Beautiful Things

Santa Monica, California
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.”
– Helen Keller

Be as Resilient as a Dandelion

I've always loved dandelions despite how everyone else feels about them. People always told me that I couldn’t make a dandelion look good because, “It's just a weed.” So the challenge began by searching and finding the fullest most attractive dandelion and then taking a stunning picture of it. I love how these resilient “flowers” blow in the wind and yet keep coming back time and time again. It’s an elegant metaphor to keep your dreams alive. At times it may feel like they have been destroyed, but there is always hope that a seed of your vision settled in the ground somewhere else and is growing again, stronger and even more beautiful than you imagined.

Never Again

Auschwitz, Poland
“Never Again.”

Use What You Have

A friend of mine gave me a greenish, yellow rose. I thought the color was unusual and wanted to photograph it. I don’t have a studio, but at the time, I had a treadmill that sat next to my sliding glass window/door. Every afternoon during the summer, the sun came through and heated my apartment like a greenhouse. I had to close my blinds to keep my room cool. This day, I didn’t close them all the way so I could have some light coming through. The sun peeked through the slits of the blinds and made a natural spotlight for the rose. I put the rose in a bud vase, placed it in the light on the black strap of the treadmill, and took a few pictures. When I saw the pictures in the viewfinder of the camera, I noticed my stuff distracting me from the subject. I don’t have a black backdrop, but I do have a black wool cape hanging in my closet. I draped the cape over my table hiding everything underneath to create a clean backdrop for the rose. Success! No more distractions behind my beautiful subject.

Royalty

Sometimes they’re just waiting for you to take their picture… A staged pose isn’t always necessary in photography. In the spring of 2007, I visited Jerusalem, Israel. Our group was special, in that we were able to go behind the Western Wall to sit and pray. As we were walking around The Wall, my friend spotted this cat. It was almost as if he was posing just for me. I knew this gift may not last forever, so I quickly took the picture. Don’t let anyone tell you a photo that isn’t professionally staged is amateur. A good photo can be taken in any natural setting in the blink of an eye. See it, frame it, take it and you just may be surprised at who’s posing for you.

Beauty

Kenya, Africa
“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
– Confucius

What Do You See?

A friend of mine bought a print of this yellow orchid because she saw a bird ready to fly. Now, whenever I look at this photograph and its sister photograph cropped more closely, I see that bird about to fly. Recently she told me her grandchildren saw a man in the photograph and they had a long and interesting discussion about what they saw in it. How wonderful! It’s like seeing shapes in clouds, only the image isn’t moving across the sky. You can revisit the same image months or even years later and see something new every time you look. Watch closely and you will see something new you never noticed before.

Power

Kenya, Africa
“The power that created you, heals you.”
– Anonymous

The View from Above

Mauna Kea, Hawaii
“You must scale the mountain if you would view the plain.”
– Chinese Proverb

Heart

Santa Monica, California
“The heart does not label or manipulate, it just allows.”
– Stephen Levine

Jerusalem, Israel

Jerusalem, Israel

“The really happy man is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.”

– Anonymous

The following story is not in the book.

In July 2007 I went on a bus tour of Poland and Israel. I've taken many bus tours of various cities around the world and found that I usually like to sit in the front of the bus so I can see everything the driver sees. As we were driving over a bridge into Jerusalem, I saw the sunset and quickly snapped this picture. I'm glad my camera was on auto at the time since there was no time to fuss with settings. I was lucky we had a good driver, who kept the bus steady, because I was standing in the aisle and anything could have happened. I was also lucky to have pressed the shutter at the right time or else I would have missed the shot since the end of the bridge was fast approaching.

You'll see some other pictures from Poland in the book, or check out my website: DebraRubyPhotography.com. If there is a picture you want to know the story, please let me know and I’ll write about it on the blog.

Email: rubypics@aol.com or debrarubyphotography@gmail.com

Website: www.DebraRubyPhotography.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DebraRubyPhoto

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/debra-ruby/11/25/186