I went out to the Minnesota State Fair Grounds today with Carol Anne. She and I were attendees of Chris Marquart’s Learning To See Workshop. We were working on the Challenge: Negative Space. This is her daughter Sarah.

One of the interesting things about these gray Minnesota days is that the local color of objects is much more saturated than you’d think. Without the harsh dynamic range of a sunny day, you can get some great colors on digital. This wall of green on the side of the Butterfly house caught my eye, since it matches the current color scheme of mitchster.com. It was great to have Carol Anne and her daughters with me, Sarah is a great model. This green wall would never work without a subject. I like images like this because they remind me of Mark Rothko’s paintings — it looks like a very simple abstract image, but there are little details that give it character like the dent in the wall and the patchy grass. Even Sarah’s akimbo stance adds tension to the otherwise static image.

Just a quick note, this photo won the Tips From The Top Floor Two-Week Photo Challenge! Thanks to all those who voted on and participated in the challenge titled Negative Space. The new Two-Week Challenge was just published. As the winner of the last challenge, I got to choose the the next one — Contrast.