How did Shelly do?

Shelly ask in her blogpost an open heart and an open mind: “How did I do, Kristina?” After some consideration I decided to reply with a blogpost 🙂 Suddenly I don’t know where to start; maybe I should start in Sweden, late last August on the Baltic Toy Safari, or should I start in May with the Seattle Toy Safari? Never mind I’ll start by saying I’m impressed with Shelly’s mission to take the opportunity of the safari to have an open mind and an open heart towards whatever happened. I will have to borrow that mission for the next Safari I attend.

When I’m the newest kid on the block, I want to observe to figure out my role in the group. And knowing that, I tend to stand beside or behind other photographers when they’re working. Why? One reason is to find my role in the group another is to learn and try to imaging what the images that the photographer’s are making will look like. I try to see the frame… But as you may know the funny part of standing beside a photographer who’s making a picture, is that you have no idea what the result will look like. In many cases standing beside is a puzzle, you don’t see the frame, the idea, or the picture and that makes it impossible to say if the setting is something I would go with or not.

So when I read Shelly’s post about her version of the story: I hear/see myself sound much like a bully that knows better. And I know that standing besides means that I know less about the frame, the idea, the photo because I don’t see the scene and the photograph isn’t mine. All I can say is: I would do it in another way. That’s what happened when I stood next to Shelly and saw her working with the Chima-piano- picture in the woods amidst the grass and pine needles.

Chima-piano-legography-toy-photography By Shelly Corbett

Standing on Mount Erie made me think of Shelly’s picture “Queen Anne’s Lace” and how I love the wide open background, so I was a bit puzzled about why she had made the choice with the pines in the background. So I asked if the background was supposed to symbolize the music? I don’t remember what I got for reply…

And then I went in (sorry I shouldn’t have done that), and I borrowed the scenery and I tried it in a more minimalistic setting. More like the picture Queen Anne’s lace, that I love from Mount Erie. The result became Shellys picture above, which is great! I see a beautiful scene in a landscape with a soft greenish color behind. I like the perspective of the picture a bit from above, like the camera is looking at the pianist playing in the wild. Amazing.

When I look at Shellys picture I see a story about music and love; how music can change our vision and the way we see the world. I see a great love towards music, nature and these creatures called ‘Chima’. A well told story. Wow.

I used the scene and took a picture of my own… it’s different but almost the same. When I look at my own picture I see almost the same, but it’s not the same, it’s different. The pianist that is in Shelly’s picture is embracing the moment, while the pianist in mine seems to be hiding behind the piano, or from the viewer. In my picture the colors are different, and the perspective is a bit different… my picture is more blue, and more cold. Shelly’s picture is a lot warmer both in colors and in tone, soft and gentle.