January 28, 2024

Grasses can be delicate; they can be sturdy; or they can be in between. However they present themselves, I realize that my interest in their appearances has grown over the past few years. I’m sure this has nothing to do with my last name. And yet . . .

1 On an unusually bright day in December, the sun came barrelling through these tall-grass seedheads.

2 It was overcast the day I photographed this short grass.

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4 This is probably the same kind of grass as is pictured in #1.

5 It’s possible that this is the same grass, too. It’s outside my back window.

6 I took this photo before taking #5. Chimping, I didn’t like it because the wind made it out of focus. I left it in the camera, though, and just moved on to a faster shutter speed for the next shots. In download I rejected it. I can’t call this a photo with ICM (intentional camera movement) because intentionality was certainly not involved. But it has a similar look, and today I like it.

7 Earlier I found this tall-grass seedhead. I don’t think it’s the same plant shown in the other photographs because the leaves are so dissimilar. Keep scrolling to see.

8 These leaves are narrower and curling.

9 After I took #8, I decided that I wanted the ground beneath the leaves to go very dark, so I underexposed the next frames. During processing (in Lightroom) I increased the blacks and shadows to make the ground go even darker. Suddenly the leaves showed an assortment of colors! The leaves were too dark for my tastes, so I increased the whites. The rest of these photos were processed the same way, some with added enhancements. Mistakes can be rewarding.

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