Where inspiration can take you

I never have trouble finding inspiration for my photography since I find the most mundane things interesting and challenging to photograph...dirty dishes, and light patterns on the walls and ceiling being a couple of examples. However, I do enjoy being "challenged" in other ways and Inspiration Collaboration is another tool in my inspiration toolbox.

February's inspiration image supplied by Helen was Pink Rose Trio. Roses are non-existent in Nova Scotia until sometime around June so I considered my options. I could create a new image by re-working some files from my photographic library, or I could shoot something new. I decided to buy some pink tulips at our grocery store...it's the time of year that local hot house tulips arrive. The only problem was...they didn't have pink! Well...in my mind, it just had to be pink in answer to Helen's painting. So I waited...and waited. Finally, pink tulips arrived in the store at the end of February and I got to play with my camera. Helen's painting was created with a palette knife and showed lots of texture.

I started with this:

Original photo

 

and my end result was this:

I wanted my tulips to echo Helen's roses, so I made a lot of changes to the arrangement in post processing. I flipped the image, I straightened the background tulip at the top of the photo, I moved leaves, I added a couple of textured layers. I cropped the image to be the same aspect ratio as Helen's painting, which required more moving and extending the bottom to create longer stems. It was a lot of playing on the computer, which most photographers would scoff at. But I find it sooooo relaxing and just love recreating photo image files....it's my way of painting.

But my story doesn't end here. I got to enjoy the tulips in my living room for a while...such a nice cheerful spot of spring during the long, never ending days of winter. And....then the tulips started to decay. And...then I got to play some more with my camera.

Tulip photo shoot

 

I didn't take quite as many photos as it looks like...half, in fact...there are duplicates of each image since one is a jpg format, and the other is a RAW file. RAW files contain a lot more information and are therefore better to work with when a lot of manipulation is being done. These photos were taken over two days, and four locations/different times of day. All but the last section were done with a white board in the background...which I found interesting because some of these backgrounds definitely look blue.

I can take a quick glance to see that my favourites are all minimalistic with a white or pale background. I have been working with some of the images and love the tattered, decayed look....much more interesting to me than beautiful flowers. I wonder what that says about my mind?

I'll be playing with these files for a while, but in the meantime here is Pink Tulip Trio - Part 2 (a "real" photograph with a few slight edits):

Pink Tulip Trio - Part 2

And...a good news story from a previous Inspiration Collaboration creation... I created Blueberry Love in January in response to Helen's Blueberry Muffin inspiration in January, and it sold at an exhibit called Palate, held at Round Hill Studio in Annapolis Royal.