SpongeWorthy

Boulder Open Studios is in two months and I’m starting to get ready. That means going through the last years images in the SpongeWorthy directory. The term SpongeWorthy comes from a hilarious old Seinfield episode. If you’re not familiar with it, Google it. It will be worth your time.

The photographs that I deem “worthy” end up there. I’m very aware how unobjective I am about my recent images, so I’m not sure I’ll include any I’ve made in the past month or so. But it’s been a real eye-opener to look through my photos made last Winter and Spring. If I’m not sure, I always check with my wife who unfortunately usually agrees with me about the mediocrity of an image.

What’s really interesting is how clueless I am about most images when I’m doing them.

I look at the last year’s photos in Adobe Bridge sorted by date. I start with late Fall and I see grass turning brown. I see brown strands against snow and I see ice. So many images. So many I was excited about. I don’t know how many mornings I spent photographing the golden reflections of Eldorado Canyon in South Boulder Creek. I finally find one image that I’ll use.

Then there are the grasses against the snow. There are a few I like of these. Definitely this one and this one.

I spend most of my energies these days shooting abstracts, but sometimes what is in front of me is just so compelling, I just have to photograph it. That was the case with this photo. I usually avoid sunrises too, but how could I resist this.

Sometimes a new image affects me so strongly that I immediately want to print it and display it. From past experience I try to avoid this but gave in for this one. I’ve had a 24×36 inch print of this on my living room wall for a month now and I’m still not disillusioned.

When I find an image that I think will look good as a print, I first make an 11×14 print of it. Prints look so much better to me than jpegs on a screen. If the photograph holds up as a smaller print, I’ll make any necessary adjustments to make the print look the way I want it to and make a 24 inch wide print. A few special images will get printed 30 and 36 inches wide.

Instead of always fighting wind, I’ve been trying to be more amenable to it and using it in my images. Most of the times it doesn’t work, but on rare occasions something really moves me. This image has passed the 11×14 test. The next step is 24 inches.

You can click on any of these images to see a larger version.

~ by danbaumbach on August 2, 2015.