10/27/10

Photographing flowers.

Flowers are another very popular subject in popular photography, and quite addicting, actually. There are just a couple of easy-to-remember tricks to get some very nice shots even if you (like me) don't have a macro lens. (To clarify: these are in no way macro pictures, but try getting even relatively close to a flower with basics settings and you'll see what I mean)

I arrived at this first picture just before sunset, although clearly you would not know that by looking at it because the flash had a mind to pop itself up at the last second.

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So, here's what you do. Select the camera mode symbolized by a flower (easy to remember, see?); depending on your camera, it will be located on the little wheel, or inside a menu, or maybe you have a ninety-thousand-dollar camera and there is no flower option because you are a genius.

So, select flower mode. It allows you to focus at a closer range than you normally could in other modes (without a macro lens). When you focus, it's possible the on-board flash will pop up automatically to aid exposure (unless you threw down money on a big-time separate flash); if it doesn't, click it up anyway. It will accomplish a couple of things:

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It will allow the flower to show up brilliantly, even though you are likely in sunlight - it doesn't hurt a thing. It will also likely render the background dark, if not almost black, creating a very nice effect that, in photo editing, requires lots of layering and masking otherwise.

The flash also allows a quick shutter speed, which freezes the flower if there's a slight breeze and allows for a nice, sharp photo. Really, you can't go wrong!

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Go practice!

10/19/10

A walk in the park.

This summer I walked the 1.4-mile lake trail at a local park taking photos, and was very excited to return in autumn. Visions of tree-lined lanes drenched in color danced in my head. Alas, as I've mentioned, this year the color just isn't what it usually is; but, I went back anyway, and made the best of it.

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Knowing what to focus on, and how to eliminate the unnecessary, is obviously the most important aspect of making a photo shoot work under less-than-desirable conditions. There were likely as many dull green or already dying trees as there were choice ones, but there's no rule saying I had to give them my attention!

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And once I got past the initial desire to find that perfect autumn vista, I saw plenty of other colors and shapes along the trail.

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There was a wisp of a wind so I didn't get all the many reflection pictures I was dreaming of, since the lake was far from placid, but there were other things to see staring back from the water.

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What's really nice is there's still enough color this year for the Photoshop-happy among you to be able to take a breather for a few weeks. Go ahead. Let a photo speak for itself. :-)

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10/18/10

Saddest story ever.

In kindergarten, our field trip was to - where else? - the city zoo. I had a toy camera that came preloaded with pictures of zoo animals, and when I clicked the "shutter" it would flip to a different picture.

Well, being a kindergartener, I wanted to take this camera on the field trip and capture the lions and tigers and bears. My mom, as I recall, seemed really annoyed whenever I badgered her for permission to do this, but she finally relented.

So, we got to the zoo and I stood before the zebras or camels and click! And the picture wasn't what I was looking at...it was of some hairy monkey or something. I was frustrated. You mean this camera won't take new pictures?

I was as devastated as a young tyke can be. I wondered again and again, why didn't Mommy tell me this would happen? Why didn't she let me take a real camera?

Well, I know why she didn't let me take a real camera, and I'm pretty sure if I asked her today why she didn't explain the situation, she would say she did. So that's a lost cause.

But I will always remember (of course) the intense feeling of disappointment and sadness that my favorite toy camera had utterly let me down.

And then! My best friend randomly decided to eat lunch with some other chick, so I sat in the grass and ate all by myself. I tried not to be sad. I tried.

Sigh. C'est la vie.

10/17/10

Seasons change.

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"Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature's delight." ~ Marcus Aurelius

Some time ago - what feels like so long ago now - I wrote a very short story about a young girl in Renaissance Spain who was dealing with the move she and her father were about to make. She took a walk with the old village friar and voiced her concerns.

“I don’t want to leave.” I slipped my hand into his, which was rough with age; a hand that with its companion had spent much time lifted in offering or clenched in prayer. “I love my home.”

“Yes, our village, our Colina Verde, is worthy of much love.”

Nestled atop a paradise of Spanish hills, Colina Verde was my world. How could the town to which my father and I were returning—his native town, the premio de la reina—possibly know such perfection of light in the crest of dawn, or speak to the exquisite, half-imagined dangers of the dense forest below? Would ivy drape like plaits against cool stone walls; would the women allow me to scatter yellow narcissus petals across the chapel pathway?

“I don’t want to leave,” I whispered, and my ebony hair caught the wind, and spilled over my shoulder.

10/9/10

The parks revisited.

So, fall is...kinda here...now? In a way?

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Fortunately the work week will prevent me from posting a highly repetitive series of fall foliage photographs. Maybe.

10/8/10

Making a better sunset.

Sunset photographs are clearly among the most popular in "popular" photography today. And this summer, as I was dreaming of capturing sunset after gorgeous sunset, we for some reason had the most boring, colorless evening times in recent memory. The sky started out blue and ended navy. No pinks, no corals, no purples, reds, oranges, greens, nothing!

So this picture from around the beginning of May was kind of a miracle.

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Of course, that's just until I tell you that the image was doctored (if your eagle eye couldn't already tell) by seriously upping the saturation. This was a sunset that had me careening home, racing for my camera, hurtling back to the car, and careening to a good scenic spot. The clouds were amazing (a storm was near), the sun was spreading corpuscular rays (yup, that's what they're called!), and I had a pretty unobstructed view. And alas, this is truly what it looked like:

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So, the next time you see a magnificent sunrise or sunset, just remember....there's a chance it didn't really look like that. ;-)

Interesting fact: the sun no longer sets in this spot. You may recall from some distant science lesson that as the earth revolves around the sun, the sun's position in the sky literally changes horizontally. It will eventually travel back as the earth completes its revolution. What's sad is that as the sunsets become more colorful with fall and winter, I won't be able to photograph them in this particular spot. Crazy and sad. Think about that the next time you decide to visit your favorite photographic spot six months later!

10/7/10

Just barely.

Don't be fooled. The trees here are taking their sweet time changing colors. Today I practiced on the three trees near my job that got the memo that it's fall, in preparation for what I can only pray will be worthwhile shoots later on this month.

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One trick I've learned for getting a searing blue sky is to photograph away from the sun. It sounds a lot like common sense, huh? But sometimes we abandon that when focusing on so many other things.

I'm so happy with my camera! I love what it does.

Now...time to pray for awesome fall color and not just summer-burned disappointment.

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