Lens-Artists Challenge – Picking Favourites

Sarah, at Travel with me, is our Guest Host this week and she asks how good we are at self-criticising our photography. Sarah also asks to be dispassionate on our choices (only 3 of them…!!), to play the role of the impartial judge. I can be pretty ruthless when judging my own photos but not dispassionate. There’s a story behind the shot, a memory and most of all, a feeling I have every time I look at these photos. No matter how many years have passed, I still feel they are special and that, amazingly, it was me that saw, pressed the button and kept the moment forever. That was my criteria to pick them. These are some of my favourites photos

I am also double-dipping to Sandy’s Friendly Friday Challenge that is very similar to this one. Please do visit her brilliantly unique blog.

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I’ll start with Travel or Structures as a genre.

You see the photos on the travel guides, you do your research of places you’d like to visit in part because of them. You get there and you sometimes take photos almost identical. I have a few like that from Japan and I like them too. Now, this one is mine in the sense I’ve seen this. It’s a detail of the Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima Island, Japan, showing the vermilion pillars and a lantern I feel in love with. It captures the simplicity and peace of this wonderful place. Out, on the bay, is the iconic gate that “floats” in the high tide. Plenty of photos of it too. But this is one of my favourites from Japan, without a doubt.

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Portraits

My second choice is very much an emotional one. I don’t usually do portraits, so why did I pick this genre? 12 years ago a friend asked me to photograph her wedding, something I never done before. Of all the photos from that day and all the few portraits I’ve done, I had to pick this. It’s a spontaneous moment, when we were getting up to a different location for more traditional, posed, photos. I love the light, the lines and especially the groom’s expression. A photo of love and happiness.

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Macro

My third choice would have to be a combination of macro and flowers. This is were picking a favourite proved to be the hardest. When you have 100’s of photos you really like, how to choose? In this case it was a bit of a mixture of back story and moment captured. The colours are obviously fantastic, then you have the bee, sharp in detail, bits of polen stuck to it. The story is as follows: I was heavily pregnant at that point, it was going to be the last big walk before my son was born. This garden we’d just discovered was wonderful, with a small burn running through it, its banks full of beautiful iris. I took a few photos of the burn, and then a few of just the flowers. When I got to the computer, I realised this little fellow was there. All my photos that day were taken with my telephoto lens. By pure luck, I had a really good shot.

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Thank you so very, very much to all July’s Guest Hosts. Tracy’s Surrealism challenge last week was incredibly interesting to join and also to see its responses. This week the heat is on to be able to narrow it down to 3 photos. Thank you Sarah, it’s been a fun, if difficult at times, treasure hunt. I do hope you all like it and join Sarah’s challenge. If you do, remember to link to her original post and tag Lens-Artists.

Next week, Anne is back with What’s your Photographic Groove. Until then, take care.

Posted for Sarah’s Lens-Artists Challenge and Sandy’s Friendly Friday Challenge