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Tag Archives: Alma
My Work is Changing

Under the Windswept Sky
Windy Ridge, Near Alma, Colorado, 2016
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
- Lao Tzu
My work is changing.
I didn’t really notice it myself until a friend pointed it out, but now I can see that my recent work looks different than my earlier work, at least to my (and my friend’s) eye. It’s not a sudden break or dramatic shift from what I’ve done before, but more like a gradual change over time that you don’t notice while it’s happening but only after you’ve come a way and look back at where you were.
I can’t quite put my finger on what has changed. I will say that I’ve become more aware of the emotional communication of what I make. When I started in photography, the most direct way I connected with the work I was producing was in terms of its visual communication. The message of the image was communicated primarily by my manipulation of visual elements such as lines and forms, brightness and contrast, etc.
I think I still work this way on a conscious level, but now I think I also am aware of what the image makes me feel like when I’m done with it. Sometimes this feeling simply is what I was feeling when I captured the image in the field, and sometimes it is what I was feeling when I edited the image after capture, which can be quite different. The point is that mere manipulation of visual elements is not enough, there has to be emotional content to the image as well. Perhaps this always has been the case, and I simply now am more conscious of it than I used to be.
I’m very aware that I could have edited this image differently, to make it look perhaps more “pretty.” But, without getting specific about it, I will say this edit more accurately reflects what I was feeling at the time I did the editing.
Small Differences

Two Dancers
Windy Ridge, Near Alma, Colorado, 2015
I can’t count how many times I came close to tossing this image into the trash can. It sat on my desk for months, never looking quite right to my eye. Several times I picked it up with the intention of discarding it, but something always held me back. There always was a nagging little voice telling me that there was something solid here, something worth keeping, even if I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at any given time.
Then one day, I discovered what my hangup was. I really liked looking at the image from a distance, but not so much up close. I realized that what I liked about the image was the forms and the lines of the trees and the distant mountains, but not the texture of the grasses and the bark. When viewed from a distance, the forms and lines dominated the composition, which was why I liked it. When viewed close up, the grass and bark textures were really noticeable, which is why I didn’t like it.
So, I used various tools in Photoshop (the dodge and burn tools, several curves layers with the effects selectively painted in on layer masks) to reduce the contrast in the grass and bark, mostly by burning down the highlights and midtones so that the overall tones mellowed out into a shadowy evenness. Then, I slightly upped the global contrast in the image, which further emphasized the lines and forms of the trees and mountains as compared to the background sky.
You can see the prior version – the one that sat on my desk for months – below. The differences are small, but to me are what made this image a keeper versus one that ended up in the trash.
Posted in Uncategorized
Also tagged 2015, Colorado, mellowed out, Misha Gregory Macaw, Small Differences, Two Dancers, Windy Ridge, www.mishagregorymacaw.com
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Breaking My Own Rules

Prophet Tree
Windy Ridge, Near Alma, Colorado, 2015
Not two weeks ago, I wrote a post describing how I generally prefer to use bland, non-creative titles for my images.
Well, just to prove myself a liar, here is an image I’m calling “Prophet Tree.” I put it in the category of suggestive and creative titles because, of course, the tree is not literally a prophet – you have to use your imagination a little bit to make that connection. But, I just couldn’t help myself. When I was working on this image, I simply could not get the picture of the figure of a biblical or mythological prophet out of my mind.
Oh well. If anyone is going to prove me a liar, I suppose it may as well be me.
Posted in Uncategorized
Also tagged 2015, Breaking My Own Rules, Colorado, Liar, Misha Gregory Macaw, Prophet Tree, Windy Ridge, www.mishagregorymacaw.com
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Grazie

Companions
Windy Ridge, Near Alma, Colorado, 2015
Every now and then, I feel like I should take a moment to say thank you to the people who have shown an interest in my photography. I don’t really spend a lot of time on self-promotion of myself or my work, so when people express an interest in it – people who don’t owe me anything and don’t get any benefit other than my gratitude – it means a lot. If you’ve purchased a print of mine, grazie. If you’ve sent me a kind word, grazie. If you’ve helped me with my photography skills or artistic growth, grazie. If you’ve visited my website or looked at the work I post online from time to time, grazie.
The image in this post is one that I made this summer, and I had a request from the person I was with to bump it up to the front of the line of images I have lined up to post. I’m happy to do so to say thanks to that person, and to have it stand in as a kind of symbolic grazie to everyone else who’s lent me encouragement in my photography these last few years.
Posted in Uncategorized
Also tagged 2015, Colorado, Companions, Grazie, Misha Gregory Macaw, Windy Ridge Bristlecone Pine Scenic Area, www.mishagregorymacaw.com
2 Comments