Glow

Hard shadows can emphasize texture and edges. Find a scene with lit with hard shadows today and make a photo.

This past week has been unbelievably hectic where I work and I've found myself pulling 12 hour days as of late. With school last night and the long work hours, I really haven't been able to come up with some stellar shots...this post is no different. Feeling the need to relax and unwind, I illuminated the living room by candlelight and decided to take the new toy out for a spin. While I'm still getting familiar with the new camera, I've been amazed at the difference between what I was using and what I am using now. I decided to post the photo of the candles softly glowing with the hard shadows cast on the bed of river rocks.

Mags.

Cheltenham Badlands

Tonight I decided to try my hand at sunsets. I know....this doesn't look like one. This was a "detour" on our way to scope out a good sunset view.

 

“Badlands” is a geologic term for an area of soft rock devoid of vegetation and soil cover that has become molded into a rolling landscape of rounded hills and gullies. Such areas are rare in Ontario and this is one of the best examples.

 

They exhibit the reddish hue of the Queenston Shale that forms them; the iron oxide in the shale produces this colour. The narrow greenish bands that can be seen throughout the shale are due to the change of red iron oxide to green iron oxide brought on by the circulating groundwater. The relatively soft shale is essentially clay and is easily eroded by water.

 

Vibrantly red, and totally at odds with a county typified by pastoral meadows and gentle streams lined with majestic black willows, The Cheltenham Badlands probably started to form with the erosion of soft, iron-rich Queenston shale when cattle grazing stripped a protective layer of vegetation from the site in the nineteenth century.

 

The Cheltenham Badlands are located on Olde Base Road in Caledon and are one of the most striking examples of badlands topography in Southern Ontario.

Mags.

Texture

Texture is perceived surface quality. There are two types of texture: tactile and implied. Tactile texture (real texture) is what we are most familiar with. It is the way the surface of an object actually feels. Examples of this include sandpaper, cotton balls, tree bark, animal fur, etc. Implied texture is the way the surface on an object looks like it feels. The texture may look rough, fizzy, gritty, but cannot actually be felt. This type of texture is commonly used by artists when drawing or painting.

I liked this photo because it depicts a few different textures from the roughness (and smoothness) of some of the river rocks and also shows the prickly leaves of the weeds growing through the rocks.
 
Mags.