the contrast hell that is a black swan
Image by LHG Creative Photography
..one day I'm gonna catch one of these buggers just right. Bit of history for you in the meantime, this swan is a survivor of part of a flock originally given to winston churchil apparently. Now resides at slimbridge.
Its also a proud parent of three this year who on an autumnal theme hatched only a few weeks ago, much later than the mute swans. I find it interesting to see how non-native birds who don't have a migratory pattern to speak of percieve season outside of their country of origin. What tells the black swan to breed now when its genetic imperative for breeding is set in places like australia? I also noticed the fluffy feathers of black swan cygnets are noticeably thicker than those of mutes or berwicks, even trumpeters, and certainly those of other tropical swans. I was into insects, fish, mammals dinosaurs, and herpetiles first, and I can hold my own with anyone on those subjects but I've kind of left birds to last, and I have horrible knowledge gaps that bug me.lol. I suppose when I get really old i'll discover plants and then really give myself headaches.
I wish I knew if this was developmental in accordance to conditions, or if the feathers now keeping the cold at bay are also effective thermal insulation against intense heat and moisture loss or if elevation makes conditions similar. One to hit the literature for I suppose. Probably find no-one else was vaguely interested...
On the composition, well I suppose it merits a little explanation, its a personal thing, I like to retain the aspect of the birds bodily mass even though the image is so dark that its barely perceptible, this was never about rules of thirds etc. I find aspect of mass and viewpoint more interesting than conventional compositional rules, which lets face it, applied too widely make peoples images very samey. Its worth forgetting as much as its worth learning, its a purely transient thing. This is a bird, not architecture, and tbh I find stuff as inorganic as graphic design sensibilities when applied to photography, or indeed other art forms a bit tedious.
Its just too expected, too commonplace. Its also a cheap shortcut that people use rather than really learn to see. Learn it when your about five years old to give you structure, and then when a person in your own right- drop it like boiling lead IMHO. Human proportionate design convention apllied to nature rarely works well anyway, it makes living beings objects rather than personas in their own right and it misses the point of looking at something organic, which by definition does not apply to design theory, rather is the diluted and incompletely seen and understood master of it, and the inspiration for it. Theres no need to dilute nature with a shorthand theory. The painter whos paintings grow are often more natural and more human,than the one that plans. Master all aspects, flaws, mistakes and all. No tudor garden plan ever rivalled a tropical rainforest for beauty so I fail to see why I should use the design theory to describe nature.
Artistic licence is great, use it and laugh in the face of convention ! Make it personal!
Its all good. I'm not a machine. Never will be.
Inspiration: Freshest
Image by Patrick Haney
With a website called Freshest, the design needs to live up to the name, and this one does. The quiet background texture is fantastic, as is the simple layout used. Typography is solid, though the contrast on links is not great, and the large image on the left works well with the content.
Visit the site: http://freshe.st/
Read more about this Web Design Inspiration set on Flickr
Jacks Ephemeral Etchings
Image by North60
Taken for Active Weekly Assignment - Ephemeral
Assignment: Photograph the ephemeral: document the passing of things in life whose nature is transient and/or even short-lived. Despite the article I have linked to here, the subject matter does not at all have to relate to nature.
Constantly changing, gone within hours to be reborn again with another fantastic and at times unbelievable design. The definition of ephemeral in my world at this time of year is the etchings Jack Frost creates for me. Ever changing, and ,
"Hey Jack, even with schooling in graphic design....I still can't draw a line that straight with a straight edge".
But love to watch your work.....
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