Its Been A While!

I haven’t had much time for blogging lately. I have still been taking photos though. Obsessively educating myself on technique both in camera and in retouching. Experimenting on voluntarily adding grain (never thought I would hear myself say that) and enjoying underexposing. I love the grey effect.

I have been posting mainly to my facebook page recently. If you would like to see some of my recent images you can find them here at Kim Clements Photographer.

Here is one I took recently of building storm clouds over Waikerie, South Australia.

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Word a Week Challenge: Clouds

I have never participated in this challenge before, but I stumbled upon it at Skinnywinch’s blog page and this image came to my mind. Taken from the front door step of my home. The sunsets where I live cast amazing light onto the clouds sometimes.

The Christmas List: 20. the weather outside

The weather outside today was perfect! This isn’t a photo of today, but the same perfect sky visited us. Blue with puffy clouds, can’t get much better. Warm, but not hot. Cool, but not cold. It was just the sort of day for spending outdoors, which we did.

Elemental November: Air

How to photograph air? It reminds me of the conundrum of explaining the wind to children. Hard to do and near impossible for them to understand. I do love a challenge though, so here is my first photo of AIR.

This photo was taken for the lines the clouds were forming. I felt they were really drawing me into the sky. The photo doesn’t capture the feeling of being there, but I still think it shows AIR fairly well.

If you want to show me your photos of AIR tag them #elementalnovember or post a link to them in the comments so I can have a look!

October Photo Challenge: 24. weather

Oh man!

This is the second time I have been prompted to take a photo of the weather and this time (just as the other time) the weather was, well, non-descript. It was hot. “The sun!” I hear you thinking. No. There was no sun. It was overcast. “The clouds! They have great light and dark properties.” Again, no. They were uniformly grey with very little by way of light, dark or even dicernible shapes. It WAS windy…for about 20 seconds. Just long enough for me to run inside and grab the camera and come back to still trees. Here in a nutshell was the weather where I am today.

Mmmm, blanket grey. The thing photographic dreams are made of. Detect sarcasm?

In fact I felt so bad about posting today’s weather photo I thought I had better post a couple of other photos from today just to un-depress you!

The one interesting thing about today’s weather was the light. There was a third ‘golden hour’ at about 10am. It must have been the way the cloud cover interacted with the sun, but I was at the supermarket (minus the camera!) and couldn’t maximise the opportunity. You should have seen the eyes bug out of my head though! I was trying to work out how I could get home faster. Again at about 7pm we had lovely colour as the sun set. I arrived at my photography class early and happened to park in front of an ornate fence that I thought I could get some photography practise on and was delighted when I looked THROUGH the fence into the most detailed, well cared for garden I have ever seen. It wouldn’t be to everyone’s taste, but it was so unexpected it was a lovely surprise. It was someone’s sanctuary hidden right on a main road.

And it had one of my favourite roses growing. A red, climbing David Austin. The detail is beautiful.

When I think of the grey clouds I follow it up by thinking about the red roses and I am happy.

Black and White Photography – Looking for contrast in the sky

I am still working on producing photographs in black and white that are worth viewing. I am considering what creates interest in these photos. From reviewing the photos I have taken so far it seems that those with contrast are better suited to black and white than those with lots of mid tones. Seizing the day on the way home at the traffic lights I saw some beautiful clouds with both light and dark and hoped they would be perfect for B&W!
Here they are.

I STILL couldn’t bring myself to make these black and white, they were better in colour.

The black and white photos I love all have striking contrast which seems to be easier said than done.

Oh well, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will my photographic skills develop in a day…or a month I suspect. I read today somewhere that you should only compare your photos to your earlier photos, but it’s so hard with so many beautiful photos and talented photographers out there!

I am…humbled by the difficulty level of Black & White photography.

I am… enjoying the long weekend away

My husband is a teacher. This weekend he had to write school reports which is always very hard for him with two little people that want his attention more often than not. So I took them away to Waikerie in the Riverland. I couldn’t take many photos because my iPhone was going flat and I had forgot my charger, but today I knew I was coming home and only needed enough charge for an emergency call in case of disaster so I took a few before I left. I really noticed that some sort of zoom lense would have been useful, but I never get sick of the back of my son’s head and you don’t need to zoom on that, heheh.

I also put in another photo of W sitting. I had a closer look and I loved it.

I had another of W in the sitting pose. I love this photo for his smile.

We found a daffodil at Grandma’s house in the garden.

E had to have a closer look

W sitting at the river front at Waikerie watching the ferry.

This has been a recent phenomenon for the last couple of weeks.

If you put W on the grass he WILL find a leaf

I love the feeling of reflection in this photo. Can babies meditate?

I have included this photo which I thought was interesting mainly because the iPhone took it all on its own.

Ignoring the filthy glass, the cloud formations were amazing on the trip home.

Again, ignore the dirty window glass, the sky was so beautiful. This doesn’t really capture it, but it was too good not to point and shoot and hope for the best.