Splendor In The Grass
Here’s a fun technique to try with your macro lens! Get out early in the morning when there is dew on the grass and lay down facing the sun. With an open aperture in the f/2.8 – f/5.6 range, focus on one dew drop and shoot away. If you are hand-holding you’ll want to boost your ISO up to compensate for any shake. Take note of the camera settings in the captions.
‘Just One Drop’ © Denise Bush • 100mm • 1/160 sec. • f/4.5 • ISO 640
‘Morning Dew’ © Denise Bush • 100mm • 1/80 sec. • f/5.6 • ISO 640
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Out Of The Past
Museums and historic sites are great places to have some photo fun. When I was in school my favorite subject was Art (of course) but my second favorite was History. I’ve always been drawn to movies and shows that are set in a time gone by. I love old-fashioned visuals and settings. It makes sense then that I am drawn to ‘things from the past’ with my photography. Displayed below are a few favorites from a visit to the Holcombe-Jimison Farmstead Museum in Lambertville, NJ. The time allotted there was short and many willing subjects are calling me to return.
‘Numbers 3 Through 8′ © Denise Bush
‘Shift Key’ © Denise Bush
‘Barber’s Chair’ © Denise Bush
‘Barbicide & Witch Hazel’ © Denise Bush
‘Random Letters’ © Denise Bush
‘Milk Bottles’ © Denise Bush
‘Jars In Window’ © Denise Bush
‘Dusty Bottles’ © Denise Bush
‘Stationary Gears’ © Denise Bush
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Tags: barber chair, bottles, farmstead, fine art, framed, gears, Holcombe-Jimison Museum, lambertville nj, mailbox, old fashioned, photo, photography, prints, things from past, typewriter
Going Back
A few weeks ago I took a second trip back to the Lonaconing Silk Mill in Western Maryland. When ‘time was up’ there last summer they practically had to drag me out. I knew there were many more subjects left to photograph and I wasn’t done! Having shot a lot of the machinery and wider scenes on my first visit, I decided to focus on more of the details this time. The shoes that workers had left behind when the plant closed in 1957 intrigued me. As the story goes, the silk mill workers went home from work one day unaware that the company would cease operations overnight. The next morning they were not permitted back in the building and personal items and tools of the trade were simply left in their places. For many of the subjects I composed both horizontal and vertical versions. I processed and worked on a variety of images in both color and black & white in order to explore their potential before settling on the collection to post here. I hope you will enjoy this trip back in time, when so many Americans worked in home town factories to make their living.
‘Shoe Assortment’ © Denise Bush
‘In Waiting’ © Denise Bush
‘Missing Person’ © Denise Bush
‘Left Behind’ © Denise Bush
‘Going Down’ © Denise Bush
‘Basement Artifacts’ © Denise Bush
‘Basement Remnants’ © Denise Bush
‘Retired’ © Denise Bush
‘Factory Fountain’ © Denise Bush
‘Ladies Toilet’ © Denise Bush
‘Prince Albert (In A Can)’ © Denise Bush
‘Crepe Tags’ © Denise Bush
‘More Spools’ © Denise Bush
‘Tool Caddy’ © Denise Bush
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Tags: abandoned, B&W, black & white, factory, fine art photography, grunge, HDR, high dynamic range, Klotz Throwing Company, lonaconing Silk Mill, maryland, MD, mill, old, photo blog, photography, silk mill, textile, web log
Crying Out For B&W
Some images just cry out for black & white conversion as did the images below. There was actually very little difference between the color versions and the final images. Hearing that the forecast called for morning fog one weekend not too long ago, I ventured into the pines on both Saturday and Sunday. Having captured some foggy images on a recent trip to Chincoteague that I was happy with, I was anxious to create more. Beginners often expect to capture a winner every time they go out but as we learn from experience, this is very often not the case. The weather, light and location must all be aligned, and this is one of the challenges of landscape photography. Here I show both horizontal and vertical versions. When I choose a scene to photograph I like to ‘work it’ … coming up with as many compositions and variations as I can. When is the best time to shoot a vertical? … right after you shoot a horizontal!
