“Abstract pictures are fictive models, because they make visible a reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can postulate.” – Gerhard Richter
“Even abstract shapes must have a likeness.” – Willem de Kooning
“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” – Pablo Picasso
It was windy, the sky was gray with the sun coming out only for a moment every now and then. I loved the contrast between the green leaves and branches against the dark sky.
As I pointed out in my previous post, it is time to pick up my camera and take it out. I did. Here are some of the captures from the first outing, still need to get in the the groove. I will try to find new ways to capture same wonders that I have photographed every spring, because the same things delight me every time.
We found the nest of common blackbird in our woodpile. I did take few photos, but we left it all alone. Hope the squirrels dot get to it before the hatch.
Life once again has changed, I have once again time to pursue my hobbies. My fixed term ended after a yea, so I find myself unemployed, and at my age getting new position is not a given. Well now I hopefully will be able to comment and participate more in the wonderful world of blogging 🙂 as I have been rather absent on that regard lately. I do look though and read post but have been rather silent. It might change.
We started our summer house / cottage season later than ever, middle of May. Usually we are there already in April, but this spring has been so cold and we had so much snow that there was no point going there. But last weekend we did go and you could see the green take over the bleakness in your eyes. I am loving it. The light is wonderful. I took these setting sun shot at 23.30 at night. The moon on the other side of the house and the setting sun on the side.
Saturday was nice, warm and sunny, but the clouds and cold wind greeted us on Sunday, but it was time to head home anyways.
We’re shooting Architecture this week. Go out to places and shoot structures that we might not pay enough attention to – the sleek glass façade of a modern skyscraper, or maybe something with an art-deco frontage from decades earlier. Architecture isn’t all about the outsides alone, there are many places with magnificent interiors from churches and temples to a modern airport lounge.
The church and Fyyri library (2020) were reconciled with the help of building materials and so that the reading room and café opened towards the church. A large glass wall visually connects the church into the library.
Kirkkonummi’s medieval stone church is located in the center of Kirkkonummi. The exact time of construction is unknown, but work apparently began in the 15th century. Kirkkonummi Church is named after St. Michael the Archangel.
Originally, the Church was small. In addition to stone, brick was used as the material. In the 18th century, the church began to expand, and in the mid-19th century it was transformed into its present form as a cruciform church. The church bell tower was built in 1824.
It’s not just all about shots of buildings either – things like bridges and underpasses, tall radio masts, dams, windmills can all be amazing subjects. There’s also a lot of character in structures that are old or run-down: wabi-sabi is a concept that explores beauty in the imperfect and that ties in very well with many different kinds of structures.
Find an archway or opening you can use to frame a shot. Or use the architecture to create leading lines, symmetry, and repetition of shapes. Take your time, scope out your composition – maybe walk around a bit, looking for a nice perspective and shooting angles that work. A little bit of thought will make for some compelling and creative architecture images.
Time for a genre that’s rather popular on social media in recent times – Flat Lay photography has simple rules – take a shot of items or objects laid out on a flat surface from immediately above. Basically, a bird’s-eye view of a set of objects that make up a cohesive whole.
I thought that I would share a little bit about myself for those who are new to my blog. I have painted with different mediums since I was a teenager, and still continue with various art hobbies. Acrylic- and oil painting, pastels drawings, oil inks, aquarelles etc. I also do sculpture. As I am not a great cook, or my art is not setting the table beautiful. I took out some of my brushes and color tubes. I even tried do a self portrait, but I did it with an old photo of me.
Think of it like setting up a mood board or if you’re into food photography, setting up a dinner table with dishes, accessories and food. You could show off things that speak to you in your hobby – like a set of gardening tools or knitting yarn and needles. How about a top-down view of your desk – are you a neat freak or a proponent of organized chaos? Go for understated minimalism or bold maximalism – the choice is yours.
Perhaps you could include a bit of portraiture by putting yourself in the shot along with some outfits and hats that you adore and take a self-portrait. Take things a step further with knolling – laying everything out at perpendicular, straight angles to each other. Don’t be restricted to indoor shots either. You can grab some cool shots with organic, natural ground as your flat-lay background.
Time for a compositional challenge, this week – it’s Leading Lines.
I was walking in a flea market and came across this old calculator covered with dust, but as I was not able to clean it, it shows old dust, dirt, but he lines leading to the name are clearly to be seen. I took it as a black and white as an a period piece I thought it would be appropriate and well the dirt is less visible this way.
The other choice was an old typewriter, but as you can guess I chose to post the calculator, did I make a right choice?
Leading lines are lines that guide the viewer from the edge of your frame towards your subject, usually coming from a corner (s).
Look for things in your scene that effortlessly takes your viewer’s eye straight to your intended subject. We’re trying to direct the viewer to a part of our image that is most important in the composition. Think staircase railings, paths and roads in a landscape, bridges and jetties leading off into the distance all make for excellent ways to incorporate leading lines in your shot.
Feel free to think out of the box… Remember leading lines don’t need to be straight. Curving streams, rice paddies and long-exposure car taillight streaks can all look very cool in a shot. Patterns and textures can also form leading lines to take your viewer straight to the action. Just be alive to your surroundings and you’re sure to see leading lines for your next epic shot!
Beige is dependable, conservative, and flexible. The color beige is neutral, calm, and relaxing. The attributes and meanings associated with beige change based on the colors it accompanies.
