Doughrety arc

Doughrety arc, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

How much work do I have to put into something before I can earn the right to say "Yes it is overexposed, that is on purpose?"

View of rail bridge through trees

View of rail bridge through trees, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

The idea of the golden hour is making me neurotic, it's making me go out into the cold just because it's dawn or dusk, and the feeling of how fleeting these brief windows of good light are is making me take the same pictures over and over, incrementally adding techniques, capturing other fleeting things, like trains or ice floes. Looking back, I think I've missed a lot just trying to get the light just right over the hills, but I still haven't gotten it, so I'm back out there again.

Three four leaf clovers

Three four leaf clovers, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

Sometimes the subject is cooler than the picture despite all my efforts.
There are three four leaf clovers in this picture. I tried capturing them in various ways, but there's only so much to be done. One of them is in poor shape.

Couple of people in front of library

Couple of people in front of library, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

Photography is tricky, in that just about everything that's undesirable is also desired deeply by a whole market of people. Graininess is a good example. Of course this image here doesn't have the clarity you want from a picture of a couple, you'd prefer to have them isolated. But the glowy dark grain itself isn't the barrier to this.

Fog mist and snow

PICT1457, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

The world seems bigger when you can't see as far. I guess the change makes me conscious of depth.
Recently a haze came over downtown that covered the tops of the tallest buildings. It made them look like skyscrapers, like in that cloud they ust kept going and going.
If this picture were pink I'd like it better.

Windown in St. Paul's Lowertown

Windown in St. Paul's Lowertown, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

This is an old picture, but I don't think it's quite right to imagine that any capture of my past could be necessarily re-done better just because I know my Aperture from my ISO now.
My friends say that it's all about your eye and perspective. I still want a new lens, however.

Rail Bridge 15 on Pickerel Lake

Rail Bridge 15 on Pickerel Lake, originally uploaded by lotusduck.

When I try to make a composite panorama, I don't look at what I am photographing in a very artistic way after I've decided what field of view I want to capture, I mostly think about if I've adequately covered that area of view yet. As a result, when I see the photos large, I am often surprised.
That's the benefit of just clicking, clicking clicking.
There is of course a benefit to setting up each shot carefully, but without manual focus there's only so much of that to be done.