Jan 23 2021 - Making a Splash

Brian Cole sent me information about a duo of artists who take photos of huge splashes of colourant in landscape settings.  They are by Cassandra Warner and Jeremy Floto - Floto+Warner. The duo states: “There is no photoshop used in these images, we shoot these with a high-speed shutter to freeze the action. We are also conscious of the environment, the color is non-toxic, non-staining, water based and composed of 95% water.” The description is HERE.  Isn't this one a fantastic image on the landscape? The artists' website is HERE.  They are commercial photographers with their studio in NYC.  There are lots of Architectural Digest shoots.  They make the interiors seem dreamily perfect.   Check through the Splash series in the first link.   Isn't this an amazing tree - a weeping willow with leaves still on in December.  This makes a nice contrast with the snow on the branches. It is much curlier looking than the weeping willow at Charles Daley Park, so it looks like a large curly willow. There's a very large one behind the Stoney Ridge Winery, but it has never had yellow leaves in the autumn for nice pictures.  How curious to see this one in comparison.   Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

 

Follow Your Bliss

What are the most popular types of photography?  Portrait photography is #1, of course!  How many photographs do we take each day?  Goggle tells us that a 2014 estimate was 1.8 billion images every single day.  There are 14 trillion photos take annually, as of 2017.  Pictures flow on the internet highway.   In one second 8,523 Tweets were sent, 920 Instagram photos were uploaded, 1,541 Tumblr posts are maden.  There are 3,400,000 emails sent in a second, WhatsApp messages are 740,741, and Facebook posts are 54,977.   I went searching for the most popular photos in the world.  I find the most influential photos - these are mostly photos of death and dying in action - starvation, falling, people being shot (remember Vietnam images) etc. There  are 2 wonderful portrait- of Chez Guevera and Winston Churchill. So I am not able to find the most popular picture in the world. What about the most viewed picture in the world?  What is it?  It turns out to be the "Bliss' photograph on the wallpaper screen of the 1990s Microsoft computers.  Photographer O’Rear said: “I am turning seventy-six and realise how much the Microsoft ‘Bliss’ photograph has meant to my life.  “As the photographer of the most viewed photo in history, I have enjoyed every minute of the fame.” It is a picture he took out of the car window in Sonoma. I've always wondered about the strangely shadowed grass and how smooth and green the 'landscape' is.   Read more about this interesting story HERE  In the Silver Garden Conservatory at Longwood Gardens, these seem almost like a black and white pictures.

HDR Photos

I have started to create HDR images.  This means that I take 3 exactly the same photos at different exposure settings.  I then process these 3 shots in software that combines the best of each image without there being bright spots and dark, dark shadows.  The sky is blue, the flowers show up... Here's an example from Longwood Gardens, with an image without HDR, and the second with HDR.

It's All About Lilies

So far in July, there have been a number of delightful surprises and there are Lily events coming up!

The first was finding a stand of Candidum Lilies near my brother's Lilycrest Gardens field in St. Catharines. There were probably 30 or 40 plants blooming and in that large a group their colour become so clearly the dominant quality. They are an amazing white - so clean and pure - no other colours on the petals. And the plants were large and healthy - so unusual in Candidums in our area.

The second surprise occurred as I visited more of the front gardens on the OpenGardensToronto 2009 tour. I mentioned this organization in an earlier post. Many of these beautiful gardens are close-by in my neighbourhood so I took the opportunity to visit a few of the front gardens from a previous tour day that I had missed as I wasn't available. Up the street from the Winston Grove garden, I happened upon a front garden at its full peak in full and perfect bloom. It had a beautiful combination of Lilies and Lavender that I'm posting - what a gorgeous colour and form combination!

The Ontario Regional Lily Society Annual Flower show is this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. It will be in the atrium at the Royal Botanical Gardens main building on Plains Road. I will be looking forward to seeing the show in this new venue, and being able to take some scenic photos this time.

Floral Abstracts

Turning floral portraits into abstract images takes a lot of practice and patience. Yesterday I went on a neighbourhood jaunt taking floral portraits along the way. I will not report on the garbage event with the big truck picking up the business garbage (what an amazing smell!). This is due to the Toronto City workers strike.

The abstract image is created by making long exposures and moving the camera. The wavy lines and colours result. These Fringed Asters turned into waves of colour.