Portraits and the challenges

We had the chance to shoot 3 fine families at our last workshop.  It was such a fun experience, but challenging on so many levels I didn't expect!  First off, it was so difficult trying to get that perfect shot with 12 other photographers trying to achieve the same thing!  I also had troubles keeping up with the kids!  They always seemed to move the second I clicked, leaving my photo out of focus, eyes closed, looking the wrong way... you get the idea.  All in all though, it was a fantastic day full of laughing, crying, and a whole lot of clicking. 

Catch up!

Man o man, I am so far behind.

Project In Someone Else's Shoes wasn't much of a success for me.  This was my target image:

The artist of this photograph is the Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn.  He's an absolutely brilliant artist all around.  He has done an insane number of music videos for artists such as The Killers, Coldplay, and even U2.  He mainly shoots in monochrome and I absolutely adore his style in every single way.  I can't exactly pinpoint what I love about him.  I'm extremely drawn to the dark shadows often seen in his photos, and I love  the "rough around the edges" feel I get.  I find a lot of the photos dark, leaving me wanting to hear some crazy story about it.

Anyway, I would love to live a day in Anton's shoes, but instead I attempted to recreate his image.  First off, it's impossible to find a perfect spot in Edmonton for this shot.  We have many beautiful areas to capture the skyline, but unfortunately they lack the essential light post.  In the end, I settled for a spot with chain-link fence and some tall apartment buildings.  Obviously it wasn't exactly like the photo, but I felt it captured the urban  feel quite well, and it had great light in order to capture a silhouette.  Unfortunately, the light is only perfect early in the morning, as it is rising.  Having class everyday, and a model that didn't want to wake up at the crack of dawn for a photoshoot (not to mention the serious cloudiness we've had every time I have a chance to grab my camera and click), I never did manage to get out there and attempt the recreation at this location.  I had many other attempts at other places, and none turned out the way I wanted.  So, this project will be placed on hold.  One day, I will get that image, and I will be sure to share.

After finally accepting the fact that it wasn't time to recreate Anton Corbijn, I decided to get crackin' on the self portraits.  I didn't have a chance to get a nice shadow one being that it's often cloudy when I'm out taking pictures, but here's what I got!

Self portrait in the mirror.

Me without me.  I love scarves.  

Mountains, flowers and DLS fun!

I didn't have a chance to rope someone into modeling for me, but I was dying to do the exercise. So I decided to make use of what I had-- a vase full of flowers.  I would really like to give this exercise another go sometime soon, using a person as my subject.

Silhouette. My least favorite of them all.  I don't think there's enough light in the background to give it the full effect I was expecting. 

 Back lit.

 Side lit.  I struggled with this one.  The goal was to obtain harsh shadows and bright highlights and shadows and highlights there were.  I really don't like the way it turned out though.  I find some of the flowers blown out in a way that doesn't appeal to my eye. 

 High-key. Is this even high-key?  I'm not too sure.  In my mind, high key equals evenly lit, no shadows but overall really bright, maybe even overexposed a slight bit.  Anyway, this is the picture I got for high-key.  I was shooting at the tail end of daylight so I had to turn on my kitchen light (hence the warmness from the tungsten lights).  I think there is a little extra light from the side, reflecting off the yellow flowers in the back, which takes away from the evenly lit image I was trying to achieve. 

Well, enough of the technical stuff (for now).  I managed to escape to the mountains for a couple days this past week and got a few good shots.  It was mighty cold, but so refreshing to escape the city and hear nothing but the wind rustling through the trees and the snow crunching beneath our shoes.

Metering

First off, I'd like to announce I am now the proud owner of a 50mm f/1.4 lens.  <3
I had an amazing opportunity to test it out on Friday with Hope.  Eventually I found at that it was simply a distraction to get me out of the house so my friends could get my surprise party together.  But I'm not going to complain, I got to shoot with an external flash, try out my new lens, and I got the pants surprised off me when I returned home.  Perfect Friday night if you ask me.

