still life: mountain bike shoes

This week's Be Still 52 challenge
was to
"create a still life photo
inspired by a still life painting."

After a little bit of research

and

a lot of thought

I captured this

still life

of

my beloved

mountain bike shoes.

***

And once I had

'seen'

through my lens

I felt compelled to

see/draw

with pencil on paper.

When, at last, while seeing/drawing,

you see for the first time

what all your life

you have only looked at and recognized,

it reveals itself to be of inconceivable intricacy.

The commonplace becomes uncommon.

~

Frederick Franck

The Awakened Eye

***

I have been biking the trails in these shoes

for years,

from the foothills west of Denver

to the steep summertime slopes of

Winter Park, Copper Mountain and Crested Butte

to the rugged cliffs overlooking

the Colorado River.

 

You might say

these are my favorite shoes.

Period.

They securely fasten me

to my trusty

Specialized Stump Jumper

and are

comfortable enough

for hiking long distances

in all terrain.

(I once walked over a mile in them

with my flat-tired bike.)

***

NOTES:

CAMERA

Canon EOS 6D

Tamron SP 24-70 f/2.8 lens

Manual Mode

on tripod

ISO 400

f/5.0 0.6 sec

incandescent light

I purposely chose to shoot in the laundry room

as that is where we store our bike gear

and I wanted to capture

an authentic

real-life

still-life.

original capture SOOC

Staging in a cramped space,

my back against the wall

(literally)

Lillian doesn't like the laundry room

LIGHTROOM

I experimented a lot with

color saturation, vibrancy, clarity, exposure

because - face it - bike gear can be gaudy;

and the basement laundry room

is not the most flattering setting.

Then I applied

Kim's kk_walnut preset

and further adjusted

a bit more.

PHOTOSHOP

I auditioned a number

of textures and combinations

before settling

on this one

Font: Carbon Credit

I was inspired by these still life paintings

pinned from http://cargocollective.com/creativesyrup/Still-life-painting

***

Linking up with

Be Still 52 (Week 23)

Texture Tuesday

c'mon summer

Here it is May 1st, and it's snowing.

Again.

I mean, really?

Sure...we need the moisture.

Indeed...it is a beautiful sight - on the distant mountain tops.

True...it's a spring storm and it will be melted in just a few days.

Flatirons Vista

April 20, 2013

Enough already!

I am so ready to get on my mountain bike and explore new trails.

***

Linking up with Beyond Beyond and Texture Tuesday.

xoxo

Cindy

a flat tire for erin

If my art - and this blog - is going to be about Life, then I must include its challenges as well as its joys. That means writing the backstory with each image.

I posted this image last week on Erin's Facebook wall in response to her Black Friday post, which read simply this:

Thinking of all the miserable ingrates today that are scrambling for stupid crap that will never make them happy...all I want for Christmas is my health back, for the pain to stop. I'll never want anything so much as long as I live :(

I debated whether to share it here on my blog, but with Erin's blessing, here I sit at my keyboard.

The pain Erin speaks of is caused by IC - Interstitial Cystitis, with which she was diagnosed in August. I won't trouble you with any details, but you can imagine what her life has been like since then. On a side note, Erin is no stranger to painful challenges in her life, so she is already somewhat of a learned philosopher at the ripe old age of 21, thus meeting this situation with considerable experience under her belt.

For anyone who has experienced a painful and/or potentially life-altering physical condition - yourself or that of a loved one - you probably already know the words to this song. 

We - her family and friends - continue to support Erin on this journey, doing what we can to help her deal with the myriad of issues that crop up. Often that means just listening to her work things out in her own mind/heart. These are treasured, if bittersweet, times together indeed. Truth be told, I think that I have learned more from her than she has from me.

Erin is learning to navigate the world of medical specialists and surgical procedures, therapies and diets, etc., and the complexities of medical insurance - all necessary life skills. A well-informed, responsible patient, she comes to the table with her homework done, thoroughly researching every medical term, medication and its potential side effects, usually before she's even seen the doctor. She actually told the doctors that she had IC! She has also learned much from the experiences of other sufferers, mainly via the internet. She, in turn, lends her support to others, sharing her experience - and wisdom - with others via her Tumblr.

But she is learning so much more...in a nutshell: what really matters in life...and what doesn't.

I don't know where all this is going, but when do we really know that in this life? For now the situation is like a good trail: challenging terrain, full of twists and turns, seemingly impossible steep, rocky climbs, and heart-stopping descents...and if you lift up your eyes every now and then, you are blessed with some awesome scenery along the way.

And - for Erin - maybe a little insight into Life. (Seriously...it's how I ride.)

Now, for anyone interested in the genesis of the first image, there's this:

1. While I was searching online for the exact wording of a favorite half-remembered quote on adversity, I stumbled across the one above. I quickly forgot the one I was looking for.
2. I then searched my hard drive for an appropriate bike photo...and found the one above, from our trip to Fruita, on the Utah border. This photo was taken by my husband Bob, with a little Nikon point-&-shoot camera, just moments before we got separated and I got lost. Out in the middle of nowhere. In the hot sun. With not a soul around. I digress.
3. I cropped the photo down to just the bike tire on the right, then cloned away the distracting shadows. Then just some tinkering with color, light, textures, adjustment layers, etc. until it looked like I wanted and said what I wanted it to say. I actually started with one of Kim Klassen's wonderful tutorials, but it took on a life of its own and ended with probably way too many layers.

sunny aspen trail

We biked here a few weeks ago, when the aspen were just hinting at the seasonal change. So we knew where we'd be headed on my regular day off this week, hoping to catch the aspen at the peak of their brilliant fall colors. Meyer Ranch Park is just this side of Conifer and only a half hour or so from home. We had the place to ourselves, with hardly a soul there. We wouldn't even attempt it this weekend - likely the last chance to enjoy the fall colors up in the mountains.

I took along my iPod 'cause I knew it would be a spectacular ride. (I couldn't resist playing with the Instagram app - I used the X-pro II filter...it warmed up everything and heightened the already glorious yellows.)

I plan on revisiting this post in the dead of winter just so I can re-live this ride.

And remember...biking is a lot like life:

You gotta keep your eye on the trail

so you can see

where you are going

...carefully navigating the challenges on the ground,

like rocks, roots, waterbars, tight switchbacks, trees etc.

The kind of stuff that can trip you up

if you're not careful.

But every once in awhile, look around you

and notice how beautiful life is.

Especially the little things...

...and every now and then

look up and

thank God

for it all.

Enjoy the ride!

mountain bike love

Our favorite place to ride (well, one of our favorites) is Evergreen Mountain, right near Three Sisters Open Space. We rode here last week and I took along my iPod camera. I experimented with Instagram - editing in-camera and then saving to Instagrid. Thanks Xanthe and Kim for the excellent tutorials on creating a template and the possibilities with Instagram. Once again you light a fire and give me the courage to try new things...and to share them!

Notes to self:

1. Always stop and unclip both pedals before snapping the picture. (Don't worry, Mom...I already knew this)
2. Let Bob know you will be stopping to shoot so he doesn't worry when it takes even longer for you to catch up to him. (I thought I was clear on this point...sorry!)
3. When you get off your bike to shoot, try not to look like you've fallen and need help. Bikers are such helpful folks, though. Kinda warms your heart.
4. Instagram implies "instant" something. As in get these pictures up and going in a timely fashion.