Picture of the Day - The Lonely Lighthouse Painting

In my last blog here, I showed you a photo of the lighthouse at Yaquina Head taken at sunset. I also promised to show you a unique painting I made of that image that I show (and sell) at my art shows....and here it is.

It is difficult to see at this size, but one of the best parts of the painting is the texture of the sky. Its made of thousands of tiny lines going in every direction. The lighthouse had to be created separately, then pasted back into the painting.

This painting looks stunning on canvas which is how I display it at my shows. As I said in my previous blog, this technique only works on very simple images.

PS - I am sorry about the time delay between blogs these days, but I only have two nights at home these days before heading back out to the next show...and I spend most of my home time getting ready for the next show. After labor day, I hope to take a week off and catch up with the rest of my life.

Picture of the Day - The Lonely Lighthouse

Simplicity should be something one strives for in photography. Composed correctly, an image with just a few elements can be very pleasing to the eye and the mind. So it is with this photo of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, located near Newport, OR. There is only a fabulous post-sunset sky, a tiny bit of the ocean, the darkened ground and, of course, the lighthouse. Nothing else is needed. By having the ground so dark, it hides a large field of wild grass which would have taken away from the image's simplicity.

I always try to achieve simplicity of image when out taking photos, but it doesn't happen as often as I would like. And, it goes without saying, that so much of photography is being in the right place at the right time. I only had this one day at this location, so, in a sense, I got lucky with a great sunset. There have been many more occasions when I waited all day for a fabulous sunset and didn't "get lucky."

One thing I remember about this photo was a park ranger almost screaming at me to get out of the park because it closed at sunset...and to capture this image, I had to be in the park after the sun was gone.

FYI, this image was captured several years ago with my 35mm film camera using slide film and the camera mounted on a tripod.

In my next edition, I will show you a digital painting that I made from this image using a unique style that requires absolute simplicity.

Picture of the Day - Canoes

I photographed this image several years ago with my now ancient film camera using slide film. It was taken up in Canada on Kootenay Lake, near the cute little town of Kaslo. It was the colors of the canoes, of course, that grabbed my attention...and the fact they were lined up so perfectly on the beach.

Lines in photographs are an important element that can give your images depth and they lead your eye off into the distance. Lines are used as a basic element in all types of two dimensional art. Sometimes lines are very obvious and other times, like this image, they are more subtle. Examine some of your own favorite non-people photographs and try to identify the lines in the image. Better yet, look for useable lines in when you are out and about with your camera.

To see some good examples of how lines are used in photography, check out this Web site.