photography
For August 2012, I decided to do a project containing close up and macro shots for a month. On most days, I did go out and take the photo. My goal was to improve my creativity and technique in the area of macro photography. Below are the photos that I received the most feedback from.
My CLOSER project on Google+ | Flickr | Facebook
–
Check out my About.Me page for my complete web presence
This is a summary of the photos I posted for my 2011 365 Project from 10/9 through 10/15.
Sunday, 10/9 - I went by my brother's auto shop yesterday. I always like photographing the property around it. My dad was cleaning the property and decided to stack all the blocks he found in one spot. At least that's what he told me when I asked why there was a stack of cinder blocks in the middle of the property.
--
Monday, 10/10 - This is my brother's dog Ditto. She says Hello.
Tuesday, 10/11 - Took this on my daily walk. The field was just covered in them. Used the Snapseed app for post work.
Wednesday, 10/12 - This is an edit of a photo I took some time ago. Playing around with Silver Efex Pro, I applied a Sepia filter and gave it a vignette.
--
Thursday, 10/13 - Took this right down the street from my house. I love taking photos of barbed wire...I do not know why.
Friday, 10/14 - Took this at our local Pumpkin Patch (Saint Andrews Episcopal Church). Halloween is getting close!
Saturday, 10/15 - I went driving around this morning and ended up at the Farmers Market at Imperial in Sugarland, TX. I roamed through the market and all around the abandoned factory. I noticed there was a part of the old building you could walk up to. There was a window that had a break in it just above my head. I was able to focus on what was inside and use HDR to bring out the detail. This is my personal favorite shot of the day. :-)
--
Happy Shooting!
"A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into." -Ansel Adams
Find me on: RedBubble | Flickr | 500px | Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Zenfolio
A few weeks ago I drove Highway 87 from High Island to the Bolivar Ferry, spanning the length of Bolivar Peninsula. I actually did this two Saturdays in a row because there is so much to see on this stretch of road. I am sure I could take about one or two more drives and still find something new to photograph. There were several places to stop and explore, hence me calling it a photo walk.
It is really great to see the Bolivar Peninsula coming back to normalcy after being devastated by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
The rest of my Bolivar Peninsula photos can be found in my Flickr Set and Goggle+ Album.
Additional Information
--
"The more you understand what inspires you, the more readily you can put yourself in it’s path." - David duChemin
Find me on: Flickr | 500px | Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Zenfolio
A couple of weeks ago I took a walk through the historic part of Rosenberg, Texas. I love historic districts because the antique stores, brick roads and old town city halls make you feel like you are truly walking in the past.
More of my Rosenberg photos can be found in my Flickr Set and Goggle+ Album.
Additional Information
--
“All life is of a past nature, photography enhances this fact.” – Patrick Summerfield
Find me on: Flickr | 500px | Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Zenfolio
I’ve had a pretty productive day, which is quite rare lately. After my walk this evening, I took some slices of lime and experimented with my 100mm macro lens.
Other angles -
--
“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” -Ernst Haas
I have a pretty long commute to work each day. I have found that audio books and podcasts are a great way to spend that commute. I thought I would share the photography-related podcasts that I listen to.
Some video podcasts that I like to watch are below -- of course not while I'm driving.
I know there are more podcasts/video casts out there. I will update my list as I come across them.
Happy learning!
--
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” - Dorothea Lange
Announcements
Upcoming Events
--
Topic – What is Raw Mode?
David did a great job of summarizing a tutorial/article on using RAW. The below has been taken from this article on Luminous Landscape.
What is Raw Mode?
When a digital camera makes an exposure the imaging chip (whether it's CCD or CMOS) records the amount of light that has hit each pixel, or photo site. This is recorded as a voltage level. The camera's analog to digital circuitry now changes this analog voltage signal into a digital representation. Depending on the camera's circuitry either 12 or 14 bits of data are recorded. Incidentally, if the camera records 12 bits of data then each pixel can handle 4,096 brightness levels (2^12), and if 14 bit then it can record 16,384 different brightness levels (2^14). (To my knowledge no current imaging chip records a true 16 bits worth of data).
Of course what happens after you've taken the photograph depends on whether you have the camera set to save images to the memory card as raw files or JPGs.
If you've saved the file in raw mode when it is subsequently loaded into a raw conversion program and then saved to a TIFF or .PSD format file it can be exported in 16 bit mode. The 12 or 14 bits recorded by the camera are then spread over the full 16 bit workspace. If you've saved the file in-camera as a JPG than it is converted by the camera's software to 8 bit mode and you will only ever have 256 brightness levels to work with.
I took away from this that unless you are going straight to print or web, you should refrain from saving and re-saving to JPEG files. The tutorial contains quite a bit more information on using RAW files, so I suggest giving the entire article a read.
--
Additional Information & Links
--
"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” -Aaron Siskind
This is my latest installment of photography-related links that I have found interesting in the last month.
My flickr photo picks for the month (ie Other People's Photos That I Like)
Links for the month
Inspirational Photo Links
Other Photography Link Collections
--
"A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into." -Ansel Adams
High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR) is performed by taking two or more different exposures of the same scene and merging the photos to create a unique looking, evenly exposed photograph. Wikipedia defines HDR as a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods.
The main process is to set your camera to bracket your shots (my Nikon D90 brackets 3 shots). The bracket includes one regular + one underexposed + one overexposed shot. A tripod is pretty much required, unless you have a really stable surface to sit yout camera on. I then take the three shots and merge/process them in PhotoMatix Pro. I am sure, I am not doing everything correctly, but I like what I see so far. There is a lot still to learn. Below I have listed some of the resources that I have run across online.
Tutorials and Resources
Software
Inspiration
--
Happy shooting!
--
“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” - Ernst Haas
