Close up

Don't lick me!

Yes, this is one of those weeds that grows in your yard that are the ones that if you lick or eat it you can hallucinate. Don't judge me, I didn't plant it, it just was available for a close up. This photo was cropped in Windows Live Photo Gallery and the brightness and color were also adjusted.  I left it off center to put the flower more towards the rule of thirds. I also left the top left dark to balance out the white of the flower as there is also an unopened blossom back there as well. As I have stated before, I enjoy macro photography as I have walked past this weed dozens of times and never paid much attention to it. However, I love the texture of the leaves with the holes left by some insect and the imperfections on the flower that look like mud splatters. Having to look closer at subjects makes me notice textures and subtleties that I would normally overlook.

Black and White

April in hiding.

Okay, okay, I have a lot of dogs and they are great subjects for photos. This is April, a 9 year old Blue Merle Aussie. I found her hiding under a truck, trying to escape from all of the other dogs to get some rest. I chose to put this photo into black and white to display the range of colors of white white to blackest black and everything in between. I crawled under the truck and used the crossbars to frame her in the bottom third of the photo and put her left eye in the upper right cross-hairs of the rule of thirds. I whistled to her to have her perk her ears up and pay attention to me, but was only able to get two shots before she ignored me and went back to sleep. The light is behind her, but I took both photos with flash to compensate for the shade she was in. Now, the only problem with getting under the truck was the grease that was in my hair for two days from scraping my head on the bottom of the trailer. . .how embarrassing!

Animal

Dixie, the guardian.

This is a guard dog. Unfortunately, she loves everyone. Can you tell? I swear this dog is smiling.
The photo is cropped in Windows Live Photo Gallery and the exposure and color are touched up in the editing process. I think this photo captures this dog's personality. . . I had to get up off of the ground before she got to me or the camera and I were going to be licked to within an inch of our lives. I lined up her eyes with the rule of thirds and love that her tail was wagging to the right of the photo also in the upper one third of the shot. The shot is also of her walking towards me, so I used the sports setting on the camera to catch her tail without it going blurry as it wagged. The sun was to my right in the morning to reduce shadows.

Portrait, almost

Photo of one person. . .and a dog!

In this photo, I used my daughter and Molly snuggling on the couch. The photo was cropped with Windows Live Photo Gallery and I also used that editing software to enhance the colors and adjust the exposure. 

The difficulty of this assignment is that no one wants to pose for a photo! The dogs are happy to have their photos taken, but people are all upset about seeing a camera in someone's hands. They worry about make-up, if their hair is okay, what they are wearing, and how they look. I'm not sure that this photo captures my daughter's inner and outer self, but what I do know is that no one will ever love you like a good dog! If you have ever had a bad day, go home to a good dog and even the worst day is a little better with a little love from your favorite pet. My daughter has chronic migraines (a migraine every day) and this little dog can sense when the pain is the worst and is very gentle with her. Molly spends her days inside with my daughter as a constant companion and little love bug to help when the pain is too much for all of the medications. 

Angles, Angles, Angles

Unusual Angle.

This photo is taken from the base of a tree looking up. I cropped the photo using Windows Live Photo Gallery and used the histogram alter the exposure and color. When I approached this photo assignment, I looked for shots that would be from any angle other than the sight line of a human. So, I started thinking about the perspective of insects and how they would see things. As I took this shot, I lined up the trunk on the left bottom as a lead in line and followed the trunk into the upper right side of the photo like a winding road

Action Butterflies

Action Shot

Thank goodness I have Butterfly Bushes in my back yard. They are covered in butterflies daily. In this photo I used Windows Live Photo Gallery and used the histogram to change the exposure and color to bring out the butterfly on the left. I used the sport setting on my daughter's camera as I spent a long time trying to capture these two flying around and just couldn't do it until I changed the settings on the camera! This was a real challenge to capture one of these in flight, and get it next to the other butterfly. What I learned in this assignment was to sit and wait, shift positions and wait, move again and wait. I probably shot 200 photos before I was able to capture this one with a full butterfly in flight. I couldn't edit it much more as it wanted to digitize, however, I would have liked to have gotten closer. . . maybe when I have a couple of more hours to sit and wait.

