Live Your Life In The Present

Live In The Present

This is a daily reminder to myself. Live your life in the present moment. Sounds easy enough, but how often do we find our minds dwelling on the past? The “what ifs” of life. If only I had done this or said that. Dwelling on the past robs you of the present moment. The past can’t be changed. We can learn from it, but it’s the past. It’s over and done.

Or how often do our minds start dwelling and worrying about the future? What if “this happens”? How will I handle it? What will I do?

In both cases, you have just ignored “the present”.  The past is old news and can’t be changed. The future hasn’t happened and all of the worry in the world can’t change it.

As I said, I remind myself of this daily to embrace what is happening at the present moment and to not let it slip by without embracing and enjoying it. If the present moment is that painful, I have faith that it will become “the past” before it consumes me.

The photograph is a sunset over the Pacific Ocean in Carlsbad, California near where we use to live.

Thoughts?

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Camellia Blooms In Pastel

Last winter, I shared a number of photographic captures of camellia blooms from our trees and bushes.  Each bush or tree is a different variety giving us a mix of colors and types. Doing some yard work this week, I saw that buds were forming on the camellias in preparation for this winters bloom. Today I wanted to share a couple of art prints I created using that photo shoot as an inspiration and template for some digital art.

I have attached two prints I created using a pastel chalk technique. To create a little more definition of the petals on the bloom, I used a very thin brush stroke. The first one is a pink bloom and the second one a red bloom and bud.

Camellia Pastel Pink Bloom

Camellia Bud And Bloom

Thoughts?

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Seattle Great Wheel – B&W Simplicity

Anyone that has been following me knows I love black and white photography for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons being that you can focus on the subject when there isn’t a variety of colors grabbing your attention.

Today I am featuring two photographs from a shoot of the Seattle Great Wheel I did a few years back. It’s located at the end of one of the many piers lining the waterfront and has become an icon in the Seattle skyline. It is the largest observation wheel on the west coast standing 175 feet tall. The wheel has 42 fully enclosed gondolas with a special VIP gondola sporting leather bucket seats and a glass bottom floor.

I took a number of shots including a series of close ups to focus on the simplicity and beauty of the gondolas taking passengers up and around the giant ferris wheel. I presented these captures in black and white to allow the focus to be on the shape and arrangement of the gondolas on the wheel. The composition of both captures was to create a more artistic photograph versus just a snap shot of the entire ferris wheel.

“Three Gondolas “

Gondolas 8-11

Thoughts?

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Lighting Changes – Sailboats on San Diego Bay

I wanted to share some captures I took of sailboats on San Diego Bay last October. What the pictures show is a change in look of the same subject matter in the same location by the lighting in the sky.

These pictures were all taken from an area near downtown looking across the bay at Coronado Island. There is always some type of craft movement in the bay be it small sailboats, larger yachts, military air carriers or cruise ships. This particular day I was focused on sailboats and the sky. I noticed the cloud structures were changing as the day went from morning to afternoon. There was a remnant of a tropical storm coming from the Baja of Mexico just south of San Diego.

San Diego Bay Sailboat

In this first capture, the sun is out and the fluffy clouds from that system make a great backdrop.

San Diego Bay Sailboats 2

This shot was taken within about an hour of the first one. The sun is still out, but notice the change in the clouds. There is a high level of gray coming in on top of the fluffy clouds.

San Diego Bay Sailboats 3

I added this shot for a couple of reasons. The first reason was I love the look of this restaurant sitting on peers jutting out into the bay and the second reason is because at this point it was lunch time. I want to point out that this shot was taken very shortly after the last shot and notice the change in color of the bay. The sun was beginning to go under the approaching high level clouds…see the difference .

In the time I took for lunch and came back to capturing some sailboats, the last capture is what I took.

San Diego Bay Sailboats 4

Same area as the first shots, but see the difference in the color of the bay? It goes from a deep blue to more of a gray color. Even in the sails, the brilliant white of the sails is subdued. I thought this would be a great example of how important lighting is to the final outcome of a picture when shooting outdoors. There are subject matters that look better in indirect lighting and some landscapes look better with horizontal lighting (sunrise or sunset timeframes).

Thoughts?

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