JETeye: Seeing Through Pictures- Year Three

I’ve said this for the past two years (year one, year two), so I might as well make it three…”it’s hard to believe that it’s been another full year of blogging!” Typically, I like to mark the anniversary as a way of reflecting back on what I’ve learned over the past year about photography and myself. This year I’m going to approach it a little differently.

The first step is to try to create an image that helps depict a year of blogging..no easy task. I had seen this polaroid effect a few times on the web and thought it looked interesting. This is one image (see original) that has been sliced to make it look like many images. The more I think about it the more I realize that this is one of the things I love most about photography: with a single image you have the opportunity to create it in a variety of ways. It can be done within the camera by taking a shot from a different perspective, changing lenses, using selective focus, or even by experimenting.  Or it can be done later in the ‘digital’ darkroom. 

Recently, I had a conversation with someone about the old days of analog film and developing it in a darkroom. They said how they enjoyed developing the film back then and I explained how I didn’t think I could ever go back to analog and that I love the ‘digital darkroom’ (I typically use Lightroom and Photoshop).  I love that after taking a photograph the process isn’t over. With the digital file I now have an unlimited number of choices I can make when processing it. Sometimes I just tweak the exposure and leave it at that. Many times I’m adding a filter effect to help enhance the sharpness or colors but then there are the times (when I have the time) that I am able to be more creative. It could be as simple as creating a black and white image or a shot where I enhance the color. Or, better yet, creating an image by using selective color or creative color. Sometimes there are opportunities where a creative effect enhances the image to give it more feeling. Besides affecting the image it’s possible to be creative in how the image is presented. Maybe it’s laying it out as a triptych, adding a frame, or a bit of both.

Those are examples of how I saw the images at the time I took the photo. I could go back to the same location and could see the image in a completely different way.  Sometimes I look back on my images and wonder why I didn’t process them differently. I suppose if I ever run out of images to post I can always go through my collection and re-process the image so I can post it as a ‘new’ photo 🙂  

Of course I wouldn’t be able to keep up with this blog without the encouragement of family, friends, and fellow photo bloggers. It really means a great deal to me to have so much support and encouragement.  To be able to keep learning and being able to share my view with others has been an amazing experience. Thank you to Pixyblog for helping me grow as a photographer and allowing me to be part of such a wonderful community.

About this collage:

I had planned on creating this collage in Photoshop but then I found a tutorial on how to create the effect using InDesign. It actually ended up being pretty easy…maybe I shouldn’t have let you in on that 🙂

This shot was taken at Mom and Dad’s house. Walking up the brick pathway to the house I spotted the white pumpkin and knew I wanted to take a photo of it.