Photography Challenge Week 38

The Week 38 challenge was to use the Rule of Odds in a composition. In photography, the rule suggests that photos containing an odd number of items are more visually appealing. While it is somewhat easy to find odd numbers in flowers, the challenge was to use it in an urbanscape/architecture photo. Below is my take on it.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 38

Photography Challenge Week 37

The weather is changing (sort of), and the Week 37 challenge was Story Telling: Seasons. I came across this leaf that had fallen on a stone wall at Crystal Bridges when we visited there last week. There is not a lot of fall color out yet in the Midwest, but I thought this leaf worked well for the challenge. I got a kick out of the fact that the leaf's shadow looked like a bat.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 37

Photography Challenge Week 36

For Week 36 of the photo challenge the inspiration was "Your Habits." Some habits are good, some are bad. We could use either in our photo. Eating pizza is one of my bad habits, but it is also soooo good! We found this pie of deliciousness at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR last week.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 36

Photography Challenge Week 35

Symmetry is a compositional technique most often used in landscape or architectural photos. For Week 35 we were to break the mold by using symmetry in a portrait. I used Jim as my model, and photographed him in an allee of trees. That seemed particularly appropriate since he is a landscape architect.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 35

Photography Challenge Week 34

Story Telling: Color without Color was the challenge for Week 34. We were to tell a colorful story but to do it in black and white. My thought was that everyone would be able to visualize the vibrant red of strawberries even when looking at them without color.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 34

Photography Challenge Week 33

Last week's challenge was Inspiration: Tell a Lie. It is said that the camera never lies. Prove it wrong. I captured this photo of a sunset on a recent road trip. While this is what my camera saw, my eyes saw a different sunset entirely.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 33

Photography Challenge Week 32

Composition: Frame within the frame was the challenge for Week 32. We were to use only natural elements to frame the subject of our photo. This was one of the rare weeks when I had actually photographed a number of different scenes trying to capture the challenge. I decided to use the one of a chair carved from a tree, which I found along a trail in the Split Rock Lighthouse State Park near Two Harbors, Minnesota.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 32

Photography Challenge Week 31

The challenge for Week 31 was to tell the story of someone you know well. My husband and I were recently on a trip to Lake Superior in Minnesota. As early risers, we were able to capture the sunrise on the lake. This photo represents my husband in his new phase of life: retired and relaxed.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 31

Photography Challenge Week 30

The Week 30 challenge was to be inspired by Exit. I loved their tagline, which was "Every exit is an entry to somewhere else." That was very thought-provoking. I took several photos of different things to try to capture the essence of exit, and this is the one I settled on. Where will this exit lead me?

It was taken at Gooseberry Falls State Park in Minnesota.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 30

Photography Challenge Weeks 28 and 29

Life is crazy right now, so I am behind in getting the challenge photos posted to my blog, though I have been taking them in a timely fashion. For Week 28 we were to tell the story of our culture through a photo. I had no clue what to do for the challenge until I was at the airport last week. The American Airlines planes outside the window worked perfectly to let everyone know I'm American.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 28

Week 29 involved depth of field, which is a way of isolating your subject in a photo. Normally you would have your subject in focus, and the items around it out of focus. The challenge, however, was to make your subject appear to be part of something larger. An unknown woman absorbing the view at Grandfather Mountain near Linville, North Carolina seemed to fit the bill.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 29

Photography Challenge Week 27

For this week we were to show gratitude in our photo. I'm grateful to live in a community that still embraces a hometown parade, and for the men and women who make it possible for us to celebrate America's freedom. It was an added bonus that our son was visiting from the D.C. area and wanted to attend the parade with us. It was been many years since the kids have been here to enjoy the 4th of July festivities.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 27

Photography Challenge Week 26

For Week 26 we were to use geometry in our photo. I really dislike math, so I was not excited about this challenge. However, I spied this bell tower at the Salvation Army when I arrived to play pickleball this morning, and it seemed to fit the bill.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 26

