Taking a Stroll around the Grounds
June 16, 2019
Yesterday I followed and unfollowed paths around my immediate neighborhood. I found baby oak leaves overlooking tall grasses; a willow tree behind goldenrod plants and before cattails sprinkled with pseudacris; a path through a wooded area dotted with daisies; very young films of Leptothrix discophora, some in front of a small outcrop of sedge; a duckweed-covered pond rising to meet hanging branches of another oak tree; and more duckweed in a different pond in the rain. I also took another stab at Intentional Camera Movement.
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Romancing Reality 
In the first of your intentional camera movement pictures I see flames.
Your use of unfollow is the first I’ve ever seen that doesn’t have to do with social media. Like you, I’ve done my share of unfollowing paths: what else can a photographer do?
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June 16, 2019 at 9:05 PM
Oh, they do look like flames. In fact, they are waving seed heads of grass. I’m not sure unfollow is a real word in this context, but it fit my purpose. Not surprised you knew what I meant and that you do the same.
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June 16, 2019 at 9:33 PM
Nothing like a walk around one’s own neighborhood to open one’s eyes. I especially like the pond photos. The second ICM has a fascinating inner light, and the last one has hypnotic colors and rhythm.
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June 17, 2019 at 9:11 AM
I always head for the ponds when I photograph around here. Usually there’s something sharable at the end. Maybe it’s that way with most water locations. In the second ICM I was looking for something similar to the third photo of the last post. I’m sure I tried way more than 50 times, and this is the only one that comes close. The last photo in this post surprised me in download. Where did that red color come from? The cattails were brown. And the leaves were very green, not pastel like in the photo. All I did to the download was darken things a bit—nothing dramatic. A gift from my muse.
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June 17, 2019 at 7:55 PM
Looks like the ponds are a sure bet. Regarding ICM, when you move the camera the colors tend to desaturate. I think that’s because, due to camera movement, no one color hits the sensor for very long. For this reason your greens got lighter and the browns tended to go toward red. I assume you shoot RAW. Am I correct?
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June 17, 2019 at 8:25 PM
Yes, I do shoot RAW. Your theory explains the last photograph, but confounds my understanding of the very green ICM photos I so often get. 🙂
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June 17, 2019 at 9:00 PM
Good that you shoot RAW because that allows you the most leeway for adjustment. My suggestion would be to shoot ICM in a number of different environments including over water. Or broad meadows. Also try it at different times of day. After a while you’ll get a feel for it. I’m not sure why all the inconsistencies, myself. I just look at them as part of the surprise and kind of roll with it.
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June 17, 2019 at 9:05 PM
Very striking use of greens and of shapes. Michael Scandling expressed it well.
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June 17, 2019 at 1:57 PM
Thanks, Larry. How nice that nature comes in so much green and so many lovely shapes.
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June 17, 2019 at 7:59 PM
I think the ICM shots are really interesting. My first thought was that once you get the hang of the technique you would have a good idea of what the final frame will look like but I also think that you can be pleasantly surprised at how beautiful they become.
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June 17, 2019 at 6:31 PM
Maybe I don’t ever want to get the hang of ICM. I love the surprises. I wouldn’t mind a better ratio of useful to useless tries, though.
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June 17, 2019 at 8:03 PM
Simply lovely… my hands aren’t as steady as they once were and I’m afraid that I run into too much un-ICM when I’d prefer to be steady, but your results are wonderful and misty and dreamy. Such lovely gifts from your muse.
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June 17, 2019 at 11:40 PM
Thank you, Gunta. I’m so pleased that these speak to you. I have to admit that I rely on my camera’s vibration-reduction mechanism when I make photos without ICM.
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June 18, 2019 at 8:44 PM
Lovely set of images – and I particularly the like the first ICM photo. You ought to put a number under each image for ease of reference. A 🙂
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June 18, 2019 at 5:09 AM
Glad that one gets to you, Adrian. I will add numbers; thanks for the suggestion.
