People

Last week I decided to do a week of people. I managed to shoot 5 people, one dog and some markers.

This week I am going to do all outdoor shots.

I found my Kelby book and am reading it again.

I've noticed my pictures seem much less sharp then they need to be, and often with a lot of noise. I remember, at some point in the last year, thinking that this camera body would suffice for a good long while, not really feeling its limitations. My biggest complaint is the noise in low light situations (which I am shooting more of in an effort to own them).  I am using 2 pictures as an example,  but I also want to say that I think noise CAN compliment a photo-  I don't hate the effect of it in this example,  but I'd rather it was always intentional.

It's a bit inconsistent though. Take this shot of Rob's hands:

The black isn't really black and  there's a lot of noise.  It was shot at ISO 200, 1/50, f/5.6.  I did lighten it a bit, applied a gradient map, and did a slight crop.

Then here's Lucy:

Now this was also shot at ISO 200, 1/50, f/5.6.  This is straight out of the camera without editing.  much crisper.  Much more black.  She was closer to the light source.

So,  yeah.  I need to operate what I've got with greater consistency in low light,  but I'd also someday like to have a camera that handles these lighting situations with less fuss.

Grrr...

I seem to have lost my Kelby book. Grrrr...

I have decided to focus on people for a week of my x365s.

What should I do next week? Here's my list:

vehicles
broken
circles
wet
food
out of place
symmetrical
hot
cold

You'll notice people isn't even on it- but I'd gone about 2 weeks without a person shot. Inanimate things require less of an investment. Especially when I'm not planning anything and am looking around in the evening for something to make interesting. Like spoons. Ahem.

Summer?

I forgot that I wanted to do an evening shot tonight,  and when I remembered I didn't want to shoot anything.  Poor planning.

So,  entirely uninspired I grabbed the mini-mums I'd picked up earlier in the week and had already shot once.  The flowers are boring and I'd already taken one picture of them... but I felt like my choices were the flowers or an egg.

Here's what they look like sitting in the middle of my gross kitchen floor:

And this is my photo of the day from 2 days ago:

So, tonight I blew it out with no flash and got a shot that screams summer to me.  I love summer:

Tomorrow is Monday and I'm going to pick a week long topic to focus on... topic: TBA

Container List

...well,  it's not a bucket list,  but I've been thinking about project topics...
Here's what I've got:


vehicles
broken
circles
wet
food
out of place
symmetrical
hot
cold

Now...  where to begin? 

The Beach

I can only go so long without a visit to the ocean.


Times up.

Update: Capturing

One of my 2010 words is "capturing," and part of that is to engage more in the online photo community. Over the past 12 days I've made efforts to sink more deeply into the communities on Flickr.  I've joined new groups and have expanded my contacts and been more active in leaving comments and checking out what's been happening.  It's fun!

At it's best, Flickr provides an opportunity for photographers and aspiring photographers to hang out together and "talk" about what they are trying to accomplish and share their efforts.  It's like a meet-up where people can show their work and give and get critiques, support and encouragement.  It's also an opportunity to soak in the images of other folks, to learn from them, and immerse in the passion of people who want to learn and grow and share. The best part is that everyone I've "met" so far has been positive-  which isn't to say they aren't offering suggestions and opinions,  but they do it in a helpful respectful manner.

And that's why I love Flickr.

Lighting: a quarter of an experiment

Earlier in the week I wrote about some lighting experimentation that I did.  I have zero lighting equipment and used regular room lighting, a white reflector, and one of these silver clamp lights with a CFL (which has a color temperature of 3000).  How and why the 3000 is relevant I am not sure,  because the only information I can find indicates that it creates a spectrum of light which contain both more orange and more blue.  So yeah,  try correcting that.

Ok so looking at this picture of Clay that I took the other night  (untouched): 

1/50,  f/4.8, white balance set to white flourescent

I did not have time to play with the settings because,  well,  let's not go there.  Suffices to say I could not take the shot with a variety of white balance adjustments.  Having thought about and read a little I expect a "cool white" setting might have balanced out the green cast.  Hard tellin' not knowin'.

I kind of like the shadows in this shot,  but with more time I'd have liked to go for uniform soft lighting, too.  I wonder if I'd used 2 of the clamp lights (1 on each side) and reflected light from the front if that would have done it.  I also would've liked to have tried fill flash with the compensation notched down.  And,  thanks to a Flickr friend,  it's now impossible to get past the blue cast on his left eye.  So I like this one:

So,  that's all I've got to say about that (in my best Forrest Gump voice).