Salmon Skin

I'm not too happy with this photo, but I figure some practice is better than none.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of an object or surface that has a glint or a sparkle in it today. #ds338

Yellow Peanut Shell Pail

In post processing, I actually decreased the saturation of this photo. I have never done that before but per my "Creative Camera Techniques" class, tried to do something to the opposite of what I usually do. I liked decreasing the saturation because it made the pail feel a little grittier. In this case, taking down the saturation takes a little emphasis off the color and adds a little emphasis to texture and composition.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of a curved line or spherical surface today. #ds337

Second camera class

I took a class with Amber and Christie at Newspace again, this one called "Creative Camera Techniques."  The teacher, Zeb Andrews, has some really freakin' incredible photos, and we got to go through a small number of his pictures to understand his experimental approach.  For the analytical among us (me), he shared some of the settings he used to take various photos, as well.

All of the class material was really interesting but if I am honest with myself, I walked away feeling like only a small part of it was relevant to my ultimate goal of taking better personal photos.  When I thought we'd learn how to photograph in low light, I wasn't really thinking star fields; I was more so thinking of learning tips and tricks for, say, taking pictures inside the low light of my house.

Nonetheless, I think I will use most of the techniques I learned in the class, just perhaps sparingly.  The techniques will make a small percentage of my photos a lot better, whereas I went into the class with the hope that it would make a large percentage of my photos a little better.  The technique that really appealed to me the most was shooting into the sun for some cool flare effects, and I definitely walked away with a better understanding of aperture and overall camera mechanics.  That said, I felt like the section on perspectives was fairly obvious, and the discussion on using light meters was (for me) redundant from a previous class.  It turns out that I don't particularly like intentionally blurred photos (I will still work hard to try to get one as he taught us in class, as I can see it coming in handy in occasional situations - kid sports, probably).  I actually really like the long exposures of night sky for star fields, but only see myself doing that when I happen to pack a tripod on vacations (though I have to say I am churning at the bit to have a vacation so that I can experiment with some cool star trail pictures).

I know I'm forgetting a lot of stuff in the class.  The best part, imho, was just hearing the teacher speak passionately about his photography, which I found infectious.  My top takeaways, I think, are (1) how to make the sun a strong element of the photo, as well as the instructor's perspective of (2) any element that does not strengthen an image actually just makes it weaker.

We went out to take pictures twice during this class, for about 2h of time.  That was fabulous, as we got very little hands-on time for the first class that I took at Newspace.  I carried my water bottle with me for much of our shooting time in this class, however, and that was a bit cumbersome in combination with my 5" zoom lens mounted on my camera.  I got a few shots that I am happy with, however, which you can view on my Flickr account.

three berries

I actually paid some attention to aperture here instead of just swinging it all the way wide to get DoF

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of three items arranged in a composition that pleases you. #ds336