We Women Write
  18. WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: FLEETING | Words We Women Write
  19. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | Marsha Lee
  20. Lunch Break | On the Streets of San Francisco
  21. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | mightwar
  22. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting « Jejak-jejak yang Terserak
  23. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | humanTriumphant
  24. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting rays of sunlight turn to green. | through the luminary lens
  25. A Tail of Two Wileys | Wiley’s Wisdom
  26. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | About-One-Thing
  27. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | janna hill
  28. Fleeting moments | authenticallyannamarie
  29. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting III | My DogaBlog
  30. Weekly Photo Challenge – Fleeting: Flag Throwers | Bastet and Sekhmet
  31. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting | Rainbow Bakery
  32. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting (aka Shutter Lag) (iamwhoiamnowblog.wordpress.com)
  33. Weekly photo challenge : fleeting (sugarandspiceandallthingslife.com)
  34. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting – a photo essay (marsowords.wordpress.com)
  35. Weekly Photo Challenge – Fleeting (joeowensblog.wordpress.com)
  36. Weekly Photo Challenge – Fleeting (whatmycameracaptures.com)
  37. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting (longwalksanddarkchocolate.com)
  38. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting (sdunnebacke.wordpress.com)
  39. Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Fleeting (woollymuses.wordpress.com)
  40. Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting (dailypost.wordpress.com)
  41. 6-8-13 Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting (quotidianhudsonriver.com)

iPhoneography Monday Challenge: Nature

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Decisions, decisions. Which photo of the flowers do you like best? The original, the one with the paint filer, or the black and white?

I have profoundly mixed feelings about manipulating images with the click of a mouse. Is it true artistry or is it simply technical skill? Then again, in the darkroom, we did our share of manipulation–burning and dodging a part of the image, cropping it, and using different photo papers and solutions. Maybe I’m starting to sound like the artists at the turn of the century who deplored the advent of the film camera. They reasoned that photo technology could capture reality with such precision, that it would replace other forms of artistic expression like drawing and painting. As it turned out, photography became its own art form, just other new media.

So, coming back to my original question, which photo filter do you like? Or, do you prefer the original, minimally-altered image taken on my iPhone 4 with an Olloclip macro lens? I’d love to hear what you think!

Flower Burst--Original Shot


Flower Burst–Original Shot 

Flower Burst with Paint Filter

Flower Burst with Paint Filter

Flower Burst Black and White

Flower Burst Black and White

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Sign Says

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Here are three of my favorite signs from New York City.

An Old Testament God speaks in this sign from lower Manhattan.

From a mission in lower Manhattan

From a mission in lower Manhattan

And here’s a mysterious sign from the Brooklyn Museum that still leaves me puzzled.  Why is it forbidden to wait?  And why is the sign in Arabic?   What do you think?  Any ideas?

Waiting forbidden, the Brooklyn Museum

Waiting forbidden, the Brooklyn Museum

And finally, here’s a memorial to a loved one on a wall along Arthur Avenue, in the Bronx.

In Memory Of, Arthur Avenue, the Bronx

In Memory Of, Arthur Avenue, the Bronx

Great Posts on this Week’s Theme:

 

iPhoneography Challenge: Architecture

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Wacker Drive Pano, taken with the Photosynth App

Wacker Drive Pano, taken with the Photosynth App

Thanks to Sally (http://lensandpensbysally.wordpress.com/) for her weekly iPhoneography Challenge, which inspired me to post this shot taken on the corner of Wacker Drive and Michigan a few weeks ago.  As I stood there waiting for a light to change, I was struck by the vista.  The range and beauty of the architecture in Chicago is stunning.   This view of the skyline was breathtaking, so I shot a panorama with the Photosynth app.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background

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Several weekends ago in Chicago, we stumbled across this stunning pair of 50-foot glass towers in Millennium Park designed by the Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.  Called the Crown Fountain, the towers are set in a small reflecting pool.  But they are deceptive.  When you get close, you can see LED-generated images of Chicago citizens, smiling on the surface of the walls.  Periodically, the faces change, their eyes blinking, their mouths opening to release a jet of water, which fills a shallow pool.

As we watched people interact with the sculpture and the water,  I took a number of shots at a fairly close range, but the framing was wrong.  Just a portion of the wall was  in the background and it didn’t provide enough context for the viewer.

Close up--Crown Fountain, Chicago

Close up–Crown Fountain, Chicago

The trick for this photo was to step way back in order to capture both the smaller figures in the foreground, as well as the fountain and city skyline in the background.    As with all photography (and in life too)–sometimes we are so focused on one small part of the picture, when we really need to take a few steps back and take in the bigger, wider meaning.

Spanish artist Jaume Plenza's sculpture in Millennium Park, Chicago

Spanish artist Jaume Plenza’s sculpture in Millennium Park, Chicago

This has also been true on a personal level at various times of my life, when I am too focused on myself and my little life–instead of stepping back and looking at the broader picture, the wider world.   Do you agree that the photo needed to be taken from a far distance to get the full effect or do you prefer the close up?

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

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Don’t get me wrong. I love to escape to a new place and explore the food, the sights, and the culture of another land.

Wind Star

On this trip, we sailed from Rome to Barcelona on the Wind Star–a breathtakingly beautiful sailing ship with decks made of teak wood and gracious staff that wanted to indulge us–with food, drink, and creature comforts.

Jiuwn, Wind Star

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We explored glittery Monaco, climbing the steep, winding streets.  In Elba, we walked along the sandy beaches.

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And visited the mansion where Napoleon was exiled–
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But honestly, escape means more to me than travel.  In fact, this is not my preferred method of escape. I hear your cries of protest. “What? Are you crazy? This is the perfect escape!”  I must disagree.  For me, the ideal escape is into the world of imagination–

Walking into the movie theater and sinking into the velvet seats, watching a story unfold.  Or, devouring books, swallowing them whole, and in the process entering the minds and hearts of the characters. (For a while as a teenager, I only read books about the sailors, the sea and their superstitions–like the figure head at the prow.  It is not simply an ornament.  Its purpose is to  ward off evil and appease the fickle gods of the sea who apparently love voluptuous women.)

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Or, picking up a camera and capturing the essence of a moment, or a place, or a particular slant of light.  Or, listening to music, which triggers an emotional response in the brain and can link the present to a past memory or emotion.  What can be better than that?

Art is enduring.  It transcends the ordinary.  It can uplift our spirits and link us to the eternal.  It can mitigate pain and suffering and transport us to another place.  For all these reasons, it is the perfect escape.

This statue erected in the lobby of a municipal building in Amsterdam reminds us of that fact.

The musician-honoring the spirit of those Jewish artists who continued to create even within the prison camps during World War II

Honoring the creative spirit of Jewish artists who played even within the prison camps during World War II

It honors the Jewish artists who continued to play and create new works even within the walls of prison camps during World War II.  Their art endures, just as all art.  It was an escape from the harsh realities of prejudice and war, but it was also a testament to the power the creative human spirit.

Do you agree?

Other Interpretations of this week’s theme: