Landscapes

I did some extra research on landscape photography to find more tips about how to take landscape photos. I found it a bit difficult to come up with ideas about what to photograph but I think I may have gotten a few shots. I did find that it was very hazy today when I went out to photograph and I was really bummed that all of my scenery shots seem out of focus because of the haze.

One tip I found was to find a focal point and to think about where you place the focal point in the frame. As I was coming back off the mountain I hiked today, I found this one lone birch among all the other darker trees. I couldn't help but keep thinking, "Why be the same when you can be beautiful?"

Another tip was to use the Golden Hours to shoot during. This are the hours right around dawn and dusk. I traveled around like crazy, using about a 1/4 tank of gas chasing the sunset. This one turned out a bit darker than I would've like.

This one caught my eye because of the color and lighting. I also captured it because last week I had read about how pictures are more interesting when the subject is odd in number. So these trees had the odd number factor down.

I like the following photo because of the quilt like pattern of the fields. It took a bit of editing to try to fix the colors and hide the haze but it was still an interesting photo.

Another tip was to capture movement. The first place I stopped to take photos was this little waterfall that I pass by on the way to pick up my son from school. I would've liked to get a better angle without the leaves in the way but that would've meant traveling onto someone else's property. So this was the best angle I could get out of many attempts.

This was quite a challenging assignment this week. I left my house around 3:00 and got back about 8:30. I hiked a mountain, traveled through at least 7 towns, went to the now empty lot of land that I grew up on, and got lost chasing the sunset! But it was a great day getting out into nature and having some photos to share.

Backgrounds

I decided to focus on how to get better backgrounds in photos. I feel that backgrounds can really make or break a photo. I found this great article about how to capture better backgrounds here http://digital-photography-school.com/getting-backgrounds-right/

Some basic ideas of getting better backgrounds are:
1) Look at the background before you even take the picture. It seems simple but you really need to look at the whole picture before taking it to see if there are any disturbances behind your subject.
2) You can use your camera's settings to create a blurred background which will help focus on your subject instead of anything behind it.
3) If you have a photo that has problems in the background, you may be able to use a photo editing program to fix the issue after. I did this with a photo I took of a horse because there was a branch in the way.

4) You may need to change how you are taking the picture if there is something in the background. You could try changing the angle of the camera, moving your subject, or filling the frame with more of your subject. 

5) Use a background that is off in the distance rather than closer if you want to keep the focus on your subject.

I also found this article to be useful in looking for things to avoid http://www.beyondmegapixels.com/2012/05/composition-background/

Some things to be careful about in the background:
1) Items looking as though they are coming out of your subject (like a tree growing from a head).
2) Making sure that the background doesn't clash with the feel of your photo. If you are trying to take photos of a rustic themed wedding, you wouldn't want to take a picture with the DJ stand in the background.
3) Make sure there are not busy distractions in the background. I love this photo of my son and his friend holding hands at their preschool graduation but the ball and toy kitchen in the back really are ugly in the photo.

I think the biggest key is to really look at the whole picture (great words to consider with anything) and if there are distractions, try to eliminate them. Sometimes we don't have the option of eliminating the distractions and hopefully we can learn more about photo editing to help correct those issues.

Framing

This week we looked at framing a subject for a photo. This is to use the surrounding image to draw the viewer's eye and attention to the main subject that is within the "frame."

This is one of the horse that I have been trying to capture with my camera. I thought that the bushes just in front helped add a bottom frame while the darker trees added a top frame. I did turn the photo to black and white and added a vignette for a different effect.

I started out trying to use two trees as a frame for my daughter on a swing but I liked how the ropes of the swing actually act like a frame for this photo while being able to get in close enough to see her.

Of course my youngest wanted his photo taken as well so I thought we would use the play structure at Grammy's to focus in on him.

My parents have an apple tree that has naturally curved over creating this tunnel/passageway. It found it very tricky to work with this framing technique because I am use to zooming in to really focus on my subject. In my opinion, you can't really see the children well but I really liked the archway that the tree formed. If I had zoomed in anymore to get a better look at them, I would've lost the frame effect though.

I decided to go back to the covered bridge and take some photos looking out the diamond shaped windows. I chose this one in particular because there are a couple layers of wood and while the interior of the bridge remains dark, it makes the natural light of the scene outside pop more. 

Rule of Thirds

 Well, I'm not 100% happy with this photo but it does show the idea of the rule of thirds. I pass these horses on the way to my parents house on the weekends but since I have been wanting to photograph them, they have not been out. I would've preferred if this horse didn't have the mask over their eyes but as they are not my animals, I couldn't do anything about that. The picture on the left is using the Rule of Thirds and adds a little interest because it looks as though the horse is peeking around the bush, which was exactly what he was doing. He must've heard my camera because it caught his interest. When I cropped in on the photo to center the horse, you can see the horse clearer but you lose the aspect of him hiding behind the bush.

We took the kiddos camping this week. A man who worked at the campground said that he sees a doe and her fawn in this field quite often. My son and I went up to go wait and see if the deer would come out. While waiting I snapped a couple pictures of him. The one on the left is using the Rule of Thirds which I think works better in this case because you can see the huge open field to his left where we were waiting for the deer. While the picture of him centered is cute, it doesn't tell anything about what we were doing or where we were.

These photos of my daughter are the same concept of the ones of my son. We had gone back up to the field to check again and I decided to take a quick moment to take the photos. I think I actually like the centered one better in this case because the path by the field actually interrupts the background scene. The light was being a little tricky and once the bee buzzed by her, there was no more chance of this photo op!

Color Schemes

I found this week's assignment about color schemes to be more difficult to photograph than I was expecting. While I understood the concept of each color scheme, monochrome, analogous, and complementary, I struggled to find photo opportunities to express the schemes.

Analogous:
My first thought was to gather some of my son's fuzzy friends to take a photo op. He absolutely loves his stuffed animals and while I probably could've used stuffed animals to show each color scheme, I thought this small sample of browns and tans would work well against the wooden stairs and white wall.

Monochrome:

I had started with the stuffed animals thinking it would look more monochrome because it would all just be shades of brown but with such a variety in the hues I didn't feel it fit. So I thought of another monochrome picture. My new to me white car against my white apartment building. 

Complementary:

I found it actually difficult to find two colors opposite of the color wheel but placed together. Sure, photos of flowers probably would've worked wonderfully but with all the rain, all the flowers in my yard have disappeared. I started wandering through the house and found this finger painting my daughter made a while ago. It is red flowers sitting on some greenery.

I still couldn't help but try to find some color outside. The only color of plant I could find was the red leaves against the green background. The red isn't as bright as I would've liked for this photo but I am fond of this photo for some reason. I think it may be the rain drops lingering on the leaves considering I had to zoom in quite a bit because I took this photo off a small bridge and this was quite a bit in front of me.

As I came back in, I realized that the candles that I have set up in my dining room would fit this color scheme because they are opposite on the color wheel even though they still have the same tone to them.

Lighting (or lack there of)

So it has been crazy rainy at my house which made it very difficult to get outside to take photos. I wanted to play with the sun and the shadows more but that just hasn't been Mother Nature's plan. I did manage to sneak outside with my daughter in between rain clouds to take some photos but it was a very overcast day. Still I managed to try some different settings on my camera...

1) This is the auto setting, outside, without a flash.

2) Auto, outside, no flash, different angle

3) This is the cloudy setting with no flash

4) This is the cloudy setting with the flash.

There is really no difference between photos 3 & 4 with or without the flash. They both look much dimmer than the auto setting. I also tried using the daylight setting on my camera but it still didn't seem to do much.

5) Daylight setting with flash

The we decided to head inside. We took some photos at the front door.

6) This is her facing the window.

7) This is the auto setting with the flash. 

8) This is with the window behind her.

 Number 7 adds a little too much light while Number 8 leaves her face in the dark. So we went into the dining room to play with the lamp. The lamp had no shade and had an incandescent light bulb.

9) This is the dining room's overhead light and the camera's flash.

10) This was my camera's setting for indoor incandescent light.

I couldn't believe how dark the alternative settings were turning out with my camera such as in 10.

11) This was auto setting, with flash, and a lamp to the left of her.

12) This had the same settings, just a different angle.

I like how the angle of number 12 took away the shadows. Part of that would be the way she titled her head up as well. 

13) I put the lamp on the floor and pushed it back to the wall.

14) I held the lamp up above her head (which makes it
difficult to take a photo one handed).

Number 14 does increase the features of her face. There is more of a cleft to her chin and you can see her dimples and the curves of her face better. But my favorite photo is ...

15) The lamp is on the floor on her right side but pulled slightly in front of her (about a foot or two). I went to her left side to take the photo, capturing the silhouette on the wall. I think this shot also highlights her facial features (her cheekbones, her upturned nose). I may have to play with this technique a little more.

I did crop photos but I did not use any editing techniques to tweak how the lighting was captured. I have to play with the lighting more so I will be more comfortable to explore off auto setting.

Same photos, scrambled collage

My Close Up Collage

These are some of the photos I took close up. Most were done with the macro function on my camera but the lilac was done in auto mode. I particularly like the hornets nest because that is actually up about two stories and I was wondering how well my camera would do by zooming in. It turned out pretty decent so I included it.

Here are the images in a larger size.