Tag Archives: study

Exploring Blue: SOL25 Day 14

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I’m reaching that point in this month-long blogging challenge where it feels like I have already written about the things that are interesting in my day. No one wants to read more about the rainy days we’ve been experiencing, the state of the streets in my neighborhood, or the outdoor public art at UCSD. So what to do? Weirdly, one of my posts is today’s inspiration for others…so maybe, just maybe, it can inspire me too.

I love to take photos and have an unimaginable number of photos on my phone (some taken with the phone, others taken with my Sony mirrorless camera and transferred to the phone). So today I decided to give myself a prompt and explore my camera roll.

I decided to search for blue, and with that single word as a prompt, so many photos came up for me to examine and think about.

Instead of going down a blue rabbit hole, I picked just a few for a short photo essay…an exploration of some of the blues that caught my eye.

I love to take photos of trees. Sometimes when the light and the background is just right, the photo offers a sense of the majesty and wonder of a tree. I love the blue of the mountains in the distance and the varied blues of the skies in the distance. There’s a moodiness that feels reflective, quiet…like a deep breath.

This Joshua Tree National Park sunset offers the deeper, more intense blues of the desert as dark chases the light across the sky. Once the sun dips, the stars will make their entrance crafting vivid pictures in the indigo as nighttime creeps across the desert.

But as much as I love trees, I am more likely to find myself walking along the shoreline. While it’s common to think about the ocean as blue, in this case it is the blue plastic bucket that stands out in the transparency of the water. I love the way the light and shadow also captures the subtle movement of the water.

I’m always a sucker for a shore bird, and this great blue heron was a wonderful surprise. Blue when it comes to herons is of the blue-gray variety and these tall, stately birds are a study in patience. They embody stillness–unless they are startled and then they spread and flap their enormous wings and somehow those large bodies take flight.

The ocean is never a single color–and that’s true of the sky too. Light and shadow shift the spectrum of blues and greens, purples and grays, pinks and oranges, offering a magnificent palette of colorful waves for surfers to explore (rightside up and upside down).

What will you find if you take time to explore your camera roll?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Study

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Anyone who reads my blog with any regularity knows that I spend plenty of time on the beach. And with my camera in hand, I find that I often begin to study the things that I see through my lens.  I’ve been drawn to seagulls lately…as evidenced in the photo gallery above (all images posted on my blog over the last few months).

And as I take photos of seagulls, I have also studied them.  Noticing their habits, their preferences, their personalities…and more.  As I walk along the shore, I am drawn to the crowd of seagulls.  They seem to be social creatures, gathering together to hang out.  They seem to have some favorite spots…and I walk through them on a regular basis.

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I love the way they casually walk away from me as I come near.  Seldom do they take flight as I approach, they just seem to shuffle over a bit as they keep a close eye on my movements.

I am always surprised by their adaptations.  The runoff from the storm drains flows into the ocean near the lifeguard station at our local beach.  I am assuming that this is fresh (ish) water (at least not salt water).  I often see seagulls taking a drink from this runoff–in spite of the fact that we humans get regular warnings to stay away from this water–especially after the rain because of the risk of bacteria.  I caught this guy in action, taking sip from the flowing runoff.

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I love to watch seagulls in flight.  They seem so carefree and graceful in the sky…when they are not squabbling with one another over a bit of food.  This guy today was nice enough to fly right in front of my camera.

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And there are times when it seems that the gulls take to the sky in a carefully choreographed dance, floating on the air waves, dipping and turning, swooping and gliding.  I notice this most often in the late afternoons when I squeeze a walk in after I am done with work.  There was a beautiful performance going on this afternoon as I headed back to my car for my drive home.

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So…what are you studying through your lens?  Nearby birds? The light in the afternoon?  The way snow melts? The plants in your garden or the tree you pass on your way to work each day? If you haven’t yet studied…this is your week for a mini study!

You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #study for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

So take a look around…what are you noticing?  What questions does it raise?  Use your lens as a tool for closer study…  I can’t wait to see what you are learning as you study through your lens!