Photo Play: August Summary

It always takes a few weeks to review my photos from the previous month. August was another hot and humid month, so it wasn't fun to be outside much.  I've been sewing a lot, so have backed off on my photography studies lately.  I'll get back to it eventually.  There are more photographs to share this month as I had a lot of rejects from the last few photography challenges.  Three of the challenges were photography techniques and not subject limited, so I took a lot of photos.  Some of them didn't meet the challenge goals but are still interesting shots.  

All the below photos were shot with a Canon 70D DLSR with either a Tamron 18-400 mm telephoto or a Sigma 105 mm macro lens. Some photos have been cropped.  

One of the photo challenges was "fill the frame".  I took a number of photos of some purple coneflowers. This shot was my alternate pick for that challenge.  I like the soft focus on the petals and the saturated colors, but it didn't quite fill the frame so it didn't make the cut (Sigma105 mm macro).

We had one damp and rainy week during August.  Water on plants is always fascinating to me.  I tried to capture that in various photos during the week (Tamron 18-400 mm telephoto)

I really like the drop at the end of the leaf.  It's not quite at the nodes to qualify for the rule of thirds, but it's close.  

One of the photo challenges in August was "Rule of Thirds".  I took a lot of photos that week. I winnowed that set down to three and selected the one for the challenge. Here are the two rejects. (Tamron 18-400 Telephoto)

The second shot of the honeysuckle is another good example of applying the rule of thirds to photo composition. I could have made the rose fit the challenge, but the composition of the rose photo I choose for the challenge was a better example.  

The following two photos weren't considered for the challenge, they didn't really meet the challenge requirements.  But they stand out as photos on their own. Both photos are cropped.  (Tamron 18-400 Telephoto)

  

The basket flowers are all just about dead, all that's left is the seed heads.  But they have a beauty of their own.  I really like the silhouetted basket flower against that purple sky sunset. 

The last challenge in August was "Narrow Depth of Field".  A macro lens is really useful for those type of shots.  I really enjoy macro photography and took a large number of shots of the fading flowers in the garden. None of them made the cut for the challenge, but some of them ended up being my most favorite from the photo shoots.  (Sigma105 mm macro)

When I showed this shot to My Guy, he wasn't sure what it was.  It's the center of one of the fading roses.  The colors remind me that fall is coming.  I love the spaghetti texture of the faded center. It's not a beautiful shot, but it is an interesting one.  

The basket flowers have lost their color, but gained this incredible variety of textures and shapes.  

When I assessed what my photographic goals were for 2024, one of them was to photograph the small things we tend to miss.  I do love the brilliant colors of spring and summer, but the muted colors that show up in the fall have their own stark beauty.  Hopefully I'm being true to my goal to photograph the little things as well as the pretty things.  

If you've read this far, thanks for hanging out for a non-quilty post.  I'm always interested in feedback.  What photo(s) grab your attention or which photos seem like odd choices for this summary?