Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Home Sweet Home

Every year in the area where I live there is what's called a "Tulip Festival" where hundreds of thousands of people come to see the tulips. There are several fields scattered throughout the valley with loads of events accompanying the flowers. When I was younger I never understood why people would travel so far to see the flowers, but now I appreciate the vibrant colors and greenness of my home valley.

Here are a few pictures of what the fields look like. There are many different colors of flowers and countless acres of fields to walk through. The only pitfall is this event takes place in April in Washington, so there's most likely going to be rain, if not, the fields are still extremely muddy.







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Here are some photos I have taken.

This first picture was taken about 3 years ago on a trip to Malta, MT


This photo was taken last week at Norm's Island in Billings, MT

This photo was taken summer 2014 at Rosario Beach in Washington.

Monday, September 28, 2015

In class photos

Below are some of the pictures I took in class on 9/24/15.

In this first photo I saw this tree and though the leaves stood out because of the color. These leaves exhibit shades of red, which works with the photography rule that red draws more attention than yellow. 
 In this picture, all of the tree had green leaves, except for this small section of leaves that had yellow and red coloration as well as the other part to the tree. In this picture I tried to use the rule that difference draws more attention than conformity.

In this picture, the branches of the tree form an interesting pattern. For the most part I thought this sort of showed the rule that diagonal lines are more attractive than vertical ones. 

Camera

I was having some trouble trying to figure out how to adjust the settings on the camera I borrowed, so I looked up information on how to do that. I found a lot of articles that had some useful information, but the most useful source I found was this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XAAxP5Chds

There was also a second part:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g_pzy7LVKY&feature=iv&src_vid=9XAAxP5Chds&annotation_id=annotation_891457

These videos went through step by step what each button on the camera did. I found them very helpful! If you have this camera it may be helpful to watch it. If not, if you search your camera type on youtube there is likely a video tutorial.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Sunsets

I think sunsets are among some of the coolest pictures. However, I have never been very successful at capturing them. Whenever I take a picture the bright colors of the sky are always faded in the photograph. So, I looked up some tips on how to create vibrant sunset shots. I read multiple articles that all had conflicting views on how to get the best scene. Many articles I read said to use a neutral density graduated filter to reduce the contrast in order to create a bright sky and dark foreground. Also, many articles said to find an object of interest to create a silhouette with and add more depth to the photo. And to make sure you do not place the horizon directly in the middle of the photo. It can be in the top or bottom third. 

The most useful article I found was: http://improvephotography.com/544/how-to-shoot-light-trails/. Here's a picture I found from that site:
how to photograph a sunset

Here are few more sunset pictures that I found:


http://favim.com/image/81980/ 

http://www.jameszeddphotography.com/2015/02/04/beautiful-landscape-photography/ 

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Dead battery...

Last weekend I wanted to practice using the different settings on my camera, so I decided to go to Norm's island to take a walk and practice using my camera along the way. However, shortly after I turned my camera on, the battery died. Thus my practice session did not take place. Instead I decided to enjoy an evening walk before heading home. While on the walk there was a double rainbow that I attempted to photograph on my smart phone. Here's the result of that:

The scenery isn't very pretty, but I thought the rainbow looked neat. My camera phone pictures don't do it justice. Lesson of the day is always make sure your camera battery is charged.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Creating Stories

I recently read an article on outdoorphotographer.com about building stories out of photos. The best pictures tell the greatest stories. They evoke emotion in the viewer. Different moods can be created from exposure, weather, and color. All of which helps create a story because stronger emotions help our imagination to interpret the scene the best. Additionally, a photographer should be aware of all the parts that make up the whole of the photo because these are easy to forget about, but do influence the story.

I love this photo taken by the author. He decided to not use a super telephoto lens in order to create a wider perspective and capture the whole scene.




In this picture, the photographer extended the exposure time to set the mood with the softer edge to waves.


http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/building-stories.html#.Veh8YflViko