Wednesday, March 30, 2011

This first image I took of Cade longboarding. The location was the rims overlooking Billings. Although the day turned out to be not that good and the sunset was eventually covered by thick clouds we actually got 2 good runs in and a decent picture. I like this once because the rock gives you a sense that Cade is crouching and the blur makes him look fast. The sky in the background was actually very good on this. To the right is a picture of my dad at the top of the Beartooth pass outside Red Lodge. Its over 10,000 feet so you are literally up in the clouds. That is what makes this picture great. Plus I added a cool zoom blur. Just behind where my dad is walking (he didn't know I was taking this either) is a big ledge that drops off down to the canyon. This day was good because of the way the clouds were a little whispy and great for pictures. I got a few good ones here. I had never edited this photo before however, so all of that was new to me. Although I had used these techniques before.

This picture of Freddy Sanchez in Spring Training I think is the second best one of him. I chose to edit this one because I wanted to practice a few things in Photoshop on this one.









This picture of John was a favorite of mine. I did cheat a little however because, if you look carefully, his left foot had been cropped out so I added some sky and cropped him a new foot. Its a little goofy looking if you know what your looking fore.                    


This is at Shollenberger Park near my house in CA. This is of a man walking his dog. I didn't know this but we actually knew him! He is a friend of my mom's through the scouts and has actually known my family for a while. I did crop out a man standing on the right of the path taking pictures and a few poles and posts. pretty darn good job at it though.
My last photo here was taken on the overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge. This couple is standing at the end of a long dark tunnel that takes your through the mountain to a viewing point out toward the Pacific. The view is really something. To be honest, I think this is sort of a dull picture. I want to go back and try this again. I found myself not really knowing what I wanted to do with this. Effect-wise and light-wise.

My Opinion on These Articles...

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0809/ab0809-1.html
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0909/ab0909-1.html
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1009/ab1009-1.html
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1109/ab1109-1.html

I'll just get right down to business. In these articles, the author uses imagery that I cannot comprehend. I have never been an art major, or taken art classes where we talked about color. I know very little about it. And when these articles were assigned I was excited to read them. However, I have been a little disappointed.  In the '3 variables of color' section, the author starts out broad and says that he is going to explain this color model. Here I'm pretty happy with where its going. Then about a sentence into the next paragraph I find myself blindsided by advanced concepts of color. The author gets into very fine details and likely loses most of his "recreational photographers" readers. Perhaps for a person who is a little more aware of the concepts and terminology this article is much more interesting. Yet for me, who is at the most basic level of experience with photography, it came up strikingly short of my hopes of education. I had hoped I would learn something to make me a better photographer but found myself reading endlessly through what seemed to be a different language. Maybe I will come back to these articles in the future when my photography is a little more advanced. For know I think sticking to what I think looks good is fine.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Car Photography

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/beautiful-examples-of-car-photography/

Since I am planning on taking pictures of cars for my adventure shots, I thought I would look up some photos of cars. Now, these are much different than what I am expecting to take but nevertheless stunning. I am planning on taking much more "rugged" photos. Of a big truck climbing dirt hills and boulders or cruising through muddy water. These seem to be of fast cars. I really like the panning shots and think that would be really fun to try. Some of these photos I think were done really well and others I think used too much editing. I consider these the "fine arts" inspiration for what I want.

http://4wheeldrive.about.com/od/landcruiserrides/ig/Land-Cruiser-Offroad-Photos/bcates.htm

These are going to be my landscape inspiration. The rough, outdoor look is what I am going for with the finely composed and photoshoped added in to make them special. AJ would love that I used a bunch of Toyotas as examples. The 11th picture in this sequence is probably my favorite.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Scenic Photography Articles

http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1209/ab1209-1.html
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0110/ab0110-1.html
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0310/ab0310-1.html
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0410/ab0410-1.html
These photos are great to read! Plus the amount of examples help me as I am a visual learner. I have always had to follow examples and make them mine. These articles gave me a great deal of ideas. I think the ones that were the most interesting to me were the section on reflections, the section of silhouettes, and the one on snow photography. Snow is a pretty obvious choice for me giving my past and being a skier. I have also done a little work with silhouettes and would say its one of my most favorite types of photography.
One thing that I learned is that there can be silhouettes with different types of light. Such as different colors in the color palette. Maybe I will try to compose a shot like that for my final. My problem is that I can't "see" the image before I take it. I like to shoot at what I think is pretty while I am there. If I think it looks good, and I know what a good image looks like, then I will be happy. I guess I need to work on planning before hand so that I can take even better pictures.
As for the snow pictures, I haven't had my camera much during winter. And it was only here in Billings so not much on the snow aspect. I can't wait to be in California sometime soon with my new camera! Unlike with the silhouettes, I do have some ideas on this type of photo. I have always wanted to take a time exposure of a street lamp while the snow is really dumping. My dream is that you would be able to see the flakes as streaks. I am not sure if it would even look good but I still want to try.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Golf Photography

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YDrhKquBdM&feature=related
Recently I went to Arizona for spring break. While I was there I played a few rounds of golf. Never had my SLR for a round of golf yet so I was perusing the Web for golf photography. This may not explain a lot of technical mumbo jumbo... but that is what reading is for. I have always wanted to do something like this. Possible for a golf course or a ski resort. It would be fun to walk around a golf course for the soul purpose to take pictures. Most of the time I am worried about strokes and what not, but the course is supposed to take you away from the "real world" and I feel like pairing that with scenic photography (which takes me from the "real world") is a wonderful idea. Plus the video was well done.