52-’11 / Week Thirty / July 24 – July 30

Wow . . . it’s hard to believe we are at week 3o already! This project has challenged me greatly, but has been very rewarding. I have seen some improvements, as well as discovering quite a list of things where improvement and learning is needed.

I was notified today that I have had two works juried in to the 2011 Blue Ridge Mountain Photographers National Juried Nature and Fine Art Photography Exhibit to hang in the Richard Lowe Evans Gallery at Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Association from Sept. 10 through Oct. 9. I am so excited!! I am totally blown away to have two works selected! God is so good to me. I am surrounded by His blessings! I can’t wait to attend the show opening and see my work there (the mountains are an added bonus!).

Early this week we saw these unusual grasshoppers hanging around the glass doors at the church. I’ve never seen ones with stripes like this. On Friday, I found this fella with his molting almost complete. Not sure why the glass was the location of choice for this process! One of my favorite aspects of this image is the watercolor-like background of the reflections in the glass.The double reflections of the grasshopper are from the double-pane glass in the door.

"The Old Has Gone", copyright 2011 Shannon M Herren, All Rights Reserved

Blessings!

Shannon \o/

52-’11 / Week Twenty-Nine / July 17 – July 23

Better late than never . . . right?   🙂

This week’s photo was inspired by a guest post on one of the photo blogs I read regularly. He wrote about his habit of making images of ordinary things that could become great backgrounds in future image edits through the wonder that is Photoshop. I don’t have PS yet, but it is at the top of my list of tools to add to the bag. The blog writer spoke of creating folders of backgrounds among his image archives, from which he can pull various elements to “layer in” to enhance a client’s finished products. Sounds like a great idea for me–not only to build the files for the future, but also to have subjects to shoot on slow weeks, and to work on perfecting basic camera skills. Basic skills are crucial to creating extraordinary images (something I hope to do someday 😉

And so, for this week’s consideration:

"A Cloud", copyright 2011 Shannon M Herren, All Rights Reserved

Side note: In the category of “Will I Ever Learn??”, Earlier in the day before this shot, there were amazing cloud formations all over the sky with brilliant blue sky in the background. We were in the middle of running errands all over the place, with time deadlines, so I didn’t stop to capture those images. Naturally, by the time we were finished, those awesome cloud formations were long gone. It took a total of 15 minutes–drive to location time included–to shoot this set. I totally could have and should have just stopped for those few minutes during the busyness of the day and captured those images. Ugh! Lesson learned? Let’s hope so.

52-’11 / Week Twenty-Eight / July 10 – July 16

East McIntosh at Greer Road.

"Eyes Wide Open", copyright 2011 Shannon M Herren, All Rights Reserved

52-’11 / Week Twenty-Seven / July 3 – July 9

The old bank building in Williamson, GA. The detail in the full size  picture is really nice.

"Tree Bank", copyright 2011 Shannon M Herren, All Rights Reserved

52-’11 / Week Twenty-Six / June 26 – July 2

On a road called Buster Brown Road somewhere in Butts County, GA.

"Buster Brown Road", copyright 2011 Shannon M Herren, All Rights Reserved