I’m finding the themes or lessons that my yoga teacher comes up with to be amazing in how perfectly they seem to align with what others are telling me or with what I know I need to learn or pay attention to. Last week it was non-judgement. This week it was practice.
We had a fairly intense class, physically, but it was also repetitive. It was a sequence that was not a typical one for me, however, so even that was something of a challenge for me. Doing the same sequence over and over was somewhat meditative despite that.
“There is a reason,” she said, “that they call it a yoga practice.”
I can understand that. It is also why we “practice” whatever art or skill. That’s how we learn, grow, develop. We can even practice positive thought patterns, and practice eliminating negative ones.
Which leads me conveniently to photography, something else I practice quite a bit! One of the photos I shared for the photo class last night was of Crackerjack, and I mentioned that the instructor had talked about taking out some of the sky.
I tend (as most of you are probably well aware!) to take close portraits, so that particular picture of Crackerjack was somewhat unusual for me. It was the sky that I was capturing as much as Crackerjack himself. But I did take a more zoomed in picture of Crackerjack, which is probably the approximate picture that my instructor had in mind.
And then I cropped it.
I did this thinking I’d come to a conclusion as to which I liked better. I find that I can’t, that they’re simply three different pictures conveying slightly different things. What do you think? Any favorites? Thoughts? Insights?
Another question is about the colors – the first picture I desaturated a bit. The second two I left pretty much as is. Any preferences?
You can click on any of the pictures to see a larger version, by the way. Practicing some of the things I’ve been teaching myself at work about css/html/xhtml!
January 24, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I have a friend who always said, practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice make perfect! Still, we all have to practice something if we want to improve. Good lesson. I love these, BTW. It gives me something to think about!
I love the last picture too. The colors are best there and Crackerjack looks so cool (pardon the pun!) The first one seems a bit too dark for me, but I love the sky. There is so much beauty to be found right above us.
Keep ’em coming!
January 25, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I think one of the important points that we tend to miss is that we need to enjoy the practice! I don’t believe that perfection exists, which is sort of freeing. I can try to get better, to develop certain skills and my eye and grow, but since perfection is an impossibility, I’m free to enjoy the process of learning without the pressure of that impossible end goal!
The interesting thing about the last two pictures is that they are the same picture, one is simply cropped. It is amazing how differently our eyes perceive things based on other visual cues! I do like the way the last picture looks better than the middle picture, I don’t think the blueish storm clouds in the middle picture add anything, really, and crackerjack stands out less.
Oh, and you hit on one of the things that people often forget to look at and photograph – the things above us! It is amazing sometimes the odd sights we see when we look up!
Thanks for the feedback! š
January 25, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I do agree about practice in anything we do will make us better. Not sure if there is such a thing as perfect in anything, other then a 300 in bowling.
With photography my opinion which comes from very little actual knowledge is that practice can make us more proficient shooters. Better shooters can have the camera set up correctly for each and every shot and help us develop a better eye. But only some people (yourself included) have the ability to see things others don’t and your practice only makes you great where it might make me adequate.
As for the pics, I like the first and last one and see them as different pics and treat them differently. The over saturation in the first pic works since it makes the whole mood seem more ominous with the sky and the snow. I also really like the last for the details we can see of Crackerjack and the footprints and bare spots in the snow. In the second pic the sky adds very little to nothing and the trees being out of focus due to the depth of field makes the picture not look as appealing to me. In the last pic the blurred trees and background do not matter since Crackerjack is the focal point.
Either way they are great and it is neat to see how cropping can change everything.
January 25, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I think that practice in photography does help us develop our eye. I’m not convinced that only some of us have the ability to see things differently, I think it is just that we’ve taught ourselves to, and we are maybe obsessed a bit with the camera!
I’m glad you noticed the bare spots in the snow (clearly someone was laying down there!). But I have to disagree on whether it doesn’t matter that the trees and the background is blurred in the 2nd two pics. I think it is important that they were blurred, because without the bokeh, the details of crackerjack would have been less clear, he wouldn’t really have stood out at all and it would have been distracting and busy. He might have looked like he had branches growing out of his horns! The fence definitely would have been a problem. Overall I like the 3rd pic better than the 2nd anyway, but I definitely think the both pics would have been worse if the background was sharp.
For landscapes, you definitely want to use a smaller aperture to get the larger depth of field, but for portraits bokeh is your friend!
January 26, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hi love. I’m so glad to see you enjoying your yoga “practice” and it sounds like you’re getting some exposure to some interacting with people there too which sounds very nice indeed.
I’m in agreement with you about there being no such thing as perfect but the practicing should be fun or at least engaging. I’m in agreement too that the three photos are just very different photos. I love the sky in the first one – it has some under the water rippling sand-like qualities that are interesting / also some contrasting coloring which is nice.
I do like them all but I must say I like the last one bestest because it shows CrackerJack pretty closely, seems most focused just on him (him, right?) and well, I just like it. I do notice the blurring of the woods behind him and I like that effect too – it helps bring him (him, right?) out more.
Ah, dinner is calling so I’ll end it here except to say I’ve missed you a lot and am reallu glad to have gotten here. I should have started at the bottom of my blogroll.
Peace my friend.
January 27, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Ruby – yes, the yoga studio has been a wonderful thing! I really like the teacher, and the way she brings up such interesting things to ponder, yet has no problem with us wanting to get a physical workout as well. The other students seem quite nice as well. I recognize many of the other regulars now, though I rarely know their names. Still, an hour or so of connection-through-yoga is quite satisfying.
Crackerjack is indeed a boy! And a troublemaker. š
February 15, 2013 at 10:52 pm
Is there a good online course for learning Yoga?