There is a continuation of my earlier entry detailing what I learned at the Michael Seewald Workshop. This section details the magic of cropping.
Once we had practiced how your eye moves, we worked on cropping. I rarely crop my images and have always felt they had to fit in to the dimensions of the standard print sizes. Michael Seewald actually spends a great deal of thought to cropping his images. To me, it was amazing to see how much improvement you can make with cropping. Start with 3 questions.
- What made you take the picture?
- What do you notice first? Is that what you wanted?
- What is strong and weak in the image?
Here is a starting point of an infrared image taken recently in Sunol at the Little Yosemite area. Question 1: Why did I take the picture? Answer: I liked the waterfall with the rock wall as framing. Question 2: Is the waterfall my primary focal point?….
Went to Scottsdale for a long weekend with a group of girlfriends. Had a wonderful time. The first nite, we took an evening tour of Taliesen West designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. 
Went with 
Went out for a short hike to Sunol. I was just pecking around looking for something to catch my eye before my appointment later that afternoon. Some days, I am not in the mood for shots. Since there were beautiful blue skies with fluffy white clouds, I decided to try a sky shot. I had read that infrared of blue skies went black and to add clouds for drama. I would say success.
Some of you may have read about my recent adventure at Henry Coe State Park. In a nutshell, I had my ass kicked and was totally whipped. I went almost 7 miles but it was the major elevation changes that were a killer.
Mother and I went to the Berkeley Botanical Gardens to see the rhododendrons. I have made other visits earlier this year but was too early. This time they were just a little past peak. If you can get to Berkeley, the blooms are worth seeing because they are on bushes that are as big as small trees and some of the blossoms are as big as your hand.
I talked to Mother today (04/09) and she asked where her pictures were on my blog. In particular she had been regaling her co-workers with stories from her vacation. Oddly, this is one of her favorites from her recent trip. Here is the background…
DorothyPhoto 