Saturday, June 01, 2013

pure photo workshop #4: learning to watch

 
This week's assignment for the Pure Photo Workshop is designed by Arnika Smit.

The assignment was to learn to watch and pick out elements of your environment that 
represented color (blue), patterns, details and emotion.

After bouncing between a few ideas, I ended up going to The Pearl, a fun neighborhood near downtown Portland. I used the 24-105mm lens almost exclusively, except for the ladybug shot. 
I walked around and looked for color, patterns, details...and emotion.

1. Blue

click for larger view
The graffiti on this tower attracted my eye as it was blue. I played with the processing, and the black and white image accentuates the pattern of the windows and the zig-zag of the stairs. 


Although there is a lot of green in this image, it was the blue that attracted me. 
The iconic Fremont Bridge is in the background.


There are a few parks in The Pearl. The Tanner Springs park is flanked by this beautiful fence made from old railroad ties. The blue glass art in them made them an obvious target for the "blue" set of images!

2. Pattern


Tanner Springs fence and shadows.


A door jamb.


Portland is dubbed the City of Roses after the ease in which we can grow roses in this climate.
The pattern of roses is seen throughout the city.


I liked the lines of the hatch pattern, and how they were broken up and softened by the circle of the rose.


This attracted my eye. I liked the lines and the round elements. I also liked how the diamond shapes
were echoed in the yellow sidewalk cut-out and the cement. The angle of the shadow also echoed the trianglular forms.

3. Detail


I stopped for a coffee break, and who should be saving the table for me but this cute lieveheersbeestje (ladybug)!


This is the corner of an old shutter on an old remnant of a building. I love, love, love this building and could spend a whole day and into the night photographing it from every angle with every lens.
I held myself back.

4. Emotion


These children were playing in the park. It was a beautiful warm afternoon, and
they were having fun in the water together. Pure, uninhibited, play.

That's it for me for this week! Thank you Jane and Arnika for another assignment that pushed my boundaries! You can take a look at the assignments of the other participants here!

Have a great rest of your weekend!! xo


8 comments:

Patricia said...

So many beautiful patterns!
And what a great beautiful fence!
That ladybug was sitting there especially for you! I also love your black and white picture!

Happy weekend xo

Jane said...

What a great post again. Love to see the different colors of the tower. The patterns so beautifully found, love the one with yellow. And that ladybug so cute but on a rough pattern, great contrast. The playing children are my favourite. Have a lovely weekend Gail.

Barbaramama said...

Wow wow wow! What a beautiful pictures!
You did a great job on this assignment!

Unknown said...

Wow, what a nice pictures again. Nice to see the difference between the towers. But I think I still like the first one most.
That fence is incredible. That's a really nice shot! Very cool pattern. And the ladybug, very sweet. Such a small detail, but in some way, I feel a lot of love from that picture.
That building, I'm curious about the rest of it. Beautiful! I like all of your pictures.

Annette said...

What a great pictures, so nice to see the different pictures/ colors of the tower. The ladybug is there for you indeed! The ladybug seems to be on my computer instead of in the picture. Lovely picture of the children.

Unknown said...

Wow, so many great shots. Love the water tower trio - coloration gradient the way you edited and presented it really nicely complements each other. Also really dig the Tanner Springs fence - the rusted metal goes nicely with the blue sky in the background. The sidewalk shot was great, too, with the yellow vs gray/black, as well as patterns - awesome! Love the lady bug shot, of course, and corner of the old shutter - great detail there! You put my photos to shame, boss lady - JUST like I told you :)

Puur Arnika said...

wow, you blow me away! What a beautiful pictures, I realy love the bug! Nice job

Laura Earl said...

Beautiful pictures!!!