Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Looking Through a Glass Sunset

This is the first of two entries I'll be posting for this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge, "Reflections." The topic was suggested by Cheryl, a.k.a. BoiseLadie, of the blogs Welcome to My World and Life Through My Lens. Welcome back to the Robins, Cheryl, and thanks for the great topic!

The main problem for me on this one was narrowing down my options, and second-guessing what everyone else will be doing. I ended up with two interpretations. This is the first one, inspired by the photo I posted a week ago of sunset at Picacho Peak, as seen in my driver's side mirror. I call it "Sunsets in Glass."


peach sunset
This was tonight's sunset here in Tucson. I photograph a lot of sunsets at this particular location, the corner of Golf Links and Wilmot as seen from the shopping center across the street. The sunset tonight was a bit of a dud, due to the lack of clouds to reflect the colors. Because of this, the whole sunset only lasted about five minutes. I kind of like the weird peach color I ended up with, though. For this image I lightened things up a bit, rotated the shot 3 degrees to square it up, and boosted the saturation. The result is pretty close to what my eyes saw.

autocorrected sunset
You might say that this image reflects a slightly different approach from the first one. It's the same photo as before, but edited differently. I did rotate, lighten midtones, and boost the saturation, same as the other one but not quite as much. But first I did an "auto correct." This brought out the pale blue sky above the pinky-orange.


autocorrected glass sunset
Here's the exact same sunset, as reflected in the windows of an empty storefront at the edge of the shopping center. This one has the auto correct to enhance the blue a little. I didn't boost the color saturation. It didn't need it.

natural glass sunsetSame sunset, same windows, no autocorrect, no change in saturation.

glass sunset to the south
And this one is a reflection of at least two reflections, taken on May 16th. I was driving north as I shot this, and probably stopped at an intersection or U-turn lane. The mirror therefore pointed south. Yes, the mirror is showing sunset reflected in the sky to the south, and the colors of sunset reflected on the west side of my car. I boosted the saturation to make it more obvious, and closer to what my eyes saw. It is very common here for sunset's reflection to appear in the north and south and occasionally even in the east, as well as in the west. The colors are reflected off clouds and mountains, cars, windows, doors - and my camera's lens.

Tomorrow: Doggie Reflections.

Be sure to check out all the Round Robin entries:

Cheryl... "Welcome To My World" Posted!

Karen... "Outpost Mâvarin" Posted!

Carly... "Ellipsis...Suddenly Carly" Posted!

Valorie... "Retrospect USA" Posted!

Sachin... SacWorks **Welcome, New Member!**

DesLily... "Here There And Everywhere 2nd Edition" and "Here There And Everywhere" Posted!

Kimberleigh... "I Shaved My Legs For This?" Posted!

Erika... "Stealing Time" Posted!

Nancy... "Nancy Luvs Pics" Posted!

Julie... "Julie's Web Journal" Posted!

T.J. ... "Every Picture Tells A Story" Posted!

Suzanne... "Suzanne R's Life" Posted!

Derek... "Through My Eyes" Posted!

Tammy... "The Daily Warrior" Posted!

Connie... "Moments To Remember" and "Connie's Photo Pages" Posted!

Steven... "(sometimes) photoblog" Posted!

Deb... "SassysEYE" Posted!

Dorn... "Through the Eyes of the Beholder" Posted!

Steve... "PAPARRAZI BY PROXY" **Welcome, New Member!** Posted!

Betty... "My Day, My Interests" Posted!Duane... "sotto voce" and sotto voce USA Posted!

Tess... "First Digital Photos" Posted!

rRose... "WAIT-NOTYET"" Posted!

Becky... "Where Life Takes You" Posted!

Amy... My life and pictures ***Welcome New Member!*** Posted!

(And yes, you're welcome to join us too. Check the Round Robin blog for details, and leave a comment with your name, blog name, and URL at the "Reflections" entry.)

Karen

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13 comments:

Carly said...

Karen

Thes are OMG STUNNING! I LOVE the one with the sunset in the rear view, I did one similar that had a view of autumn. I have it posted on Flickr. Mine isn't nearly as nice as this one. Truly this might very well be one of your all time best!

DesLily said...

love the mirror photo!! great shot! if i tried that it would be blurred for sure lol..

Mine is posted..

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/

Tammy Brierly said...

That side mirror shot was awesome! I would have never thought of that.
Brava!!!

Dornbrau said...

I love the mirror shot.

Suzanne R said...

Beautiful shots, and I love the many ways you got creative with the sunset reflections!

Anonymous said...

I love the rear view mirror shot. Congrats on all your shots and decisions!

Anonymous said...

WOW ... you teamed together sunsets and reflections nicely!!! Two thumbs up.
Valorie

Steven said...

Like the sunset reflected in the car mirror. Nice!

fdtate said...

Another comprehensive entry. Some very nice photos here. I especially like the last one. It really captures the "reflections" theme.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to see the same picture corrected different ways. Quite instructive!

Becky said...

I love your sideview mirror shots. :-)

BosieLadie said...

I think my favorite, if I had to chose, is the sideview mirror of your car. Great job on all the shots.

Bea said...

Your reflection photos are very interesting... quite handy with the camera, you are. Loved the sunset and mirror reflections. I didn't have any from my digital camera, but have some great ones I took with my single lense reflex camera years ago. Bea