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!