Moleskine, Categorically!
View allAll Photos Tagged frustration....
Sorry I've been MIA.. I've had a bug in my Flickr for the last 6wks..and they finally figured out a workaround..so, it's going to take me a bit to catch up.. but..I think I'm back..LOL.. Thank you to those of you who reached out..have missed you guys so much!!! *hugs*
Cerro Catedral
For two years in a row I have tried to visit the top of this mountain, from which they say there is a privileged view of the Lake and the Andes, but winds of more than 100 km prevented access by tourists using the cable car.
Only the ski slopes were open, especially the trail for beginners and apprentices.
Maybe I'll try again...
Grey Heron
Copenhagen, Denmark
I watched this heron for quite some time by a lake, as it failed to find a fish to catch. Finally, it let loose in what seemed to me to be a cry of frustration!
Seen in north Walnut Creek. This female and her mate seemed to be scouting out locations for their next round of offspring, after some frustration with an overly public location in the spring of 2022.
Map location is approximate within 1 mile.
...is what it took to get this result. I just can't get on with Milky Way processing. No matter how many YouTube videos I watch and no matter how many things I try, over and over and over again, I just can't get anything I am pleased with. No idea where I am going wrong. Tearing my hair out, will be bald soon. I like a challenge, but this is more like beating my head against a wall. Such is the curse of perfectionism! Totally fed up...
I almost dread when a totally clear sky happens here, and it happens infrequently on Skye. I just have to brave the freezing cold and get out there - hoping against hope that things will be better this time but knowing full well I shall just be sobbing at my computer screen again by my miserable attempts at MW processing. Perhaps it would be best to just stay warm at home with a nice (large) shot of single-malt whisky...
This was shot at the Kilchrist church ruin on Skye, a location I first tried almost a year ago (with even worse results).
Until the next time...
By comparison, snail whispering is just so much easier...
when I was shooting this barn I saw the dark sky above the barn and decided another cloud was moving in. when i reviewed it on the screen at home it was clear that it was a patch with no aurora:)
A repost of an image taken nearly two years ago... Reposting because this shot got shortlisted for the Landscape photographer of the year 2011. :-)
It was my first ever "real" competition, and even although I didn't get into the final selects, I'm still really chuffed to have been shortlisted amongst such wonderful photographers and to have been judged by Charlie Waite.
You can see the winning images here and the very talented Angus Clyne was runner up.
-
_________________________________________________________________________________
-
Original post
Regular visitors to my stream, will know about my DSLR trials and tribulations.. so I wont bore you... I've had a borrow of a 350 for a wee while... after an initial euphoric return to shooting... I've actually found it incredibly frustrating, and failed miserably to get anything that I'd be even remotely proud of sharing. It's been really demoralising, to the point I actually wondered if it was worth getting a new camera at all!
This morning changed all that... eventually, conditions ( -8 and some new snow), light (dawn breaking through the mist), me (getting the settings right on camera and in focus), all came together, for that 5 or 10 minutes that makes it all SO worthwhile:-)
Highly recommend a look at the large version, if you can.
Also just found out two of my prints have raised £150 so far in a charity auction for Haiti
Followed this guy all around the grounds of Filoli Manor near San Mateo, California, hoping to get him to spread his tail so I could get the shot. He finally disappeared through a hedge where I couldn't follow him. Damn bird.
As I reported in a recent story, the bluebell season had proved to be a bit of a non event this year. A not very heady combination of poor weather, a poor attitude and even worse composition skills had delivered nothing whatsoever and I’d resorted to the archives for an image to share a story of abject failure. It was time to move on. What was next? Well a return to Echo Beach and Godrevy Lighthouse was long overdue. Very long overdue in fact – I was surprised to note that I hadn’t taken photos here since January. Even more startling was the realisation that on six of the previous eight visits, I hadn’t got beyond downloading the raw files onto my computer. Ok so during that period I was lucky enough to go to Iceland and the Canary Islands, trips which were filled with yet to be shared images, but it did make me wonder what on earth I’d been playing at. Why had I ignored all of these folders, and what was in them? I really should take a look.
So some time towards the end of last week, we headed down to Godrevy in the van. On a sunny afternoon that was colder than it looked, we sat at the field on the headland in our camping chairs, enjoying a cream tea that had arrived as part of an unexpected hamper delivery that morning. It seems that recommending services you’ve been happy with pays dividends once in a while. I’d brought the camera with me of course, with only a passing thought about whether we’d stay long enough for sunset. Really we’d just come down for an afternoon out, and a brief stroll to watch the seals at Mutton Cove before racing back to the van as a shower raced towards us from across the bay. Back in the van another cup of tea was brewed as we settled down to watch the world outside. Ali had a little snooze while I pushed on through the last few chapters of the novel that had taken me away to the dreamland marshes of the North Carolina coast for most of the last week. Afternoon ticked on towards early evening. At some point we’d have to make a decision about food.
