Weekly Header Challenge ~ Almost Perfect

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew 

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Almost Perfect

It was my turn to pick the theme, and I took a chance this time.  Almost Perfect means an image that is beautiful, that I love, that captures a special moment--but there's something about it that's not quite right.  This isn't the easiest theme to find images for, either, since most of my "Fail!" images get deleted.  But since I do have quite a few (doesn't everyone?), I managed to find some samples for you.  ;)

I was able to edit some of the images, which you'll see below.  Others I ended up keeping just because of the moment--that one you'll never get back again, and it's the only image you have.

We'll start with my header image, which I preface with this one so you get the context.  Walking through the Jardin des Tuileries (The Tulip Garden) in Paris, we stopped at a fountain for a break and to enjoy the view.  All these pigeons--and a few gulls--were flocking, so I snapped a few images.  In the below, I caught a jogger breaking up the flock.  I took these shots in burst mode, so you can see the birds just beginning to fly, then flying right at me.  I ended up loving the shots, and kept them.

The full image of my header.

The most recent images I have were taken just a few weeks ago at a wedding in Texas (one weekend of 70-degree weather, woohoo!!).  I shot the rehearsal, and captured a candid of the bride.  Of course, after I downloaded the images, I noticed the lovely plastic bag right there.  Stephanie loved the image, though, and wanted me to keep it.  I do love her candid expression, smiling with her friends as she prepares for her wedding day.

At the actual wedding, Stephanie and David had unity sand instead of a unity candle.  I had never heard of this, but they actually bought the kit at Bed, Bath & Beyond.  Wow.  It was pretty neat--each took turns pouring his/her colored sand into the glass bottle until it was full.  The blue and white was beautiful!  I was sitting in the second row to capture everything at the altar; but the bride had her sister's friend snapping candids.  And this friend was positioned behind the altar.  She ended up being in almost every shot I took.  I do have several shots of the unity sand, and managed to crop her out of most (I couldn't zoom since I had my 50mm fixed lens on).

Lightroom is not the best at editing out things you don't want in your image, but little by little I managed to do it.  Fifteen painstaking minutes later, I had a beautiful image of a beautiful moment.  Whew!

One of my first epic fails as a photographer was during a shoot for a fife and drum group.  Lightroom could handle turning these images into somewhat faded, dreamy prints, but I didn't know if it could handle the fisherman walking through my shot:

I couldn't believe I had done the above!  I was about to set up the shot, when this guy came up to the trail so we let him pass by.  I spent the next several seconds setting up the shot and positioning myself, and I was so excited about it I didn't notice that the guy was still in the shot.  Duh.

I loved the image so much I ended up working on it until the fisherman had disappeared.  The client ended up loving the image and ordering prints!  It was only after the prints were delivered that I told them about my "duh" moment.  :)

On to my son's and his friend's graduation!  No bleacher seats meant we had to try to look through the sea of mortarboards to find Jacob and Bryan.  Here's one I managed to get of Bryan; the fuzzy stuff on the left and right are people's heads.

Bryan knew where we were sitting, and I caught him looking back once.  That's better!

Oh, and then I caught my son.  Snap!  Right.  Just love his expression, and the non-focus of the camera.  I kept it anyway, since it was a moment that would never happen again.

I set up this selfie of Fernando and me in a local park (Lions Park on Briarcliff), because on a scouting trip for a family photo session I had found this park and loved the almost heart-shaped tree with the brook behind it.  The photo was set up with a tripod and timer.  There are homes back there, and I hoped to not get much in the image.  You can see the fence, though.  Grr.

Trees and brush are pretty easy to edit out, and I managed to do a decent job.  Here's the "fixed" image:

One last series, back in Paris!  In the Tuilerie Garden, we spotted the Eiffel Tower.  The below is the setting, nicely framed with some trees:

I knew I'd have to get closer to eliminate random tourists, but see that statue in the above image?  Yeah, naked woman statue.  I really didn't want that in my image either.  So, I had Fernando stand strategically in front of the statue, and positioned the camera on a concrete ledge so that I could see the Eiffel Tower just beyond us in the distance.  Timer set, I ran into the image, et voilà!  No statue.  But waaaaait a minute.  There's my camera backpack!  I recall trying to edit it out, and I think I finally gave up and determined to enjoy the image.  It was Paris, after all!

Hope you enjoyed looking at my "Almost Perfect's" in photography!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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