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Friday, July 27, 2007

Land of the wood nyphs

I could almost see the little wood nymph pop down the hidey hole as I was walking around my front yard. With a little help from a closeup it was clear to me that there was a maze of paths in the mushroom village so only the invited could find their way in. Besides the fact that I'd need some shrinking elixar, I wasn't invited so I settled for a few photographs.
I think part of the reason I tend to have better luck with close-up nature photography than with larger landscapes is because I see what's not there more clearly than what is there, more than half the time. I admire the composition techniques a good landscape photographer (amateur and professional alike) uses to make an interesting picture. I have a lot of trouble with that because I look out at a scene and I add or subtract or soften in my mind but when I snap the picture, I realize that the bits I mentally erased end up dominating the scene and what I thought I saw was only there in my imagination.
For some reason I don't have a problem with mental editing or adding when I take a close up of a flower or mushroom or a small section of whatever I'm interested in outside. Sometimes I find that there is even more going on than I originally thought once I look at the close-ups on my screen. More going on in a good way as opposed to a busy way like I sometimes get with my attempts at landscapes. I completely missed the ethereal fairy in the center of the morning glory until I looked at it on the screen. That would have been a shame because she is at least as interesting to me as the velvet drape that surrounds her on the perimeter.

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