Still Life

Had to shoot some simple still life photo's for my Digital Photography One class this week. I've never really photographed food, and it definitely wasn't my favorite, but it's something different. My background is actually a little makeshift studio setting I made in my backyard. I taped up matte black poster board and only used natural light and the results weren't half bad. I think the most difficult thing with a still life is getting an angle that makes it look interesting, so I experimented with a lot of different point's of view. I also tried more natural still life's as shown in the first two images, which actually ended up being more work because lack of control in the settings. Fall is here and wind can be hard to work with. 

HDR

Attempted to take some "High Dynamic Range" pictures. My camera doesn't have bracketing features, so I used my exposure compensation dial and took three separate images, one underexposed, correctly exposed, and overexposed. The camera has to be mounted in place on a tripod. In photoshop, there is a feature that lets you select your three image files, pieces them together, and then gives you multiple editing options before finalizing. The outcome is these pictures, often containing more detail than any of the singe images would. Something I did notice is weird glowing parts in the pictures, which in some cases could be fixed and others not so easily. I'd love to try it again on a sunnier day with a different subject and see the outcome, but since I learned how to do this recently I figured I'd have to at least give it a shot. 

Macro

Worked on macro this week. Very proud of these images. The picture of the bee took me forever, but I have to say after many attempts at different times, that is my most successful, fully focused bee photo yet. It was windy out to and I was shooting on campus during class time so we had to physically hold the plant still, and thankful the bee stuck around. Usually when I think macro,  I always think nature, so the tire was my attempt at doing something a little different. Very happy with the bokeh effect I am getting on a lot of these too. 

Location: Kings Park

 

Spent a few days location shooting at the old Kings Park Psychiatric center. I like this location because there's a dynamic array of things to shoot. From old buildings that are pieces of history to nature and flowers and the surrounding bodies of water, there's perhaps a little something for everyone here. The first photo posted is definitely my favorite from the few days I spent exploring here, full of color and texture. 

Light Painting

Spent some time working on light painting. Very easy to do, you just need to set up a tripod in a dark place, put your shutter speed to either a low speed or bulb if possible, and then use a light source to create an image. Messed around with it on the side of Middle Country road one night and these were the results.