Monday, February 22, 2010

Colorful Reflections


So this week I did something that has been in the back of my mind for a long time...water droplets on a cd. I used my macro setup and the light from my room for this shot. It was pretty simple and the hardest part was keeping the tripod and water still enough to get a clean shot. It is probably one of the most basic shots you can do considering the colors are natural and turning the cd produces different effects. I wasn't successful using a flash for this but I'm sure there is something I didn't try. I'd like to improve on this photo but considering the time given I am happy with it. I have some new gear coming my way that should greatly improve my photos and I have already started thinking of tons of ideas.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Valentine's Day


So this is a little late but seeing as how my total view count per day is up to .001...I don't think you'll mind. I know that my pessimism surrounding the following of my blog is probably more of a turn-off than I want it to be but honestly, this is mostly for my own good. So this photo idea came from the flickr community and the lighting was fueled by the creativity found at the best photography blog(IMO)...Strobist. If you don't know anything about strobe lighting...an hour on this blog will give you enough information to start improving your photos ten-fold. I don't have the equipment many people use for this type of photography(yet) but some great kits can be found at Midwest Photo Exchange. For $500 you can have 2 flashes built specifically for the strobist community, some low-quality but perfect starting level wireless transmitters and all the goods to go along with it. I'll leave the rest of the lighting tips up to David Hobby over at Strobist. So for this photo I took a mirror and put it on top of a table next to a window that was letting in some bright morning light. I put the subject(heart candy) on the mirror and played with the aperture to get the correct depth of field(DoF). From here I turned my flash on, did a test shot, turned the power down(mind you this is all on-camera) and eventually I got the lighting I wanted. I liked the image while looking at it on the lcd but thought I could bring more life and a better style out of it through post-processing. I uploaded it into Lightroom and used some of their presets to come up with this final image.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Monopolyyyy

So Meghan and I went to Denver last weekend to shop, eat good food, and hang out with her brother. It started off slow and we were being very indecisive in selecting a restaurant. We finally chose the Great Northern Tavern which was surprisingly...well...GREAT. If you're in the Denver area you should definitely try it out. After that we went to Chris' house and started playing monopoly which none of us had done in about a two years. Of course I had to bring out the camera and start shooting pics of the board but grew bored(rhyme not intended) rather quickly. I started taking pictures of Chris and Meghan in the awful incandescent light(easily fixed by lightroom) and this is what I came up with!















Its kind of a cop out for the week but its busy here at school. 3 tests in a row after a paper was due and one more test next week! Oh well, next week should be better after my posting of that valentine's photo I promised. I'm thinking I'll take my camera in the business building so I have some material for my website that I will also be starting soon. I'm extremely excited to go to Crested Butte over spring break so I can get some landscapes and then soon after I'll be heading to Arizona so hopefully I can get some photos of those famous sunsets. Well, one more test to study for!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Weekend in Wyoming


I headed home from school last weekend to you guessed it...Wyoming. From first glance Wyoming seems like a pretty boring place. Well, with the largest population of antelope per capita and all the buzz revolving around the new olive garden in my hometown of Casper, that is exactly what it is, boring. Fortunately it is a diamond in the rough as far as natural beauty goes. Sunsets are unbelievable and western motifs are plentiful, providing an urban photographer the means for a good ol' fashioned country wet dream. Sound pleasing? Trust me, it is.

So I spent the first day of my weekend away from the cattle slaughtering capital of the US taking photos of candy hearts and a cork from a nice bottle of vino. I had the thirst for some of that country lovin' I told you about which prompted me to ask my dad if he wanted to get out and shoot some sunset photos of the Platte river. He agreed and drove right past the river. Fortunately, I trusted his instinct to go much much further out of town. We arrived to a spot that could be only found with a gps and the corresponding coordinates due to the much appreciated remoteness. From there we set up tripods, attached necessary accessories and applied settings to cameras needed for the photos we wanted. With his new Nikon D90 and my new Kenko extension tubes, my dad and I each took 250 images with ease. I was so excited I almost acquired frostbite in my hands because I couldn't stop thinking of all the great shots I was getting. When the sunset went down we headed home to look at our trophies.

I found this one particular image I was very happy with so I opened it in Lightroom. I started off simply adding the aged preset, then played with the many sliders. That is all I did to finish this photo of a barbed wire fence taken with my 50mm lens. Next week, I'll be posting a special Valentine's day photo! :)