June 1990: Ready to move into a new home.

I went out this morning to capture images in my backyard during a time of day I knew would avail interesting shadows and lighting for a DS106 Photo Safari.  What I didn’t expect was that through the process of my editing and choosing the photos, a story of my life as the mother of two now grown daughters, and the ex-wife of a gardener would reveal itself.  The images tell of a time well past: A child’s swing set neglected and overgrown with weeds and trees, a prolific garden abandoned and no longer tended to, a bleached antler reminding me of the 9 foot electrified fence my ex-husband erected to provide a barrier to free meals for the herd of deer traveling through our backyard, discarded odds and ends left behind when a family dissolved. While this phase of family life has past, a new chapter has begun as an over-joyed “Nana” of a vivacious two-year old grandson. And who knows what stories my backyard will tell 10 years from now.

Bygone Backyard Photo Safari

A backyard of memories revealing their story of a family long past.

Abandoned Childhood

Forgotten Swing

Left Behind Garden Gate

Bygone Box

Bare Bone

Block & Bottle

Ousted Oilcan

THE MAKING OF….

All photos were taken with my iPhone using the Camera+ app.  It is a powerful app that can do a lot if you know what you’re doing, which I don’t yet.  I experimented with setting the white balance and selecting a focus zone.  Neither of which proved to be successful.  I think it’s time to read and watch some tutorials.  Next, I uploaded the photos to my desktop with the Photo Transfer app.  I love this little app.  I can very easily upload and download photos and videos over WiFi or bluetooth to any of my Apple devices or even my PC.

Fallen Fence – Photo too cluttered.

I had taken almost 90 photos, and challenged myself to get it down to 5. With a quick look at the images I could see most of them weren’t all that great.  The lighting was bad.  The images were cluttered and/or blurry. Some just weren’t interesting at all. I then opened them up in Photoshop Elements 12 for a closer look and to do a little photo editing if needed.

Mossy Log Shadows- interesting to look at, but no story

As I worked I noticed a set of photos emerging with single objects dominating the image.  I also had some very interesting natural environment shots with neat shadows and lighting, but they didn’t tell a story.  They were just nice to look at like this one of a mossy log that had been used to frame the sand box under the swing set.  I’m pleased with the results of reducing my photo safari down to the best seven photos with the single object focus, and leaving out the nature only shots.

Writing the intro paragraph was an additional unexpected challenge.  In my head it sounded simple to put my thoughts down on paper, but that wasn’t the case. I struggled for quite awhile as to what and how I would share the memories and stories embedded in the photos.

Finally, I used the WordPress Slideshow plugin to add them to my blog post.  Then by editing the HTML code in the text view the borders and shadow effect of the final two images were created.  Learn how here.