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Showing posts with label composition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label composition. Show all posts

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Upside Down From There

Make a hole with a gun perpendicular
To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It's like a whirlpool and it never ends

"Ana Ng"
by They Might Be Giants





Tuesday, August 25, 2009

"Cherry"

Photos of my neighbor's '32 Ford.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Peek-a-boo

I believe this little fella is some sort of an Anole (lizard). He was following another one up on the deck at the pool but froze when he found my lens peering at him.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

Bridge Out Ahead

Here's a shot from our photo safari on Sunday. This is off of a section of Hwy 129, called The Dragon, which is one of the world's most famous motorcycle ride routes thanks to it's 318 twisting, curving, and banking turns in 11 miles through the Smoky Mountain foothills.

This shot just shows the set up of the old bridge pilings, just to show how beautiful the area is.
But this is the shot I loved because of the composition. I tried it in black and white but you lost a lot that way.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sunday Morning Drive

We were childless this morning so Alexis and I left the house at 7am to go on a photo safari. We ended up driving 100+ miles to the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Unfortunately, the 1,000 percent humidity was oppressive and the ozone impenetrable, so mountain shots were out due to the haze. Even with UV or polarizing filters, it is still to hazy to get a clean shot.
But I didn't let the weather conditions ruin my photo safari. I took just over 100 shots of other things as we meandered through country back roads (right at a photo per mile). I got some real "keepers" today and I'll post some of them over the next few days.

Here's one taken at one of the first stops we made. Alexis noticed this old softball sitting at the base of a lake side tree. To me, this instantly began the storytelling in my head.
I couldn't help but notice the ANCIENT pop top tab (what are those, 30 years old now?) next to it, so I thought this would look great as a black and white.
Which version do you prefer?

Update: Alexis read this post and pointed out that she liked THIS one better. Only a slightly different take, but still, which one do you like better, color or b&w?

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Shadow Shot Sunday

Once again, it is Shadow Shot Sunday over at Hey Harriet's blog and this is my contribution for this week.

I snapped these while cooking a London Broil tonight, using my Big Green Egg.

This is the shadow of my MAPP gas torch that I use to start my lump charcoal.Same torch, shadowing the seasoned top round roast I was cooking today.My glasses on the grill table. I know....awesome, it is the shade of my shades!
My grill spatula turned on it's side.Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Food Porn

This is a shot that I took this weekend for my food blog (Pan seared scallops with golden shrimp sauce...and a bit of sriracha heat!) but it is soooooo purty that I had to post it here too! Not only was it nicely executed from a culinary standpoint, I was proud of the styling, the composition, and color from a photography standpoint.

I'd have to say it's one of the top 10 food shots I've ever created and taken!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

It Was A Dark & Stormy Night....

A cold front bullied East Tennessee last night with gusting winds and showers. It's the kind of night that makes you want to stay in, but it was Friday night and we were childless for the evening, so we headed to downtown Knoxville.

Being the first Friday of the month, we headed to First Friday at the A1 Art Lab in the Old City. Each month they exhibit works of local artists in various media. This month's theme is The Green Theme. Each piece somehow utilized recycled materials.

I'll be honest, I've never been one who cared much for this kind of thing, I'm not into the "artsy fartsy" crowd (or what I perceived as that group). I went once last year just to support a friend who was an exhibitionist....errr.....a friend who was exhibiting his works. Since then we've gone many times and enjoyed it.

"Greta" by Heather Harrison. "Abundancia" by Anna Maria Gundlach. This was a 5-6 feet tall full body piece that was cleverly put together with mjscellaneous pieces that would normally be thrown in the trash. She also had some great clay works. Her clay was some of Alexis' favorites this exhibit.A part of "Consumer Nation" by Eurichea Subagh. She created this set using receipts for her canvas. It was a cool idea and well executed (not to mention a steal at $60, ironically). Unfortunately, my shots of the main piece didn't come out well. This was one of my favorites."Industrial Dance" by Zophia Kneiss composed of recycled steel and quartz. This is a HORRIBLE shot of an excellent piece. I wish I had this one to do over again because it does not do it justice. But if you click on the picture to enlarge and check out the detail of what she's done, you can't help but be impressed with her work.
Artists name and piece title didn't come out on my photo. If someone knows, please leave the info in the comments section so I can update it.
Also artists name and piece title didn't come out on my photo. If someone knows, please leave the info in the comments section so I can update it.
"Corporate Bee" by Peggy Mann. This was my hands down favorite of the night and it wasn't for sale. From straight on, it looks like your typicle office layout map, with offices and cubes laid out. But the map is made of circuit boards and the people in the cubes are Prozac pills. Brilliant idea and great execution, IMO.
Alexis played my photography intern, holding my digital target for me to get a good white balance and helping me switch out lenses.
On the way home, there was a break in the rain, so we stopped off on top of the 11th Street Garage (can you guess where that is?) so I could take a few night city scapes. Of course, they had to include the obligatory nighttime shot of the Sunsphere.
Finally, on the way home, I had to take a slow exposure as we passed a lit up police car on the side of the road. I know it's a bit silly but I like these moving exposure shots.Lessons learned last night:
  1. Keep playing with the manual focus on the prime lens. Still don't have it dialed in.
  2. BE MORE PATIENT.......NOW. I rushed too many shots. I do that in crowds. Take more time just looking before even starting to compose the shot.
  3. Keep this excitement and love for photography up.
Nicole B is hosting her second scavenger hunt. I did the first one and it was a lot of fun. It challenges you to hunt for photographs of 25 certain items in your area. People from all over the world did the last one, so you got to see interesting results. Some people went literal on the items while others were very interpretative.

Get over there and sign up. It starts today and runs through the end of the month. You don't have to be a serious photographer to really enjoy this one. It's FUN!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Saturday Morning Shoot

I hit the road this morning to get reacquainted with my DSLR that I finally got back this week. After two shoots, I am pretty certain they gave me an entirely different camera back and just switched the serial number plate. That or the firmware update made significant changes. Before sending it in, I usually liked to get my light meter about 1/3 to 2/3rd f-stops over neutral. Now, that is overexposed. I'm finding I need to be neutral or 1/3rd under neutral meter.

Anyway, here are some of my shots today.

I played with shadows some and knocked out Shadow Shot Sunday a day early, but that's okay because Harriet, the host of SSS, lives in Australia. They are way ahead of us on the international date/time line so it's probably already Sunday there....in the year 2011 or something.


The shadow of the light post above reminded me of the neck from the Martian ships in the 1953 version of War of The Worlds.
I also toyed around taking reflection shots. The first one my favorite from today. I set this up for about 5 minutes, trying to get the best angle and nailed it on the first shot. I took this using my 50mm prime lens. If you can't tell it's a reflection by the backwards wording, look at the bottom, just left of center and you can see some window cleaner bottles in the window.
I practiced framing shots within the frame. Some were better than others.

I worked on composition as well. I absolutely LOVE 127. As soon as I happened upon this scene, I knew it was going to be worth almost getting hit standing in the middle of the road to take the photograph.
And finally, some just because shots....
DOH! How did I clip off the top of the damn building??????? I was in such a hurry to get the shot while keeping an eye out for the oncoming traffic that I blew the shot. Cute place though.
An accurate depiction of East TN life. In fact, I dance just like the guy in the middle wearing the red shirt.
I adore photos that start a story in my head when I see them. I wonder who had an appointment with Shawanna at the City of Knoxville last week and for what purpose? Did they make the meeting or did losing this note blow it for them? Inquiring minds....
Hope you are having as much fun as I am this weekend.