What do you think?  Ignore the top photograph's excessive blue.  That was for the benefit of the printer and the peculiarities of the paper.  Lesson one:  don't change papers in mid-stream.

Look at the surroundings?  In the top image I used the traditional burn tool to darken the background which was in the sun, and was distracting. Then I included the flowers at the bottom and sides.  We see the context, and are vaguely aware of the far distant background.  Compare this with the black surround in the photograph below.  In that case I used a tiny black brush, maybe 3 pixels in size, to remove the tiny flowers that were cut off, cut in half, stems that were cut in half or otherwise not whole.  I have done this many times, especially effective around the pink lilies which have an "S" curve as they float in the water.  There is a stubborn, unruly yellow lily who insists on her place in the pool of pink lilies.  You can see that photograph in the flowers gallery of the website.  It worked well, there.  Why? 
But what do you think about this case?   I think that in spite of all the work in creating the black surround, the top image works better.
This photograph was taken with no wind.   I created a series of photographs because I intended to "focus-stack" them in Photoshop CS6.  Therefore....... using a tripod.... I created several photographs at f.14, focusing on the flowers in the immediate foreground, then the flowers a foot farther away from the camera, then another photograph focused a foot farther away from the camera, then another foot  and another to the tree itself.  In Bridge, one chooses the six images, goes to "Tool," clicks and goes down to "open in layers in Photoshop."  Now go to Photoshop and when they have opened on top of each other in one file, click on the eyeball of each until to get to the bottom of the first.  This makes all invisible until you get to the first image.  Then click to make visible, the one above.  Does it add or take away or add nothing?  Delete it if it does not add depth and focus which the one below does not have.  Click and make visible the next higher one.  Same questions.  Delete what does not add deeper focus.
When this is done, select all.  Go to "Edit" and click, going down to "align" and click OK.  Then go back to "
Edit" and click, going down to "Blend." and click OK.  This puts them together.  If there is fuzziness, that is because that flower or whatever, was not aligned because it was probably blown in a breeze.  If everybody was still for all the photographs, then everything is in focus. Go the "layers" click and go down to merge layers and merge'em.   Quite a wonderful tool.  This was accomplished in the film days by using a view camera.  So these tools in Photoshop CS6 accomplish the same result as an obsolete camera.

Too much of a good thing?  Yep, I have to say, I over-did it.  A friend used to say, "We get into trouble not because of our weaknesses, but because we over-do our strengths."    
I like the photograph on the bottom, nevertheless, because she is one of my "children."  It's very personal, just as photography is usually personal and intimate, by its very nature.  That's why it helps so much, to have a kind and thoughtful set of friends to look at our work, and comment, with kindness, sometimes struggling to find the words to do so.  When I see them struggling to find the words, I usually know already that I've overdone something.  But keep some children, and let others find their own way in the world--they go could into the world of delete or into the world of file 13.  And then move on.

The Trees' Calling, is my current exhibit at the Rivers Edge Conference Center in Rocky River, Ohio.  It is running from May 1 through July 31. 
I'll conclude that exhibiton Monday, August 5 from 7:00-8:30 by speaking about  Photography as a  Spiritual Practice. The pamphlet Rivers Edge created:  "In this contemplative evening, John will lead the participants through how their own  inner spiritual journey can be  discovered and  expressed through the arts  with a special  emphasis on photography.

John Holliger is an Episcopal priest, professional photographer, and Quiet Day leader from Delaware, Ohio.  "Praying with Icons, ancient and natural," " The Potter and the Sycamore--the Spirituality of Imperfection," and "Creating the Poem of Your Life, Taking Our Clues from William Stafford," are some of the themes of John's Quiet Days."

The Second Exhibit is closer(  Martin de Porres Center 2330 Airport Drive, Columbus OH 43219
,Phone: 614.416.1920  ) and in the Fall:  “The Elder Trees;  the Mystics and Poets of the Forest”
This exhibit opens Tuesday, Sept. 3 with a from 7-9pm.  The closing date is October 17, with a similar presention of "Photography as a Spiritual Practice" from 7 - 9 pm.
 
One of the books that has inspired me over the years is by Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild.  The first
and last chapters are ones I return to:  Ancient Forets of the Far West, (After the clearcut, at work in the woods,
Us Yokels) and Survival and Sacrament (an end to birth ).  When a writer names what is, when the writer does not use euphemisms or cliches, but honest, straight-forward truth that the writer has experienced, the disease of craziness I have picked up from the world around me, loses its power and I can get on with what is.  Or as the Buddhists say, the Suchness of life.  

Here is a brief excerpt which I believe is legal to put on a Blog since it is brief and the purpose is to encourage your interest in his book, I think Gary Snyder would not object.  Page 71:  Nature's Writing.  A text is information stored through time.  The stratighraphy of rocks, layers of pollen in the swamp, the outward expanding circles in the trunk of a tree, can be seen as texts.  the calligraphy of rivers winding back and forth over the land leaving layer upon layer of traces of previous riverbeds is text.  ...   a group of words that have not changed much through twelve thousand year--are tree names:  birch, willow, alder, elm, ash, apples, and beech (bher, wyt, alysos, ulmo, os, abul, bhago)
Go to Abe's Books on line or your local library.  He is worth at least a glance through... 

.

This is the time of photographic compeititions with all kinds of rules.  Many competitions cost $500 or more because the person has to buy a partiular box, wrap the prints in a special way, with the claim that if you listen to the comments of the judges, one can learn a great deal.  I didn't hear wisdom about photography; I heard egos spouting off.

In one group they have certificates, another has wall plaques, another has gold awards to put on a chain and wear around your neck.when you go to their meetings.  It's sort of like boy scouts and cub scouts.

I've learned very little from the egos of the judges.


I have learned a lot from mentors and teachers who offered classes during the summer at conference centers where the prices were affordable... and the ego's were right sized.. Kanuga Episcopal Conference Center is one such place, where for $1000 you get a week of comfortable, clean, private rooms, great food, next to a lake to get up before dawn and walk 5 minutes to watch the sunrise, and 5-6 different photographer-mentors who were available all week long to everyone. They liked working with other photograpers who were not ruled by enormous egos.  

I met and worked with three mentors from such conference centers.  Two of whom I met with after the conference was over, at another time of the year, and I bought several days of time from them.  One cost $150 a day.  Another charged $75 to take a day hike with me to a waterfall I wanted to see and photograph with him, so I could use that experience as a teaching experience.

None of these mentors pulled out a scorecard to check off points, or award me certificates or gold coins.  We were both in an adult mode and learned from each other.

This is how I would suggest learning photography.  Learn from another photographer who is more advanced than you are; someone who does not have a huge ego to put up with.  Find a few friends; go on adventures together, where you enjoy each other, and easily compare what you have tried and what didn't work.

If it's art, then we photograph with great care and attention to detail, and we don't give a hoot about entering a contest, paying money, to get someone else to approve of what I have created.  

Someone asked me if I entered a particular contest years ago, and I said I had decided against it... because for the price of entering three photographs, I could buy a complete system of Pocket Wizard radio Transmitters for 4 flashes and my camera.  That seems a lot more worthwhile than the contest. 

Good photography, like a good life,  involves solitude, being alone with yourself, watching what is unfolding inside that surprises, following the ends of the threads of our lives to see where they lead us.