Into the Blue – Waves

Posted on October 15, 2013 by backyardsisters

There are many different shades of blue, 62 according to Wikipedia. There’s sky blue, deep sky blue, cerulean, baby blue, and, as a September baby one of my favorites, sapphire blue; just to name a few. The ocean has a dynamic color quality. The shades change and vary on different days and even at different times of day. Add to that variety the constant motion of the waves and you end up with a dazzling display.

I went to the shore with the intent of freezing the waves in motion. That moment right before they break when the water becomes translucent and the light shines through is my target.

I was struck by the added delight of the different shades of blue on display. It was late afternoon and the sun positioned behind the waves making it’s way towards the west and the horizon.

Sometimes, the sun’s beams shone through the waves.

Other times, the water appears like glass. The blue of the waves changing as it makes its way to shore.

When shooting towards the sun the blue is lost a bit in the glare.

Aiming away from the sun the blue is most apparent. Capturing the waves,

at the moment they are about to break,

is never the same twice.

The waves, even though not particularly large this day, possess a power. For me, it’s the power to mesmerize and lead to a relaxing meditation on their constant roll to shore. Then, the challenge to catch, with a photo, the split second in the cycle of one wave and ponder the array of blue hues present there. Other days, it’s the call to grab a boogie board and harness the power for fun.

This October if you are a fan of baseball and a certain southern California team, there is another shade of blue to get excited about – Dodger blue! Yes, it is one of the 62 shades listed in Wikipedia.

Go Dodgers!

~ Susan

The Weekend Dish – Hot Fudge Pie

Posted on October 4, 2013 by backyardsisters

In the mood for baking and chocolate? I was recently; and here is something that fits both those desires perfectly. This recipe has been in our family so long I have forgotten where the original came from. It can be made with a store bought pie crust but this time I was really in the mood for baking and made mine from scratch. It has been awhile since I did this and I forgot how fun it can be plus how nice it is knowing exactly what is in the crust you are eating and being able to pronounce all the ingredients ( which isn’t very many).

I will start with the pie crust.

Four ingredients that’s all:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup cold butter, I cut mine and put in freezer a short time

4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Add water just enough water, with fork, to moisten the flour.

Divide dough in half and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.

Roll out a ball of the dough to fit in a 9-inch pie pan, so roll to about 12 inches.

Trim the edges and press around the edges with a fork, or fold the excess dough up and flute the edges.

Now for the filling:

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2t flour
1 cup sugar
2 lg eggs
2t vanilla extract
1 cube butter, melted
1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell

Mix cocoa, flour, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add eggs, vanilla and butter.

Mix well. Pour into the pie shell.

Bake at 350º about 25 minutes.

It is delicious warm, on its own or with ice cream.

After trying it, you will come to realize why our father nicknamed it “good-bye” pie…

Dare I say it is as “easy as pie”, and sure to impress.

May your chocolate dreams come true.

~ Susan

accent on the color

Posted on October 1, 2013 by backyardsisters

Fall has arrived and for this backyard sister that means cooler nights, girls’ tennis season, butternut squash and pears in the market, colorful leaves, yes, here too, and our California native fuchsias blooming in the garden. This month we will be investigating some of the many ways to accent colors in your photos and maybe even your life. First, back to the garden and those fuchsias. They are a bright red and attract many hummingbirds and I have spent many minutes sitting by them taking pleasure in their brilliance. I snapped this shot early one morning.

With this month’s theme in mind, I wanted to highlight the red as much as possible. To achieve this effect or something similar, in photoshop, select a new hue/saturation adjustment layer and take down the saturation of all the colors individually, except red, to -100.

I then turned to some late season tomatoes sitting on the patio table.

First, I used the same technique of adding the new layer and de-saturating all the colors except red.

As you can see, there is some red on one of the front tomatoes still, which I like, but to try another method, I decided to use the selection tool and select just one tomato to remain red.

