For The Sake of Photography

Yes, I haven't posted in a while.  I apologize.  I have been preoccupied with things like school and grades and stuff like that.

But, this past Friday night, I decided 1) because I have a car and I can do what I want and 2) I have been severely neglecting my need for photography, to go out a little before sunset and take some photos for the sake of photography.

My main goal/theme was: sunbursts.  My friend from school was showing me some of her photos and one particularly caught my eye.  It was a picture of the sky, and somehow she had achieved a sunburst at a beautiful point in the picture.  I thought: Why can't I do that?

(By the way, this friend has an Instagram and you should definitely go and follow her: @jenandizzy)

So, I dragged my mom with me to the end of Powell Road where it curves and takes you to the "great beyond".  We parked, took photos, and trespassed on people's land.  It was so much fun.

Here is some of what we got:

The problem I had most of the night was this: if I had the sun in the picture, then the sky would be colored and the land would be dark, or the sky would be completely washed out (above) and the land would be able to be seen.

I tried to counteract that effect in this photo, but I lost some of the glow on the subject.  Ugh!

Here is an example of when its good to play around with basic things like brightness and contrast.  I was just playing around with this cool picture (that didn't seem very cool at the time), when I discovered my new best friend.  Saturation!

By turning up both the contrast and saturation, I was able to make the grass a little more bold and the rusty wire a little more rusted.  Most of this came from contrast, but by messing with the saturation a bit, I was able to make it just a smidge more intense.

Now this one made my trip a mission accomplished.  Look at that beautiful sunburst!!! Yay!!  I turned up the contrast when I posted this photo on Instagram so that the corn would be more of a silhouette.  

As we were driving home, the red sun was staying its goodbyes, and I just couldn't resist. The fact that the construction workers were driving their landmovers around, stirring up dust, made for a really cool effect.

And it was all for the sake of photography.

Au revoir,

Snap

Raindrops on Grass Blades and Whiskers on Doggies

"These are a few of my favorite things!":

What I find so interesting are the pros and cons of these two pictures.

The only difference between these two is the shutter speed.  In the darker picture, the shutter speed is at 1/1000, and in the lighter picture, the shutter speed is at 1/500.  When the SS is faster, it doesn't let as much light in, as shown in the picture above.  I think the top picture is too dark, but I don't think the bottom picture is much better.  I like that it is lighter, but it is light to the point that it is almost washed out. I suppose, if I turn up the contrast, it could help a bit.  The top picture has a lot of contrast and it helps to highlight the sunlight reflecting in the raindrop.  I could turn down the contrast on that one a bit.  It all depend on your taste.

This one is bright-- brighter than the picture above it, but it works!  SS is at 1/500 just like the darker one...hmmm...odd....

I love this picture of Maggie.  She looks so natural.  The SS is higher, but the aperture is small, so as to make up for the high SS.  I usually turn up the SS when I am taking pictures of my dogs, because, no matter what, they cannot keep still!  Then, I can capture their motion with little or no blur.

She loves to just walk around and sniff and explore.

Now, to get Brody involved and doing something, I had to put a little peanut butter (his favorite) on a tennis ball and throw it a couple times.  Once he realized that the peanut butter was on the ball and not in my hands, this worked pretty well.  The grass is green, the sky is blue, and I couldn't ask for more.

Well, I guess I could crop it a bit...

And turn up the saturation...

Better?

I think so.  It really helped with the grass!

Mission accomplished.

-Snap