Uninspiring Fall and the Monastery

Some time ago (okay, a long time ago - work has really taken its toll on my time and energy), I mentioned that I had high hopes for fall and fun experiments. Well, I don't know if it was my schedule, or the fact that fall was absolutely blah in this area, but I really didn't take anything at all.

So what is up with me? I haven't taken any pictures since my monastery adventures, and I barely blogged about that.

Is it the weather, or is it me? I think it's both. Fall really was inconsistent. Aside from I-95, I didn't see much in the area that was pretty or different at all. But it's also me - I feel as though the job I took at the beginning of the year drained me of anything creative, and made me feel as though creativity were something frivolous. But, I look at the last set of pictures I took ...







... and realize that I just need to let it happen. I love taking pictures, but I haven't let myself "space out" and really get inspired. I've been so busy trying to work, work out, and do who knows what else that I've lost sight of what inspires me. I need to continue to try new things, even if they don't work, and figure out how to deal with my environment.

That said, I did enjoy taking these pictures. It was a rainy and cold day, so I spent most of the time shielding my macro lens and camera from the elements. That said, cloudy days work here - the colors popped, I didn't need to do much with settings (f-stop in the 4.0 range, ISO of 400), and was able to work on my framing and my details. The last shot is the exception here - I played a bit with my wide-angle lens.

So what's next for me? I don't really know. Thanksgiving is coming up, and while I'd like to think that I'll go out and take lots of pictures, I'm not sure that I will. I think I will relax and see what happens.

Seascapes and Black and White

As you know, I'm always examining my work and trying to see if I can make it better or more appealing. I'd come across an article in Popular Photography about shooting in black and white, and it made me wonder - would any of my California shots look better in black and white? And how do I know?

Well, let's take a look. Here are some shots that I converted last week. Compare them with their color originals:





I converted these in Aperture. It's a very simple process. Almost any photo editing tool will work for that purpose.

Here are others that I grabbed from Aperture that I did not feel looked good enough in color to post, but looked fairly interesting in black and white:





So, that said, when does black and white work for me?

1) When color is actually distracting to me - as much as I love color, it doesn't always work for me. The pool shot is an example. The colors don't add anything to the shot for me. The black and white example is much cleaner and simpler.

2) When I want to portray another era - I hope this is self-explanatory. To me, in this case, these types of pictures make me feel nostalgic for another time.

3) When I don't want to highlight one element over another - As an example, look at the shot with the trees, the sky, and the grass. It's well balanced, but my eyes tend to jump to the green grass. Yours may focus on the sky. Because I feel the picture is "one picture", and not greens and blues, I prefer black and white. This way forces me to view the subject of the picture as the entire picture.

4) Shots with good contrast or with lights - I like how my lights "pop", but not to the point that they distract from the pictures. Shots with contrast ensure that they do not look "dull" or "boring" (highly subjective terms) once converted.

What should you do? Until you know what works for you, I'd suggest trial and error. Take a cross-sample of your pictures, convert them (make sure you back up the originals, of course), and see what looks good to you. Eventually, you'll detect a pattern and therefore understand what your eye likes. Because this is subjective, it's best to go by your own instincts - not mine, and not those of a magazine.

Next time - my monastery adventure.

Fall - Past and Present

While I love summer weather, I have an appreciation for fall and what it offers - change, color, and a time to assess.

That said, last year, I took pictures like these:







While I really like them - especially the one with the orange leaves against the blue sky - I need to try something different this year. I need pictures that are more original and artistic.

Popular Photography's latest issue saves the day, as always. A few interesting ideas that I must try:

1) Abstracts - taking advantage of the wind or of camera movement to incorporate some strategic blurring. I'm very excited about this, because I love the element of the unexpected.

2) Reflections with a twist - longer exposures (but not too long, so I won't need a tripod) - to add an "eerie" effect to my work.

I don't like the colder weather, I admit, but being able to have new material is really appealing. To make sure I take full advantage, I'll have to do a dress rehearsal in the next week or so.

Next time - a twist on some of my California shots.

California Wrapup - Dress Rehearsal versus Reality

I can't believe it's been a month since I left for California! This tells me two things:

1) Time flies

2) I need to get back in touch with my creative self

How did I do on this trip? My goals that I'd set were:

1) Avoid the literal shots

2) Look for the details

3) Understand my themes

4) Incorporate my sister

5) Property shots

I didn't do too badly, really. Here are some examples of pictures that met my goals:







The only goal I didn't meet was incorporate my sister, now that I think about it. There really wasn't an opportunity that made sense. And I'm okay with that. I feel my greatest area of improvement was in avoiding the literal shots, understanding themes, and bringing out the details. These were definitely nicer than beach pictures I'd taken in the past. I'm therefore happy with how I did.

I'd also thought about stock photography options. I need to think about that, too - and make the time - but I need to get out and shoot more, too, and bring more ideas and work to this blog.

I need to start focusing on my creative self again. It has been difficult, given work and my social responsibilities. With fall around the corner, though, I am hoping to be inspired. And that's what I'll cover next time - fall and some of my plans.

California Trip - Macro Work

On a day like today where the weather is terrible, it's nice to think about color again, even if for only a bit. The last topic I covered while in California was macro work. Admittedly, this is my favorite subject, but I really felt it had been overplayed in the DC area. I felt as though I were shooting the same things all the time. California was a great breath of fresh air - not an orchid in sight. Here are some of my favorite shots:





A few notes:

I went earlier in the day to take advantage of the misty weather. Harsh sun plus macro shots = not so terrific results (to me, anyway). The mist plays out best in the second and fifth pictures.

