JoyceDickens
FollowI dedicate this to all Native Americans.
This image is so much more than a photograph of a beautiful sunrise...to me it symbolizes power and strength, a...
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I dedicate this to all Native Americans.
This image is so much more than a photograph of a beautiful sunrise...to me it symbolizes power and strength, and overwhelming evidence of a power so much greater than we could ever imagine...the teardrop is in memory of all the vast numbers of Native Americans whom were abused and destroyed by others' ignorance....
My sunrise image was shot on 09-25-08 at 6:49 AM here in Anderson, CA USA with an older Canon A640
to it I added a glass teardrop in memory of all Native Americans.
Read less
This image is so much more than a photograph of a beautiful sunrise...to me it symbolizes power and strength, and overwhelming evidence of a power so much greater than we could ever imagine...the teardrop is in memory of all the vast numbers of Native Americans whom were abused and destroyed by others' ignorance....
My sunrise image was shot on 09-25-08 at 6:49 AM here in Anderson, CA USA with an older Canon A640
to it I added a glass teardrop in memory of all Native Americans.
Read less
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JoyceDickens
December 21, 2013
Thank you Val, sorry for the late reply....still getting used to this site... :-)
JoyceDickens
December 18, 2013
I am truly honored to receive this award from the judges at Viewbug; thank you for the awesome appreciation and promotion of this work! jd
JoyceDickens
June 10, 2014
Thanks so much Don; so pleased to see you enjoying my work - have an incredible day :-))
BillW
February 04, 2016
I can tell, from the look on Chief Teardrop's face, that he is pleased and appreciates your tribute, and the skill it to create it.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was captured in the rural foothills about six miles west of Anderson in northern California. This was actually shot right in my backyard looking east toward Mount Lassen ...you can see the mountain in my image way off in the distance.Time
I captured this image at 6:49 in the morning of September 25, 2008. We were expecting some weather that day and I new that we would have a bit of color in the morning, so the night before, I planned ahead to get up early to catch the sunrise (which is something that I actually did on a daily basis). Much to my surprise, it was brilliant and I couldn't grab my camera fast enough!Lighting
The lighting was already perfect, as the early morning hours are magical as far as I am concerned, and this particular morning just seemed to prove that fact even more. The only thing I had to do, was hurry up and get outdoors as these gorgeous sunrises have a way of disappearing and changing so rapidly; from one minute to the next they will appear totally different and loose that awesome warm glow right before your very eyes. This morning was indeed a magical morning and one that I was determined to capture in all its glory, to share it with everyone that follows my work.Equipment
As a "struggling" artist and photographer, I could not afford an expensive camera and so this was shot with an older "point and shoot", a Canon A640. For a "point and shoot" this little camera served me well until I could upgrade a bit. I always spent a lot of time familiarizing myself with the manual settings of any camera I owned and as a "self-taught" photographer I cannot stress how important that is; of course, cameras today have improved dramatically, and many "neewbies" in the field probably use the "Auto" setting - I never did this even when first getting into photography, as I welcomed the challenge of learning how to read the LIGHT and to adjust my camera manually to capture the best image that I could.Inspiration
Waking up to a glorious morning as I have captured in this image is all the inspiration one needs; we have been gifted with so much beauty and so many of us take this beauty for granted. I was taught by my father at a very early age to enjoy what we have and to enjoy our surroundings - this has stuck with me and I have always been in AWE at the beauty I see everywhere I look.Editing
Yes, I do process most of my images - though there was a time when I did not and I can confidently say that the post processing is what makes the image; at least in my humble opinion. In this particular case, the image itself was good, but I did up the saturation just a little bit, bringing a bit more contrast and depth to the image. I kept looking at this image for some time after I had it in my file and one day I was reading a book on the tragic lives of some early California Native Americans; from this, the idea popped into my head, that this would be a fitting image to dedicate to the Native Americans everywhere. I added the teardrop from my editing program of choice, which was PhotoImpact 11 - you can control the opaqueness and the amount of reflection within the teardrop by adjustments within the program; when I was happy with that, I saved it, but there was still something missing; I decided that it need an "old" face in it (to depict a Native American) and I used an old photograph of my grandmother - I cropped her portrait out and faded it almost to invisible and inserted it into the image which is barely visible in the mid to upper right of A Teardrop In Time. It is hard to miss, but I didn't want to take away from the sunrise either, so that is how I handled it and was happy with the result. That is basically all of the post processing for this image.In my camera bag
Well, I still claim to be a "struggling" artist/photographer and I still do not have an expensive camera to this day. I currently have two cameras that go everywhere I go: the first I fondly call my "toy" camera as that is what it looks like, a Canon SX160 IS; this is a 16 Megapixel camera with a 5.0-80.0 mm lens; for a little camera and inexpensive camera, it is a workhorse. My second camera also a Canon, is an SX10 IS, 10 Megapixel with a zoom lens 20X - 5.0-100.0 mm, and is also another good workhorse. I carry a couple of filters with me, one for neutral density and a UV filter; I also always have my tripod. I have had this tripod for quite a few years, a very sturdy one with two bubble levelers and I depend on it so much (had it so long now, that I forgot the brand, and it is not marked); I try to use it every time I shoot, but of course there is always an incident when a tripod just won't work.Feedback
I can suggest planning ahead the night before for a sunrise shot and at least a couple of hours prior to a sunset shot. You need to be ready, as the light changes so quickly and dramatically almost in the blinking of an eye You need to be set-up and ready to go prior to the actual shooting of the image. Know your camera inside and out so that if you have to adjust for the light (since photography is all about the light) you can do it efficiently and quickly. I would practice continually working with the available light and shoot several different images, using different light settings- it is a practice that I still follow to this day. At one time I had a camera that had a built in Neutral Density filter which I loved, as it helped block out the excessive light and made it easier to shoot toward a bright subject such as the sun rising or setting; that can be helpful in this type of shot. There are many filters on the market that can be used to aid in the light adjustment of an image prior to shooting.