Love of beauty is Taste. The creation of beauty is Art.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

This thread has us thinking about pretty pictures, so this seems like a good time to feature them.

I had an ambition to take pretty photos that would be nice to look at, but eventually gave up because I simply didn't have suitable subjects. I'd love to see what the tremendous variety of photographers here have been able to create.

I work in an area that's not particularly pretty, so this assignment is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. Today I took my trusty macro lens for a walk to see if I could do anything with the urban space around me. Here's what I found:

Nice!
I kind of expected you would turn to grafitti knowing your location and tastes, but these surprised me.
A different approach to the subject than I have seen from you before, and definitely pretty.


This is a photo taken just a few hours ago at HemisFair Plaza. (Please see the new thread in 'Showcase')
Now that the fountains are back on I needed to visit again--at night this time.
It's a cool oasis in the heart of downtown San Antonio, and a romantic and very pretty place to spend some time day or night.

My idea of pretty, the as yet immature Hunter Valley Gardens - only planted 4/5 years ago and already a beautiful place to spend a day.

# Overlooking the Chinese gardens with the teahouse on the right.


#2 The beginning of the rose gardens

Thanks so much Matt for this assignment.

When I see Matt pictures I find always so extreme the difference between his urban scape and my countryside scape... Your urban scape looks always more interesting. Your pictures are beautiful Matt.

Beautiful place indeed, Keith, and gorgeous picture as well. The long exposure makes it look so dreamy... Love the light it has.

Those gardens look splendid to walk around, Pat. So vivid colors of the flowers and the sky... You captured the beauty of the place in your pictures.

What I have learned from my pictures and the pictures shown so far in this assignment is that not only you need beautiful subjects but also the will and skills to show their prettiness. The way you do it, is what makes them special or not, I think. At the moment is difficult to find beauty out there, everything is gray, muddy.... so sad. That is why I looked for beauty in my home and my studio...

Balansae
They are so delicate white flowers.




Working with shells at the moment I have to have a pretty one...
This is one I find specially beautiful.

I love these, Irma.
So soft and subtle.

A simple sunset.....or two...




Sharon

All great images but Irma's second image takes the prize for 'prettiest'.

Matthew - Great images as always...but I'm still not convinced that graffiti can be 'pretty'...

A recent experiment, the results remind me of chinese wallpaper...

matthew Wrote:I'd love to see what the tremendous variety of photographers here have been able to create.

You guys are awesome.

Smarti, I absolutely agree with you about most graffiti. In this case, though, they're intended as murals and are re-done annually by some very skilled artists. It keeps the taggers away, because they may not respect a city-beautification project, but they're reluctant to mess with the work of the masters. (They'd probably get the stuffing knocked out of them for it, so it's win-win. ) And I know exactly what you're getting at about the wallpaper -- the tones and style really are reminiscent of some of the ink-drawn art I've seen. It's a great capture.

Sharon, the vertical sunset is a good choice, but I really like your second shot. I think Keith has said before that sunsets aren't subjects, but they are great backgrounds. (sorry if that's mangled or misattributed...) I like how the silhouette of the tree frames the sun and fills the negative space with a subject.

Irma, what can I say? Thanks for the kind words, but your shell photo beats anything I can find in the city. It's actually unfair to your balansae photo, since it would otherwise be getting all the raves.

Pat, I like that you're able to get in early to record what the new gardens look like. This will be a great place to revisit as the years go on, and creates a really important body of work.

Keith, HFM. It's nice to see you getting away from the tracks for a bit.

The shell is really 'pretty' Irma - well done.

Sharon, Matthew quoted me correctly, and I was about to praise both your photos for how effectively you used the foreground area when I read him beating me to it using my own words.

Thanks for this thread Matthew, and very nice shots. Somehow your no. 2 to me is the closest to pretty, I guess because of the light and "female" colors.

There really is not much "pretty" about the place I live at at these days, but just a few days ago I was playing around and doing something similar to Irma.

Last year I loved to do stuff like this, now it reminds me of all the beautiful front gardens in our neighbourhood in New York... This year, ironically, I took this picture on the same day that I also visited an extremely poor area of Huainan, where people lit(t)erally live on a trash dump. It's very sad.

The photos in this thread are pretty hard to follow, but I'll try anyway. Here's something a little different from me:





iso100, f16, 15s exposure. This was lit by a small LED flashlight that I used all around the flowers.

Clever, Matthew.

Flowers from Matthew, sign f16 of the apocalypse.
(You know where else to post this, right?)

It's beautiful, BTW.
I never would have guessed this was done using light-painting, which is a big compliment to you.
Many examples are too obvious which makes them seem poorly executed to me.

You know I like a lot flower pictures Matt, and I love this one. Those colors are great, beautiful light.
I like very much your composition. I have always thought that men have a very beautiful and special way to photograph flowers.
This picture is a proof of that.

Keith, I know, it's on its way. In my defense, I've taken flower photos before... I do it once a year or so. And thanks.

Irma, that's an interesting idea, and something I wouldn't have thought of. I certainly wanted to do my own version of flower photography, and tried to approach it the way I would a non-flower subject. (Does that make sense?) And since you and Uli have already shown such stellar soft-focus work, I wasn't about to risk that technique.

Flowers are actually an excellent subject for painting with light. They have a nice matt texture, they're slightly transmissive, and have such varied and intricate structures that there's limitless options for creative lighting. I also used my ultrawide lens for this, at a 14mm-e, which is why the front flowers seem to be reaching forward. The tips of the petals were only a few centimeters from the front element. This was a fun photo to take.