Here are some of the photographs that I considered submitting as my homework for my third photography class.
Madison looking towards the park
On the fence, guarding the feeder nearby
Butterfly on pink flower
Some kind of weed pod and its flowers
Wasps in a pine tree
View the two photos I submitted for the Class 3 homework assignment.
These are the photographs that I turned in for my Class 3 photography homework assignment. Both my subjects happened to be eating, so I categorized them as “Lunchtime.”
This is Madison having lunch. I saw her and her mother at an adjacent table just as I was leaving a sandwich shop. I asked for permission to photograph the baby and the mother was gracious and agreed.
Yummy
This is an Argiope aurantia spider, also having lunch. I found the spider while taking photos of a Texas Wood Lizard in my back yard and decided the spider would make a good subject for my homework.
Yummy, in a Mother Nature food-chain way
I must have made at least 11 trips out to the spider web, trying to get a good photo. I was (am) having trouble with my photos being over-exposed. I’d trek out to the web, take seven or eight photos, come back into the house and review them on the computer monitor. Result: Over-exposed. Back out to the spider web. I finally got this one photo that I thought was decent enough to share.
But I’m telling you, if that spider had flinched while I was looking through my camera viewfinder, I would have high-tailed it out of there. It was an overgrown area and I wasn’t thrilled about being there anyway. I was a few inches from an ant mound and I heard rustlings in the tall grasses behind me. If a cricket had landed on me, I would have panicked. If a fire ant had bit me while I was standing there, I’d have had a conniption fit.
Once I thought I saw the spider eyeing me and I started to fret. I didn’t want it to get any ideas about wrapping me up in its web, thinking if it could just catch me, it would be set for life.
I managed to emerge from my photographic safari in the pasture with only a few dozen chigger bites. How lucky can I get.
Friday Fictioneer Challenge: Write a 100-word story based on the photo prompt.
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Friday Fictioneer photo prompt. Copyright Marie Gail Stratford
Michael had his first completed movie script. I just need to get noticed, he thought. Looking up, he saw . . . ? That glare! It hampered his view. He got up on his knees in the booth, peering through the wine bottles.
Is that George Lucas coming into the restaurant? This is it, Michael thought, my big chance.
“Sir, please don’t lean against the —,” the waiter said, touching Michael on the shoulder, startling him.
“Yikes!” Michael said, pushing his weight forward, in surprise. The wine rack teetered, bottles crashing to the floor.
Michael looked around. Everyone had noticed.
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To read other stories based on this photo prompt, select the smiley blue frog.
I started the beginning-level oil painting sessions the last week of May. I chose three objects for my set-up: an apple, a bowl, and a pitcher. First I sketched the objects with charcoal (on canvas), next I massed them in with Raw Umber oil paint, and finally I began painting, using only two colors: Raw Umber and White.
Here it is near the end of September and I’m still working on this same painting.
Still life
As an art student with no art experience or skill, I have trouble seeing some of the details. What I saw was a red apple, a white pitcher and a yellow bowl. What my instructor saw was an dark apple that projected a two-tone (at least) shadow, a bowl with a lip and a small pedestal, and a pitcher with a handle that changed width due to its angle. All these objects had highlights and tones (up and down, side-to-side) that indicated they had contours.
Really? Oh.
Step 1: Charcoal sketch
That bowl and apple gave me fits. My version of the apple turned into a dark glob; same tone as its shadow. Sigh.
Step 2: Raw umber as the base color
The bowl changed shapes so many times, I lost count. I elongated its width too much and one side was drooping way lower than the other. It was too close to the apple, then I moved it too far away from the apple. Sigh.
Step 3: Progress, mostly
The only reason the apple is recognizable now is because my instructor sat down last week and spent about 30 minutes correcting all three objects, explaining each stroke she painted. Deep sigh.
Step 4: Declaring it finished
And that handle on the pitcher? My next painting won’t have one of those, I can tell you that.
I’m declaring this painting finished and moving on. At this rate, I might have another one “finished” by Valentine’s Day. I’m just not saying which year.
Tree, as a sapling, you unfurled in a century before mine
Your last leaf of life will fall long after I am dust
Oak Tree
