Day 10: Bathtime

Most of you have already seen billions of pictures of Owen, so this is nothing new, but for anyone who may not know me, this is my son Owen, 22 months old. It only took me 10 days.

50mm, 1/100s, f/2.5, ISO 1250, aperture priority mode, matrix metering mode, no post-processing

• I think I mentioned in yesterday's blog how important eye catch lights are in pictures of people. This photo would be vastly improved if he had some in his eyes. Some of the others I took did, but I like Owen's expression in this one.
• I'm not a big fan of the color in this one, but not sure how to improve it. I think it's mainly the nature of the lights in that room.
• One thing that sets apart good photographers from your everyday point-and-shooters is the composition. Too many people put their subject in the middle of the frame. One of the first things you learn if you study photography is the rule of thirds. While Owen's eyes aren't exactly at a 1/3 line (the photo probably would have been improved if they were), the extra space at his right makes this a more interesting picture then if he was right in the middle with space on both sides.
  

Day 9: Finn!

Keith made fun of me yesterday (no surprise there) for not including any pictures of "my favorite model", my son Owen, in my first week of pictures. So here is a picture of... adorable Finn (well, Owen's hand is in the picture). Finn is the 7 month old son of our good friends Megan and Bryan. I was babysitting today, so I tried getting a picture of the two of them together, but I liked this one best (you can see the others in the Runners Up album).

47mm (76mm equiv), 1/200s, f/2.8, ISO 400, matrix metering mode, aperture priority mode

• The only thing I don't like in this photo is Owen's hand.
• The only post-processing I did was to change the orientation. I actually took this standing behind Finn (to the right of the picture as it is) in landscape mode (so the right side of the picture was actually the bottom). That is how I got him to look up. I didn't plan on changing it, but I like this way much better.
• During my class I took this fall we spent some time taking portraits. One thing that the teacher emphasized is that people need to have a catch light in their eye in order for the picture to look good. I've definitely noticed that in pictures since then, and I can see it in this picture as well.

What a cutie!!

Day 8: Sunset

A few days ago someone posted on facebook on how awesome the sunset was, and I had no clue! I must have been inside at the time. As I was driving home today I noticed how great the clouds looked, all wispy and wavy (one of these days I'd like to study up on weather so I can learn what makes them that way and perhaps use more technical terms). So as soon as I got home I did something I haven't done in a long time - I put the wide angle lens on the camera. (We have a Tamron 17-50mm lens. )




17mm (28mm equiv), 1/60s, f/4.0, ISO 100, aperture priority, spot metering mode

• I've been using the zoom lens so much lately that I was really surprised at how wide this lens was! Unfortunately I didn't have time to get to a spot with a better foreground. This was taken in front of our house (the houses in the picture are our neighbor's). Could you imagine the pictures that could have come from being on top of South Mountain tonight???!!!
• I used spot metering on the sky so that it was exposed for the sky to get the bright colors. If I were to use matrix metering, you would see more of the foreground and the sky would be overexposed, which I didn't want. One thing that I have learned since getting into photography: you know those awesome professional photos that you see on calendars where the clouds in the sky look awesome and the ground looks perfectly exposed? They cheated! Well, ok cheating is not the right word, but in a lot of cases that is impossible to do without either a special filter (gradient filter), or post-processing (HDR - you take multiple exposures and combine them) or both.
• I actually did some post-processing today! I almost didn't use this photo because one of the houses in the picture had their porch light on. But then I discovered that Picasa has a Retouch feature, where you can cover up blemishes. Awesome!!

Day 7: Football

Today I decided to work on my sports photography. :-)

89mm (143mm equiv), 1/200s, f4.0, ISO 1600, flash white balance, no post-processing

• Ok, so yeah, if it isn't obvious, that's from the tv. Hey, at least you know I really did take the photo today!
• I feel this is sort of a cop out (I didn't even get a good action shot), but I decided to take it easy today. I did play around with different white balance settings, so it was still a learning experience. Now I know if I ever want to take a picture of something on tv, flash white balance is the way to go! :-)
  

Day 6: Sunrise

I just happened to notice that there were some nice clouds in the eastern sky this morning before sun-up, so I figured there could be a nice sunrise. Owen wasn't awake yet, so I decided to take a few pictures. I ended up taking 50! (Yes, Dad, I know, I better be careful or I'll run out of film! :-) ). After much deliberation, here's the one I chose:

200mm (522mm equiv), 1/40s (with image stabilization), f/8.0, ISO 800, aperture priority mode, spot metering, cloudy white balance setting, circular polarizer, cropped but no further post-processing

• Since I took so many pictures, it was hard to pick one out. I ended up picking my favorites, doing something else, and then coming back to choose the one. Most of my other pictures included a palm tree, which is why I think I chose one without it.
• I also chose this one because because while the colors of the sunrise are nice, I needed a different focal point to make it interesting.
• As I was debating on which pic to choose I had an idea: spend a whole week taking ONLY one picture every day. No second, third or fiftieth take. That will 1) force me to think more about the picture before hitting the shutter button, and 2) save me time. I'll have to try that sometime.
• I have noticed the last few days how different the pictures look on different monitors. So I also tried looking at these on a different computer before I made my choice. The colors on my main computer seem so much brighter than others.
  

Day 5: Running Shoes

After work today I went to the gym at my work to do some jogging. As I mentioned yesterday, I am recovering from ACL surgery (surgery was Aug 21). I am done with physical therapy, but still need to do exercises to strengthen my left leg. I started running a few weeks ago at PT, so I am continuing to increase my time on the treadmill (I did 15 minutes today). As I was running I was thinking about what to take my picture for today of. Here's what (surprisingly!) came to mind:

50mm (81mm equiv), 1/200s, f/2.2, ISO 400, matrix metering mode, aperture priority, no post-processing

• Even though I am now only jogging on a treadmill, I thought the photo would be best made on the street. The neighbors probably thought I was crazy for laying on the street to take pictures of my shoes!!!
• Taking pictures at an angle is supposed to evoke movement. I thought that would be a good feeling for running shoes. I think it worked pretty well.
• I kind of like the horizontal pictures I took better than vertical, but there were other things I liked better about this photo.
• It would've been nice if I had noticed the little piece of shoe lace under the left shoe and moved it out of the picture. I need to get better at noticing things like that.

Day 4: Fake Flower

I was trying to figure out what to take pictures of while driving home from work today. I had Ultimate Frisbee practice tonight (not playing due to ACL recovery), so I knew I needed to work fast. I was planning on taking pictures of the Christmas decorations before I took them down, but felt uninspired doing that. Then I found a fake, faded purple flower in our yard. So I started putting it places and taking its picture. Here's my favorite:

50mm (81mm equiv), 1/1600s, f1.8, ISO 400, spot metering mode, cropped

• I wasn't sure how this was going to come out, but I love this (cropped) composition and the blue colors (our pool).
• My second choice of picture was this flower on a dead log which looked black and white. It's interesting how that contrasts with the lovely blue in this photo. I posted that pic in my Runner's Up file. There's also some good ones on a blue sponge, green lettuce, and red wagon.