come photowalk with me (marianne)
NaBloWriMo day 22. Oy.
Jeremy is on travel in the wilds of British Columbia (okay, not wilds – he’s in Vancouver) and so I had a nice happy hour at Bacaro on Pearl Street Thursday evening with some of my gal pals. We actually invited a few fellas to join us, but I think the estrogen-heavy gathering may have scared a few of them away. A most excellent time was had by all. I’m always astounded at how awesome my betties are – smart, fun, funny, talented, very cool.
glowy colored lights – i like blue lights
trying to get a look at the happy hour board through the conversation
i don’t know what andrea was laughing at – there was much laughing
I bet you thought I was never going to pick up on that photowalk series, huh? Fooled ya! You can’t rush these things, you know. It has more to do with scheduling than anything else – we are all very busy. However, I was fortunate to schedule a photowalk with one of my favorite people on the planet, Marianne. I had to get this in before she left for Antarctica. That’s the bummer about being friends with polar engineers – they’re gone for most of the ski season :( I let Marianne use my Nikon D200 for the photowalk. Let’s get started, shall we?
meet marianne – she kicks ass
Marianne: Nikon D200 with Nikkor 18-200mm 3.5-5.6G ED (DX) VR
Jen: Nikon D3x wtih Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
Marianne chose the location – the Boulder County Railway’s Historical Society’s Valmont Display Site. I refer to it as the Train Preserve. It is open to the public although tucked away in east Boulder. We met on a sunny morning last week and watched several bunnies scampering about in the old rail yard. It’s a quiet and peaceful place. The rules: we take turns choosing a location to stop and then shoot about 5 frames within a ten foot radius of the location. Here are a few of our shots:
marianne location #1: shot 2
jen location #1: shot 5
I like to let my photowalk partner choose where we should shoot, because if I were to choose I would head straight into the mountains. That’s what I love to shoot. So I feel it’s really good to let them force me into the unfamiliar. I never would have chosen the Train Preserve.
marianne location #2: shot 1
jen location #2: shot 3
I began to seek out subjects that I wouldn’t normally notice. It was easier this time around for me to find interesting captures. It still wasn’t easy, but I discovered my mind spent less time thinking, “What the heck am I going to shoot?” and more time thinking, “That’s kinda cool…” I think I may be starting to get the hang of it – just a little.
marianne location #3: shot 1
jen location #3: shot 4
Despite the bright sunlight, large shade trees cast shadows or only let dappled light through on the southern side of the preserve. In some locations, we were entirely within the shadow of the train cars.
marianne location #4: shot 2
jen location #4: shot 1
When I look at Marianne’s photos, the overall impression I walk away with is geometry and mechanical systems. Of course, we were in a TRAIN PRESERVE so it’s hard to avoid that, but I also think it reflects part of Marianne’s personality. She’s analytical – an MIT engineer. She works with her hands and deals with machinery. Marianne is also very patient and thoughtful, which I think comes out in some of her photos of the burned wood.
marianne location #5: shot 3
jen location #5: shot 5
The general rule is to let the photographer process his or her own photographs. Because I had some photos I needed on the compact flash card that Marianne was using, I took it home with me. I just pulled all of the RAW files into Photoshop with minimal contrast and color cast adjustment and then let Marianne grab them from my server to process as she saw fit. I really think processing is a personal style and I also think you learn a great deal about your photography when you are forced to process it. It’s also a good way to train your eye to be more discerning. Even though the shooting location was less diverse in subject matter than Pearl Street from the last photowalk, I think I was able to find more shots this time around. For me, that is improvement.
Thanks to Marianne for shooting with me and for just being awesome as always.
You can check out Marianne’s full set on Picasa and see my full set on my photo blog.
This photowalk was #2 in an ongoing series.
September 23, 2009: photowalk #1 with Andrew Hyde
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 am
A great collection of pictures!
Cheers,
Rosa
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:50 am
The pictures look wonderful!!
Real beauties! Thanks!
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 am
Beautiful photos!
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:44 am
Really neat. I see a lot of texture in Marianne’s pictures. It’s good that this project puts you into new environments – your shots are very interesting and so different from the landscapes. They’re more like your food photographs.
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:16 am
Glad to hear you are getting more comfortable at it, and it shows! I love both of your sets ladies! Well done!
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:51 am
I love the photowalk idea, am planning one for the future with six-year-old nephew and his AMAZING Fisher-Price digital camera.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:01 am
*You* are awesome, Jen, and thank you so much for inviting me. I love your shots! And it was such a good exercise for me.
You’ve inspired me, and so I’m taking the photowalk down to McMurdo (w/Joe, he doesn’t know yet).
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
Photo games are such a fun part of blogging. I was amazed at the posh interior of the one car– such nice woodwork. Luv the green shot.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 am
I like the location #4: shot 1… looks like dry pasta.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Once again, you chicas are amazing!
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
I would love to hear more about how you ‘process’ your pictures. You mention it often but I’m not sure what that entails. I sometimes do a bit of a crop and a color balance, but I’d be interested to learn a little more about thos side of things.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:47 pm
train yards make such great abstracts
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 pm
You’re so good – I love all of these! Don’t know why, but location #5 shot 5 really struck my fancy.
October 25th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Very interesting! I agree that a photographer’s photos speak to a certain depth the kind of person he or she is :)
October 29th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Marianne – can’t wait to see what you and Joe come up with. That would be the coolest thing ever – to shoot in Antarctica!! xxoo
Carolyn – they’ve been remodeling the cars, and yeah, looks so nice!
Jennywenny – processing isn’t something I can write about properly on a food blog. It’s VERY involved and I generally don’t discuss it with people because 1) it’s a very individualized thing (much like how to shoot) and 2) I really need to sit down and SHOW a person how I process because I’m a visual person. There is a lot that goes into it – I process photos daily and I have been processing photos for about 5, almost 6 years now.