Photographing neighborhood grasses and weeds becomes almost a restorative meditation as we concentrate on form and color and movement to get a pleasing composition.
Horsetails, grasses, and clover on a sloping hillside. A tilt and shift lens was used to get everything in focus from near to far. The slightly out-of-focus tips of the grasses were due to their minor movement in a breeze. Click on photo to go to its location on Iris Arts. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
Almost every afternoon, when we are not traveling, Nancy and I take a walk around our neighborhood. The walks are never less that two miles in length and sometimes extend to five. Our average distance seems to be about 3-4 miles.
We took a shorter hike the other day because it was chilly and rainy with gusting winds. Passing an undeveloped section of the neighborhood, we noticed the grasses had grown tall and the dense ground cover was a now a luxuriant mix of flowers and horsetails. We decided to come back when the wind was calm.
The following morning it was misty and cool. There was very little wind and the light was soft and even, so we took our cameras and went back to the grassy roadside meadow. There were two areas that interested us. The first had several dense patches of horsetails, grasses, and clover. The second was sparser and closer to the road, with tall purple-tipped grasses mixed with a red grass-like plant.
Purple-tipped grasses. A long lens and wide aperture was used to make the photo. The resulting shallow depth of field and light exposure help achieve the delicacy we were after. Click on photo to go to its location on Iris Arts. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
The first photograph presented a depth of field problem—how to get everything in focus from front to back? The second was a compositional problem—how to show the delicacy of the grasses in their colorful environment?
The first photo was made with a tilt and shift lens that allowed us to focus on the plane of the grasses to get everything sharp. The second photo was made using a telephoto lens with a large aperture to create a shallow depth of field with broad, undefined, out-of-focus splotches of color as a backdrop.
The in-focus grasses in the foreground are emphasized by the blurred background. Click on photo to go to its location on Iris Arts. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
Time passed quickly as we got lost in our compositions, trying to visualize the final photo. Slight movements in camera position were made to better position a blotch of color behind the chosen subject. Small tweaks to the tilt of the lens were necessary to get the best focus. Attention to the myriad adjustments for the "sake of art" made time fly by and cleared our minds of the mundane. At the end, we were refreshed and happy with our results.
Not "forest bathing" exactly, but perhaps "grass bathing?"
The slightly blurred foreground grasses are recognizable as such and thus fine for display in the healthcare environment. The whole image "feels" less like a photograph and more like a sketch done with pastels. Click on photo to go to its location on Iris Arts. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
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