Ruby the Clown

 

It was eagle-eyed Beatrice that noticed the nametag of Ruby the Clown in a "My Street Photography" post. She said, "I have to admit that his name tag of “Ruby the Cow” was confusing and amusing." 

Ruby the Clown has brought smiles to the Peachtree Corners Festival for many years, and I photographed him on numerous occasions. It never occurred to me to inspect his nametag. So I asked him about it and he kindle informed me, "It is simply silly."

Well, silliness is part of being a clown. And that is quite apparent if you follow him around a bit.

It can be quite warm out on the street and a cooling station can be just what it takes to make a clown smile.

Besides being silly, Ruby the Clown also instructs. Here on how to make balloon objects.

A balloon sword sure can be fun.

Ruby has all kinds of pets too.

And what does he do with his pet shark? He takes him to swimming lessons, of course.

You never know what he does next! Be sure to look for him at an event near you.

So long!

And a big tip o' the hat to Beatrice for getting this story under way, and to Ruby the Clown for promptly and kindly helping out with the explanation.

[Photos from 2016, 2017, and 2018 appearances at the Peachtree Corners Festival when I was official festival photographer.]

.:. © 2022 Ludwig Keck

A photo from my "NOT USED" folder

 Over at Ludwig.Gallery I have a project running now for over two months with a daily addition to "My Street Photography". This is a collection of photographs from the past dozen years that can be loosely escribed as street photography. I collected the original raw files together, and these are reprocessed with my latest "style" of post-editing. Often there are near duplicates and just one of those gets picked for inclusion in the project. Those near dupes, and others that just didn't make the cut, get dumped into the NOT USED folder. 

Here is one of those photos.

I remember the occasion of this photo well. Some friends and I were roaming around Savannah some nine years ago. A haunting sound of flute music led us to a quite place where this musician was playing happily to an audience of just a few birds. I took a number of photos. This and one other had made it into my review folder for my project. It was the other one that I picked for publication. This one got the boot. Not that it is a bad photo. In fact I like it a lot. Enough to show it and tell you about it here. I tried cropping it, but the results just didn't pan out. The photo needs the context of the surroundings. It works best full-frame, just the way it was taken.

In a way this photo also demonstrates the way Ludwig.Gallery is obscurely situated in a quiet nook of the internet. Only a few close friends know about it and ever go there. Although just a few clicks away, it is out of reach by internet standards. 

.:. © 2022 Ludwig Keck

A Tree Runs Through It

 There are times when I think of myself as a pretty good photographer. It usually doesn't take too long before there is a reality check.

It happened earlier today as I was continuing going through a pile of photos from my archives that I had copied to a folder for my street photography project. The photos I copied had various tags that would make them candidates for this quest.

The photo here came up. I had a good laugh. Urban trees are nice and desirable, even photogenic at times. This was, however, one of those photos only suitable for a "how not to do photography" tutorial.  Before dismissing it out of hand, I decided to pull up the original folder to see if I had corrected my mistake. After all, it seemed that all would have had to do is step forward a few feet, in front of the tree, for a nice urban view. No, I had not. No other photos from near that position.

So here it is in all its non-glory. 

Go ahead, laugh at me, have your chuckle. Then go on over to Ludwig.Gallery to see my developing street photography project.

.:. © 2022 Ludwig Keck

Child's Eye

 ... Oh, not again! I'm supposed to take in the wonders of the world, and what do I get? That pesky photographer! With a parent egging him on, I won't get rid of him for quite a while. 

What is he up to? Will I get featured as a "window" in his Monday Window blog? Will I get into his portrait gallery? Or does he add me to his collection of  "street photography" just because we are outside? 

It might even be worse! Could it be that he is just after a selfie? ...

.:. © 2022 Ludwig Keck

Dreaming Tulip

 How about a little café art? Just for fun and a greeting to all my friends.

.:. © 2022 Ludwig Keck

Spoiled by the background

 We are always admonished to watch the background as we take photos. The famous spoiler, a telephone pole coming out of the head of your subject, is often one of the examples of what to avoid.  Sometimes, however, we just have no control of what is behind the subjects we photograph.

One of my favorite photos has been a scene of dancer at a festival with groups in native costumes from around the world. Unfortunately it was "photo-bombed" by a lamppost in the background. 

I came across the photo again today and that light fixture just overpowers the photo in my opinion. Here it is:

With a little bit of extra time on my hands, I decided that today was the day to retire that obnoxious lamp and the power lines with it.

Just a few minutes in PaintShop Pro and I had this:

Much, much better, don't you agree?

This being one of my "café art" blogs, I could not leave well enough alone and had to take another step. So her my café art interpretation:

. 

.:. © 2022 Ludwig Keck

Dark or Light?

 Most of the time I know pretty well where I want to go with my café art, but occasionally I am at loggerheads with myself. 

That was the case when working on a photoodle from a photo of Jud Shumway performing with his Sawgrass Blues Band at Night Music at Town Center, Peachtree Corners, on July 10, 2021. 

I just couldn't make up my mind whether to go dark or light. There are twenty versions in my folder of this photo manipulation session. I have worked on it, off and on, for several weeks. 

Here are the two finalists, you can decide for yourself which one you like. 

.:. © 2021 Ludwig Keck