I'm a little on the slow side, but I've finally been able to complete the metering assignment!  

 White on black. I had good daylight to work with, so didn't have to do any adjustments as far as ae +/- goes.  I metered the white canvas to obtain a shutter speed of 1/250s using ISO 200. 

 Black on black.  I had a hard time with this one.  I tried metering different objects but couldn't get the detail of the herringbone.  I ended up using the 18% gray paint sample thinger that Hope gave us at the last workshop, and took the shot with a shutter speed of 1/80s. 

 White on white.  After looking at this one a little closer, it ended up being my favorite.  Initially I liked the white on black but I really like the shadows in the background of this one.  I metered the white canvas (as I did with white on black). 

Again on this one, I had troubles capturing the detail of the herringbone.  I first metered the canvas.  The white background was way blown out and I didn't like the way it took away from the shoe.  I next tried metering the white background but again, didn't like the way it turned out.  In the end, I metered the rubber sole of the shoe and used a shutter speed of 1/50s. 

So there we have it.  New lens, practice with flash, and metering.  I cannot wait to get started on the scavenger hunt!

S is for....

Sensitivity!!

I had fun with this one. =)  I was able to dedicate more time to the exercise, so I did it over and over again with different objects.  My favorite ended up being a vintage brooch that I found in my grandma's old jewelry box a few months ago.

I had to start with ISO 1600 and go from there because my camera doesn't have ISO 3200.

ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/80

ISO 800, shutter speed 1/50

ISO 400, shutter speed 1/25

ISO 200, shutter speed 1/10

ISO 100, shutter speed 1/6

Looking at each picture zoomed in, I initially had a hard time distinguishing differences between them.  I knew what I was looking for (based on what we learned at the first workshop), but I had a hard time picking it out.  It wasn't until after zooming in, picking a specific edge and looking at that same spot on each photo, that I was able to see the effects of different ISO. The lower ISO I used, the more precise the zoomed image was.  It wasn't as grainy, and more detail could be seen (ie: each individual thread making up the ribbon).  I think it would have been a lot easier if I could have done a side by side comparison of each photo, but after a lot of flipping back and forth the differences caught my eye.  Now I can't help but notice!

F(ocus)

And DOF.

This past week has been so insanely busy, and it doesn't help that the hours of daylight are limited at this time of year.  But, I did manage to get both  exercises done.

F(ocus):

And now, DOF.

f5.6, ISO 400

f8.0, ISO 800.  I initially tried to use ISO 400, but I had to decrease my shutter speed to 1/25, which was a little to slow for my shaky hands.

f11.0, ISO 1600.  Again, had to adjust ISO instead of shutter speed.

 

f16.0, ISO 1600.  

Let the journey begin!

I've been sitting here for the last 10 minutes typing and deleting, and typing, and deleting.  Truth is, I can't seem to find the proper words to get this blog rolling.  So, I'm just going to jump right in and hope for the best.

Today was day one of the DLS journey, and it was so beyond wonderful!  Hope promised that I'd go home with two things: a shopping list and the urge to shoot everything.  She wasn't lying!  I truly have a list worth thousands of dollars and no money to spend (three cheers for a student budget).  But what I do have is my trusty Canon, a fresh memory card, and the itch to click.  Tomorrows light couldn't come soon enough!  Stand by for some epic self-timer shots!  For now though, here are a few favorites from the holidays (which included a fabulous trip to The Netherlands).

Meet Jethro.  He's not mine, but it sure was nice having him around my house for a few days.  He is a wonderfully playful puppy and has a great appetite for leather.  More particularly, leather straps that belong on boots.  As his punishment, I forced him to model for me.

 My family was strongly opposed to the idea of being photographed on Christmas morning.  Fortunately enough Prancer here cooperated. 

Can you believe they consider this winter!?  Ten above and no snow.  It almost felt as if I were in Hawaii!