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!