Grist for the MillWriten by Kenneth C. Hoffman
Picture a beautiful holiday card featuring an artistic rendition of a snow
a scene done in soft pastels, or a nicely framed oil depicting a weathered barn in a field of poppies. These finished products and many more like them have one thing in common a photograph.
An annual vacation presents a wonderful opportunity to start a collection of photographs for later development into a work or art. Someday you will have the time and interest to turn this raw material into watercolors, digital art, oil paintings or attractive, cropped, matted and framed photographs.
When on vacation, be prepared, mentally and equipment-wise, to record the basic images needed for enhancement. Cloudy skies need not concern you for nicer skies can be painted into the scene. Important are the basic lines of the photograph and the quality of light on the subject. The light from a dying sun can highlight details missed in other light. The
glow of dusk can create a warm, friendly mood, enhancing everything with a rose tinted mood while preserving the shadows in a cool shade.
A trip to the ocean could contain a foray on the beach at dawn. Sand dunes and beach grass, old boats drawn up on the beach, and macro shots of sea shells head the list of possibilities. Pictures that include the shoreline present an opportunity of creating an S curve in your composition. Super close ups of patterned grains of sand make wonderful abstract art when processed through your computer software.
Arboretums and botanical gardens are a gold mine of photogenic subjects. Tree peonies, day lilies and mountain laurel make wonderful close up subjects for the camera. Look for curved lines, solid color masses of flowers and back lit plants. Winding paths supply a perfect lead in to a white gazebo or rose arbor. Be creative.
Every vacation contains the seeds of great compositions: Disneyland, river rafting, or a journey by car through the wilds of Canada are favorite fodder for the creative juices to work on. A European tour places you in romantic narrow streets filled with canopied shops, ancient signs and photogenic locals. Two weeks in the mountains skiing could include one early morning exploring a local forest, climbing up to a lookout point or capturing skaters on a pond. Then transform these ordinary scene into wonderful works of art with the creative talents lurking inside your artistic photographers soul.
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