"Headbanger" Participants
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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