Ordinary

There is so much more to the ordinary than we're first inclined to believe.

The Sun Rises on the Regular

T-Town!

Construction signs and all, here is my Transcona!

I shot this scene in my neighborhood and made sure to include the ordinary...the piles of dirty snow...the construction signs...the stop signs and the traffic. It is an ordinary little neighborhood but also I think, quaint...and rather patriotic it seems.

Cropping out the sky's expanse, I focused in on the street scene alone. It is what is important in this image.

Once on my computer I enhanced the colours, increased the contrast and then also added a textured layer to add to the nostalgic feel.

I shot at a speed of 1/160 with an aperture of f/6.3 and focal length of 40 mm. My ISO was 100 and my lens choice was my EF24-70mm.

My Winnipeg

I was out and about today and as is often the case, my camera occupied the passenger seat. I pulled over a couple of times and shot some local scenes in my city. Sometimes it is easy to feel as though our own hometown is commonplace. Perhaps it is but in its "ordinary" is often found the extraordinary.

I love my city.

 

The above photo was shot in St. Vital, Winnipeg. The lens I used for both the images in this post is my EF24-70 mm. My shutter speed was 1/80 and aperture f/9.0. My ISO was 100 and focal length 32 mm.

In my effort to include the ordinary, I did not wait for the parked car to leave (I also didn't have the kind of time that may have required). The street signs are present and appropriate. One other shot I had taken included a fire hydrant with a bright orange marking pole beside it. I have my limits to ordinary and quickly opted away from that picture.

Once on my computer, I played in Lightroom with the colours and contrasts and then also brought it into Photoshop where I applied a texture layer over top.

This second image was taken in my own neighborhood of Transcona. The sun shone a little brighter as it was closer to noon when I took this picture. I mentioned earlier my lens choice but my settings were different. I used a shutter speed of 1/320, aperture of f/9.0 and ISO 100. My focal length was 24 mm.

I played with the colour and contrast in a similar way to the above image, both in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Urban Shooting

Just an ordinary day on an ordinary street yet still so interesting to me. I am finding that although I love to take pictures of anything and everything, I am leaning more towards the urban shoot as being my favourite kind of shoot.

Composing the shot to capture the character of the scene, or what I interpret to be its character, is what I try to do. Bringing the image into Lightroom to bump up the contrast and intensify some of the colours enhances the old brick work and architecture we see here, further showing the scene's character.

Using f/6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/400 seemed adequate to capture enough detail for this composition.

On Closer Inspection

Look closely at the ordinary; it is exceptional.

When you are out and about be sure to have your camera, even if you are out and about in very familiar surroundings. There is always something new to see.

What you see from a distance is not the same on closer inspection. Use those feet of yours and your knees too if you have to, to get in close and see what there is to see. The ordinary weed or bloom about to burst open is really an exceptional sight!

For this shot, I used my 60 mm prime lens with settings of 1/125 and f2.8. There is an obvious texture layer over-top but I was careful to make sure it was not over-the-top - less is more and more is less, yes?

Ballroom Dancer

Though quite an ordinary garden flower, the petunia is graceful and full of beautiful movement. The flow of her petals is elegant and similar to that of a ballroom dancer whose skirt billows and falls as she dances. The veining in the petals create beautiful lines and form, much like the dancer's arms and legs, allowing for extension of melody as each moment reaches for more.

I am captivated by the ordinary.

I used a zoom lens and my tripod for this shot. The zoom created distance between the bloom and background, giving adequate blur to the noisy distractions behind the petunia. A windy day resulted in an image that is not tack-sharp in all areas, which lent itself well to the feeling of movement I was trying to capture. There are enough sharp areas remaining to show the detail necessary to the petunia's story.

Bringing the image into photoshop I enhanced the mood of the image with a texture that I blurred before application for added softness.

How Beautiful, the Ordinary

How beautiful, the ordinary. This pleasant little grouping of daisies is nearing the end of its shelf life. The petals are beginning to wilt but, like we humans, their age brings character, and their character is beautiful. Perched on a kitchen windowsill we are all invited to remember vases or jars of picked petals sitting above the kitchen sink in our own homes.

Capturing the beauty in the ordinary is what I love to do most with photography.

Originally tempted to get up close and personal with my macro lens, shooting only a petal or two, I resisted the urge and stepped back a few feet to include the other ordinary pieces in the composition. Using the window ledge and also the blurred-out fence lines in the background allowed for more of the ordinary, more of a connection.

Words Without Pictures

We'd like to do exceptional things, not ordinary things.
We'd like to be noticed, not overlooked.
As a Christian, I'd like to do great things for God, not menial tasks.

What about being exceptional in the ordinary? With the mundane, run of the mill drudgery that can be our days, what if we decided, what if I decided, the ordinary was where it counted most to be exceptional?

As I was reading some Oswald Chambers this morning, this really stood out to me and spoke into my life. What a rush life is when exceptional things happen, when my work gets accepted to art shows and people across the world show interest in my photography. But when this isn't happening, and it is most of the time, how do I perceive my life? What kind of effort and enthusiasm do I invest in the regular tasks of today?

I've often spoken about seeing the beauty in the ordinary. There is great beauty in the ordinary, beauty I see and then capture with a camera and share with others. But what about in the ordinary, boring, monotonous stuff that is in a regular day, day in and day out, over and over again? Is there beauty in this? Am I seeing the beauty in the gift of a regular day, the very breath I have, the gift of the ordinary? And what if I can just accept that not all moments are going to appear beautiful? What if I chose still to give my all to those moments, to be exceptional in the unexceptional? I wonder.