Sunday, May 26, 2013

22


I think this is the most fun I've had doing this blog so far, both determining my concept, and then executing this idea. As I mentioned in the previous post, I asked my friend Rachel to give me three theme ideas, and I would select my favorite. When I picked 22, several concepts came to mind - shooting 22 of something, shooting the sunrise on the morning of May 22, finding an object that was shaped like 2's.

I finally settled on "painting" light in the shape of 22. The perfect source for this was the tail lights of a car. So I parked myself on a bench by a busy road at night, set the shutter speed for 1/4 sec., and clicked away at passing cars. I would intentionally jiggle the camera while pressing the shutter. I took 164 exposures, and of course most of them turned out as random squiggle shapes, but I ended up with a couple that were shaped like 2's, and this was my favorite.   -Cort




This was a fun theme. I too, pondered over all things 22 during the week. I even found myself counting the light bulbs on the carousal mirror at the zoo (and darn it, there were 23). I have always enjoyed reading, especially in the summer:  it seems like there is more time to read. So I grabbed 22 of my favorite books. Of course, I have so many favorites, that it was hard to just pick 22. But these 22 are some of the ones that I love and many of them are ones that I've read several times. And plan to read again!  I've also had the honor of meeting David Sedaris and Billy Collins and they signed their books for me...how cool is that?!  -Dina

Next week's theme: Double

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Detail


I love the Joslyn Art Museum's architecture. The style is Art Deco and the main part of the building was completed in 1931. The new addition was added in 1994. I love the details on the outside of the museum, especially the sculptural panels that can be found on all sides of the building. This is a photo of the "Dissemination of Intelligence (or, Distribution of News)." It was the first of the panels to be carved; more information can be found here: http://www.joslyn.org/collections-and-exhibitions/the-building/details.aspx?ID=2.  I'm also very excited that soon, admission to the Museum will be free 7 days a week. What a great gem we have in Omaha! -Dina 



When I think of a photo with detail, I think of one with a tight crop that removes the extraneous clutter and allows the viewer to focus just on the most visually interesting part(s). In this particular photo, I think the interesting details are the beautiful pattern of the girl's head scarf, and also the colored squares of her art project. By the way, she was very focused on the details of this bird feeder - despite the seeming randomness of the pattern, she had a very specific plan for what colors went in what squares.  -Cort

Next Week's Theme: I'm trying something new this time for the theme. I asked my friend Rachel Mindrup to come up with three ideas, and I would select my favorite. She's very creative, and I knew that she would bring challenging, off-the-wall ideas that Dina and I may not think of ourselves. She succeeded. Without further delay, next week's theme is: 22

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Crowded


I went to a Kansas City Royals baseball game against the Yankees this week, so that gave me plenty of opportunity to experience "crowded." The height of my frustration with the crowds during an event like this is the traffic on the way there, finding a parking spot, and the traffic on the way out. I got a good vantage point from the upper tier of the stadium and then I strapped on the telephoto lens and zoomed in on this crowded space. -Cort


The only major crowd I encountered this weekend was the one at Menards on the first nice Saturday in Omaha since last summer. I didn't have my camera to capture the chaos in the garden center (shame on me!) so instead, I looked up the definition of crowded: 

crowded  past participle, past tense of crowd (Verb)

Verb
  1. (of a number of people) Fill (a space) almost completely, leaving little or no room for movement.   ............I liked the idea of finding something that fit the description, and even though they aren't people, the crayons fill their space in a very organized, complete and crowded way. -Dina
Next week's theme: Detail

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Broken



I love my new mini globe for my garden that is made up of broken pieces of glass. If only it would warm up enough to actually garden. -Dina 




Aren't we all broken in one way or another? I tried a self portrait this week. I bought a cheap mirror at Goodwill and broke it on purpose (let's hope the 7 years of bad luck thing is just an old wives' tale). I then positioned the camera, the mirror, and myself so that my image was reflected. It took a long time and a lot of clicks to get the positioning, focus, and exposure settings just right, but I finally ended up with an image I'm happy with.  -Cort

Next Week's Theme: Crowded