{"id":77,"date":"2008-08-17T10:01:25","date_gmt":"2008-08-17T14:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogshevik.com\/garneredimages\/?p=77"},"modified":"2008-08-17T10:01:25","modified_gmt":"2008-08-17T14:01:25","slug":"the-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/?p=77","title":{"rendered":"The Elements"},"content":{"rendered":"

“There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors…it’s an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job.”
\n(Conrad Hall)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been working hard on my photography again, and one way to stretch my Self is to enter the challenges that Smugmug hosts in their forums.\u00a0 It’s a friendly, safe place of like minds and I was fortunate to recently place 3rd\u00a0in the “filters” challenge with a rendering of this old boy, titled “State of the Nation”:<\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Third place also got me into the upcoming “Mega Challenge”, a quarterly\u00a0competition for the top 5\u00a0finishers in each bi-weekly challenge.\u00a0 And with a digital camera up for grabs, you can well imagine everyone wants to win – including me!<\/p>\n

The theme is “The Elements”.\u00a0 And since an obvious shot, such as a tornado about to sweep over an exploding volcano, isn’t exactly within reach of most of us,\u00a0I suspect we’ve all\u00a0been scratching\u00a0our heads over how to represent this deceptively simply idea in a single photograph.<\/p>\n

Earth, wind, and fire.\u00a0 Water.\u00a0 In Chinese astrology, air, earth, water, wood, and metal.\u00a0 The base definitions are similar no matter how you look at it.\u00a0 I set them adrift inside my mind for days, then\u00a0at last an idea\u00a0bubbled up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I spent almost all day yesterday in an attempt to bring my vision to life.\u00a0 In photography, it’s all about the light so I started in the early morning as the sun’s rays came over the horizon and eventually began to stream across our little backyard.\u00a0 First I had to build the “set”.\u00a0 This necessitated 2 trips over the side fence to borrow stones from my neighbor’s empty garden bed.\u00a0 Next, find suitably-sized candles,\u00a0grab some\u00a0lighters, then drag the hose across the yard.<\/p>\n

Stack the stones carefully.\u00a0 Wet the\u00a0whole setup down with the hose.\u00a0 Light and position the candle, stack small pieces of stone around it.\u00a0 Turn on the hose and adjust it until there was only the smallest of steady drips streaming out the end, and settle it on top the stack of stones.\u00a0 Adjust the resulting water\u00a0to run off the stones in a pleasing conformation without putting out the candle’s flame.<\/p>\n

It only sounds easy.\u00a0 Astrologically, water and fire have a hard time co-existing and such definition is, indeed, a mirror of real life.\u00a0 But eventually I got it right and took an initial series of shots.\u00a0 As the day moved into afternoon, I finally went inside to look at the results.<\/p>\n

Close.\u00a0 But no cigar.\u00a0 I needed\u00a0different light,\u00a0more water, more flame.\u00a0 And by then I also needed a nap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later in the afternoon, with\u00a0first lessons\u00a0in my back pocket,\u00a0I returned to the backyard\u00a0and rearranged the set.\u00a0 The next series of photographs proved much better all the way around.\u00a0 The “Gotto of the Goddess” was becoming a reality:<\/p>\n

\"Gotto<\/p>\n

\"Gotto<\/p>\n

While I am pleased and would have no problems posting any of the results as a daily photograph, I am not entirely satisfied.\u00a0 Not when the stakes are so high.\u00a0\u00a0The results have spiraled\u00a0visions of alchemy, and I must introduce a\u00a0far more compelling\u00a0element of drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this means only one thing.\u00a0 Night.\u00a0 And smoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the after-dark session was derailed by weariness and spotting a\u00a0tiny night visitor at the big squirrel feeder.\u00a0 Showing us that, as Bob put it so eloquently, life is elementary:<\/p>\n

\"Elementary<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors…it’s an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job.” (Conrad Hall) \u00a0 I’ve been working hard on my photography again, and one way to stretch my Self is to enter the challenges that Smugmug hosts in their forums.\u00a0 It’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}