Genieve Dawkins's Blog, page 14

Moment & Motion

Photo 101 Day 13: Moment & Motion

When things got a little too hot and overwhelming, I took a moment to enjoy the cool winds on the beach. The stress quickly evaporated as I got lost in the hypnotic motion of the surf rolling on the sandy shore.

Architecture & Monochrome

Photo 101 Day 12: Architecture & Monochrome

Okay, so it isn’t really architecture or a grand design. Or is it?

Jacob Taylor fishing beach, Silver Sands, Jamaica

Pop & Color

Photo 101 Day 11: Pop & Color

Today was a birdy sort of day. There were birds everywhere and an object lesson in there somewhere.

First, I tried taking a “pop & color” picture of a bright spray of otaheite apple blossoms and noticed something tiny darting around in the fluffy pink blooms. I’d left my glasses and couldn’t quite make out what the tiny thing was. I shrugged it off as a lizard and forgot about it as the photo was out of focus anyway. I took a picture of bright red lilies set in a garden of green instead, as it was the only other pop of color in the area.

Imagine my surprise when I loaded the photos on my computer and found this:

Lesson: Always, always, be prepared. Opportunity really does strike when least expected and the unprepared won’t see what’s right in front of them.

Then, I collapsed onto my sofa, exhausted from what had been an unusually trying day and heard one of the neighbours honking his horn outside. I was too tired to get up, so imagine my shock when someone burst into my living room with an armful of chirping, fluffy, yellow things and carefully thrust them into my lap. Bigs, my cat who went missing last week and is presumed dead, had managed to scare one of my two week old chicks to death the week before he vanished (while someone else was entrusted with taking care of them). Those chicks had been a gift from Nutramix, which is a large producer of all things chicken round “these parts.”

“You lost one, so now we’re giving you another five,” the messenger said gleefully, after giving me the unexpected gift of cute, day-old baby chicks. I tried taking photos of them, but yellow definitely doesn’t do “pop & color.”

Lesson: Bad things do turn out for good. (All things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose).

Photo 101 Weekend 2: Play With Light

For this weekend’s Photo 101 assignment, “Play With Light,” I opted to take pictures of one subject at different points throughout the same day (today). I tried to take the pictures from roughly the same angle, using the same settings, so you should be able to see the effects of changing light. I wasn’t sure if there would be significantly visible differences since I’m in the tropics and the light is very different here, but they’re there. The photos are unedited and may have some exposure issues due to the natural lighting, but I wanted to see what the raw light looks like.

Morning:

Late morning:

Midday:

Late afternoon:

Overcast afternoon (thunderstorm):

Golden Hour (before sunset, after thunderstorm):

I’m grateful for our first rain in two weeks, so I’ll update this post with pre-sunset and sunset photos on a sunny day, DV.

WPC: Rainbow!

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “ROY G. BIV.”

Ezekiel 1:28

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

Mystery & Light Effects

Photo 101 Day 10: Mystery & Lighting Effects

What’s this now? Well, it’s a mystery.

Here’s a clue: That blue thing is an eye.

No, I’m not going to tell you the answer because of clue number two: This depicts farm-related activities, which are likely too gross for the average city dweller, but they do make a lovely piece of abstract art.

Here’s another clue:

There’s that eye again. Never mind the beastly appearance in this photo, he’s a gentle sweetheart. This is just a mating ritual.

Okay, so I’m going to have to schedule this assignment for a do-over, but I just couldn’t resist the feral feel of these photos.

Warmth & the Quality of Light

Photo 101 Day 9: Warmth & the Quality of Light

Today’s submission is another experiment with digital double exposure. The main photo is today’s glorious sunset,which I shot about 2 hours ago. I can’t believe how the time has flown! That photo was lovely, with a nice, round, fat sun and beautiful yellow tones, but the sky was featureless and flat due to heat and drought. The second photo is one I took a few weeks ago.

The colours blend very well together and really convey warmth, which fits well with the extreme heat I’m suffering right now. I think the doubling up really makes the photo pop.

Double exposure done with PicMonkey.

Natural World & Leading Lines

Photo 101: Natural World & Leading Lines

I didn’t get out much today, so these are plants with fascinating lines I found in the backyard while doing chores. I’ll keep looking for leading lines that actually lead the eye to a subject and post another photo on this topic when I find them.

Big

Photo 101: Big & Point of View

When I first returned to the island, everyone excitedly told me about the incredible wonder that had appeared in the sky in about 2010: a star so big and so bright you could sometimes see it during daylight. A daystar. Imagine that. I was fascinated. I had neither seen nor heard of this phenomenon in London, but when I looked, lo and behold, there it was indeed. I could even see it without my glasses, so big and bright was this star.

Last night, I turned the camera on it for the first time and was surprised to see that it looked a little like the moon, but not really. A planet, maybe? The best explanation I could find was that it might be Jupiter, but this doesn’t look like Jupiter to me. I’ll try taking a photo that isn’t handheld, so I can get a sharper picture. Whatever it is, it sure is BIG.

Connect

Today’s Photo 101 assignment is “Connect & Tags.” They gave an example of being very connected to everyone these days because of the proliferation of communication technology and social media.

I honestly feel that being “connected” to others through technology is a lot of self-deception. You get a feel-good, always-on, ultra-connected feeling while you’re staring at a screen, very likely disconnecting from the people in the same room as you. You’re actually connected to a machine, not to any real people. Are those connections real? Are they meaningful?

Does the “Abomination that Maketh Desolate” mean anything to you?