Starting back up

I am going to begin working on the blog soon. I finally have a digital camera to shoot with and I have ordered Photoshop but it will be about 8 days till it gets here. Today was the first day shooting with the camera I was loaned and I shot 200 images and was very, very happy. Some of the images were not very useful at all but I was learning the settings a little and getting use to the feel of the camera. I shot everything in raw format so I have to figure out how to switch the images to a usable format without having Photoshop for the next week.

It's weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don't even amount to a couple of hours.  ~James Lalropui Keivom

Plans for the future.

No pictures today. I have uploaded all of my images from my Black and White photography class. I am considering what I want to achieve with this blog. I am planning to start shooting digital pictures soon and will be uploading lots of pictures.

I am going to be using a website called digital photography school to help me educate myself. I will be using some of the articles on the website and I will be mostly using the contest section. They do bi-weekly photography contests on their forums. I do not plan to enter any contests but I am going to be using the backlog of contests to give myself assignments for every week.

I am hoping to try and visit some exhibits in the local museums to see if there are any photography exhibits being shown. I need to work on analyzing photographs. I only really look at an image to see if it appeals to me and never really go into why. I need to understand the images.

I am also wanting to start working on Photoshop. So much can be done with it, and it is such a large part of the photography world that I need to learn to use it properly.

Hopefully I will be able to start working towards these goals. I will be trying to set up a calendar of weekly posts.  Probably going to do one day out of the week will be talking about my weekly assignment, one day posting hat I did, another day of messing with Photoshop and one day just trying to analyze photographs. But a formal schedule will not appear for a little while, at least till I get into the swing of things and see about time.

Everyone has a photographic memory, but not everyone has film.  ~Author Unknown

Extra Black and White Photos from class.

Through out the six week semester I often took photos that had nothing to do with the assignment. I grouped those photos that I liked into this post because they did not fit into the other posts. Sometimes I just take pictures because I think it will work, or I hope it will work.

This image is from the Wick Pollock Inn. It was bottles of what appeared to be olive oil or possibly some other oil. I like the lighting on this image. It highlights the plant inside the bottle very well and captures your attention. It might need to be darkened a little bit though.

This image is of a toy train. I really like the depth of field and the black and white gives a good tonal range to the train. It sort of appears creepy. The lighting worked well to just add a soft glow because I had very little direct light on it

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I shot this image while walking through Boardman Park. It was a fire hydrant just off the side of the hike and bike trail. I shot it nearing sunset creating the strong lighting on the left side. It was amazing in color because it had a golden glow to it but I was shooting B&W film. A sepia tone added to this image might be able to recreate the color and the emotion of the shoot. The image also has pretty good balance.

These images are of a rose bush outside my house. I feel the left image has a stronger composition with a good balance but I really like the angle of flower in the right image. Spot toning the flower could make these images stand out really well. I think the right image needed a shallower depth of field because the background has to much clutter.

This image of my guitar I feel is strong from a compositional stand point. The lines lead you through the image and the background has no clutter to pull you away from the guitar. The problem though is the image needs lightened a little bit and the right side needs cropped to remove the back of the chair it is sitting on. A sepia tone would greatly improve this image.

I photograph to see what something will look like photographed. - Garry Winogrand 

Black and White Photo Assignment 4 Extra Images

These are the extra images from assignment four. I liked these images but not as much as the ones submitted for the assignment. Some of them are extras shot that did not focus on hands so they did not fit the theme.

This is another image of Jen. I like the cropping but it was not enough to fit into the hand theme. I like the lines of the table and the arm crossing the lines. It causes the arm to stand out so much. I wish the pavilion  with the people in the top right was not there.

This image was alright in my opinion. A few things would have made it stronger. Not having a glare on the paper would look better. Having Jen looking down at the paper would have also been better. Once again I did not watch the edges and my camera bag is in the bottom right corner. Easy to crop out but I shouldn't have to.

I really like both of these images but each one has a problem to me. I like the left image because of the shallow depth of field. The background on the right image takes away to much from the image. I like the right though because I can see more of the face. Either I moved or the subject moved but it is an improvement. I want the background on the left image and the foreground on the right.

This image I liked a little bit more than the one I submitted but I did not like the lighting. The bright spots in the background and take away a little. I think the hand could have been positioned a little higher in the frame to better take advantage of the rule of thirds.

This image might be my favorite of this subjects hands but it was not turned in because of a lighting problem on the hand. I corrected the light because it was really bad using Photoshop though for this image. The hand was white with splotches of dark and I was not successful with burning it in when making prints.

I like this image because of the repeating shapes going across the background. The image did not fit with the assignment though because it does not feel like the hand is the subject. The cement containers are much more prominent. Trimming the left side a little might make it a pretty good image of the containers though.

I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing.  After all, you are taking some of their soul.  ~Mary Ellen Mark