Transforming/Macro Photo and Flash

Transforming Photo

This is a photo of some Red Yucca (hesper aloe) that I love the hairy little leaves. You might recognize the plant by the coral/red shoots that come out of the top. However, we don't always look at the base of the plant. I took the photo of the base to show a part of the plant that is overlooked especially when it is in bloom. I used Windows Live Photo Gallery to crop the photo and then used the histogram to adjust the color, brightness, and exposure. 

Macro photography is a favorite of mine. When possible, I love photographing bugs, flowers, tree bark, and other things that are easily overlooked. I think it is fun to have people look at the photo and have to adjust their thinking to figure out exactly what they are looking at. 

Lesson #2. Landscape

In this shot I framed the landscape by using the leaves of a tree. I also used the rule of thirds to place one third of the sky in the top of the photo as Carr and Miller Peaks are just above the cross hairs. The photo is also in landscape (that means the long side of the photo is lying down) rather than portrait orientation which also adds to the expected "look" of a landscape photo. I used Windows Live Photo Gallery to crop the photo and then adjust exposure, color, and brightness.

This was a difficult assignment for me as I found that capturing something of interest from such a distance is hard. I shot dozens of photos and as I compared my work to the book, my shots were just BORING. In other styles of photography, I look for a subject and work to get close enough to it to make it fill the space. This assignment works from a distance and I found myself doing more work on the editing end to see if I could pull out interesting colors and contrasts. 

Professional photographers do a much better job of finding interesting colors and subjects as seen below. Notice how even professionals still follow the rule of thirds by using the bottom third of the photo for land and the upper two thirds for clouds. However, it is the lighting of this photo and the capturing of the sun setting reflecting off of the clouds that adds interest to the perspective of the road. 

Your Assignment: 

Take several landscape photographs. Crop them and upload your two favorites to your club's blogger site. Copy and past your website address in the chat box below so we can all see them. 

Photograph by Bruce Dale

Another Depth of Field

Second Depth of Field photo.
In the PowerPoint for the Depth of Field assignment, it says that this type of photo is an image that is in focus. The following photo is an example of that. In this photo I used the sport setting on the camera, took it in the morning with the sun from the side, edited in Windows Live Gallery and cropped and adjusted color and exposure. This was a harder edit as the image wanted to granulate as I got closer. I used the rule of thirds to place the butterfly in the upper right cross-hairs.
The value of this assignment is the way it starts to train individuals to have a "photographic eye". As I was outside, I started to look for visual repetition for my first photo to create a background and in my second photo I was looking for interesting subjects that would be something unusual.

Soft Depth of Field

Depth of Field
This photo displays a soft depth of field where the background items are in soft rather than crisp focus. The first third of that photo is in focus and the rest is not as sharp. The photo is shot in the morning, with the light at my back. I used Windows Live Photo Gallery to crop the photo and minimally play with exposure and colors.

Lesson #1. The Rule of Thirds

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows.

As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.

With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Not only this – but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

My favorite subject, Molly! This power pack of 16 lbs of Aussie is a full grown dog. I have focused upon her unique eye and placed it in the upper left of the rule of thirds in the top photo. I used Windows Photo Gallery and used the color, shadow, contrast, and brightness controls to work with her coat colors. In the photo on the bottom, I placed her in profile and worked to get both of her eyes in the sweet spots of the upper cross-hairs of the rule of thirds. I used the same software and controls in the bottom photo.

Your Assignment: 

Find a photo subject (this could be a person, animal, flower, tree, insect, etc.) and take at least 20 photos. Then, crop your photos to place your subject or a portion of your subject in the photo using the rule of thirds. Post your photos to your blogger site and share your web address in the chat box so we can all see your work!