August, 2020 | Suzanne Havens

40th Annual Selby Gardens Juried Photographic Exhibition

Aug 272020

The winners of the Selby Gardens photo competition were announced this morning. My photo, Ballet in Space, won Best of Show! I also won an Honorable Mention for Pond Reflections in the Geometry category.

You might already know how reluctant I am to enter any competitions, but this year I felt the need to support Selby Gardens as a long-time visitor, a member, and recently as a volunteer. The entries had to be taken in the past two years at Selby Gardens or Spanish Point and could not have things added or deleted–so no Photoshop montages which I delight in making. My three entries are attached. Even though the bird portrait did not win a prize, I am happy with the photo.

Because of the Covid 19 Pandemic, this year’s competition is digital only (no prints), so the display is published digitally at the link below. They state that they will have all the entries displayed soon.

Also because of the pandemic, my volunteer work has not yet started. I read an article in Selby’s newsletter that they were looking for a few more photographers. I submitted Selby photos and shared my background, was invited in for an interview, and was invited to volunteer.

So please enjoy the virtual gallery visit!

Suzanne

https://www.yourobserver.com/photo-gallery/40th-annual-selby-gardens-juried-photographic-exhibition#photo-1

A New Series of Flower Photos from Our Garden and Montages

Inspiration No Responses »

Aug 162020

My ways of coping with the social distancing needed to contain Covid 19 include gardening, creating photos and montages, studying art, photography, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and sharing electronically. Hopefully sharing electronically will lift your spirits and remind you that the world is beautiful, mysterious, and powerful and the human spirit remains creative.

Montage is a pretty word for composite. So far I use all my own photos and brush strokes, layer and intermingle them with a variety of techniques. I say “so far” because I was recently given some interesting digital textures and I am wondering whether or not to use them. Is this any different than my taking a photo of a sculpture or someone’s garden and including them in a montage?

In this series you will see both my original photos and in a few cases how I “gilded the lily.” To me the flowers and efflorescences are beautiful in themselves. They inspired me to combine them in a way that a floral arranger may develop a composition from multiple elements. In this case I made their collars and plumes digitally from elements of the flowers themselves, arranging, lighting, and blending them together. There were so many iterations it was hard to choose which to display. I left them in layers so that I can go back and play with them.