Colour - Weekly Photo - 6

Colour

Yes yes, I'm late and I know it. I did have a pretty good excuse though. I visited Washington DC at the weekend. Yup I flew all the way to the US for 2.5 days of mooching around the most sparse city on the planet, or it certainly felt that way.

There were two photos that I really wanted to capture on the theme of colour. The first was the iconic US flag. The other was a photo of Martin Luther King's memorial. However, I settled on something a little different.

I'd always wanted to visit the Library of Congress. Little did I know it actually spans several separate buildings. The more you know, right?

Anyway, as I was reading up on DC and the Library, I found that they had a re-creation of Jefferson's library with many of the same books. Jefferson had a great saying, "I cannot live without books". Whilst not a regular reader, I've always enjoyed how books really open up my imagination and transport me somewhere else. It's quite amazing how vivid and colourful we can make these imaginations.

And whilst many of the books in Jeffersons library were actually far from the kind that would encourage an imagination (for example, there were multiple books on bankruptcy), the library itself was a feast of colour.

Post-processing for this photo saw some cropping, a slight negative vignette and, new for me, less clarity. I found reducing the clarity gave a softer edge (well, duh), but felt it was more in keeping with a library hundreds of years old.

COLOUR

COLOUR alternative

Broken - Weekly Photo - 5

BROKEN

Tim chose this weeks theme and he came away with a corker of a photo. Very well done Timmy.

For me, I had hoped that a Saturday spent roaming around Bath would have given me a plethora of shots to choose from, but alas, even though I had to deliver a broken iMac to a store in Bath, because of the miserable and rather cold weather the camera stayed locked in its bag.

Instead, I went for a walk on the Sunday and knew something was bound to turn up.

I found a broken fence that was, at first glance ,perfect and I took a few shots in the bushes. However, walking back I wasn't particularly pleased that I found something so obviously broken. I'm deeper than that, more artistic even, right?

And that's when I found this shot. I shared a phrase with a close friend many years ago and it's stuck around with me at various times "One man's gem is another man's stone". There are lots of similar lines out there, but fundamentally it's a simple message and in this case, whilst the path is 'broken' it's a mirror into a stunningly beautiful reflection. And perhaps it's then far from broken. Or something equally as deep and inspirational. Maybe.

Once more black and white and a little vinaigrette-ing too.

As I'm already 5 days late and had very little time for post-processing, I would like to concede that I would have preferred to add more 'snap' to the reflection, but this will suffice.

BROKEN

Personal - Weekly Photo - 4

PERSONAL

I chose the theme this week and went for personal. I had two shots in mind. 1) was of a collection of personal items that I keep in a small wicker basket and the 2) was a macro shot of a watch that was given to me on my very dear Uncle's death.

I can't say either has progressed my photography capabilities, which perhaps is something that Tim and I should strive to do each week, but they were apt for the theme.

I did opt to use an old post-processing trick, a vignette, which I probably over-used in the past, that really helped draw the focus into the centre of this shot.

PERSONAL

My alternative photo for this week was the collection of personal items. Each one is many years of memories for events, people and jobs. Each one treasured and remembered and each one quite personal to me.

PERSONAL alternative