My Way

I had a revelation last night. An epiphany. A divine intervention of a kind. Ok, nothing that dramatic. But I like how it sounds, serious and deep.

In fact, the opposite occurred. For the last few days I was searching my very modest folder “My Pictures” for this week’s entry in Monochrome Madness. Isn’t it funny,  how many rainy days we had this years, the year I finally started to learn and explore the world of photography. So, instead of walking out and about and taking images, I am forced to recycle my old images.

On top of that, for unknown reasons even to me, I decided to post Christmas-related images this month. Why would things be easy when they can be oh so complicated? I have maybe 10-15 Christmas images in my collection and from those 10 not one is of a good quality. But things like that can’t stop me, hence the title “My Way”.

So, here is my image from 2007, the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. I took this image as we were leaving, my last glimpse of this beautiful place, rich in history and art. If you ever visit Vienna, don’t miss this place, its interior is vastly superior to Versailles.

I don’t really know if anyone is interested in my post-processing choices, cause there is nothing much to learn. Ok, maybe one interesting thing is how I cropped the image to panorama and I think it works great with the layout of the building. I implemented so many different things, textures, effects, vignettes, layers…but I just couldn’t get what I wanted. As a last resort, I used FotoSketcher and played with textures, giving it a harsh canvas look. It seems that worked, because somehow it tamed that slightly overblown sky and accentuated the focal point of the Palace.

When I finished, I stepped back and observed for a minute. Doubts swirled around, my little imaginary companions argued, I asked myself: Isn’t this a little too close to what I did the last week? Am I using too many tricks to hide the poor quality of my images? Are my images boring? Same old, same old?

That’s where that epiphany from the intro came into  play. I don’t care!!! I like it and I think it looks great. I enjoyed the process and managed to turn a bland image into a story. I always look for the story in my images. There is a ball in this one…and I am in a horse-drawn carriage, wearing a beautiful gown…and I am going to dance till the morning…I’ll seduce the secretary of state and steal some top secrets, me being a spy.

So, that is my story. I am leaving you now, chasing my next adventure. Hope you will find your own.

Be sure to check other fabulous entries on Leanne Cole PHOTOGRAPHY.