A visit to my first love...

A few days ago I visited Boeing Creek Park/Shoreview Park. I've never been sure which term applies to which part of the park; I think "Boeing Creek Park" refers to the wooded areas and "Shoreview Park" to the playground and assorted sports fields.

This park is special because it was probably the first park I ever explored on my own. When I was roughly middle-school-aged, we lived within walking distance, and I was allowed to roam the park on my own. It was there that I first started experimenting with nature photography, so I really owe my art to this park.

We're getting into my favorite part of the year: April through early or mid-July. I love the explosion of spring growth in April, and the wildflowers and lush forests of May and June.

I am not sure what this weed is called yet (I can't find it in my little book), but it grows everywhere, including in Boeing Creek Park. I just find them interesting; their flowers are smallish, compared to their body, and they're overall kind of odd looking:

Anyway, the park doesn't only consist of weeds of course, But the forest there, which doesn't contain quite as many early-leafing shrubs as some other parks, hasn't come into its own quite yet; nor have other kinds of weeds and wildflowers that occasionally occur.

Also, I am kind of confused by the salmonberry flowers: It seems that here or elsewhere, they bloom facing downward or north-ish, i.e. away from the sun. This seems unusual for flowers. I wonder if this is a common behavior for salmonberry flowers, and why?

Facing northeast-ish and down.

Seasonal Rituals

I like exploring new parks, and new areas inside of parks, as much as the next fellow. But I've realized that I have some places within familiar parks - even specific plants or individual trees - that I visit regularly every time a certain season rolls around. For instance, the red-flowering currant bushes in Twin Ponds Park, usually in March or April. In June/July, the stand of fireweed in Hamlin Park. In early summer, a street with a good sunset view a few blocks from my house. In October/November, the Arboretum, especially the areas to the north along the water.

And, in March or April, a group of trees in the North Bluff area of Discovery Park. I made this pilgrimage yesterday. Mostly, it is to photograph the buds, which look like this:

These patterns of mine stem partially from practical concerns: every year my technical and compositional skills improve (I hope), so I want to have another crack at getting a respectable picture of, or a new take on, a promising subject. In another sense, though, I simply like these pilgrimages. It's nice to return to familiar places to celebrate the beauty of a particular season, and a way for me to feel more in tune with seasonal changes.

Also, it was another day of experimenting with macro backgrounds:

   

I think I like the one with the bluer background. Probably.

There were a couple others worthy of note yesterday. First, the angled afternoon sunlight was making the newly leafed shrubs look almost luminescent, especially in the second of these two. Since the large trees don't have much yet in the way of spring growth, sunlight can still get through to the understory.

Finally, a few salmonberry flowers are starting to pop out. Most of them are still just buds, though, so there'll be more to come.

Twin Ponds macro

Yesterday I went to Twin Ponds in Shoreline, a surprisingly nice park for one so small, and right next to the freeway. As the name suggests, it surrounds two rather large ponds, and consists mostly of wooded area (along with a playground and some sports fields and stuff).

I only shot with my macro lens! I came mostly for the red-flowering currant bushes there. They aren't as far along in blossoming as they were the same time last year, or at least it seems to me. Neither are other trees and shrubs. Oh well, it was kind of the spring gods to wait until winter quarter was done to really get things going.

These three are the most respectable of the lot:

I found it hard to get suitable backgrounds, a surprisingly pesky little problem when shooting macro. Especially at midday on a sunny day (like yesterday), which heightens the contrast and thus distracting elements. For example, this one technically turned out pretty well but has a rather distracting background:

See what I mean? It would have been much cooler without the obtrusive house in the background.

I could have reduced the depth of field even further, but then, less of the bud/blossom cluster would have been in focus. Besides, the stark color changes in the background still would have been apparent. I guess when shooting macro you have to compromise between quality of background, quality of lighting, and quality of subject matter, and take shots that balance all three. Some of the shots I could have taken with better backgrounds yesterday were poorly lit. Likewise, some good subjects would have had even worse backgrounds than the one above.

A few others worthy of note from yesterday:

Spring in the Forest, Part 2

So today's destination was Saint Edward State Park, on the grounds of a former Catholic seminary:

Most of the place is forest, though. I usually avoid forests on sunny days, but I tried Saint Edward today for two reasons: (1) I didn't want to travel too far from home in case I got called in to work, and (2) I though the more open winter/spring forest canopy might afford more possibilities than you'd have later in the spring or in the summer.

