Keep it Clean

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Fall colors had me ga-ga like a little kid with a new toy, wandering around snapping shots of all the beauty everywhere I looked.  But when I got home and looked at my photos, I got a lot of ‘scraggle’, like that below.

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While I tried to be aware of all my photography rules: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify,  I pulled out contrasting yellow leaf color against dark trunks and green backgrounds.  But what I got was ‘scraggle’… busy, busy, busy.  Somehow when running around snapping the photos I didn’t see the little twigs that added clutter and distraction.

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Instead, I should have been keeping it CLEAN, by pulling out singular subjects and isolating them for a more interesting and uncluttered shot.

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The shots I took that CUT THE CLUTTER, took the prize and won my favor and the viewer’s eye.

May Day Snow

When I wrote about Snow showers in my kritterspaw blog (here),  I thought it was our last snow storm of the year.  Phoenix, 2 hours south has already seen 90F days.  Well, in the week since then Phoenix has seen 100F days, the calendar has rolled over to May, and we got another snow storm.  Much to the delight of our visiting San Diego friends, we were treated with a magical day on the rim of light snow, fog, and cool weather conditions.  The weather made for interesting photos and a great day.

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We managed to grab an opening in the snow fall to stop for a glorious picnic as we watched the snow melt off the trees like pouring rain.

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As the fog rolled in, the weather just got more mysterious, and along with it the photographic opportunities.

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While you couldn’t see the rim well, it brought an otherworldly eeriness to our outing.

It truly was a magical day.  So glad we were able to enjoy it, and share it with friends.