Yellow, Red, Orange: An Original Pictoral Tale by A. and K. Metcalf

Once upon a time there was a Yellow Sunflower.

Yellow Sunflower had grown with the loving care of its Gardener who protected it from every danger as seed and seedling, marveled at its hourly growth . . .

 

thrilled at the new bud opening. . .

and eagerly watched each petal unfold . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow Sunflower was so occupied with BASKING IN THE SUNLIGHT, DELIGHTING THE BEES, AND GROWING SEEDS FOR THE BIRDS,  that it was oblivious to the special care it received from the Gardener.

What did catch Yellow’s attention was one day overhearing the Gardener’s excitement that there was a Red Sunflower about to open!

“Hey!”, thought Yellow, “Red Sunflower gets ALL the attention!”

 

  The gloominess grew in the garden. 

“Red Sunflower must be very special to get all that attention”,  glowered Yellow, “all I get to do is get a tan, hang with the bees and go to seed.”

 

 

Continuing in the same vein, led to this light green tint of envy:                                “Red flowers probably get to roller skate,

eat ice cream

and watch TV!”

“I want special attention like Red Sunflower!”

Yellow was puzzled about what to do:“You might even say, ‘I’m hueless about how to change color!”

Yellow had an idea:  “wait a minute!  I’ve READ the most recent posts, I know what to do! ” (Yellow Sunflower, being an only recently opened blossom, had never heard of homonyms.)  So, Yellow sampled various ways to change color.

Whew!  Yellow Sunflower was beginning to lose its sense of Self, as though being erased away:

Then, one day Yellow looked around and saw:

Real Red Sunflower was beautiful!  But more importantly, Red Sunflower BASKS IN THE SUN, FEEDS THE BEES AND GROWS EQUALLY NUTRITIOUS SEEDS!

Dawning of realization can occur after sunset for Sunflowers.  For the benefit of those Dear Readers confined to a tiny screen:And then, Yellow Sunflower realized the beauty in the garden was that ALL the sunflowers equally GLORIED IN THE SUN, NOURISHED THE BEES and GREW SEEDS TO SHARE IN THE FUTURE!  Sharing one’s gifts is wonderful of course, but recognizing them in one another is what makes them feel like a gift!  When Yellow appreciated Red’s gifts, Yellow felt special too! Red Sunflower was so occupied doing its own thing that it was completely oblivious to all this drama!

This is a true tale as recounted to us by Orange Sunflower, who was witness to the whole spectacle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warmish/Coolish

This color photograph is from a series we took to practice Still-Life Studio Lighting.  The set-up is white flowers in clear glass, on clear acrylic, on a white background with two lights.

There are some duplicate features on our digital camera and on the computer’s Adobe Photoshop.  So, this seems like an opportunity to continue the experiments with this photograph and compare the choices.

Camera :  Warm filterPhotoshop:  Warm filter

 

Camera:  Cool filterPhotoshop:  Cool filter

 

Camera:  Black and WhitePhotoshop:  Black and White

 

Camera:  CyanotypePhotoshop:  Cyanotype

 

Camera:  SepiaPhotoshop:  Sepia (click on the “brown tree” image)

 

Photoshop:  Purple (click on the “Purple Tree” image)Photoshop:  Red (click on the “Red Tree” image)Photoshop:   Green (click on the “Green Tree” image)Photoshop:  Oops!  Ran out of Tree images to click on!

 

Interesting.  Reaction:  casting a warm or cool light on the actual still-life set-up resonates more with us for the immediacy of making and taking the picture.

The B&W setting on the camera looks useful for assessing the arrangement of hue values, especially when making a composition mixing matte and shiny items.  The larger screen of the computer makes it easier to decide on nuances for later black and white conversions.

Also, how much influence does the viewing screen light have over the photograph colors?  We’ll have to print up some of these examples eventually to really compare all of the options.

Frankly, there is a pretty good chance that we won’t press that Purple button again until we have a photograph of a cow (sometimes you just have to go with the obvious!)