Low Key Cool

For quite some time now I've wanted to try some low key photograpy; on Friday afternoon I finally got the chance. My nephew was willing so we headed out in search of something to use as a dark background. He actually spotted the wall that we eventually used (nice and dark - on the side of a nighclub). One bonus of the location was that it was partially sheltered from the rain under a bridge on-ramp, and that came in very handy.

To do this type of photography properly I really need a few additional items of equipment. The effect is much better when the light source (i.e. flash) is from the side rather than straight-on. With an umbrella reflector it is softened as well.

Still, given the limitations of the equipment and that this was a first attempt, I'm quite happy with the results.

[Hmmm.  Little problem with this post earlier.  When I uploaded the pictures and edited prior to posting I'd noticed a few differences in the way the code for the pictures looked but when I looked at the final result everything was fine... for a very short time.  Next time I looked at the post the pictures were missing.  Turns out there a new known problem posting from Picasa (which I always use for posting) which hasn't been fixed yet.  The upshot of this is that if you looked at this post during most of the day of April 4th you won't have seen the pictures, just the text, which wouldn't have made all that much sense.  Think I've got it working now, though all the hidden text for all my previous posts isn't working correctly either.  Sigh.  If  it's not one thing it's another.]

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The Fading Colours of Fall

Although I said that the last post would be the only one from last Sunday's set, I felt that this one deserved posting as well, and since I don't have anything else new to post at the moment I figured why the heck not and so here it is...

I've actually been fiddling with it for much of the past week, trying a few different things. It's my impression that the eyes are still a little too much, but if I tone them down at all they pretty much drop right out. On balance, I like the shot better with the colour in the eye than not, even if I haven't managed to get it quite right. Having said that, I've done a print of this that I'm very happy with.

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Learning the Art of the Portrait

For some time now I've been trying to find someone who doesn't mind having their picture taken - a harder challenge than you might think. It's the next logical step for me as I move along the road of photographic discovery. Not that I don't still enjoy landscape/nature photography, but I'm finally feeling competent enough with the fundamentals to move onwards to live human subjects.

This is Devon, the daughter of a friend. She agreed, quite readily apparently, to be the guinea pig for my further search for understanding of light, focus and shutter speed. Little did she know...

Actually, we got quite lucky today. Half an hour earlier the sun was behind some clouds and the light was horribly contrasty and white. Then it came out from behind with some wonderful soft fall colour, and we found the perfect spot with light filtering through some trees. This is probably the only shot I'll post from today, but there were a number of very good ones (in my estimation) at this same location. I'll go down in my books as a top spot, that's for sure - at least until all the leaves fall off the trees. And we won't talk about the fact that I messed up most of the later shots by making the rookie move of not paying attention to my settings... too much time spent lately taking pictures of birds on one of the more automatic camera settings. D'oh!

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Too Much Partying?

This is "Corwin" who's been known to leave the occasional comment on my posts, though it's been a while (what's up with that dude?) since he made that type of appearance. We were having a particularly quite Saturday morning at work a couple of weeks ago so to fill some of the time I spent a few minutes goofing around with the camera while he rather too ably posed for this shot.

It's been a while since my last post, which is too bad as I was on a bit of a roll there... in the in-between I've been busy with a number of things, like trying to learn a bit more about colour spaces and how they relate to screen vs print and researching (then buying) a new printer. I've also shot quite a bit, most of which won't appear here (probably); it's kept me busy with little visible result (so far) here, but it's all part of the process and hopefully will lead to better things in the future.

Oh, I should note, for those who not only read these ramblings but the comments as well, that I probably won't be putting together a book after all (as I'd suggested might happen in my comment on the previous post) as, it turns out, all the 'reasonably priced' options on-line that I've found for publishing said books apply some form of processing to images prior to printing, which just won't work for me - I decide how I want my images to look, not some computer program at a printing house. The idea isn't completely dead, but has definitely dropped far down the priority list.

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18262 Days

These are my parents, who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today. Wow.
Congratulations, and Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

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