G R O W Y O U R W I N G S

I finally spent some time today to get through some of my back log of photos.   My photography class took a field trip back in November to the Portland Chinese Garden.   I was so excited and planned on working on getting some HDR shots and using my tripod (which was a bitch to carry.)   

When I got home from the excursion and looked through the photos I was both underwhelmed and overwhelmed.  I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of shots I had taken.  I mean seriously?   Talk about extreme overkill.  This is why one of my photography goals for 2012 is to concentrate on quality and composition and not on quantity.   The sheer volume of almost similar shots taken at different exposures (to try to get HDR material) was just overwhelming to my senses.

Plus since the sky that morning was stark blue with no clouds (seriously? no clouds in Portland in November?) it really wasn't the best place to try out HDR for the first time.  And my few attempts after I got home were extremely underwhelming.   

So I gave up on these photos.  And I also was demotivated from taking other excursions.  I was definitely in the "I suck" pit after this trip.

But good news is that a bit of time and detachment from HDR worked it's wonders.  I did have to go through a heck of a lot of photos, but I am very happy with the ones I ended up with.  None of the are HDR.  Very few are cropped - those that are cropped are only slightly cropped to straighten out some edges.   

Truly it's hard to take a bad photo of the Chinese pavilion.  Which is also what got me discouraged after I realized the photos really weren't that unique.  But I think I found a few buried in there that were perhaps a bit unique.



( Portland Chinese Garden photos under the cut... )

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