This look, although a bit of a cliché, I still find fun to play around with. Frequently in fall, here in southern California, we will have unusually big surf for a couple of days due to storms out in the Pacific. I selected a photo of the Manhattan Beach Pier during a previous fall big surf day to experiment more with color.

I decided to try highlighting the red in the picture using the hue/ saturation adjustment layer again. This method is not as precise as the selection tool method but works great if you have many areas of color you wish to highlight.

Next, I chose to highlight the hues of the water and blues on the pier.

To achieve this effect, I de-saturated all the colors except cyan which I boosted to +40.

A boogie boarder became my next subject. His board with its red outline was a natural.

Notice the seaweed and his skin still retain some of their color using the adjustment layer method but I like that effect. Then he catches a wave.

The last photo I tried manipulating is from the Park Güell in Barcelona.

These children caught my attention because of their red attire standing out against the crushed granite. To enhance the effect, first, I used the hue/saturation layer approach.

This is a subtle effect with this photo. There must be a lot of red tones in the other colors. I decided to select the children, invert the selection, and then add a hue/saturation adjustment layer and slide the master color to -100.

Adding color to a black and white photo will highlight the colorful subject and draw the viewer’s eyes immediately to it. Now that fall is here in all its colorful glory, take some time to see the colors in your world.

~ Susan

Accentuate the Positive, by Considering the Negative

Posted on September 24, 2013 by backyardsisters

Negative space, or the area of a photo which is not the subject, is something to consider when you are composing a photo. A trip to the zoo is a great place to try out some different options. The flamingos are a favorite of mine, for their pink color and curvaceous necks. Add their long legs and black bills and they become the fashion plates of the animal kingdom, if you ask me.

Usually, flamingos can be found standing in a large group around a water source. Sometimes, I prefer to use most of the flock as a subject and include very little negative space.

And other times, I choose to focus on just a few and incorporate more negative space. Here, I included water in the negative space to gain a sense of place in the photo.

Just a couple of them are the focus next.

Finally, I choose to highlight a single bird.

I decide to emphasize the curves of the neck by only including part of the body and using more negative space.

When determining how to compose a shot of the zebra, I chose a similar composition.

Using a solid colored or soft focused negative space will emphasize the subject by making it stand out. The gorilla reaching for a leaf is small and a little lost in the space in this composition.

A method of re-composing a shot to bring the subject closer and cut down on too much busy negative space is cropping. The result…

in my opinion, this is more effective at conveying the sweet moment.

You don’t want to always rely on post processing for composing your shots but there are times when it can make an impact.

By being aware of the negative space in your photos, you can avoid having things “growing or sticking out of” your subjects heads and cutting off limbs, feet or hands in the edges.

There is no right or wrong way of utilizing the positive and negative space. This is where you get to be creative!

There are times when the negative space can become the positive space and vice versa; as in Edgar Rubin’s optical illusion painting of the vase and the two faces.

This week, I will be staring at the vase and then the faces, no, wait the faces and then the vase …

~ Susan

The Weekend Dish – Jalapeño Lemonade

Posted on September 20, 2013 by backyardsisters

Want to add a little spice to your life this weekend? It’s quite simple really. By adding a sliced jalapeño pepper to lemonade, you will end up with a refreshing and slightly spicy, hot, yet cold, beverage. It’s an anomaly.

A backyard daughter had the idea and I am so glad she did.

The amounts of the different ingredients can be adjusted to suit your tastes, so think of this recipe as a suggestion more than a rule.

Jalapeño Lemonade

6 cups of water
2/3 cups of lemon juice
1/2 cup agave
1 jalapeño pepper sliced

Stir together until incorporated. Taste, and adjust lemon juice and/or agave if you like a sweeter or more sour lemonade. Slice the jalapeño and add to the lemonade. You can add more or less according to your heat preference (remember the longer the jalapeño is in the lemonade the more heat and flavor it imparts.) Add ice and enjoy!

In southern California the fall can turn hot and this is just the drink for such an occasion, or any time you feel like spicing things up a bit!

Cheers!

