I’m excited about this week’s experiment.  (I know, aren’t I always?)  I’ve been meaning to go out for a walk with my camera, and I keep putting it off.  This week, ARTchix is giving me a perfect excuse.

On their blog this week, they’re having a photo contest called “What’s Blooming in Your Neighborhood?” (You’ll need to scroll down a bit–the post has quite a few segments, but it’s all lots of fun.)  I’m pretty sure I can get some cool photos near to home.  A couple of years ago, I got this one right in my front yard:

It’s a close up of some Queen Anne’s Lace.

While you’re checking out that blog post, scroll down a bit further and look at the segment on complimentary colors.  I’m going to play around with this some.  I might create a small journal to make several of the sample boards in a variety of color combinations.  It looks useful, but most of all it looks fun!  I’ll probably post some of the results as I go along over at my WordColors blog, if you want to follow along.

After many trials and false starts, I finally got some silhouette shots I like.  Here’s my favorite:

I actually have one other that I like better, but there are power lines showing in it that rather spoil the shot (the hazards of suddenly seeing a great photo setup while in the car and having to take the shot quickly from a traffic light):

The first thing I learned in trying to get a silhouette photo–cats don’t pose.  At least not when you want them to.  I thought a cute kitty silhouette in the window would be perfect for this experiment, but apparently the cute kitty didn’t agree.

The second thing I learned is that rain is not conducive to silhouette shots, but that’s not the most important lesson that came from this experiment. I ended up with some fun and interesting photos, but the best thing that I got from this experiment was a new perspective.

All week I found myself looking at everything around me differently.  I was examining the whole world from the stance of someone looking for silhouette shots.  I found myself noticing edges and outlines everywhere–my shadow on the wall when I’m sitting on the bed with my side lamp on is actually pretty cool looking.  I was noticing shadows and light, colors and hues (deeper colors make better silhouette shots).  This was a fascinating week, and I think I’ve come away with a new appreciation for everything around me, even the normal everyday things. Oh, I also came away with a really great photo that’s going to be a fantastic background for a Halloween project in the fall:

Did anyone else get any cool shots or interesting insights this week?  I hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know what you came up with.

See you Monday with the next experiment kickoff.