50mm Friday - Rusty Lock Hasp

Friday September 28 2012. 50mm Friday.

A great shot of a rusty crusty lock hasp in the early morning light. Nothing looks better than rust in the morning light.

Chris.

Started From Scratch

As I've noted in a previous post I was very unhappy with the portraits of my kids I did out at the lake this summer. Of course I waited too long to do them and the day felt rushed and so on and so on.

What I did was take the photos in lightroom, reset them completely and worked them a bit from the beginning. I'm happier with the results now and I think I'll let it go and just be glad that I have something from the rock at the lake this year. Sometimes you just need to accept your own failings and move on.

 

 All in all, I think they look good enough to print. There's a project for the weekend.

Chris.

Priceless.

Click for Priceless Photography Funny!

Arachnus Deathicus

It's for stuff like this that I need that 100mm macro lens.

 

Chris.

The Best Camera....

It's been said, over and over again, that the best camera is the one you have with you. Well, I suppose that is true but I still think my Canon 50D kicks my iPhone 4's ass every time. That said my iPhone is easier to take along on bike rides and get great fun memories like this one.

She made the 2 mile ride to the 7-11 and never complained once. That's my girl.

So, my iPhone may not be the best camera I own but it sure is the most convenient.

Chris.

Cool Rock - Fridge Panel

My kids found the coolest rock a while ago. It's been sitting on the front porch for weeks. Today I thought "hey, that would look really cool on my fridge panel" and here we go. I was right.

Chris.

Reflective Panel

I have a black fridge panel that is nice and reflective. I used to use it all the time for small objects. Over the last year, I've been so busy at work that I've stopped taking photos of those small objects on my fridge panel on top of my desk. I've decided to change that.

Here is the first of what I hope to be many fridge panel photos.

Chris.

It Comes Down To Complacency

I've become complacent. Yup. I finally figured it out. I like to think I'm such a great photographer and then I go and do something that a beginner would do. I took a photo of my kids in a more or less back lit scene and screwed it up. I know better but I was in a hurry and just rushed through it.

Here's what I did.

I posed them on a rock that I use every year out at the lake for their portraits. It was late in the summer and early in the morning. That rock is to my south so the sun was coming in from behind them camera left when I took the shot. I used spot metering (no idea what got me on that kick) and just took the shot.

Well to say the least, it looked like crap. I'm not happy with the photo at all and when I tried to fix it up a bit, I just made it worse. Here are the results.

Original image.

 

Ok, I could have just adjusted the exposure on the image but if you look at the hot spots along the side of the kids and the rock where the light is coming in, you can imagine how blown out that gets with even the slightest adjustment.

So called edited image.

To say the least I'm going to have to redo these shots. The problem is it's a 2 hour drive out to the lake one way just to take them. Fortunately, I have to go out in a couple weeks anyway so I will take the kids and reshoot the photos.

What will I do differently this time? Well first off I'm going to pay more attention to the direction of the light. I'm going to take my flash, my light stand and my umbrella this time to get a nicely exposed image that I will be happy to print and give out to family and friends. Not this crap I produced this time.

It just goes to show that once you start thinking you are a good photographer, you start to make mistakes that can just be avoided. All I needed to do was slow down and analyze the scene.

Here is a shot I took using my flash in a very similar situation. Much better exposure.

The sun is coming from behind her camera left just like the rock portraits but by this time I had figured out my error and popped the flash on my camera with the diffuser as well. I'm happy with this photo. I didn't do any editing other than a crop and a very slight exposure bump. Very slight just to bring the whites up a bit.

Now if you are a potential client of mine, please only look at the last image. :) Talk about not showing your mistakes! I believe in helping people to learn and showing how human I am no matter what I tell myself.

Chris.