The other day, I headed over to the local reservoir because—and I’m trusting you here with something personal, so be kind—I needed to escape. It had been a looooong few days, and walking around with my camera was the perfect respite. ANYWAY No planning went into this photo, outside of grabbing a graduated ND filter. Impulsive, me, same thing. I also used various Neutral Density filters to lower shutter speed in a few of them. Here’s the explanation for the title of this post: to create that smooth lake surface you need to drop the shutter speed. To drop the shutter speed, you need to limit the light, beyond aperture…
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How many times have you sought validation for your photography from others? When you first start out, every (or most) photo you take feels important.“Look! Look what I learned to do!”You set up flowers in your kitchen and practiced lighting—(If you change the “you” to “I” and “me”) I took my camera on walks with my children so I could snap photos of butterflies. I uploaded those photos to the photography group I joined and… Had someone say, “This is good, but not quite there.” What the heck did that mean? Or, I proudly displayed a photo where I had just learned to select a single color and turn everything…
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Have you ever noticed that lol now looks like a person throwing their arms up as if to say they give up on this conversation? Just me? Okay then. Moving on. Sorting through old photos on a hard drive, I came across a classic example of how just changing where you stand when composing a photo. In this case it was a field trip to Gettysburg Civil War Battlefield. The lighting, the blue sky, and the history surrounding me. Perfect place for a school trip and practicing photography. I took this photo, looked at my screen and realize it would like much better with the stature facing me. So, I…
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What’s wrong with this photo: No, I’m not expecting you to track down my email/phone number/home address and give me your opinion. Nor do I want you to, life is scary enough as it is. Just answer in your head, ok? Or, if you must, write it down somewhere, but this isn’t a test. I know what bother me, what bothers you? This photo wasn’t planned out, although I’ve been eyeing this location as I sped by on the highway for awhile now, always intended to stop when the lighting is good and I have the time. Well, I finally stopped, short on time and iffy on lighting because I…