~ Susan

Composition and Framing the Subject

Posted on September 17, 2013 by backyardsisters

When composing your photos and thinking about what you are trying to say with your photo or convey to a viewer, you might consider adding a type of framing element. By blocking parts of an image, the viewer’s attention is drawn to whatever subject you choose.

Adding a framing element to your photo can add context and interest.

Also, a sense of depth and dimension can be imparted by adding foreground components.

The addition of a person walking among the redwoods enables a viewer to grasp the enormity of their size while the placement within the opening of the tree adds interest.

Trees, leaves and branches make for colorful natural framing tools.

Another technique for using leaves to frame a shot is to shoot through leaves using a telephoto lens thus creating a very blurred foreground and isolating your subject.

Windows are often used as framing devices . . .

even car windows. An architectural element, such as an arch, can be a fun frame as well.

Using people as a frame works also, shooting through heads or over a shoulder adds an embellishment and silhouetting them adds drama.

The frame doesn’t have to completely surround your subject either; it can be on one, two or more sides.

When adding framing elements to a photo ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish and will the frame add to that goal. If the answer is yes, go for it! Most of all, have fun looking for ways to add framing to your photos and play around with it. It can make you look at your images in a different light.

This week I will be looking at things with a new frame of mind,

Susan

Composition and The Rule of Thirds

Posted on September 10, 2013 by backyardsisters

Sometimes, I like to venture over to our local marina and imagine I am one of them – a boat owner – the “people of the boats” I like to call them. I envision climbing on board one of the welcoming vessels and heading out to sea navigating to an island paradise. Or, perhaps, cruising down the coast to another town, anchoring in its harbor and spending the day exploring. Each one of those boats possesses the potential for adventure. What a way to travel! But alas, eventually reality sets in. I am not a person of the boats. I get seasick for one thing and the sight of the boats being scraped of barnacles or painted, varnished and having general upkeep performed on them reminds me of this. It’s still fun to daydream though and recently I slipped in to the harbor with the idea of composition, specifically the rule of thirds, in mind.

The purpose of the rule is to help with composing interesting and compelling photos. It involves mentally dividing your viewfinder or photo into a grid with two vertical and two horizontal lines which are crisscrossed to make a 3X3 grid, like a tic-tac-toe game. The idea is to place the parts of the photo you want to be the points of interest near the intersecting points of the grid.

When photographing a landscape, it is much more compelling, generally, if the horizon is not in the middle of the picture but aligned with one of the lines of thirds.

By placing the horizon line in either the top or bottom third, the emphasis will be on either the sky or the water or land.

Some movement in the water caught my eye and I discovered there were a number of round rays swimming amongst the rocks.

Then, as I was getting ready to leave the harbor, a heron flew across the horizon. It can be difficult to capture moving subjects in one of those grid intersections. Re-composing via cropping can be done in photoshop later. You don’t want to rely on that all the time but it can help occasionally. Also, there is a grid you can use in photoshop in case you are having trouble visualizing the grid in your mind.

I believe we shouldn’t be too restricted by rules in our creative endeavors, so keep it in mind and experiment with the rule thirds when composing if you haven’t yet, but if you like your horizon lines in the middle of your photos, go for it.

Cheers,

~ Susan

The Weekend Dish – Basil Tomatoes

Posted on August 23, 2013 by backyardsisters

Here we are in the midst of tomato season and perhaps, if you’re lucky, your counter has been overrun with a red sea of tomatoes inviting all sorts of possibilities. This Basil Tomatoes recipe enhances the tomato’s natural flavor with basil, garlic and roasting. The result is an elegant tomato which can be served along with bread or added to pasta or as an accompaniment to fish or meat however you choose you can’t go wrong.

The tomatoes are peeled and cored and placed whole on a bed of basil leaves then garlic and olive oil are added. It’s that simple.

Place the dish in the oven and bake for an hour to an hour and a half. Your home will be filled with the most comforting and inviting aroma as an extra bonus. This recipe came to my attention via the rave reviews of a backyard son after having enjoyed it with Nana and Granddad one late summer night many years ago, and it has been a hit in this backyard house ever since.