You'll see there's a lot of purple. I took these shots for my younger sister's benefit - she loved the blue and purple flowers.

Another advantage of shooting early is the possibility of playing with raindrops on flowers - like the first picture.

Other flowers can be just as pretty as orchids. Maybe they aren't as delicate and unique, but there are colors, shapes, etc to play with, too.

I had to get down fairly low and close to shoot most of these. Of course, I tried many different angles.

Settings:

ISO 400, f-stop of 5.6 (in general), white balance "cloudy", post-processing tweaks - minimal. Of course, I used my macro lens.

Next time: How I did compared to my goals that were set during my dress rehearsal in July.

California Trip - Clouds in Dana Point

As I mentioned last week, California (at least the Southern part, from what I could tell) has a climate of extremes. This poses quite a few challenges when shooting.

Consider clouds. On the one hand, you'll never have to worry about harsh shadows or contrast. On the other, you end up with pictures like these:







As someone who loves bright colors, it's hard to get too excited about these. However, I did what I could. Here was what I was thinking when I took these:

The first two were framed by the red flowers. That added a pop of color. To achieve this look, find some flowers and get low. Try multiple angles - not everything works.

The third was a conscious choice to simply emphasize angles and lines. I was able to focus more on them than I would have had it been a sunny day. They "pop" here.

The last two involved focusing on "themes" - the first one was relaxation (the couches and casual feel), the second one was exercise (that hill was steep).

Overall, I preferred my pictures in the bright sun, but the lesson here is that you can't always choose your environment. Make the best of it!

Settings: Higher ISO than average (you'll need to experiment, but 400 worked well), middling f-stops (around 5.6), cloudy white balance, some tweaking in Aperture - mainly saturation settings.

Next time - some gratuitous macro work in Coronado. I couldn't resist!

California Trip - Daytime Shots - Dana Point and Coronado

California weather is definitely interesting. One minute, you have clouds and fog. The next minute, you have sun. I opted to shoot in both sets of conditions. Today, I'll cover my adventures with the sun and with harsh shadows.

Let's face it, I've never been great at handling the light. However, I think I'm improving. Here are what I consider my top shots during this trip:







The first two have several common elements: I set the ISO as low as I could, I used my wide angle lens, I used my polarizing filter, and I strived to make the water shots more interesting by including other elements of interest - in this case, the plants and colors. To shoot these, I "squatted" and stayed low.

The third picture's settings were the same, but I used the angles and curves as my areas of interest. I stayed on a gorgeous property and wanted to highlight the building in some manner.

For all of these three, I debated making them lighter (because I know they don't show too well on PCs), but I really liked the richness of the colors, so I left the pictures as is. The full-sized versions are the best way to view these, as a result.

The second three were situations where the sun was at its harshest. My polarizing lens really didn't save me for the first and third pictures, but it did for the second. My approach was to make the most of it, and to highlight the contrast as best as possible, without creating too many distractions. Hopefully, I achieved that goal.

Settings: White Balance - Sunny, Aperture Priority (f-stop of 6.3), wide angle lens.

Tweaks: Minor ones, mainly involving brightening some of the shadows, or increasing the exposure overall.

Next time - cloudy day shots (which pose a different set of challenges).

Dana Point, Day 1 - Day and Night

I couldn't wait to get off the plane and to the resort and the beach yesterday. I had packed every last piece of equipment I owned in my carry-on luggage, and was hoping it would be worth the effort. I knew that getting back into taking pictures after a fairly long hiatus would be an adventure.

It started out bumpy, admittedly. While I picked a great property with terrific views and nature, my pictures fell a bit flat. They felt cliche. I pushed through, though, because I wanted to see if anything would inspire me. Here's my best shot of the day:



I went back and forth on the treetops here - they're a bit cut off. I like them as is (it's a little off kilter and quirky), but I may want to reshoot and see if I change my mind. I love the simple lines, the dark sky, and the fact that I broke about 10 different photography rules.

It took a long time to get here! Here's where I started:





I'm drawn to the second one - it's simple, and it has some color. It makes a nice background somewhere. :)

The two darker ones were taken much later in the day than the two lighter ones. I like the shapes and curves of the first two. The third one was taken with a longer exposure, and that's what got me inspired to take my favorite one. My poor sister watched me as I took one 30 second shot after another.

I then went to the property, excited to take more long exposures. The results? Iffy. Take a look:





I loved the idea of taking long exposures of the pool, but yikes, was it tough in practice. There's an awful lot of noise in the last two - but I'll buy a noise correcting package and see if that will do the trick (look for that in a future post). These 30 second exposures were done without a tripod - I set down the camera in different areas of the pool and went for it. I'm sure everyone was wondering what I was doing. What was cool was that there was someone swimming while I was taking the third shot, but because of the long exposure, you don't see it.

I've packed my tripod, so I'm going to try different shots with it. My lesson is, though, that crisp and clean seem to do the trick for me. Either that, or quirky and crazy. Middle ground is not very "me".

Anyway, equipment used:

My standard DSLR, kit lens, and wide angle lens

ISO - 200 to 800 (if you click on the shots, Flickr will tell you)

White balance - mainly Tungsten for the night ones

Shutter speed - 25 to 30 second for the night ones, Aperture priority (so much faster speeds) for the daytime ones

Today, I'll attempt some tripod shots in the evening (I should have plenty of time), as opposed to just setting down the camera. I'm sure I'll see different results. If I can get one "shot of the day" every day, that will be fine with me. I'll also have my camera with me during the day, and will see if anything else inspires me. :)