Outdoor Composition Adventures

Sorry that this is a little late, most probably expected it to be earlier... oh well.
Here is my slideshow for this week and I hope you enjoy the pictures I took.  They were all taken outside and a lot of them are mostly white, because snow of course is white, but there is a bit of color in there.

Week 5 Compositional Studies

While I was reading about photo composition, I was amazed to see all that I could do.  One of the biggest things that I thought was interesting was balancing the picture.  I never thought of having to put something on the other side to balance out and gauge the strength of an object to balance it correctly.  It's a kit to work with along with everything else.  Another one was viewpoint, i always knew that viewpoint could be important, but I never think about it enough.  Of course I had never thought of taking a low or high angle shot either, or at least not in a conscious sense.  Having these thoughts in my mind should be able to help me figure things out!  I can see why it is important to take MANY MANY pictures of a subject under different conditions, seeing how easy that is to do with a digital camera.
In photos, aesthetics is important because it is judging whether something is "good or bad" in your own eyes.  If you don't like the pictures you are taking, then try something different that will please you.  Since aesthetics is opinion based it leads to a whole bunch of creativity and ideas being put into photos, which is why there is so much variety between pictures.  That is what I think about that.
One thing I noticed that I learned from filmography is that 3 point lighting does not really seem to be part of anything, most photographers use the shadows produced by one or two lights to create a certain feel , which of course is what makes good pictures.  It is possible that 3 point lightning is only used in things like school photos, but I do not know.  Hmmm... Just a thought.

Josh

Magical Colors

Hello everyone, this week was of course about color pictures!  With the choice of either single color, complimentary color, or contrasting colors, I still had trouble finding things.

Personally, I liked this picture a lot.  It is kinda mysterious, and dark.  It also exemplifies a mono-color setting in which everything is pretty brownish, which may not be exciting, but it has a nice feel to it.  I also like the shadows it casts.  It is really just a window sill and the lock on top of it.  It has a lot of dust on it which adds to the texture and to the photo in my opinion.  Of course, this is an example of my work and preference so as long as I am happy I suppose....  Sorry about the blue reflection, this was my favorite picture, but I didn't manage to get a good one when I got rid of the reflection.

From Digi Photo, Color Light  As for my second picture, I decided to do the contrasting colors.  It isn't PERFECTLY contrasting, but I think that it is enough that I can put it up without Lisa getting too mad.  I like this picture because of the dark red contrasting with the blueish background. From Digi Photo, Color Light Overall, I would say that my color photos aren't the best, but they are alright.  I feel like I could have done a better job on them.  Hopefully next week will be more successful.  I'd love if you looked at my other photos in my Picasa album available at the link beneath the photos.  Feedback is always fun, I just want to show my pictures, even if they don't fit the guidelines. Josh

Lighting Adventure

 Good afternoon all!
In advance, I am sorry to say that there are no cows in these pictures to those who were expecting them. :)
For this special event I ventured outside to search for my pictures, as my previos pictures have been indoors.  The area I used was just around my house, nothing too special for me, but I hope it might be for you!

This first picture I took was in afternoon, around 3:30PM or so.  The light is bright and everything is well illuminated by the sun.  I think it is more overexposure than haze in the picture, but as you can see it was a nice looking day.

From Digi Photo, Color Light This second photo was taken at  8:00AM just before I headed out to work It was a cloudy day so there is little vibrancy to the whole picture, you can also see the haziness in the distance.  This picture certainly improves the clarity of the hills in the background while making the sky a lot less bright. I would say It is a reasonable landscape, but I like the vibrant lighting from the first one a bit more. From Digi Photo, Color Light  My third shot of the landscape was around the same time as the first, but was on the cloudy day.  The big difference between them is how the clouds lit up the sky in the picture and caused it to look a little washed out in sections.  The way the colors blend together make it more difficult to tell the distant hills apart which was one of the nice features of the first two photos.  I also like the warmth that the sun gave to the first picture over the plainness of this third photo. From Digi Photo, Color Light Comparing all three, I an say I like the warmth of the first, but like the exposure level of the second picture the most, as it isn't overexposed.  I could improve upon that by waiting for the sun to set a little longer or taking it from a different angle.

The Cllage of Randomivity

Hello again everyone!
All of the photos in my collage were taken inside as I am not a big fan of cold weather and avoid it when I can.  For another project I may go out to explore what lurks in the cold.
It was fun taking the pictures, that much is for sure. but the hardest part of it was finding something that could actually be used to make a nice close up picture.  Exploring all over my house multiple times (and my workplace) I eventually found subjects that are worthy enough for me.
My personal favorites are the pictures of my mom's Christmas cactus as it also looked as I was looking though branches of a tree, just on a miniature scale.
Also the picture of the sewing machine came out surprisingly nice and I do like that one  too, it has a nice vintage look to it. And as for that top right picture and it's neighbor on the right, the purple one us a picture of a window reflected in a DVD and the one adjacent on the right is looking through a glass Coca Cola cup.
Enjoy the picture!  You can view the full version here

From Collages

Josh

Veggies in the night

Hello everyone!  Here I have a few photos I have taken for the Point of View assignment. You can view more of my photos here on Picasa My target of choice was a large piece of cauliflower, some celery, and a plate of carrots. For both pictures I turned my target as I didn't have a better background to shoot against. The first picture here is a shot from the front of the cauliflower.  There isn't a whole lot of light on it and the low ISO sensitivity makes it looks even darker.  I myself think the shadows add a nice look to the image and the low ISO makes the picture have little grain and have a nice smooth look to it.  I very much like this photo considerably more than the next, but the other one is still alright.

From Digital Photo

Photo number 2 is the same image flipped 180 degrees.  I chose this one because it was still nice looking from behind in that the organization of the veggies looks good.  I don't like the positioning as much as the first picture though, this is because of course I set them up to look nice from the front, not the back..  Also the picture is quite different in the way that it is much brighter and the lighting doesn't have as much of a dark feel to it.

From Digital Photo THOUGH, my favorite pictures were the fun ones I took after taking the first bunch.  Here are 2 examples. From Digital Photo From Digital Photo Hope you enjoyed my photos! Josh

First Week Thoughts

Taking pictures seems like it will be easy to start, but almost impossible to master.  Good camera equipment I'm sure helps take some shots as with a DSLR focusing up on something and snapping the shot just does wonders.  I will have to ask my dad if I can borrow his Nikon D100 (HE HAS 2!!) because I'm sure it would be nice to be able to take nice picture, but also learn more about the nicer features of a nicer camera.
I am a bit nervous on if I will be able to take the kind of pictures that I need to be in this class, but hopefully everything will go alright.
Think that is all, just wanted to speak my mind.

Josh