It is over a month since my Zenfolio account expired and I decided not to reactivate it. I had subscribed to them a year ago when my photography goal was to get to international market. This goal was dismissed in later part of previous year, though, as I wanted to focus more on my family. Isn’t it ironic that it was not before I cancelled my Zenfolio account when I sold my first photos of this year? Moreover, it was through a web where I hadn’t sold anything until now, that’s in last 2 years? Not mentioning that appx. in the same time I received a proposal from a NY gallery to display my work (OK, supposedly a vanity gallery so I rejected the offer – which was overpriced anyway) and a request for special photo from my good friend. If these late actions should have changed my mind about leaving international photography market, well, they didn’t. Sometimes there’s nothing else but smile upon such twists of our lives. And by the way, those sold photos were from the peony triptych posted last time here.
~ Lavender Bowl ~
0.3 sec. @ 100 mm, f/8, ISO 100
Now about lavender photos of which accompany this post. Lavender. The flower with intoxicating smell and evoking summer. I tried to take photos of this purple beauty several times but never with any pleasing result. When my wife was cutting the first flowers this year I gave it another try. I tied the fresh flowers to small bouquet and tried to take photos of them with different subjects. A wooden bowl from Ikea won after all. I processed photo above with an intention to give it a summer “burned” look. Like an old photo left behind a glass somewhere at home.
~ Lavender Bowl 2 ~
1.6 sec. @ 100 mm, f/20, ISO 100
This is a photo of the same arrangement as in the first photos, just another clip and processing emphasizing the saturated purple colour. Shadows are quite dark here because the light coming from the window was on the right side but this is the best I achieved no matter how hard I tried.
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| ~ Lavender Ribbon ~ 1/30 sec. @ 100 mm, f/2.8, ISO 100 |
~ Tied Tight ~ 1/8 sec. @ 100, f/5.6, ISO 100 |
I think that the two photos above could make a nice diptych (however not so close to each other) but they can stand quite well also alone. The focus here is more on the ribbon and even though the lavender is only partially in the frame or even focus, it’s still her who plays the main role.
I saw a lot of photos of lavender posies and so I tried to capture it differently. You are judges.
Have a great rest of the summer!
P.S. I have photos for coming posts already so it’s only a matter of time when I will get to process them.
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Glad to see some of your photos.
Your post touches on a question I’m asking myself–what is the purpose of my photography? What to do with all the photos I take, besides posting them on the web? I don’t even know the questions to ask, much less the answers.
Hi Anita. And what do you do with your photos? I know you participated in photo competitions. Do you have a goal set for your photography or are you taking photos just for fun? Me, I was naive in the beginning when I thought that I could sell some of my photos after receiving positive feedback from various sources. Now I know that it’s impossible without solid and permanent marketing and that’s something I definitely don’t want to spend time and money for. At least now and maybe forever. So currently I take photos only for my joy, without any specific target and even though I still try to sold my photos, I sold only 4 photos in last 2 years.
Although I have never tried to photograph lavender, not sure why, it is one of those flowers that you just aren’t quite sure how to compose it if you don’t have a huge field of it in front of you. I think you did a great job in representing this flower like most people probably envision it in their head, as a nice fragrant bundle, something to add a bit of color to a home.
You could spend hours upon hours contemplating the first part about the web and sales. They are out there, but getting people to find you in this massive sea is a never ending quest.
Thanks for compliments on photos, Mark. I was too unsure how to capture the essence of lavender and I hope that I at least partially succeeded.
About the sales – attracting people who will buy my photos later is exactly what I don’t wan’t to invest to now.
[…] Picturing lavender. […]
I really like the delicate look to the top two images.