Not everything I did was successful, but check these out:

It's hard to get much color diversity in a forest; that's the only problem. Pretty much everything is green, brown, or somewhere in between.

Also, check it out: ferns growing on trees!! So cool!!

It's been good to hit that old trail again, although I'm a bit out of shape and found huffing and puffing back up the hill from the lake a bit of a problem. Hopefully this spring I'll be able to ease myself back into some semblance of physical fitness.

The trail beckons!!!!

Spring in the Forest

Yesterday I went to Carkeek Park - and, at midmorning, practically had the whole place to myself, except for a little gaggle of preschoolers, a few dog-walkers, and a couple of friendly beer-toting hikers.

The shrubs are starting to leaf out, which always makes me happy. I wonder if it's maybe easier to get compelling forest pictures now, in early spring, than during the summer, which is when I usually think to take pictures in the forest. The problem with forests, especially here in the Pacific Northwest, is that they're so thick and busy that it's hard to isolate a compelling subject. When I go through my best pictures, very few of them were taken inside forests. This spring will hopefully afford a chance to experiment with this idea.

I always forget how much Carkeek has to offer. It'll be even better a bit later in the spring, when the trees in the orchard in the east end of the park start to bloom, and when some of the actual trees start to flower and leaf out. Anyway, pictures. Oddly, most of the good ones from yesterday were vertical. Hmm.

Hopefully, this will be the first installment of many over the next week or so. It's finally Spring Break...and the weather's supposed to get nice around here!!

The Past Couple Months

Finally some new material! Because let's face it, folks: it's been a crazy winter quarter and, much to my vexation, I haven't had very many opportunities to go out shooting, because of (1) the constant barrage of homework, and (2) frequent cloudiness and rainfall, making photography less worth it given the existence of (1).

Cloudy days certainly are useful, later in the spring or in the fall, and especially in the summer. During the winter, however, I find them pretty disappointing. I can't do very much in open areas because of the whitewashed sky - and more areas qualify as "open" due to the lack of leaves on trees. Forested areas - the cloudy-day highlight of summer - are pretty drab and brown. And more white spots show through because of the bare trees. Finally, there isn't a ton of interesting close-up subject matter.

All that aside, I did get out a few times during winter quarter. First, this from Pacific City, OR, where I went with my housemates over a long weekend (unfortunately for my photography, it was pouring rain for all but about 30 minutes of our stay):

And then a trip to Discovery Park:

The obligatory sunrise trip to Magnuson Park. I don't know what I'd do without this place; it's the early-morning gift that keeps on giving. I took this picture stuck on the side of a hill, barely able to keep my balance. Worth it!

Finally, a trip to Discovery Park this month. Note the different character of the clouds - this was one of the first days this year where the clouds were starting to look like spring clouds. It's hard to describe what exactly that is. I think part of it is the rapid alternation of overcast and sunshine that happens in spring weather. Also I think there tend to be more cumuliform clouds in the spring than in the winter, due to the clash between greater surface-level warming and residual cold temperatures in the upper atmosphere, which encourages convection and thus cumulus-type clouds. I'm not really sure how it all works, but I checked out some cloud books from the library and am trying to learn how the weather around here operates. Anyhow, here are a couple good ones:

I was very fortunate to have this shot. The sun was not out the whole time I was at Discovery. Indeed, it was clouding up as I drove there, and the sun was obscured for the beginning of my visit. I noticed this tree and the clouds behind it, but knew that sunshine would make this picture way more dramatic and cool. When the sun came out, I realized my luck and sprinted over to this tree.

These clouds around the chapel were a lucky little bonus. I almost missed them, but was fortunate enough to turn around at the right time as I was walking away from the chapel and notice them.

Also, spring has sprung in the forest! Some leaves are starting to come out, as you can see in the background of this next one!

I'd better sign off. I think I heard a clap of thunder outside, and want to get off my computer before it zaps me. It's spriiiing!!!

"A Hunger for Desolate Places"

I generally avoid humans and their creations in my photographs. When buildings, and other human-made items appear, however, they often rusty, dilapidated, deteriorating or overgrown. Such as this house upon which I stumbled once outside of Spokane, WA. I don't know who owns the property or what, but this house has been there for as long as I can remember. Looking at this picture reminds me of severe foot pain - it seems that every time I walk down this road, (often in sandals due to the summer heat), the bottoms of my feet get ripped to shreds. It's not as though that always happens when I take long walks in my sandals, so perhaps the road is cursed. Or maybe gravel gets in my sandals.

