Wednesday I posted about my new photography project to improve my creativity and imagination. The project started just over three weeks ago so I'm a little behind on documenting how it's going. Exercise 1 and 2 were in the last post, this post covers Exercise 3. Basically the assignment started at your front door, walk a prescribed number of steps, then shoot 20 photos within the proscribed radius. My steps took me to our breakfast nook. Here's the best of the 36 photos from that exercise. (All photos Canon 70D w/18-400 telephoto)
I may have cheated a bit with the direction I choose. The breakfast table was covered with the stuff we were decluttering from other locations. So there was a lot of subject matter, but how to make good pictures from those odds and ends? That was the challenge. My Guy makes his own beer, these bottles are old so were slated to be dumped. I like the narrow depth of field in this one and the way the light highlights the right side of the bottles.
My Guy has several herbs sitting in front of the window, those were also within in my radius. I like the diagonal lines that run from left to right. I got the depth of field right as most of the leaves are in focus.
I like the dark monochromatic colors and the texture of this shot. Any guess what these are?
Lastly, I really like the detail in this photo and the angle isn't usual. The lighting just works. This is half of a set of book ends, the other end is the front of the bike.
Those are my favorites from the exercise. There wasn't much practicing after this assignment because it was so cold. But it snowed one morning, so a walk (a short one I assure you, it was pretty cold) yielded this shot.
I really wanted the tree with the snowy field in the background. It took a bit of maneuvering to get the perspective I wanted. The composition is what I wanted, but this isn't a sharp photo. The branches look blurry when you blow it up. It was a really dreary day and my combination of shutter speed with aperture just wasn't up to getting the right depth of field for a sharp image.
What did I take away from this exercise? Judicious cropping coupled with a narrow depth of field can create an interesting photo of even mundane objects. I still need to work on learning all my camera settings to address blurry and dark photographs.
Fun to see what you saw and how you photographed it! I like the perspective on the bottles and the green leaves. That's definitely something a cellphone camera doesn't do well. The photo where you asked if we could guess what it was looks likes handles of something - maybe some of your grocery bags?
ReplyDeleteI guessed grocery bags, too. And I love the highlights on the bottles.
ReplyDeleteLoved the photos. What is the herb?
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun exercise. I especially like the bottles. Do you think the focus issue (can’t really see it from my end) is really a matter of the ISO setting? It looks like a fairly dark day, and I wonder if its graininess in the photo when you blow it up rather than focus. I’ve seen that happen with my own photos. It sounds as if your book has some interesting exercises. I might have to take a look at that.
ReplyDeleteAt first I guessed shirt collars! But that didnt seem right. I am a quilter and wannabe photographer as well so enjoy these posts!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, you all are into a lot of hobbies! I like the light hitting the beer bottle caps too. Not a clue what the ribbons of something are.
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