Weathered and Worn

Sometimes the weathered and worn become more beautiful with time.

I took this image with my 60 mm prime lens at a speed of 1/125 and my aperture set to f/2.8. Once on my computer I increased clarity and brightened it up in Lightroom before adding a texture in Photoshop. The scratches in the textured background seem to enhance the appearance of agedness of the daisy.

Weathered Wonder

Pressing on and through, these blooms move past the barrier of fatigue to see and touch the world around them. Even in this, especially in this, they inspire.

When composing this shot, I chose to place the focal flower off to the side, not centered. This makes for a more interesting shot. Using the two blooms in the background as echoes, gradually more distant and blurred, points by way of repetition to the subject.

I played with the colour in Lightroom until I found a bit of a metallic grey accent that went well with the worn iron fencing that the bloom found its way through.

Look. Look Again.

Look. Look again.

So often we pass by the worn without a sideways glance. When we look and look again we see what it is and also what it might have been at one time. We make room for stories and people who have gone before us...or are beside us. In our pause, we remember and in our regard we acknowledge importance and value.

Maybe it is an old building that we've driven by countless times. Or maybe it is a person, worn and weathered, but with a present and a past. If we stop and look and look again, I wonder how the future might be shaped.

Stained Glass

We drove out of the city yesterday to a funeral in a small town, a small town where my husband once lived as a young boy. We had driven the drive more than a few times but not for awhile. Interesting how, like touch, sight can also open wide the doors to memories.

And memories came as we drove past farmyards where my husband once walked, a club where music once played and skirts swung as the sounds drifted across the road into the window of the room where the young boys were slowly falling asleep, a bridge beneath which my husband and other boys would go and hang out, a graveyard where we've stood more than once to bury loved ones and finally the church where another loved one was being remembered and mourned.

Like pieces of stained glass, memories come together in a seemingly random way but all fit together quite beautifully. Worn and weathered, not perfect and flawless, the pieces of this stained glass window fit together quite beautifully indeed.

What images have you taken or left uncaptured that bring back memories for you?

For this shot, I used f/7.1 which gave an acceptable depth of field for both the grasses in the snow as well as the building itself to have good clarity. There really was a great amount of detail not to be missed in this image, from the etchings on the pieced-together-front, to the worn-out window frames and the grain of the plywood behind the windows.

My shutter speed was a little slow (1/40) in order to get adequate exposure at f/7.1 but it seemed to be okay with using a fast lens.

Once composed and shot, I brought the image into photoshop to add a layer that gave the TTV impression, aging the picture even more.

Worn and Weathered

The worn and weathered are the best canvases for frost's painting. The deep crevices and splintered surfaces catch the chill easily.

So beautiful in their fragility and longevity both, the aged remain at least for this moment and meet what comes, not with a spirit of dread or fear but rather with a wisdom that puts circumstances into perspective, a wisdom that welcomes.

Seeing this through my lens helps me to see this in life.

Undisguised

Paint's disguise is almost gone. The layers are peeling. Weathered and worn, we see what remains. She has stood the test of time. She remains...here, now...in memories of the past...and inspiration for the future.