‘Fog & Dead Trees’ © Denise Bush
‘Fog & Three Trees’ © Denise Bush
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Tags: B&W, black & white, fine art, fog, horizontal, landscape, landscape photography, monochrome, photography, pine barrens, reservoir, trees, vertical
Postcards From Colorado
After our 2-night stay in Cortez (previous post) we headed North and into the higher elevations. The scenery on our way to Telluride was beautiful … in every direction! It was almost too ‘picture postcard perfect’! The gondola ride from Mountain Village into the town of Telluride was free and scenic. I loved how the western-looking town, neatly laid out below suddenly appeared after clearing the first peak. This wasn’t a photo-dedicated trip but I managed a few images I thought worth sharing. I hope you enjoy them as we welcome winter’s end!
‘Winter, San Juan Mountains’ © Denise Bush
‘Winter Peaks’ © Denise Bush
‘Telluride, Colorado’ © Denise Bush
‘Canyon Peaks’ © Denise Bush
‘Aspen Grove in Winter’ © Denise Bush
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Tags: aspen, B&W, CO, Colorado, digital photography, gondola, landscape, mountains, peaks, photography, snow, Telluride, winter
Mesa Verde In Winter
This year my husband and I celebrated Christmas a little differently by visiting our son who has been living in Colorado for about a year and a half. We flew into Durango in the southwestern part of the state and spent the first 2 nights in Cortez which is about 50 miles south of where he lives. It was great to be together and we visited Mesa Verde National Park the first day. I had been there twice before but in the summer when the park was busy with other tourists. By visiting off-season we enjoyed having the place (mostly) to ourselves and the snow added a wintry element to the scenes.
Mesa Verde is Spanish for ‘green table’. The park offers an amazing look into the lives of the ancestral Pueblo people who made the cliffs their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. There are about 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings protected within the park.
‘Clouds Over Mesa Verde’ © Denise Bush
‘Mesa Verde In Winter’ © Denise Bush
‘Cliff Dwellings In Winter’ © Denise Bush
‘Ancient Apartments’ © Denise Bush
‘Cliff Palace’ © Denise Bush
‘Signs Of Life’ © Denise Bush
‘Cliff Dwelling Remains’ © Denise Bush
‘Ancient Interior’ © Denise Bush
‘View From Mesa Verde’ © Denise Bush
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Tags: anasazi, ancient culture, cliff dwellings, CO, Colorado, landscape, mesa verde, native american, panorama, photography, pueblo, scenic, snow, west, winter
The Tenant House
I was out doing errands recently and spotted an old house in the distance that I had never noticed before. I drove a little closer to investigate and saw that it was abandoned and on private property behind a large historic home. I was about to write down the address when the owner drove up and stopped to get her mail. I just had to jump out, introduce myself and ask if I could photograph the building. She graciously agreed, as long as I promised to stay outside, sign a waiver and share a few photos. I went home and investigated the position of the sun with satellite maps before scheduling a late afternoon shoot. The owner said that she failed to see the artistic merit in the old ‘tenant’ house and that it’s scheduled to be torn down in a few months. Walking around the building several times I tried to find every composition possible and shot the inside, from the outside (reluctantly honoring my promise)! Soon the setting sun lit up the ugly, old house from across the big farm field. The ‘golden hour’ seemed warmer than I have ever seen as it beamed through the broken front windows giving the interior a glow. What fun!
‘The Tenant House’ © Denise Bush
‘End Of Day’ © Denise Bush
‘Tenant House Sunset’ © Denise Bush
‘Looking In’ © Denise Bush
‘Tree Out Back’ © Denise Bush
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Tags: abandoned house, broken-down, farm house, farmhouse, golden hour, HDR, low light, old, photography, spooky, warm light, weathered
