22 March 2009

Rainbows and Polar Bears

I don't pretend to be much of a photographer, at all. I take pictures, when I remember. I use either the camera in my cellphone, or a little Elph, and I just point and shoot and hope for the best. I do crop from time to time - in Preview if I'm lazy, in Photoshop if I can wait for it to load. But that's it - I can't be bothered to futz with color or exposure or Gaussian blur.

Last month, on a school break, we went to the Bronx Zoo. And the polar bear wandered around his enclosure, and I took this weird picture with my phone. And I can't say why, but I kind of love it. I liked it on the phone, and I liked it still when I finally downloaded in to the computer. There's a rainbow effect lighting the polar bear from the upper left and it just seems painterly and unreal to me.


Polar bear. Uncropped, unretouched.

36 comments:

  1. I thought it was a painting--very cool.

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  2. that is really really cool

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  3. Anonymous6:11 AM

    THAT is a great shot!

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  4. Beautiful...and sad all at the same time.

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  5. You've got to enter that in some sort of contest. It's gorgeous. What a good eye you have.

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  6. It's so dreamy...reminds me of the movie Legend and the lighting they used throughout.

    Shade and Sweetwater,
    K

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  7. Lovely! It's like music in a minor key; all soft and sort of sad.

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  8. It's very J.M.W. Turner!

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  9. Anonymous11:47 AM

    I was thinking of Turner, too.

    We were disappointed that there was no polar bear the last time we visited Roger Williams Zoo. Don't know what happened to it, but it was the star attraction on our previous stop.

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  10. It looks like an illustration! Very nice!

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  11. are you kidding? that is an amazing photo. Seriously.

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  12. Wicked cool, M. Love that picture.

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  13. that rainbow is WICKED!!!

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  14. That is awesome! What a capture.

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  15. Looks like a movie poster to me. Nice one.

    I LOVE the Bronx Zoo, I grew up about 10 minutes from the Zoo and the Botanical Gardens. Wednesdays used to be free, and my dad used to take Wednesdays off, so we went there a lot. It's a lot more tarted up these days, but it's still a great zoo!

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  16. I hadn't realized how much I miss the Bronx Zoo. This photo looks so wistful.

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  17. I thought that was an illustration when I clicked in. Cool.

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  18. From "across the pond". . . how the beeping hell did you achieve that without trying?????? HELLO!!!??????? x x

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  19. Polar bear farts rainbows.

    Oh i just had to go and bring it down to bodily humor. I'm sorry. :)

    It IS a very cool picture, i thought it was a painting at first.

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  20. That's a Grace in Small Things post if ever there was one, no?

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  21. NO way. That's not real. That totally does not look like a picture. I kept waiting for the punchline.

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  22. That needs an inspirational quotation and a big black border. You could make posters and make lots of moolah.

    Seriously though - it's a cool picture.

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  23. What a cool picture! I can't believe it was taken from a cell phone!

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  24. i think it's fantastic! it looks magical for some reason.

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  25. Wow. Completely looks like a painting. Super cool photo.

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  26. Very nice. It *does* look like a painting.

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  27. It reminds of sci-fi/fantasy art, like there should be some buff guy in animal skins entering the scene any second.

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  28. Yep...cool picture!

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  29. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

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  30. Yeah, it is really cool.

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  31. Definitely has that painted look. It's lovely.

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  32. love it. it's like a turner.

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  33. Very cool shot, especially with a camera phone!

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  34. That IS cool. What a great shot!

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