Trying to find my way at the moment. I've not been photographing anything particularly wonderful. The studio is not finished at all, so I'm a bit limited there.
But things have to be made, work needs to be done, and so I'm playing around with my photos, trying this, trying that, with no expectations.
Yesterday I revisited photos I'd taken in the fall in Half Moon Bay. Could I muck about with them and perhaps come up with something different?
I found a photo of a bright pink cosmos and began with that. What if I add a texture to it? What If I remove a lot of detail from the flower, desaturate the image, then add an effect from Topaz? The flower's stem disappeared somewhere in the middle of all this and so I had to make one.
I kind of like this photo. Could I apply this series of steps to a different flower and get a different yet similar effect?
So I tried the same thing with the sunflower shot. I'm not so pleased with this one. But why?
I like the fluffy etherealness of the cosmos image, the soft gauzy look emanating away from the center. The sunflower doesn't have that same soft "feminine" feel to it. It's just too tough of a flower for this treatment.
Do you see what I've done? I have turned on the computer, felt completely uninspired, yet stuck with it, simply playing. Just playing. And in the process I discovered a certain "look" that is different from anything else I've created. And now I have a path, a road, an idea . . . something I can pursue with a bit more discipline, aiming toward a goal of sorts.
And if it doesn't work out? I've at least learned something. Tried something. Played with something. Experimented with something. You can make art or you can make excuses. I'm hoping this will be art.
©Carol Leigh
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