Abstracts anywhere . . .

Nothing like shooting at an antique car show to fill your frame with line, design, and color.

What I particularly like about this image is how there are all those horizontal lines repeating themselves in the upper section of the square.

For me, however, it's that one curving line that (a) contrasts with all the straight lines and (b) moves your eye down toward the bottom of the frame.

Without that little curve, your eye would tend to remain relatively static, flickering a bit left and right. With the curve, your eye flickers left/right and then, yee ha! Your eye swoops down the picture, only to come back up to the strong left/right elements.

Lather, rinse, repeat . . .

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Daily Dose of Fall #45

Photographed from the window of a moving car. ©Carol Leigh

Daily Dose of Fall #30

Shooting from the window of a moving car. Fall color on a very grey Oregon day. ©Carol Leigh

Daily Dose of Fall #25

This photo was taken through the car window as we drove past a tree farm in Oregon one fall day. The yellow leaves stand out nicely against a darker background. ©Carol Leigh

Low light and a slow lens: what to do?

Very low light yesterday morning and not a fast lens. What to do? Purposely move my camera in a swirling fashion during a longish exposure. A dying pink tulip in my front yard stands out against the brighter colors of dianthus (1.3 seconds at f/22). And rhododendrons look great above a white picket fence (0.4 seconds at f/32).

The key thing is, why "swirl" the camera? Why not do my usual "sweeps" from side to side, or my usual "swipes" up and down? The subject matter dictates my camera movement. A small grove of trees with their repeating vertical trunks lends itself more to an up and down camera "swipe." A beach scene with its wide expanses lends itself more to a side by side "sweep." And the flowers? Well, their shapes aren't vertical nor horizontal, so I figured a circular "swirl" would be more appropriate.

Great photos? Nah. But they're different and fun to create on a morning of low light and a slow lens. ©Carol Leigh

On the move

Chris and I drove inland to Salem today to run some errands. As usual, I took a lot of drive-by shots, such as this highway worker all decked out in neon green. The red stop sign is a nice complementary color to the green. And then on the way back, we stopped near Oregon State University so I could photograph this row of trees -- this time NOT from a moving car! (What a concept.) ©Carol Leigh