Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Macro (and Creativity)

08 June 2015

Lens:

1. Paperweight; Copyright © 2015 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

2. Paperweight; Copyright © 2015 Sally W. Donatello All Rights Reserved/Lens and Pens by Sally

Let me know which version you prefer. Please click onto each image to enlarge.

Pens:

I’ve had a love affair with creativity for most of my adult years. My youth was filled with known and not-so-well-known artists, including my mother who was a recognized abstract expressionist painter in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Years later I realized it was not by happenstance that I did my master’s thesis on creativity.

Over many decades I’ve learned much about my experimentation with various media and the creative process. Mostly, I would pinpoint constancy, passion, patience, persistence, and pursuit of the unknown as critical elements in these lessons. Ideas are just that: notions to tackle. But they must be tried and tried over and over to achieve any level of self-satisfaction. At least that’s true for me.

Photography is certainly an example of lessons learned and lessons sought. Probably passion is the singular quality that can make a difference in one’s pursuit. Devotion and love are elements that push my exploration. They certainly keep me going. But it also takes a regular and vigorous approach to that creative effort. Just as every journey in life includes work, hard work, the act of creativity is rigorous.

This week is an example of that drive to try numerous avenues to create a macro image. I am enamored by the beauty and design of everyday objects. So I took a paperweight and used it as my subject for this week’s challenge.

I kept at it, because it was quite difficult to get the result that finally seemed to be my desired effect: to show a tiny world within the glass paperweight. The designs inside are mostly bubbles and abstract spheres.

When I saw the results of the photo shoots, words like alien, planet, heavenly, and otherworldly criss crossed into my thoughts. I selected an image, because it was the only one that suited my perceptions of those descriptors. The first one was taken in Hipstamatic. The second one was edited in PhotoStudio.

The marvel of macro photography is the surprise universe that emerges. We think that we can see all with our naked eye, but whole new worlds can appear for one’s enjoyment and wonder with a close-up view.

Keep at the creative process and a fount of the hidden becomes a reality. Keep at the creative process and revelations abound.

View other entries for this week’s challenge:

https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-dusted-with-spices/

https://chasinglifeandfindingdreams.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/the-value-of-character/

https://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/stories-old-and-new-told-with-a-mobile-devise/

http://luciledegodoy.com/2015/06/08/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-2/

https://decocraftsdigicrafts.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-bees/

https://angelinem.wordpress.com/2015/06/08/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-vivid-macro/

https://badfish2.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/2-vivid-memories-the-last-gap-t-shirt/

https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/macro-and-mundane/

https://livingwithmyancestors.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-and-creativity/

https://patchworkponderings.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-raindrop/

https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/sally-ds-photo-challenge/

https://amaltaas.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-tree-trunk/

https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/4607/

http://nwframeofmind.com/2015/06/13/sally-ds-mobile-photography-challenge-macro-in-pink/

Tip of the Week:

In The J. Paul Getty Museum’s online magazine, Iris, you can read about the current exhibition, Light, Paper, Process, that takes the viewer into the past world of analog photography. The work of seven artists shows their unusual methods that result from darkroom techniques, sensitive emulsions, archival negatives, and custom-built cameras. These artists, who are currently using traditional photographic alchemy, are examples of how experimentation can lead to unique images. At the California-based art center’s blog states, “All seven of the artists in the show work with repetition, seeking to uncover how a similar technique or gesture can lead to unexpected results.” The exhibition also pulls works from the Getty’s permanent collection to show unusual photographic techniques used in the twentieth century. This exhibition is instructive and poignant in a world where mobile photography has its own inventiveness within a digital darkroom. And still these twenty-first century artists chose to use the chemical darkroom to push their own creativity. To learn more about the exhibition, click http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/light-paper-process-reinventing-photography. For those who cannot travel; to see the exhibition being held in Los Angeles, California (until 06 September 2015) you can read the online link or purchase the book by the photography curator and head of the Department of Photographs at the Getty, Virginia Herbert.

“Light, Paper, Process,” by Virginia Herkert, 2015

Note:

As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog.

If you’d like to join the Photo Challenge, please click here for details. If you have any questions, please contact me. Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming Photo Challenges:

1st Monday: Nature.

2nd Monday: Macro.

3rd Monday: Black and White.

4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).

5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week.