Just spent a little time doing some studio (my basement workshop/laundry room area) shooting. Sure is different then the great outdoors where the light is the light. You know the sun is the sun, which really sucks to shoot in. Cloudy days are good days, no they’re great days! At least from a outdoors photographers stand point.
I’m not set up with all the lighting bells and whistles for easy controlled studio type of work but I found it fun to do. I have a secret subject I’m going to start playing with in the near future. Readers of this blog will be the first to know, it will be obvious the first time I post a shot here.
In the meen time, I noticed the bouquet of red roses Bobbi had gotten me last week (yeah really I got red roses)! Anyway they have seen their days of beauty slowly slip by, hour by hour, day by day. Just where does the beauty go? It was there last week. Has it really gone? Can something that was so pleasant to look at just turn unpleasant? I don’t believe that’s a factor of the subject, that’s a choice of the beholder. Which at this moment is me. And I still like the roses. Withered, wilting, drying up. Some as this image shows turning brown with drooping heads on brown drying stems. Wow, I think they look cool! I knew the second I noticed such characteristics I had to photograph them again.
So these images were produced just an hour or so ago. Carefully manuvering my camera with a 70-200mm lens with teleconverter attached. Getting as close as I could and still maintain focus. What fun. The lighting was the difficult part of this. Both incandescent and florescent was used. Along with my newest photoshop toy, Topaz Adjust 3. The more I play with this plugin, and for those of you wondering what a plugin is, it’s just an added program installed within photoshop to provide extra adjustments in this case with details, exposures and colors. You can go crazy as I have talked about before or just try to bring out the nature looks of subjects. I would put my adjustments to these two shots between the natural and the going crazy look. The more I use Topaz Adjust the more I like it. It’s basically just another tool in the photographers toolbox.
Before I wrap this little photo sharing moment up, I want to mention the title I chose for this entry. Where does Beauty Go? Truthfully, does it leave? Does it just disappear? I don’t believe it can. What was beauty in your mind is still beauty. That hasn’t changed. Whether it’s a picture or an emotion. You still hold it dear and allow it to instill comfort. Things change. Flowers change, people change, our lives change. Change is not all bad or all good. It’s what you make of the change. It’s how you look at the new road and challenges before you. Are you growing older, or can you chose to grow wiser. It’s ultimate yours to decide.
Look at the withering rose and see a new beauty that wasn’t there last time you looked. Make the changes in your life good and the more good changes you will see.