So we trundled off to Hayle and continued to abandon our cholesterol levels outside the front door of the local chippy. We could always have alfalfa sprouts tomorrow. Once rumbling stomachs were refuelled, we returned to the exact same spot as before, noting that the gates would be locked at nine. I’d just hop down and have a look. There wasn’t much doing, so I told Ali I’d be back soon. I’m never back soon. She knows that.
After poppies, it’s sea thrift in this rapidly passing floral season. No sooner have the woodland blues begun to wane and descend back into the lush green foliage, the vivid pink blooms appear on clifftops across the coast. And while I’d gradually begun to make sense of bluebell compositions (at least until this year’s big step backwards), the sea thrift had remained complicated. I pretty much always shoot into the light because it’s what inspires me and moves me to landscape photography, but of course that sets its challenges. Shadows, silhouettes, and dynamic ranges to test the computer’s memory later on. I look back to early attempts where I’d followed the letter rather too closely – highlights all the way down, shadows all the way up, noise all the way up with it – all shots where I’d failed to keep the raw files to try again years later as I released the histogram was on the back of my camera for a reason and learned new techniques in the editing suite. At one time I tried a stage of shooting the foreground an hour before the background, but the blend never looked convincing. Focus stacks also came with accompanying headaches – all of those fiddly strands against the blue background sea that looked messy if you dived into the pixels too far.
The most pleasing result to date was one that ironically, I’ve never shared on Flickr. Maybe I should. A beautiful glowing mass of colourful cloud, a clutch of gulls making for the island and an appealing pink patch at the front of the image. Why did I never post it? Not sure, but when I have another creative block like the one I faced in the bluebell woods, I guess I can keep it up my sleeve. Two further years of learning how to use Photoshop will need to be applied first though. It was one of those pesky focus stacks and the blending needs another visit. At least this was in the era since I decided to keep every raw file forever. Except the real duds of course. Mind you that could be a mistake – ICM is so popular nowadays. Even if this is more like UCM.
This evening was also testing my brain cells. In truth, I’d left things late. If I’m out on my own I can happily set up a composition and wait for two hours until the light is at its best. But an hour ago we were queuing at the chippy three miles away in Hayle, and nowhere near any compositions. Not unless Asda superstores are your chosen subject. Now I dashed from one spot to another, always struggling with the gulf of water between the headland and the lighthouse that separated the foreground and background almost irreparably. As I settled on this one, Ali rang to say the man had arrived to lock the gates as a stream of vehicles headed along the clifftop towards the road. At the exact same moment, the sky was starting to get interesting, so shameful to say, I asked her if she could drive Brenda back to the main car park that is never locked, and five minutes later I saw a big red van moving away from me. “Got here without any bumps” came the message.
I settled down as the sun headed towards the horizon and the colours became ever more saturated. By now it was a case of seizing what I could from the scene and hoping for the best, before walking back along the cliff path and remembering what it is that brings me here again and again, whether or not I take photos, and whether or not I get around to working on them later.
Emboldened by her success at driving the van from the field to the car park, Ali drove us home. Cream teas, fish and chips, sea thrift and a chauffeur. Better than frowning in frustration at bluebells that don’t want to play.
...unless you live in the UK it's difficult to believe how chaotic life is right now. I have some petrol and as I don't actually need to travel much I am staying put.....but I don't know how much longer people will manage. The ultimate First-World problem I guess. Meanwhile, it's back to some glorious archives, here a stunning evening on Side Pike...and I notice how pyramidal the shadow of Pike O'Blisco looks. Clear air and a dusting of snow, what's not to like....and It'll still be there whenever I can travel.
This hawk's snake breakfast fell from the perch where he was dining on it and got hung on the supports. He tried for several minutes to retrieve it but couldn't.
When getting into the section of Cajon between Cajon Junction and Summit, we found the area to be quite frustrating. If we set up for a shot on one of the three trackage alignments, trains would only run on the other two. If we set up for a train in one direction, trains would run in the opposite direction. Here is an example as a westbound Santa Fe train runs on the north track near Mormon Rocks.
I watched this stag respond to another one bellowing some way off. He decided to head off in the direction of the call and as he got closer the other stag turned away and trotted off. This one bellowed in triumph only for the King of the park who was also in the vicinity to bellow back and this fella realised he was outgunned so he tuned back and headed into the copse from where he came, he then started pawing and thrashing his antlers on the ground in frustration.
opensea.io/assets/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7...
Frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, related to anger and disappointment, arising from perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will. The greater the obstruction and will, and the more sensitive the individual is to conflict, the greater the likelihood of frustration. The cause of frustration can be internal or external.
#5502 - 2023 Day 23/365: Frustration is an easy emotion to give rein; so ... the less I try the easier it will become, right?
