An apple and a banana walk into a bar...

The other day in class we started black & white photography. Here is my first attempt; look for the black and white eggplant to come soon!

This Weekend

I went to the National Book Festival and stood in line for a LONG time to get a book signed. Luckily I got to wait in the shade for a little while though. I find myself shooting during midday on a regular basis. Not my favorite conditions. I tend to have a break at work around 5:30 though so hopefully I'll start getting some better lighting. In the meantime, here are two shots I took on Saturday.

I set my camera up on the fly... the shutter speed was a little to slow, so I got a huge blur of the train. But it was speeding past as the shot was taken!

Thank god for shady trees!

Sunlight Class Project

I started out taking the following photo. I liked how the leaves looked in the sun and the low angle shot of the statue.


In the middle of shooting, a nun walked by. I like the idea of this shot, but I wish it was actually in focus.

I also liked the close up of the grass, it has a lot of good highlights in it from the sunlight.

Caldwell had a nice glow to it, and the windows and old stone work make it an interesting facade.


I like having the smooth bench in the background, with the very textured flowers in the foreground.

Shutter Speed Assignment

I took two different sets of shots for this...
Low Speed:


High Speed:
Low Speed:
High Speed:

Aperture Assignment

Low aperture:


High Aperture:
Why do they look basically the same?

Practice makes perfect

Was out randomly shooting today... Got my shots for the assignment last week and will be posting them tomorrow morning. I went out and took pictures before work today, I really like the repetition that shows in these:

Don't Judge Me By These

Please, really, don't judge me. I wanted to take low-light photos and my roommate was making pancakes in our kitchen with just the stove light (the other roommates were watching a movie 10 feet away). So the light is awful and yellow and dark. Plus, when you have to be bracing yourself to make sure the shot stays clear, you have very little options for interesting composition. On top of that, pancakes are just not as interesting as I hoped I could make them. So here are my failed attempts at low-light shots. What could I have done differently? Most of the shots were taken with a very slow shutter speed and a high aperture. And tungsten white balance.

I caved and used flash on these two. The top one was with daylight white balance and the lower one is tungsten. Look how blue it is!

That's my overly crowded stove... I like the mug in the middle of all that black, but its still not a very interesting shot. So if you can find some merit in these let me know, for now I'm considering them a learning experience in HOW to shoot in low-light (as opposed to deciding WHAT to shoot).

Three Inspiring Photos

I'm really lucky to have my uncle around as an inspiration for my photography, he has some great insight and will be a great resource this fall. This is a shot he took in Scotland... (Check out his website here.)

(Scottish Highlands by Duncan Putman)

My best friend studied an incredible photographer named Gjon Mili this summer. He does all sorts of excellent work with light and shutter speed. He was a film-photographer, so some of the shots are much more incredible because all of the "photoshopping" was done by hand during developing and shooting. This photo happens to come from a series, the subject is Pablo Picasso! He draws the shapes with a flashlight and Mili does some fancy stuff that I don't entirely understand yet with exposure and overhead lights.

(Picasso with Flashlight by Gjon Mili)

The third inspiration I've chosen is my boyfriend's father. He keeps a blog on blogspot as well (please follow the link here or in linked blogs to check it out), and does incredible work all over the world.

(Times Square by Craig Corl)

What Not To Do

In taking shots on auto I figured out a few things that really need to be paid attention to. Mainly that involves lighting for the photos. For example:


When you try to shoot from light to dark obviously the camera will adjust to whichever environment its in. In this case it made the pillars extraordinarily bright with the inner area being much too dark, which wasn't what I was thinking of when I took it.

As I mentioned yesterday, there is also the awesome addition of flash.


I generally don't like using flash, I'd prefer natural lighting. So the flash really washes out this shot and doesn't help at all.

Also, as a bonus there is this shot:

Which I can't decide if I like or not. I like the idea of odd focus-points, but this seemed weird to have the un-focused blob right in the center. The branch of that plant extended up toward me, MUCH closer than the other flowers. I didn't realize it looked quite the way it did until I got it onto my computer screen.

I'm starting to develop a list of things to pay attention to while I'm shooting. Eventually they'll become second nature, but right now it seems like a long list!

Fruit Stand

I get 15's and 30's for breaks when I work at Union, so I go out into the entrance way to shoot. The other day I decided to shoot the fruit stand and I'm hoping the gentleman who runs it doesn't have an issue with me doing that frequently. I think next time I'll try using the root veggies as subjects since they're not as colorful and interesting.

I took versions of each of these with flash and without; on auto the camera set itself to flash, so I had to manually put the light (technical term?) down to change it. I like them better without the flash, but tomorrow I'll post pictures from both shoots and talk more about things that I did (intentionally or not) that I ended up not liking.

First Real Go Around

So the camera didn't make it out of DC this weekend, I didn't have a small case for it until Monday and I didn't want to lug the giant bag out on the metro. But I did take some shots while at work, and I'll take some more tomorrow and this weekend. Here is one, completely untouched (I really want to straighten it) and taken on auto.

But Why?

Well, for starters, I'm an art minor. Art 329 is the final course for my digital concentration. I love art of all kinds and part of my fascination is being forced to be creative. To look at the world from a different point of view and to lead others (through painting/drawing/photography) to look at the world in a different way. I'm really excited to use my camera as it is intended, instead of just on auto. I was given a Canon Rebel for my birthday with an additional lens that I have NO idea how to use. But I'll be figuring that out. This weekend I'm hoping to take some shots, I'll be at my mom's friend's house, so lots of good stuff there!