Walking in Beauty: Captured by Beauty

Posted By Glenn B. Jenks on Apr 30, 2015

Walking in Beauty

By Glenn B. Jenks

Most of the photographs I take are carefully thought out before the shutter button is snapped. The light must be right the background must be acceptable and the camera settings. the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed have to be right to get the effects I want. The photographers’ mantra is “MAKE photographs, don’t just take photographs”.

But every photographer has had the experience of having beauty capture him/her instead of the other way around. While you are focusing on one subject suddenly something beautiful that is totally unexpected catches your eye. You have no time to think. You just instinctively turn and shoot . And if the camera was on the right settings often that shot turns out to be the best one of the day.

While strolling along the edge of the road that borders the ocean near Sea Side, Oregon I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a Great Blue Heron walking in the water’s edge. Suddenly he moved as though he was about to fly. I pulled my camera to my eye just as he took off and “pulled the trigger several times”. The reflection of the heron in the still water was a beautiful unexpected plus to the shot

Heron One

Heron Two

The photo below was taken at a park, the location of which I have forgotten. I just recall walking along and suddenly my attention was drawn to these seed pods and the beautiful light that was on and around them and I had to shoot quickly before the light changed.

There are times when you have taken a photograph and you don’t really see the treasure in it until you get home and pull it up on the computer.

Fuzzy Seed Pods

At the Phoenix Zoo a number of years ago I tried to photograph the cheetah. I waited and waited while he lounged on the shadows a long way away. Taking a shot under those condition was not possible. Finally he sat up and there was a little bit of on him. He was so far away and even with my longest lens seemed inadequate. But, I snapped a few a shots anyway and decided I would hope for better luck on another day. Then, when I got home and put this image onto my monitor. I cropped it a little and this is what I discovered.

Cheetah

Caption. On a recent trip to Las Vegas my wife, Sue, and I stayed at the Golden Nugget. In the afternoon we took a walk along Freemont Street. Sue pointed out to me the pattern on the wall of a building as we walked past, and I took a few shots. This is the best pattern shot I have ever taken.

Pattern on Vegas Wall

Occasionally you find an image while playing with it in Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. These photo editing soft-ware programs provide a wealth of tools to enhance or even radically change a a photograph. This is a photo of the blooms on a Barrel Cactus. I was playing in Photoshop and changed the color of the light in the photo and this beautiful image appeared on my monitor screen.