Collards

While cleaning collards for Thanksgiving dinner preparations tonight, I

remembered how that as a child I would be fascinated by the silvery

"gilding" that collard leaves take on when under water. I thought I'd try to

catch that particular effect if I could.You can see it only slightly in this

photo close to the stem in the second leaf. A little nostalgia in this season

of Thanksgiving.

Amy, you have a very interesting portfolio. It appears that you are having a ball exploring the abstract of form and shadows with your fuji.

I am always pleased when a photographer is attempting to capture something more esoteric than simply documenting, as you are doing here.
Yes you are documenting the collard steam, but you are doing something much more important—you are photographing a memory of something you saw as phenomena that caught your attention when you were younger. There is no better excuse for clicking a shutter than making a statement about our individual lives. You can mimic all the more accomplished photographers, follow all the rules, learn all the processing tricks and you will never take a photograph that is more important than the ones about your life experience—that is something that the individual can give to the photograph that no one else will ever be able to do.

I hope you don’t mind if I have played with your photograph to put more emphasis on the gilding. It is the photographer’s responsibility to do whatever they can to lead the reader to what is important in the photograph. I have tried to strengthen that in your photograph by eliminating some of the leaves that are non-essential and by using the light colored steam as a lead-in line from the left of the image to the area that is important. I have also darkened some on the left and bottom of the photograph to keep it from competing with the important area.

Wow, Gary. Your version is MUCH more what I was going for. Even though I've been doing some sort of photography for a few years now, my post-processing skills are still undeveloped. Your version is exactly what I was hoping to get out of mine. Thanks for your helpful and kind comments. I will play with this image a bit more in PS to see if I can more closely approach my goals. Your work will give me a good start.

Thanks so much.

Amy

Amy, had I read your profile prior to posting I would have been more reluctant to share my very undereducated opinions. LOL Think of your photographs not as the subject matter--not as collard greens, but as lines, tones, forms. Think of leading the eye of the reader across the surface from left to right, just as if you were reading a short story, which is what I tried to do by repositioning the stalk in the lower right corner to make a roadway to the gilding. I tried to prevent the eye from wandering off that roadway by darkening the areas on either side, making them less interesting. It's all about directing the eye of the reader within the frame of the photograph. I am pleased you found it possibly helpful.

Hi Amy,

It is nice to see some of what the Fuji Finepix X100 camera is capable of capturing.

This scene has a natural, fresh appearance to it,. Like all good images , it is easy to use many processing techniques to present it in various ways.

Best Regards,  Mike

Hi, Mike. Thanks for looking at this one. Photography seems to have infinite opportunities for ways to see and present a scene. It's up to us to have the vision and develop our skills to be able to present that vision. I guess there'll always be work to do there (sigh). 

Thanks for stopping by.

Amy