Find Your Eye - Round Two

I photo for many reasons.  Some are the most obvious: 

1.  I enjoy it. 
2. It documents my every day. 
3. It helps me slow down and see the world.
4. Its a creative outlet
5. and the list can go on and on

But really, what I have found lately is that it feeds and nourishes my soul.  This is what draws me to photography.  Maybe this is the obvious that I should have always known.  However, I many have overlooked it for the "obvious" reasons.

I can tell the photos in my library that really reflect my soul.  I'm learning that this is what really makes a great photo.  I know you too can look at other people's photos including your own work and pick out the ones that move you.  These are the photos that show the soul of the person behind the lens.  That person, that artist has found a way to show you what moves her.

I've decided for me, that I am going to try my best to take the shots that reflect my soul.  I want to capture the things that I see that move me.

Its not as easy as it sounds.  Are you up for joining me?  Are you up for the challenge of revealing a little piece of yourself in every photo you take?

it snowed today*

Black and white photography. I really do love it. But what makes it good? I think its the striking difference of having really black/black and really white/white in the photo. I'd like to learn more about it. So many times photos don't really translate to b&w. I think its because they are nothing but midtones when set to gray scale and they lack that deep contrast. I'm not sure that I nailed this one, but its not bad. Stuck pretty close to the rule of 1/3s here for the compo. It really does seem to work in keeping the composition in line.

My Dad always told me that a good painting has 1/6 black and 1/6 white - the rest is midtones. So does the same rule apply to b&w photography too?

I like the high key overexposed portion of this photo. The textures really show up. f/4.5, ISO 2500, exposure +.7 I let the camera chose the ISO.

It really did snow today. It didn't stick here at our house, but it did to the north of us. It is February, afterall. However, I do have to say - the weather is really confusing me. I'm still trying to warm up.

Trying Something New - Night Shots

St. Peter in front of the Basilica at Vatican City

Part of Finding Your Eye in photography, I need to explore some things that I don't normally do. Night shots - perfect. I tend to be a home body in the evenings, so getting out to take night photos is not my norm. However, I did cheat a little here because we were recently travelling in Rome and were out at night. No time to be a home body - just too much to experience.

View of Via Condoti from the Spanish Steps

Night shots were a little tricky for me to figure out at first. I found that I really didn't need to adjust the exposure as much as I would have thought. My initial reaction was to crank up the exposure to allow in more light. The above is taken at exposure 0 - normal with no adjustment either way. The same is for the first photo.

Merry-go-round near the Castle St. Angelo

Again, more surprises for me with night shots. The merry-go-round above was taken with exposure +.7 and shutter speed 1/30, f5.6. I was able to hold the camera and get a good photo without a tripod. I learned through this process with the lower f number I was still able to hold the camera in many cases.

View of St. Peters

The photo above of St. Peters is exposure is -1, f/5.6, 1/20. This one I did rest the camera on the railing of the bridge from where I took the shot.

Overall, I can say that I really loved trying night photography. I can see to do it really well, that I would like to invest in a tripod. It was interesting to push a little and find the limits when I could still hold the camera and get a good photo, versus needing a steady surface. Super fun to try something really new for me. I am anxious to learn more about getting great night shots and to keep practicing. I found I was in love with the lighting and reflections.

On Aperture

Went on a field trip to learn about aperture. Shot all these in A (aperture-priority) mode. I was so excited - bokeh! Oh my gosh, my little p&s camera was such a struggle to get any kind of bokeh - but today - NICE! Such a treat to be learning all this from Kat. Loving her e-class. Below is a pretty good example of the differences in aperture and how it dramatically changes the feel of the photo.

f/5.8, 62mm, ISO 200, exposure -1

f/8, 62mm, ISO 200, exposure -1

f/20, 62mm, ISO 200, exposure -1

f/25, 62mm, ISO200, exposure -1

I find that I prefer the short DoF photos - because I love bokeh and the blurry backgrounds. I also tend to like to take more focused close up shots on my subjects. But there are many applications for wanting the background to also be in focus. It was interesting to see how the as the entire picture comes into focus using f/25, how my subject of the grasses was lost and the houses across the lake became so much clearer. My camera goes from 3.5 @ 18mm to 5.6 @ 105mm. The aperture changing system on my Nikon D90 was a little troubling for me to work. I had to push the shutter-release button half way and hold with my pointer finger, then dial in my aperture setting with the middle finger of the same hand. I found I would take a scad of unwanted photos while trying to dial and hold at half on the button. *click, *click, *click - drat! Good thing I wasn't using film. Will take a little practice. UPDATE: OK, learned that I don't have to push 1/2 way on the shutter button - I only have to dial. Soooo much easier. I really couldn't understand why they had made that so difficult - but wasn't the case afterall - quite easy. Learning....

Overall - awesome day. Learning so much and feeling more confident.