Orange flowers viewed from below

It’s funny how looking up at something can change the way it looks.  The paths of Renaissance park have many elevations.  Some of them run parallel to one another in what is an accidental switch-back.  The effect is that, in one direction, you look up a small slope that leads to a flat area where plantings line the sidewalk above–you’re looking up at the same flowers you look down on when on the other walkway.

Even the volcano (as some call it) or the sledding hill (as I usually call it) is elevated so that the lower sides of the slopes seem more prominent and obvious.

This effect reminds me of what happens when I think I’ve cleaned the house (yes, that is something I’ve done on occasion).  I walk around looking at every surface glowing and I, in turn, glow with pride.  Then, inevitably, I trip on something and end up on the floor where I am suddenly looking up at the same surfaces.  They just never look clean from the other direction.  The vertical surfaces I thought were spotless suddenly reveal just how dirty they are when I find myself looking up from the floor.

Evening primrose climbing up a slope

Fortunately, not too many of our guests lay on the floor.

This is not to imply that looking up the slopes revealed dirt.  Rather, it just called my attention to some things I hadn’t really taken in completely before.  The collection of primrose at the base of the tree basking in the sunlight seemed to be standing at attention from this angle.  The bright orange flowers among the grass appeared from no where–I can’t recall having seen them before.  Even the sledding hill with its abandoned cardboard sleds seemed somehow more appealing than usual–and far taller.

Inspired by the new view, I decided to get bold and attempt to shoot a sculpture I have yet to capture an image of that I like enough to share.  Every time I shoot it, I think it looks really cool when I’m standing there and then deleted the image when I got home.

The sledding hill shot from below

I noticed the evening sun was creeping towards the horizon behind the sculpture.  I thought I would try to get a sot of the sun sitting on top of it.  This might have been a good time to use HDR with a tripod.  However, I winged it.

Sometimes an image that really sucks makes for a lot of fun when playing with the possible ways to adjust it in Aperture.  The curves feature is especially fun.  It can turn an image into something completely different.  This was my favorite image of the various takes and edits.  I’m not thinking I’ll be hanging it on the wall, but I like how the completely blown out sun turned gray when I used the recovery tool, with its rays shooting over the top of the sculpture.  But then again, I’m easily amused.

A sculpture I have yet to capture a decent image of, but had fun playing with this