Assignment #3 Optional – Thanksgiving

Here’s another fun one.  Show us your shot that best shows your Thanksgiving — whatever that means.  Have fun with this.  Photoshop away if you like.  Maybe try and take a retro family picture of everyone around the dinner table…or show us a picture of some food you made suitable for Food TV. 

Send your picture by 12/1 and I’ll post them all together.

Assignment #3 Composition

I thought it might be fun if we all start at a place called composition.  

I pulled out my old photography books and thought wisdom from the ages is what I would offer us for the next assignment. So here are some things to think about as you go out to shoot your pictures.

” The arrangement of a picture within the frame – its composition-makes the image at once intelligible to the viewer’s mind, appealing to the eye, and significant to the emotions.”

Examples of some of the traditionally established rules for photographic composition are the golden rule, the rule of strategic placement, and the S-curve.

Having said that there are rules to composition one of the great photographers of the ages, Ansel Adams,  leaves us with these words to also remember, ” the so-called ‘rules’ of photographic composition are … invalid, irrelevant, and immaterial…there are no rules of composition to photography, only good photographs! …Most great photographers violate ‘pictorial rules.’”

It is important to put into context that those remarks are reactions to the uninspired and too-slavish use of the rules by generation of mediocre photographers.  It is too much to say that compositional rules have no utility at all.  It might be more accurate to term them guides.

So I’m hoping that our photographs for this assignment can use some of the guides that are classics for us to use.  Here are a few to try and use.

The Golden Mean is basically a way of relating the parts of a composition to the whole in a visually pleasing way by means of proportions.  The golden mean is based on the assumption that a part is most pleasingly related to the whole in a 1/3 or 2/3 proportion.

Strategic Placement dictates that you should never divide an image into equal parts either horizontally or vertically. The rule of strategic placement – which have the effect of keeping the picture somewhat asymmetrical- are meant to avoid static, dull compositions.

The S-curve, or a spiraling arrangement is one of the better compositional devices in drawing the viewer’s eye into the picture and lead it to the places and things that you want it to notice.

I’m hoping all this text doesn’t scare anyone off but inspires.  When you send in your next picture or two be sure and give us your thoughts and what you were trying and how you think you did.  Feel free to ask questions or google for examples of the “rules.”

Good luck and be sure and use what’s left of fall and early winter as inspiration.  Find a subject be it a building, a person, an animal or a landscape.   Try not to use photoshop.  Remember the most important thing is to have fun and just be out there taking pictures!

If you can get pictures to me by 12/1 – I can post them all together.

Some of the text of this post comes from Photography Art and Technique, By Alfred A. Blaker.

Assignment #2 – Danni Downing

Handheld, manual settings: 1600 ISO, 1/200, f/20, 200mm

The rest of my fall pictures are in my gallery.

Assignment #2 – Danni Downing

I was challenged by this one. When the lighting is good, I can usually
get my exposure the way I want it. But when the lighting is bad (as
most of this fall was), my photos come out lifeless and dull. Any
suggestions?

Handheld, manual settings: 400 ISO, 1/40, f/5.6, 200mm

Assignment #2 – Nicole Harkin

Assignment # 2 – Nicole Harkin

Assignment #2 – Nicole Harkin

These ended up being my favorite fall pics. I really liked having the assignment in mind all month!
I took all of the pictures at the National Arboretum around 11 am…with my Canon 40d and the stock lens on the camera for once!

Assignment #2 Extended Fall Light – Pam Rutter

Again another rainy day – actually raining when I found this leaf in my driveway.  The texture of the rain water and macadam contrasting with the leaf was interesting to me.  1/40, f5.6, ISO 1600, 150 mm

Assignment #2 Extended Fall Light – Pam Rutter

I was very fortunate and found some days where Keith and I could wander around leisurely and shoot a lot of pictures.  I was not so fortunate in my timing – the days I got to wander around were very overcast and dreary.  I kept waiting for the sun to shine magically through the clouds right onto the tree I wanted to be the star of the picture.  No luck.  I found a lot of satisfaction though in just being outside looking for my “fall shot.”  I find one of my issues is being able to really edit down pictures and pick one.  I’m curious if anyone else has this issue.  I just keep looking for the clear “winner” in my gallery of shots.  Here’s a peek at what I found in looking for fall if you’re interested.