Buon Appetito!

~ Susan

Basil Tomatoes

8 tomatoes, peeled and cored. To peel the tomatoes, add to boiling water for 2 minutes and remove with a slotted spoon then plunge into ice water for a minute or so and the skin will slide off easily.
1-2 bunches of basil leaves
olive oil
2 cloves garlic

Place the basil leaves in a bed at the bottom of a pan big enough to hold the 8 tomatoes. Place the tomatoes, core side down, on top of the basil. Add olive oil to come half way up the sides of the tomatoes. Add the garlic to the pan, you can chop it or add more and leave the cloves whole. Bake at 350° for 1 – 1 1/2 hours until the tomatoes caramelize and become infused with the basil perfumed olive oil.Serve with bread, pasta or with fish or meat.

Out and About, Olvera St

Posted on August 20, 2013 by backyardsisters

A lunch trip to Olvera St with some backyard family presented the perfect opportunity to play with candid shots. Olvera St is a Mexican-themed street market located in the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. It is one colorful place. From the items for sale

to the lunch time entertainment

there is no doubt this is a vibrant place. The street is full of shops and restaurants and is located downtown near the area of the founding of Los Angeles. The opportunities for pictures are many, both candid

and posed.

Strolling down the brick paved street or resting on a bench and gazing upon the parade of visitors are enjoyable activities which lead to all sorts of photographic opportunities. If you’re in the area or plan to be, it’s worth a trip; taking in the street scene, having some Mexican food (the fresh tortillas – so fresh you can watch them being made behind the counter), and shopping, along with a history lesson – if you tour some of the surrounding buildings – are just some of the highlights – oh, and don’t forget your camera!

Olé,

Susan

Candid Vacations

Posted on August 13, 2013 by backyardsisters

Being on a trip and exploring cities brings out the street photographer in me. I attribute that partly to the desire to capture the people in a city, out and about, involved in either their own explorations or everyday routines. The other part is putting in the effort to keep my camera with me, out and ready at all times. I want to have it handy when something strikes me as a moment to hold on to.

In Paris, the streets are filled with tourists and residents alike and the opportunities are abundant. This group was preparing for a parade around the streets of Sacré Coeur one afternoon. I happened by and was able to capture this jovial moment.

I couldn’t resist capturing this trio. Were they with a group or did they simply decide to dress alike that day? I’m not sure, but I found it worth remembering.

While touring around the Olympic arena area of Barcelona a few years back, I witnessed this game and found it charming and worth noting.

In Spain, at the time of their Euro Cup victory in 2008, the celebrating reached levels I had never before witnessed. In the town of Alcala de Henares, it seemed as if everyone was watching the big match and when Spain won, they all spilled out into the streets to celebrate. We walked into a restaurant for dinner and were immediately swept up in the revelry by the owner. The country pride and thrill of victory commemorations continued well into the night!

The way Parisians utilize the city’s public spaces is admirable. Folks can be found sitting on the ground or on ledges, also lounging in some of the many chairs and benches, placed so abundantly around the city; relaxing and visiting all hours of the day and night. I find it charming.

My companions were thankful for one of those benches in one of the many museums we visited, especially near the end of this long, fun and adventure filled trip.

If you are out and about and wanting to capture some of the local flavor. You can set yourself up in a location you like and wait for the action to come to you, in the manner of Henri Cartier- Bresson, or you can have your camera out and ready for anything that interests you as it crosses your path, like Bill Cunningham, or, perhaps a mix of the two styles will suit yours.

Find what inspires you and catch it.

~ Susan

backyard sisters

Saving ordinary moments from the brink of oblivion

Tag Archives: by Susan Greene

Into the Blue – Waves

The Weekend Dish – Hot Fudge Pie

accent on the color

Accentuate the Positive, by Considering the Negative

The Weekend Dish – Jalapeño Lemonade

Composition and Framing the Subject

Composition and The Rule of Thirds

The Weekend Dish – Basil Tomatoes

Out and About, Olvera St

Candid Vacations

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: