Landscape in Trenton

This was taken early morning, with a low sun at the Trenton Golf Course. I had a couple of "straight up" shots and then noticed the tree so I used it to frame the shot. The grass at the bottom was another afterthought, and this particular shot ended up being the fourth or fifth generation of what I was seeing. Looking and working for a good image almost always pays off, and I think it did for me in this one as well. I like the clouds, the bark on the tree as a rough contrast to other textures in the scene, and the way the grass creates another very close aspect.

3_D Imagery

You will need some glasses for this one... red on the left cyan on the right, but the effect of the 3D blending for this is really cool, and very easy to do in PhotoShop. See me and I'll show you or give you a link!

Dandilions at Seed

So here are a couple of things as reminders to all of you young photographers. First, be selective with your focus, and decide what exactly your subject is going to be and pinpoint your focus. It never helps to be "in between" and especially careless when it comes to finding your focal point. Below are two examples, the same shot with two different focal points. Which one do you like the best and why? Does it have to do with composition?

Second, don't forget to use a vertical format from time to time. Often the subject itself dictates whether a vertical or horizontal format will work the best for a particular shot, but ultimately the photographer and their vision makes that final compositional decision. It doesn't hurt to shoot in both formats so that you can compare and make a sound judgement based on artistic principle.

Lighting - Make it Work for You!

Let's try to do something special with lighting this week... it doesn't matter whether it is artificial or natural, but I do find that natural almost always works the best. Now that the sun is out, maybe those early morning or evening lighting situations can work for you. Although I am asking you to concentrate on lighting, don't forget at all the importance of subject, and make sure you shoot some photos that "live" and have some sort of content or emotion. Let's not try to go for the "gimmick", but instead look and think seriously about how you might use lighting in a way you never have or at least in a way you have not used for a while. Here's a link for you all... http://digital-photography-school.com/naturallight

Here's a couple I took tonight just before dark with a 200 mm lens and the low sun as my light source. Neither of these has been adjusted from the original shot, but I wish I had gotten the bottom one a bit more focused... I ran out of battery (dumb move) and it was my last photo of the day.

MLTI at MDIHS...

We were fortunate to have Ann Marie Quirion Hutton and David Patterson join us yesterday for some professional development for students with the use of "Acorn", the image manipulation software and iMovie as one of several tools for "Digital Storytelling". Our photography students learned new techniques for adjusting digital images and for using images with narration and background sound and music to tell and emphasize the parts of a story.

These photos were tough as lighting was down for the screen projector, so they required some "tweaking"... the top one is David leading some Acorn instruction and the bottom one is Ann Marie dialoging with the class about the power of movement and using the Ken Burns effect in iMovie.

The Edge of Water

My goal yesterday evening as the sun began to approach the horizon was to find something down in front of the house that would show "The Edge of Water", this week's assignment for my digital photo class. The day had been gorgeous, I had cut the grass around our home for the first time this year, but I knew there was some water pouring into the bay from the small intermittent stream that cuts across our field. I've narrowed my choices and have picked out my favorite, but would like to show with the photos I post, the process of finding that "best" photo as you are looking and moving in various directions. I'm also posting (above) a shot of the light source for all three of these photos, the low sun in the western sky.

Which of these do you think works the best? Is there one that "stands out" or "grabs" you? Please comment below and indicate the "why" of your opinion!