The color beige offers some of the warmth of the color brown and the some of the crisp and coolness of the color white. While it is a relaxing color, beige is often seen as a dull and boring color.
While we like to focus on the lighting used in photos, we want to include a lamp this week! That means including a lamp IN your photo, not just the suggestion through lighting.
This simple little device has so many forms – Perhaps you could share a story of your own little reading nook where you enjoy some solitude or showcase a scene where the lamp is the hero of the image.
I had an idea, but in the end I was too lazy to do it. I have done nothing this week, well related to photography that is, I did manage to do this.
I took an easy route, I took a photo of one of the lamps in my entrance, did not even dust of the lamp before the shot, well it does a tell a story of the owner for one. To be honest, I think it has a story in it, a story of a girl sitting and reading under a lamp. That is why my art statue, is placed there and I am rather happy with this one.
Some of the suggestions to guide me were: Maybe you could do your own take on some classic art with chiaroscuro lighting. You could even try to use wabi-sabi concepts to bring out the beauty of a much used object, go for a low-key style with lots of shadow in the shot, or take an HDR shot with multiple exposures to illuminate your composition thoroughly. Don’t just take a snapshot, take a photograph that tells a story.
Was mine just a snapshot?
this week I have been taking close-up shots. Time to get up close and personal with an Extreme Closeup. If you are thinking this is the MACRO challenge, it is NOT. If you go to the dictionary, you’ll find a closeup is 1. a photograph, movie, or video taken at close range and showing the subject on a large scale. “a closeup of her face” or 2. an intimate and detailed description or study.
I did the winter worn hydrangea again, as the date on the picture has to be same as the weeks challenge. I took shots of the dry flower I had in in bouquet I had couple weeks back. I also have shots of my cat Tinka, but I have to look them thought and edit.
What can you tell your viewer by pushing in close?
What do you want to bring attention to?
Try to find an interesting detail or feature – heck, the most mundane of objects can have something striking if you look closely enough. That’s what this challenge is all about – take a moment to look closer and see those details that are often overlooked.
so simply put, move in and fill your frame with your subject. The idea is to get right into a subject, and have that subject fill the entire frame. You can zoom in with any lens you have, and your feet also make an excellent zoom feature, just walk close to your subject!
PS. This week like last has been hoping and praying that the snow would melt, but it is happening so SLOW!!!! The southern facing slops are free of snow, but our backyard, come on this has 0-40 cm snow. So not much to spot of the spring wonders that delights me every year…
I am so waiting for spring and summer that I drove to this small shop in the countryside that this lady keeps in her barn and home to buy linen clothing which is so nice to wear. Natural fabric and bright colors are the items she brings from Italy to her shop. I did not need anything but I did end up buying a green linen dress, a fuchsia linen tunic, necklace, and scarf to match the colors of the tops I brought. I cannot wait to wear them.
That what I wrote above is why I took these photos on our way there, I mean come on, April and the day was as wintery as it could be, it snowed several times during the day. Well, new snow is the death of the old snow as a Finnish saying goes.
I have not done much, so only thing I’ve really taken photos of is my flowers. They are beautiful so why not. Tinka enjoyed them too.
I found this beautiful bouquet when looking for flowers to bring to a friend I was to visit. I ended up buying two bouquets, one for me and the other to take to her. Here are some detail shot of it, it is has so many beautiful details that I just have to share the joy I get from it.
Details from my weekend flower bouquet.
“We need to be reminded sometimes that a sunrise last but a few minutes. But its beauty can burn in our hearts eternally.” – R. A. Salvatore
still posting photos that have a small painterly feel to them.
I am posting this photo as it looks slightly like a painting, muted tones, not so crisp and I like it for some reason.
I am stressed and anxious. So I really got into playing with my images making them into rounded shape, Mandala’s. My thoughts are going around, I an surrounded by emotions that do around again and again. Me, trying to escape.
I am stressed and anxious. So I really got into playing with my images making them into rounded shape, Mandala’s. I tried the style with flowers, my art, people, city scape’s. Here are two from a bunch of tulips. Colorful, bright, and fun. Stress relief.
What a difference a day makes added with sunshine, the snow covered trees look so nice.
I still haven’t ventured beyond my backyard to take photos, but I am happy to have this as my view.
Today we went out and took a quick walk at the mall as I needed some Yupo paper and we stopped to have a some milkshake at Kittys and I thought this might be a opportunity for a Depth Of Field shot – a super important concept in photography that often separates those photos that look “amateur” from those that look “professional” or as I like to call it, “profesh”.
Retro décor and pastel colors, this might work. Four slightly different versions.
It has snowed a lot lately, today there was a moment of sunshine and went out with an intention to capture Depth Of Field – a super important concept in photography that often separates those photos that look “amateur” from those that look “professional” or as I like to call it, “profesh”.
In my previous post I had taken some shots outside, here are few I took inside still life. Once again I was sloppy, I forgot to dust the table prior the shots, well, so it goes.
Here are some of them, give me once again your valuable input as I try to improve my photo skills.
It has snowed a lot lately, today there was a moment of sunshine and went out with an intention to capture Depth Of Field – a super important concept in photography that often separates those photos that look “amateur” from those that look “professional” or as I like to call it, “profesh”.
I also took some inside – still life shot, but that is an other post.
Here are some of them, give me once again your valuable input as I try to improve my photo skills.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 