Saturday, April 04, 2009

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder


As it's Saturday you know you are going to get as drab an image as I have to hand.always far too The realities of daylight can drastically affect an image. That said, it's also far more rewarding to challenge yourself( and you out there) to find colours in a grey world. This is the spot beneath my feet from yesterdays image. I chose not to compose the image just simply look around until I found a touch of colour on an otherwise blank grey canvas. If I wanted an arty statement image, I would have kicked the leaves and the fag butt out of shot and just kept the fruit red/orange fruit in, and applied those photography rule of the thirds to the fruit. This was the whole scene though, not tampered or stage manged. No cropping, saturation or contrast alterations. It is what it is purely an image to demonstrate that using your eyes and brain you can find dirty(the fag butt) pretty( the fruit) things (both) anywhere and using the drabbest backgrounds to really enhance those natural colours you find. It's only a photo of the path in the nature reserve. Nothing more, nothing less.


For those of you who are fascinated by the sky colours here and their intensity and are they real, they sure are. Most of the night images, usually dusk I use are taken in very secluded areas where there is no lamp light or light from building or houses, hence that nasty orange glow pollution you get which pervades the sky is omitted. The natural sky colours, especially the violet/ indigo hues are therefore so opaque and rich because of this lack of orange glow pollution. Coastal and country areas have the most amazing starry skies too due to the lack of nasty street lighting. Next time you are in the country or shooting the horizon over a coast, try dusk and around 15mins before the light fades completely. You'll be sure to get those rich violets. The same applies to dawn for those flamming orange, burnt rose and hot pinks. If you are very lucky you may even get a peculiar green tint( only about twice have even I got this) which is so spooky as it's a colour you don't associate with the sky.





Go out and capture the colours. I'm waiting!

29 comments:

BLS said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
lucy said...

What fruit is that? Is it a crab apple. It's kind cute.

laxeylass said...

I know nothing about photography but I know the island. I agree about the colours being stronger. In Bath the light pollution is horrible.

Brian Miller said...

like the random bits of color playing off the soil. good texture. hope you avoid the headache in the morning. lol.

Anonymous said...

I like real images better than the pretty ones. The ciggie stub is not nice but though. Dirty habit.

syel said...

this is a real beauty! how all of the colourful colours stood out against the gray soil. i agree about how to get all the wild colours although it takes a lot of patience to get them. :D

Virginia said...

Thought it was a ball, but if it's fruit I like it, too !! Only you would have seen the potential , drunk or sober! HAA
V

magiceye said...

love your line of thinking and the excellent result!

Cloudia said...

Thank you for the lesson, Teacher!
Aloha from Hawaii-

Gaelyn said...

That shot worked great. Tip one for me.

mrsnesbitt said...

Right the countdown has started and I am loading a timer on my blog as we count to the TT. I just to say squeezed into my leather trousers yesterday so I am on a diet, aim to lose 1 whole stone at least! Watch this space!

Tom said...

I took a picture yesterday of a Flowering Current Bloom that a young girl pulled off the bush.... it stood out beautifully on the pavement... I did remove a crisp packet from shot though... ha!

Love the Goth Sky... just about as stunning as stunning can be.. :O)

Dave said...

It's not so much as do I like it as whether I understand why you are showing us.I do as a lesson. Nice contrast to the purple image. You are right beauty is everywhere.

Pam said...

Thanks for the tips B.

Jane Hards Photography said...

Denise - I'm sure you'll have no problems losing a stone with the goal of the TT.

Jane Hards Photography said...

Denise - I'm sure you'll have no problems losing a stone with the goal of the TT.

Gordon said...

A different shot for sure and a great explanation; I like it. Thanks for yet another art/photography lesson.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

The little red fruit makes its statement to play down the dirty cigarette stub...earth the most elementary, good choice and different. Instead up, down.
The purple sky looks like from a gothic novel; yes and I love black fingerless gloves, who would have thought of that. I have made pictures which had beautiful violet hues now I know why, thanks for that.

Dragonstar said...

Only you would think of making two consecutive posts with two such different photos. That sky looks so much like pictures from fairy story books when I was a kid. I'm afraid we have too many street lights here to see skies like that. I love your photo of the ground at your feet, too. That spot of red really makes the whole thing!

imac said...

Nice one, a friday night drinker, (just like me).
When I got in this morn at 2am, there was a beauty of a moon, camera in hand went outside ,***** blow me the camera wouldnt work, guess what I forgot to take the lens cover off.haha.

Marie Reed said...

I'm colour blind but love hearing reading about the burst of it! It helps my imagination:) ope you are aving a appy our!

Unknown said...

Not drunk enough then ! ha ha ha

Anonymous said...

Well said, indeed.

stromsjo said...

The lack of street lights certainly works miracles. Like any astronomy student will testify.

stromsjo said...

The lack of street lights certainly works miracles. Like any student of astronomy will testify.

Anonymous said...

A path is a path is a path, as they say. I can just imagine falling and getting a mouthful of this dirt.

Mojo said...

I think latitude may have something to do with how much of the violet/indigo/blue end of the spectrum comes through. Because down here closer to the equator, we'd never ever see a sky this purple. Not dawn nor dusk. Not even over the ocean.

Also, was this shot taken facing toward or away form the sun? I"m curious because I'd read that the thing that gives sunset/sunrise that red-to-yellow color is that a larger percentage of the shorter (blue-to-violet) wavelengths are reflected back toward the source when the sun is closer to the horizon and the light must pass through a heavier (or denser at least) layer of atmosphere. So if you were facing away form the sun, it sort of makes sense that you'd get more blue-violet light in that direction.

Whatever. I L.O.V.E. your purple sky!

Jane Hards Photography said...

This actually makes sense. It would have been at approx a 45% angle, sun on the right fading fast withe the trees obscuring it from my view. Next time I do a night shoot I'll specifically try your suggestion as it sounds spot on.

Rob said...

Here I thought that orange colored bauble was a petanque marker. For some reason, I am drawn to these colorful "ugly" scenes as you have seen me post lately. I remember a number of springs ago where I captured a hot pink sunset, no kidding, the sky was a hot pink and the lake a deep blue. Of course all images were blurry from my first point and shoot 2.5 mpixel camera that was lousy in low light.

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