Photography Challenge Week 25

Week 25 was Story Telling: Freedom, and we were to tell a story of what freedom means to us. I cannot think of freedom without envisioning the men and women who have fought and are fighting so that I may enjoy freedom. This photo was taken in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, the final resting place of so many of our brave soldiers. It is also a place where the deer roam free, keeping watch over the graves.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 25

Photography Challenge Week 24

For Week 24 the theme was inspiration. We were to take a photo that would tell the viewers the story of who inspires us. I came across this woman while taking photographs at a park last week. I don't know her, but I am inspired by people who are not afraid to wear their beliefs for all to see. It was an added bonus that it appears she was in the park to take photos as well, judging by the camera by her side.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 24

Photography Challenge Weeks 22 and 23

Last week's challenge was to tell the story of a stranger. As I was on a road trip with my niece over the weekend, I had many opportunities to photograph people that I didn't know. This one spoke the most to me, so I chose it. Taken at Grand Falls in Joplin, Missouri, I got a kick out of this guy wearing a jacket with the hood up as he sat in the cold water on a hot summer day.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 22

For Week 23 we were to use strong leading lines, but it had to be in food photography. Sometimes it is fun to play with your food! I decided to use the jar of jam in the shot, as that was to be the ultimate fate of the strawberries.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 23

Photography Challenge Week 21

I must confess that I did not participate in the Week 20 challenge, which was to create a powerful landscape using negative space. I just couldn't find anything to shoot that seemed to fit the bill. I may come back to it at some point this year.

Week 21 was to use Serenity as our inspiration. What does serenity mean to you? For me, my home is the place where I feel the most calm and peaceful. The garden makes the house shine even more in the spring, so that was my inspiration for the challenge in week 21.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 21

Photography Challenge Week 19

This week's challenge was to tell a story of aging using just one photograph. Rather than going the more traditional route of photographing an elderly person or their hand, I chose to represent aging in a different manner. This was taken on a rural road in Iowa while visiting my in-laws over Mother's Day weekend.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 19

Photography Challenge Week 18

The challenge for this week was Inspiration: Weight or Mass; heavy as a stone, light as a feather. My husband and I had a road trip to Des Moines this past weekend, and we stopped in Pella, Iowa on the way home. It happened to be the Tulip Time festival, though it was mostly over by the time we arrived on Sunday. I found my inspiration in a tulip petal floating in the fountain located on the town square. The blowing wind caused the water to make the circular patterns on the surface.

Dogwood Challenge Week 18

Photography Challenge Week 17

This week's photography prompt certainly put the challenge in photography challenge! It started simply enough by asking us to shoot a balanced image. The twist was to do so in a way that it would represent the "Accidental Renaissance" style. What the heck is that? I spent some quality time with Google to try to understand this photo movement. It all began, supposedly, when someone posted a photograph online in 2014 of a brawl in the Ukranian Parliament.  The photo was shared on Twitter, and the comment was that it looked like a Renaissance painting. The photo went viral, and the term "Accidental Renaissance" was coined.

The renaissance period was from the 14th-17th centuries, so I looked at a lot of paintings from that time period. It struck me that lighting was key for getting the shot. Obviously, if I was going to stage the subject matter, it takes the "accidental" out of the equation. I selected items I had here at the house - my mom's hymnal, my husband's grandfather's glasses, my pearls, my husband's pocket watch, my parent's original wedding bands, and an old skeleton key. My husband held the light source so I could experiment with light angles. I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 17

Photography Challenge Weeks 15 and 16

The Week 15 Challenge called for us to take a photo with the inspiration being Anonymous, which we could interpret however we liked. While taking photos at Tower Grove Park, I saw this couple enjoying the sunshine on a bench, and photographed them through the daffodils.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 15

For Week 16, we were to tell a story while only using shadow. This caused some lively discussion amongst the Dogwood Photography Facebook group members as folks discussed whether a silhouette was a shadow, or how about a reflection in the water? And could other items appear in the photo besides the shadow? But it all comes back to the fact that this challenge is whatever you make it to be. Below is what I came up with on Saturday - shadows of tulips at the Missouri Botanical Garden. I don't know how compelling the story is, but I feel it stays true to the prompt given for the weekly challenge.

Dogwood Photography Challenge Week 16