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Steel Dandelions
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Steel Dandelions



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Big art at the lake.

Big art at the lake.
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cameraNIKON D750

settings Aperture f/7.1 ISO 100 Shutter 1/800 Focal Length 500/10 

upload_dateApr, 2015

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729

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Awards

Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 22
Fall Award 2020
Outstanding Creativity
allen PhotographybyEVE ginnymiller rueysung kateshapovalova carolcardillo berlinbalbuena +22
Peer Award
vivianmires johnmichaelwaddysmith josebrener Johnsalterego edtaylor navidshakeri Penny-K +12
Superb Composition
kjwood0801 catherinegellaalbano Cesoltis harpreetinsan worsom edandaniphone gretchenlubbe +11
Top Choice
jonasweiss cooperhaney Oddball628 thihaaung_8739 Eaking luisalinke PreissAlex +10
Absolute Masterpiece
mcampi Turtlelady68 jamesadams_4557 cometolifephotography brijenraval sonyasegura Calix1 +5
Magnificent Capture
jaredconklin jean-pierreCharbonnel simonparry steveangelakis timbrown_2748 oliversettle
All Star
Zzuzka gogosviewbug ChrisKIELY
Superior Skill
acglock stevenallen_6291 drtomm
Virtuoso
NatureLoverJJWal

Emotions

Impressed
NatureLoverJJWal

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3 Comments |
Mirza_Cengic Platinum
 
Mirza_Cengic January 09, 2016
Great idea and great work.
sweetpea72
 
sweetpea72 November 12, 2017
This is awesome.. シ
NatureLoverJJWal
 
NatureLoverJJWal June 17, 2021
Congratulations on your fall award!

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#metal #sculpture #aret
See all

Behind The Lens

Location

This shot was taken in the City park of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Coeur d'Alene at the north end of the lake of the same name has grown from it's logging and mining past to a very popular, and expensive, small city that fully embraces the arts. Bringing a large number of visitors to its many summer attractions. The park, in the heart of the city was completely reconstructed a few years ago. A family visit to North Idaho offered a chance to explore the park a bit and this is one of my favorites from that day.

Time

The weather had been a bit rainy, but this day had started a bit brighter and seemed to want to clear somewhat. It was late morning by the time I got there.

Lighting

The light at the time was very cloud-filtered, shifting from a medium gray solid overcast to some areas of brightness that offered some appeal. Occasionally, spokes of greater light would poke through, illuminating various parts of the parks and I found some luck in chasing those opportunities. This is one example.

Equipment

This was shot hand-held with my D750 wearing a Sigma Art 50MM 1.4. The lens was new to me and I had fun with it there that day. The shifting light offered up a good opportunity.

Inspiration

I've never been a portrait photographer. In fact I'm really just a hobbyist who always seems to have photography on his mind. At the park I was simply moving slowly around looking for photo opportunities when an attractive young woman caught my attention. She was standing still, apparently waiting for someone. I asked if she minded if I snapped a couple photos. She agreed and I did take a couple shots but felt uncomfortable trying to pose her in any way, so those images were rather un-remarkable but in that process, my attention was drawn increasingly to the structure she was standing under (obviously I'm not a portrait person, right?). The light began to kick up just a bit and I took a number of shots of the "steel dandelions" many of which I like, but this is my favorite.

Editing

Yes, but pretty minimal. Just some brightness and contrast to try emphasizing the highlights, and conversion to back & white.

In my camera bag

It's pretty simple for me. I have only the D750 and a few lenses. I almost always leave my bag in the vehicle and carry the camera with whatever lens I chose for that day on a Black-Rapid shoulder strap. My time is taken with a lot of different things so when I can focus (pun unintended) on photography I simple go to whatever attraction might be nearby and look for opportunities fitting the combination I"m carrying at the time. I know this is probably backwards from what might be a better, or more correct approach, but it works for me as it's a rare day that I can plan dedicated day(s) for photography. Maybe I should work on that. I usually use my 70-200 f4.0, my 12-24 2.8 , or the 24-120 f4.0. An exception to this way of working is when I decide to try capturing some local wildlife with my Tamron 150-600. That's in a different backpack bag.

Feedback

I certainly would not recommend my photography methodology to anyone else as after many years of casual photography I have a long way to go to feel completely satisfied with my work. For this photo,though I think my main interest was that it made me happy to look at this piece of art, and to try to find a way to reveal it's most captivating perspective. We all know that light is key to any such effort, but when possible, moving around the subject and isolating it (him, her) within a context seems to be helpful.

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