Interestingly, getting back to the point, this picture is part of a pattern, I just realized. My man-made picture subjects tend to be run-down, overgrown, or otherwise lonely and abandoned-looking (this next one from my grandparents' house in central WA):

Or even this - the natural growth is very lush, but something about the staircase seems abandoned. Not forlorn per se, but consumed by the forest. This one was from Carkeek Park in Seattle, on one of the rare days last June when it didn't rain:

And that's just a few of them. What's going on?? Not all of my pictures of human-made subjects look like this, but many of them do, perhaps even a majority. Certainly a majority of the ones I would consider "good."

I went through trying to see if I had any similar trends in my strictly nature photos. I could not find very good examples; my subject matter in that case is much more seasonally determined, with a preference for alive-looking subjects during the growing season. Most of my dead-looking pictures are either from dry parts of the summer (e.g. dormant grass) or from the winter, and I've been taking less dead-looking pictures lately. Some of my pictures convey a sense of solitude/loneliness, although the theme isn't as strong as it is with human-made objects.

I think this pattern is common to a lot of photographers, taking pictures of rusty, abandoned, and decrepit human creations. Do photographers, especially nature-oriented photographers, take a subliminally pessimistic view of man-made items, focusing on decay?

This doesn't have to be entirely morbid and pessimistic, though. This seems more likely to me: the old and run-down can be intriguing, because it is shrouded in mystery. For instance, what is that old house doing there in that field? What was it in its heyday, why was it abandoned, and why is it still there? In its ambiguity, it stimulates the imagination and stirs insatiable curiosity.

Weeds are Beautiful, Ep. 3: Follow the Money

This one presents something of a quandary. Last summer, as the 0-2 people reading this blog probably know, I attempted to sell some pictures at the Shoreline Arts Festival. I did not do very well (I came nowhere near making back costs), but one interesting pattern emerged: This image outsold my other images by far - I made about as much money from this as all my other sales combined. I was surprised. Obviously, I considered this image worthy of sale, but I did not consider it my best prior to the Festival and thus did not expect it to outsell all the others.

I guess what got me is that there wasn't much to the image, either compositionally or in its production. I looked out the window one day, noticed that there were some dandelions gone to seed outside and there wasn't much of a breeze, so I grabbed my camera and started shooting. I didn't do anything fancy; I don't think I even used a tripod in this case. There also aren't that many elements to the composition - just the basic pattern of the dandelion seeds. That's all.

And maybe that's the point. Perhaps the best nature pictures are the ones really obvious in their subject matter and simple in their composition. At least, those were the ones towards which Festival-goers gravitated. Any thoughts? I will speak more to this theme when I feature other pictures that sold well at the Festival.

Incidentally, this is also an exception to the rule I mentioned earlier - that I like to take close-ups on sunny days. On this occasion, the sunshine was filtered, enabling a manageable shutter speed; moreover, as I mentioned, there was practically no breeze.

Weeds Are Beautiful, Ep. 2: Flowers at Dawn

I took this early one morning last summer in Magnuson Park with my macro lens. I think I was also on my belly. I've found through experience that being at or below the level of a flower can really make a picture of it more interesting.

 Some photography self-help books that I've read recommend doing most plant close-ups under overcast lighting. I disagree. To an extent, sunshine can add body and contour to a plant. Moreover, blue sky opens up more compositional possibilities, especially from lower angles. (You can't really do much with an ordinary overcast sky - it just looks bland and washed out in most cases. Imagine this picture with a bland whitish sky.). Finally, the greater amount of light enables a faster shutter speed, so it renders slight breezes less of a problem.

Shooting under sunlight has its pitfalls, to be sure. The higher contrast can get a bit stark, and downward sunlight can create awkward shadows. Shooting closer to dawn or dusk helps avoid these problems, though. (Personally, I prefer morning for this purpose, mainly due to the lighter winds).

As with any good artistic rule, there are plenty of exceptions to my preference for direct-sunlight close-up shooting. Sometimes overcast light can create a more intimate mood in a plant close-up (the next post will be an example of this).

Perhaps it is a good time to give a cursory explanation of my philosophy regarding weeds, since it will recur throughout my posts. I have an odd fascination with weeds, the unsung heroes of the natural world. They produce such a variety of beautiful flowers, seeds, and shapes. God must love weeds, because He made so many different kinds, and they grow everywhere. I know, I know, weeds can choke out garden flowers, and nonnative weeds are destructive to ecosystems...but I still think they're cool!