If only there would have been some sun — but this little maple tree was beautiful and I took a range of exposures which can make it look very different.  I picked this one because of the moodiness it evokes and the richness of the colors.   1/400, f14.0, ISO 3200, 29mm

Assignment #2 Extended Fall Light – Maria Ondruchova

File name: The Pier
October clouds in Santa Monica. I took a ride on the 130 feet high Pacific Wheel to take this one and I had to straighten it.
F5,6, 1/80, ISO 100, 18 mm

Assignment #2 Extended Fall Light – Maria Ondruchova

File name: Before  the Sunset
One of the rare signs of the fall in California are the deserted Baywatch booths. There was a lonely man sitting in front of the closed booth seemigly waiting for the sunset.
F14, 1/300, ISO 200, 24 mm, Exposure Bias -1

Assignment #2 Option – Halloween – Pam Rutter

I had such high hopes of taking great little shots of trick or treaters coming to my door.  But it rained … and rained.  I ended up at the mall and got a couple of fun pictures of kids roaming around but nothing special.  So I offer up this pumpkin goblin man — and I photoshopped him to make him a little more dramatic.   I am very pleased with my camera’s high ISO settings which allowed me to handhold this shot…almost nearly impossible really to handhold this shutter speed — I just got lucky.  f 5.3, 1/10, ISO 3200, 105 mm

Assignment #2 – Option – Halloween – Danni Downing

Pumpkin info: Handheld, 1/8, f4.2, 34mm, 1600 ISO (and, I carved the
pumpkin at the top!)

Assignment #2 option – Halloween – Danni Downing

Cat info: Handheld, 1/8 shutter speed, f4.8, 55mm, 1600 ISO, flash

Assignment #2 Extended Fall Light

Autumn is arguably the best time of year to shoot landscapes for several reasons.  The colors of the environment are changing  and the dawn/dusk lighting is unusual.  The unique colors that are part of the fall season are fun to play with. Try photographing during the hour or so before the sun rises and the time that holds interesting light after the sun is down. You might also look around bodies of water big or small for reflected colors present.

Let’s try on this assignment no photoshop/lightroom and see if we can capture the rich colors of fall by themselves.  You may sharpen.  If you can’t resist the Photoshop please give us one unaltered to post along with the “after” Photoshop picture.

We look forward to seeing your favorite 1 or 2 shots!

Optional Assignment #2-B
Halloween!  Whatever you like – show us your best shot!

Have Fun!

Assignment #1 Maria Ondruchova

Lake McDonald in the Glacier National Park on a cloudy morning. It just stopped raining. I like this picture with its dramatic clouds even more than some of my pictures taken after it cleared. I am considering darkening the clouds a little bit for the prints.
F8, 1/100, ISO 100, 33 mm

Assignment #1 Maria Ondruchova

It was my first night at our friends’ lake house in Montana, when we sat outside and talked. I just stood up, took my camera and went to the lake to capture the pink sunset reflection.
F3,5, 1/30, ISO 200, 18 mm

Assignment #1 Heather Hughes-Baskey

A photo of cedars with the light coming into the forest.  The timing was just right for the illumination of the cedars and the forest floor.

f4, 1/60/ ISo 400, 18 mm

Assignment #1 Heather Hughes-Baskey

GRAAS in the Rocks is a photo from one of our team competitions.  I wanted to try and capture the expression on people’s faces as they tried to get that darn ball into the bucket.  So, I laid down on the grass and looked up at them through the lens.  By doing this, I accidentally tilted my body that resulted in an “angled shot” – which I ended up liking in the end.  The bright yellow bucket, the expression on the girl’s face as she tried to accurately aim that ball into the bucket – makes this one of my favourites.

f8, 1/250, ISO 400, 40 mm

Assignment #1 Nicole Harkin

The second picture was taken waiting for a taxi. I loved that you can see the couple walking down the street but that it is not in focus.

f 2.8, 1/125, ISO 400, 50mm

Assignment #1 Nicole Harkin

The picture is of my aunt and uncle walking last weekend in Chicago. I love that they are in sync walking. They both thought it looked like a picture from the final scene in a movie.

f1.8, 1/15, ISO 800, 50 mm

Assignment #1 Pam Rutter

My second photograph of Miss Elena I submit as a black and white.  It was taken in color and changed post camera.  I can’t decide what I like better.  There is a softness to the black and white but somehow I miss the orange in the hat. 
Again my settings are a little strange, f5.6, 1/500, ISO 3200, 105mm

Assignment #1 Pam Rutter

This is my second time getting to photograph Miss Elena.  She’s adorable and we decided to try some nearly “nude” shots with just the hat.  I just literally set her up and held down my shutter as she put the hat on and off.  My settings on my camera now that I look at the jpeg properties are a little strange.  I look forward to learning more about using my camera in manual!
f 5.6, 1/500, ISO 3200, 105mm

Assignment #1 Kathy Buohl

f5.6, 1/1600, ISO 400, 200mm

Assignment #1 Danni Downing

Two Sheds. This was an incredibly wet, misty day, as was true for the most of our Alaska trip. I was on a medium-sized boat (about 30 passengers), and a little distance out. Settings: ISO 400, f/10, 1/100, and zoomed out to 200mm.