{"id":88,"date":"2008-11-11T10:06:57","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T14:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogshevik.com\/garneredimages\/?p=88"},"modified":"2008-11-11T10:06:57","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T14:06:57","slug":"tiny-frustrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/?p=88","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Frustrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Do not look for the impossible, but do not let your path deviate from the quiet and steadfast insistence on full opportunities for your powers.”
\n(Franz Boas)<\/em><\/p>\n

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

I ask you:\u00a0 just how hard is it to take a photograph of a leaf?\u00a0 A leaf laying on the ground, no less.<\/p>\n

That was my dilemma\u00a0Sunday as I strugged to\u00a0look at my little world through creative eyes in search of\u00a0a daily photograph.\u00a0 This daily shooting is a challenge I started a couple of years\u00a0ago as a means of building my skills and it has proven an effective\u00a0teacher.\u00a0 Even if, like the best of teachers, it often frustrates me.<\/p>\n

When one lives in the northern Midwest there\u00a0are months\u00a0in which the world does not willingly lend itself to the creative perspective; November being one of the more notable ones.\u00a0 Photography is all about the light and the decided, stereotypical\u00a0dearth of it\u00a0now settling in\u00a0made for a tough assignment.\u00a0\u00a0That not all the trees have shed their leaves and so there remain jewel-like\u00a0splashes of color against the dim, grey gloom does help increase the odds of finding something interesting, though.<\/p>\n

So when I spotted a teeny-tiny leaf from the neighbor’s Japanese maple gracing the decaying front porch steps, looking for all the world like a\u00a0miniature scarlet starfish on a white-sand beach, I knew I’d found my day’s photo.\u00a0 Ok, so it was pretty late in the afternoon from a light perspective as far as late fall afternoons go, but it wasn’t anything a steady hand or tripod couldn’t overcome.\u00a0 I mean, it’s not like the leaf was actually moving in the bits of breeze so a longer exposure was an easy choice.<\/p>\n

I pulled Matilda off the honker lens mounted on the tripod and put on one of the smaller, more suitable lenses.\u00a0 Assuming the position, I hand-held a few shots but it was obvious both as the shutter closed – and stayed closed – and from the in-camera preview that I needed to better stabilize the camera.\u00a0 I grabbed the antique standing ashtray off the front porch and set the camera on it.\u00a0 Felt good so I took a few shots and then went about the rest of my day.<\/p>\n

Come evening and post-processing, however, I could see I’d blown it.\u00a0 The focal point was off-subject, though I must admit the colors were rather splendid.<\/p>\n

Right church, wrong pew.\u00a0 That’ll learn me to hurry.<\/p>\n

Yesterday\u00a0morning we awoke to the first official snowfall of the season.\u00a0 A solid dusting of white wetness that\u00a0buried my tender little starfish leaf and effectively removed any possiblities for a second try.\u00a0 So I did what I could.\u00a0 I took a photo of the young maple tree in front of the house through the big front window, glowing with flame-like\u00a0brilliance against the grey light and swirling snow:<\/p>\n

\"First<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I later went out front hunting for a shot of fallen Japanese maple leaves but, again, the results were unacceptable.\u00a0 Even with a small tripod.\u00a0 Perhaps the maple has grown weary of my photographing it and made a deal with the gods to muck up any further attempts?\u00a0 Certainly makes me wonder….<\/p>\n

A bit later, eagle-eyed Bob spotted one of the hawks again, perched\u00a0at the top of a backyard tree\u00a0of a house on the opposite side of the street behind us.\u00a0 In other words, pretty far away.\u00a0 The increasing bareness of the upper canopy left the hawk wide open for at least an attempt to photograph it so with the honking bazooka lens and tripod attached, Matilda was taken out back and put through her paces.\u00a0 Of course, the light was still dull and grey and the wind was blowing and a teleconverter would have been really, really nice, but the visit was captured:<\/p>\n

\"Red-tail<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am not going to complain.\u00a0 But I’m still going to get a photograph of a fallen Japanese maple leaf!<\/p>\n

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

“Do not look for the impossible, but do not let your path deviate from the quiet and steadfast insistence on full opportunities for your powers.” (Franz Boas) \u00a0 I ask you:\u00a0 just how hard is it to take a photograph of a leaf?\u00a0 A leaf laying on the ground, no less. That was my dilemma\u00a0Sunday […]<\/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\/88"}],"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=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/squirreltale.com\/garneredimages\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}