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June 18, 2019 at 8:40 PM
I enjoyed this, Linda, but you might expect that I would. The bands of texture in the first are so appealing in their straightforwardness, then, they’re curved and broken up by the tree in the second photo, in a very skillful way. Only a really practiced eye can find the patterns and convey them from a scene like that, i think. #3 has a kind of shimmer that’s nice, and in #4 & #5 again there are the organizing, horizontal bands of texture and color that bring something for the mind to work on in these scenes. The duckweed and raindrops – very oriental, calming. The movement from dark to light from upper left to lower right, it’s like a slow breath. More ICM’s! I read the comments – you worked on getting a simialr effect to that one before that’s partially still, or whatever you’d call it. It was worth the 50-odd shots. 🙂 The depth in that second one is really nice. So, maybe it will take 40 next time, or 80. So be it. The 4th & 5th ICM photos really catch me too. I feel like I could drown in the pool of color that is the 4th. I love the off centeredness there. The 5th is dynamic. I think you must have been dancing in the woods….
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June 21, 2019 at 12:08 PM
Thanks, Lynn. I’m especially glad that you like #2. Many years ago I saw a photograph that was essentially all green and didn’t see its beauty until someone talked with me about it. I thought of that photograph when I took this, hoping my photograph might have the appeal that I found in the scene itself. I think I may be especially drawn to “horizontal bands of texture and color.” Don’t ask me why—maybe because they lean toward abstraction, which I always like? I see the rabbit hole here; I will not continue with musings about why I might like abstraction. I like your thought that #6 has an oriental feeling. Now I feel it. Thanks for the encouragement for ICM. I think I will continue playing with it for a while. Then I’ll probably return to “straight” photographs. Actually, I have already, having photographed this weekend the farmhouse that so intrigued me last year and the year before. (See https://lindagrashoff.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/the-farmhouse-1/.)
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June 24, 2019 at 9:55 AM
came here through Lynn. No 7 is quite astonishing: the fire of life in the grass is becoming visible as flames. (excuse my bad english, please)-
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June 24, 2019 at 3:15 AM
Danke, Gerda. (Ich kenne Deutch nicht so gut als Sie kennen Englisch.)
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June 24, 2019 at 2:14 PM
Very successful camera movement, Linda.
Wonder whether anyone can answer this non-photo question that’s been bugging me for awhile: Why is ICM written in title case? Back in the days when I was a professional (1970-2002), we never even used the term as I recall. It was more like “panning the camera with a slow shutter speed” or words to that effect. What’s so weighty about icm that it deserves special written treatment? What’s next: Intentional Over (or Under) Exposure? Intentional Focus? Intentional Shallow Depth of Field? Intentional Tripod-Mounted Camera? Intentional Camera Panning? Intentional Stopping Down the Lens? Intentional Grab Shot? Intentional Time Exposure? Intentional Lens Cap Removal? Intentional Framing? Intentional Image Making? Intentional Post-Capture Processing? Intentional Shutter Release?
I think you Get My Drift 🙂
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June 25, 2019 at 11:39 PM
Thanks, Alan. I do indeed GYD—and I enjoy your examples of other candidates for initialism. You sent me Googling. So in response (defence?) I offer these links:
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/104905/proper-use-of-tv,
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-an-initialism-p2-1691172, and
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/initialism.
I’m not sure any of them really answer your question, but I had Intentional Fun (IF) looking them up.
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June 26, 2019 at 2:10 PM
Intentional Thanks for the links, Linda. First I heard of Initialism. It inspires me to start a new movement in which the artist’s initials form a new composition by completely covering and obscuring the original image.
🙂
On another subject altogether, i.e., photo #3, t seems like you and Mic have been on the same wavelength (https://lightmonkey1.wordpress.com/2019/06/23/wooded-path/) recently. Also, https://lightmonkey1.wordpress.com/2019/06/26/pathway-to-a-small-brook/
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June 26, 2019 at 8:22 PM
Intentional you’re welcome (IYW). (Note proper use of initialism on first occurrence.) I saw Mic’s first photo (and commented on it), but for some reason never received today’s post. Hmm. So thanks for the link! I like his better.
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June 26, 2019 at 9:00 PM
E-mail for Mic’s post of yesterday finally arrived at 12:12 this morning/night. Strange.
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June 27, 2019 at 9:29 AM
Excellent!
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July 21, 2019 at 4:08 AM
Thank you, Harrie. It’s nice to find interesting things to photograph so close to home.
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July 31, 2019 at 1:31 PM