Grede

Grede, a photo by meagan.porter on Flickr.

Scene from Grede Foundry, Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Taken today, May 9, 2011.

How do you explain something you've done a million times? I found myself struggling for words today  trying to explain how to use a dSLR - something I once had to learn as well but has, in the last three years, become second nature to me. I ended up taking crappy photos of crappy scenes that I immediately knew I wasn't happy with. It was that kind of day - tired, rainy.

I was aimlessly driving around town later when I stumbled on the scene above. I've always been fascinated by Grede Foundry; it stood out on the backdrop of my childhood, smoke stacks rising in the distance. There is a yard next to it that must be some kind of metal yard; through the fence you can catch glimpses of metal mountains glinting in the sun. And I've always wondered, why blue?

My uncle was at work at Grede that day in 2003 when a boiler exploded at Foremost Farms nextdoor, sending tremors through the whole area. He later said when the Foremost boiler exploded, Grede shook, and he looked up and watched the dust come unsettled and waft down like ashen snow. When I remember the chaos of that December morning, picturing that scene calms me. I'm not sure why.

I was driving by earlier for no reason, that dull blue metal blending in with the steely, dull blue sky, when those boxes caught my eye. I pulled over and thought for awhile about what to do; I wanted a photo of those boxes, but I didn't want to get too close to them. I planned the shot in my head, left the keys in the ignition, ran up, took four photos, and ran back. The photo above was the first one I took.

I need to learn to trust myself. Maybe I know more than I think I know.

Lucky Shot

Taken in the courtyard of Tobacco Row, Madison.

I always have my camera with me, and walking through the gorgeously groomed courtyard of our apartment building is never an exception. I had been eying the bright purple and contrasting orange on these flowers for quite some time, as well as the yellow and black bumble bees that frequent them. But I hadn't taken a photo of them yet for lack of ideas on how to make them interesting. After all, macros shots of flowers are like shooting fish in a barrel. It's not hard to make them look good. Making them look interesting is the challenge.

The above photo was a complete lucky accident. I spotted this monarch walking home one day and literally only had one shot before it fluttered away. I was only able to capture one image but boy did it turn out well.

Attempted Obligatory Fall Colors Photo

Rock Springs, Wisconsin.

This area of Wisconsin is gorgeous this time of year. The fall colors on the Baraboo Bluffs are breathtaking, and yet I haven't found a good way to put them in a photo. I'm not entirely happy with the photo above; it just happens to be the best one I took today.

I can usually see photos in my head - when I see something I want to shoot, it kind of clicks in my head, like a mental image of what a photo would look like or how I could do it. The fall colors simply have not been that way. They look gorgeous in person, but when I was picturing a photo in my head, I couldn't think of a way to capture that. It wasn't so much trying to do it justice but just trying to make it look interesting, something other than a muddle of colors.

I tried. :)  Maybe I'll have better luck next year, or at least be able to figure something out by then.