Passion for Photos

This week I decided to do an exercise that I normally absolute despise. Shoot everything fully automatically. My old point & shoot camera got stolen so I decided to buy a new one. I paid less than $200.00 for it and I would like to find out if I can produce great images with it. Normally I shoot almost everything manually. This will be a real challenge for me. I also decided not to use any filters, tripods etc., just the camera.

Smaller camera sensors are usually very good with close-ups. Here I shot the chain of a large container. Camera setting (automatic): 28mm focal length,  f3.3, 1/60sec., ISO 80.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

It is a “long way” to the top. The railing on the right and the stairs create the feeling of distance between the person that is just about to start climbing the stairs and the entrance door of the building. Distance and feeling of depth in an image go often hand in hand.

Enjoy and happy Friday

The large leaf with the brightest green clearly dominates this image. The leaves in the background that are partially covered by other leaves create the feeling of depth in this image.

I photographed these leaves at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, CA. The Conservatory is the oldest building inside the Golden Gate Park and worth a visit anytime. It is a paradise for photographers.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Showing a path is another way of creating the feeling of depth. I was hiking in Muir Woods and climbing for a while. My camera has fogged up when I photographed this image which ads a mysterious effect to the image. The hiking path created a deep feeling of space and it invites the viewer to follow.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

This image follows the same composition principle than yesterday’s image. I put the rocks into the foreground which create a nice implied line towards the tree and the mountain in the background.

This image was photographed on the other side of Hwy 120 at Olmstedt Point in Yosemite National Park. Enjoy and happy photographing!

This weeks exercises are about depth in an image. I challenge you to create image that shows maximum feeling of depth.In order to archive this you need to determine a foreground and a background that jumps into your eyes.If you create the composition in your mind consider that the foreground and the background could be an image in itself.

In this images I use the rocks as my foreground, the lake itself serves as a “connector” between the rocks and the mountains. The mountains and blue skies are the background.

Enjoy and happy photographing

This is the wall imprint of my door knob. The door stopper did not work properly. This is my favorite subject and it is so obvious how a little change of direction from right to left has such a profound impact on this image.

Enjoy!

This is the top of an old coffee grinder. My family received it as a gift in 1952 and we keep it on our fire place. Again, the only thing I changed was the direction of the light. I used an 85mm portrait lens at f 2.8.

This is my wife’s purse. I was laying around our living room. I mounted the camera on my tripod and photographed it twice. I only changed the direction of the light. Observe carefully how this changes the image!

Have fun with this exercise!

This weeks photographic exercises emphasise the usage of light. Take your camera and pick one lens that you use for all the shots. I picked my 85mm portrait lens and a 12mm extender because I wanted to shoot close-ups. The pick a f stop that you use for all your shots. I picked f2.8 because I wanted a very narrow depth of field. The use of a tripod is highly recommended to keep the camera stable. The pick a light source. I picked a small umbrella with a daylight (5600k) light bulb. You may choose any other light source even a flashlight. Then set up and focus your camera and take at least two shots. The only difference between the shots should be the direction of the light. Your subject can be anything in your house or apartment. Here is my first example:

My subject is a knob of my wife’s drawer. As you can clearly see there is a very shallow depth of field and the light is coming from about 1o’clock.

In the second example the light is coming from 11 o’clock giving the image a totally different feeling. All the settings are the same, only the light comes from a different direction.

Happy photographing and don’t forget “photography” means painting with light!