By the time we had arrived at the ferris wheel down at Redcliffe for a night lights shot, I had torn my hair out with my infrared remote which had failed, fixed it and then when set up on site, failed again. Well, they say there are more ways to skin a cat than one so this is the alternate result by other means. But I still have to figure out why the remote refuses to play ball!
A big slash across the water with its beak....drink of water or frustration at no fish were caught. The young ones should be either hatching or hatched at this point. Hmmmm.
I had just finished taking some other photos and was walking back to my car when I came across this group of fishermen. There was quite an animated discussion going on. I was too far away to hear what was actually being said, but my best guess was something like: “No man, we haven’t caught any fish, the beer is gone, and I’m leaving.” 😄
A spontaneous shot taken on a rocky outcrop beside the Des Moines River just downstream from the Red Rock Dam near the Howell Station Campground in Marion County, Iowa.
Lensbaby Sweet 50 optic, set at F2.5
Composer Pro II with a Canon EF mount
No bend or extension tube used
I shot and developed paper negatives for several years with no problems.
I've been fighting and flailing and foundering with paper negative development for over a week now and failing. I have a large stack of all black photos, a beautiful black.
something is wrong. I've changed exposure times, paper, development times and done a ton of internet reading. all it did was confuse me because everything contradicted everything else.
sigh...
maybe my brain is past remembering and learning.
egads!
this is a triple exposure with chai and a step chair with a doll on it.
no comments, definitely no faves.
I'm just hoping for success sometime soon.
at least I got a little something on this one,
I did this oil painting.
The story behind this was a woman who looked very frustrated and sad. I guess she was drunken coz she leaned on a wall at a pub/restaurant, looking down at her feet but I noticed she had some scratch marks on her face, and I thought she might have been abused.
I don't know how good this photo interprets the story.
What would probably have been one of my favourite shots of 2020 will be entered into the "your worst shot of 2020" group.
For the past few months I've been hoping to shoot a westbound in the morning blue hour from a bridge about 5 mins from my home. When I got up in the mornings I'd been listening out for trains being called. Nothing. They would either come while it was still dark or once it was light.
Last Monday however, I got up at dawn and not only was the previous week's snow still thick on the ground, but a thick fog had settled. It was just perfect. I turned on my scanner and immediately heard a dispatcher calling a west bound. Downed my coffee and headed out the door.
I made it with about a minute to spare, and tried to focus on the bottom of the signal but in the low light the AF struggled. I thought I got it though and clamped down on that focus lock.
The shot looked fantastic in the view finder...until I zoomed in. Couldn't believe it. Don't know exactly what happened, but I have had many frustrations with the D7100's auto focus...
Frederick Junction.
CSX Old Main Line Sub.
I decided to carry on with my 'anger and frustration' series showing images, which could be easily avoided if human beings would respect nature and wildlife!
We have huge problems with baboons at Cape Point Nature Reserve due to stupid behaviour of tourists and, of course, locals. People feed them, most of the time, to get nice photos and don't realize, which immense problems they are causing.
This guy approached a female baboon and her baby - for what reason ever. She got furios and was about to attack him to protect her baby. Is this necassary???? Why didn't he keep a distance like all the others did? It makes me so cross to watch people, who are not able to respect our wildlife and I will carry on taking those images!
BTW - I was shocked by the fact how rotten her teeth look! For what reason ever!
(Image was taken at Cape Point yesterday afternoon)
Please visit news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090724-southafri... and watch the video!
© Cosmopolitan Photography | All rights reserved.
Do not use, copy or edit any of my images without my written permission.
Artwork ©jackiecrossley
© All rights reserved. This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. This image is not authorised for use on your blogs, pinboards, websites or use in any other way. You may not download this image without written permission from me. Thank you.
OK - I'm stumped. I seem to remember that Edison, while trying to invent the lightbulb, once said something to the effect that, "Today, I have discovered almost a hundred things that don't work."
I spent the better part of the afternoon by my feeders trying to get some flight shots of the little guys coming in or leaving. Larger birds I have a handle on, it's the little songbirds that have me baffled. They are just too darn quick. The above photo was the best I got (I took hundreds of pictures), but it still doesn't have the clarity and sharpness that I have seen in the photos some others post on this site. I guess it's OK, but I know it can be better.
For my life, I can't figure out how to focus. Do I manually focus at a point where they are likely to fly and hope for the best? I don't know if it is even possible to pan on birds that move so fast, and I don't think the AF has a prayer of locking on. I'm using a Canon 40d with a Canon 300mm f2.8 lens.
Of course, there is also the issue of the dreaded "purple fringing" After a few hours playing with Photoshop, I have also determined that the best way to make one of these photos worse it to try to make it better.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Taken in New Jersey, USA
© Steve Byland 2008 all rights reserved
Unauthorized use or reproduction for any reason is prohibited
Contact: ietphotography@gmail.com
In case you want to buy prints of my work, please visit my website: www.ietphotography.com