Sooooo, admittedly, I may not have taken any photos with on-camera flash with the black background…. HOWEVER, I did experiment heavily with the gels, so I got a good feel for how they worked in conjunction with the external flash, and I got one photo which demonstrated to me how to use gels to make skin tone more natural, so although it was MOSTLY fun, I totally learned something.
These two images are best paired together, because together they taught me the difference between one and multiple gels. The microwave on the left was one maroon colored gel, and the photo of ninja Greta on the right was with 2 or 3 maroon gels on top of one another. It showed me that the effect of gels is not always as powerful as you might think, and that sometimes, multiple of one kind might need to be stacked on top of one another to achieve the right effect.
These images here….. this was all silly fun, but looking back on them now….. I can see Greta’s shirt and the light in the background of the first two photos reacting to the extreme flashes of color differently each time. Those two details look like they’re different in the pictures, despite the fact nothing changed between shoots besides the gel. As for the final picture on the right, it helped me understand what the tamer, more transparent gels can do; They help adjust skin tone in a positive way such as in the next image
After taking a normal flash photo, I saw that Greta’s skin looked more pale because of the unnatural white light of the flash, but with the help of a light brown gel in this photo, Greta’s skin looks much more natural and properly toned color-wise. This was the photo here which helped me realize the value behind gels in photography.
Just as an aside, light orange/brown filters are great for an “80’s party” atmosphere when using a flash, keep that in mind yearbook people, you might RLY need that XD
This photo here, I thought it was the best and most stunning one I took from the whole photoshoot. There’s so much that goes right in it, the sun glows through the geese’s wings, the rule of thirds is followed, the geese line up with the hills/mountains in the background, some are flying, some standing, some taking off….. It just feels like a fantastic photo and there’s so much going right in it. The only grip i have with it is minor, and it’s the tiny house structure in the background on the left, but it’s easy to overlook, so I’m overall INCREDIBLY satisfied with how this photo turned out
Once again, my favorite rule in photograph, that of thirds, is being followed again. It was really cool to see the geese line up (ish) in the picture, and I do have another rendition of this where they’re spread out all over, but it felt too cluttered to be a good picture. This feels better; The more the geese are “neatly” arranged in a far photo, the better it seems to turn out
This was where the telephoto lens helped out greatly, in these next few photos. This one in particular, I was at most as far from Bella & Brin (lol B&B) as they are from the house in the background, and still, the lens gave me the zoom needed to not seem like I was miles away! It feels like a really good serene photo, like an encapsulation of the countryside.
Again, telephoto is incredible. This time, geese were flying past us overhead and a little in front, and I was able to zoom in and capture individual geese if I followed the motion of the flock, albeit with some blurriness. This one stands out as one of the less blurry pictures, and has some interesting space just THERE on the right.
This one was one of the moderately blurry photos, however, I like it because of the blur. It’s not so blurry that it’s unappealing, it rather shows the motion in the flock, especially on the goose in the upper right there. You can practically SEE it beating its wings, and I loved that
This photo has similarities to the first (hence a good photo to end on, calling back to that one), but there are some other bits about it that I really enjoy; For example, the red house in the background give a very farmhouse feel, adding to the countryside feeling of the photo. The geese in flight AND walking is also just a great picture too, especially since you can’t tell if they’re taking off or setting down, that nice bit of ambiguity does add something to the picture, although I know not what it is
(For all photos, settings are 1/250 TV, 100 ISO, 9 F-Stop, +2/3 exposure bias, and 75-300 telephoto lens)
(for each photo) ISO: 800, 1/160 speed, 3.5 F-stop, 28-80 mm lens, +2/3 exposure bias
I never really adjusted the lights through the pictures, they fit rather well. The main and fill light worked quite well to fill in the shadows on Brin’s (hope that’s how you spell your name) face, and by doing so, really highlighted the laugh lines when she smiled or laughed! The only thing I might have changed is the background color, to maybe a grey or white, as Brin’s clothes sort of make her fade into the background, and I can’t decide if that’s a bug or a feature….
Something I like about the background however, is that it really highlights the differences of lighting in her hair! By being a pure-black background, it makes her dark(er) hair color seem more rich and varied, and you can see the waves in her hair really really well!
Overall, I feel like I learned a lot about 3-point lighting and how it can really affect a photo’s quality! I feel like it was well worth the time to experiment with and learn more about!
Of all the things in Duvall that could possibly make it noteworthy, of COURSE CC’s stands high above the rest! If there’s ever a spot to go with friends, it would DEFINITELY be this little ice cream store! I couldn’t in good conscience talk about Duvall without mentioning CC’s. I think that it helps Duvall feel more friendly and is just a great place to find a constantly changing variety of ice cream flavors!
One of the things that is also quite pivotal in Duvall, especially during the summer months, is the river to swim in. Once, I actually swum down so deep, that when I resurfaced, my ears were screwed up, like if I popped them too hard. Quite frequently on the trail, you’ll find people walking their dogs, going for a stroll, or, like me, bike down it! It’s like the little transport hub of Duvall (besides the streets and cars, lol)
One of the most notable features of Duvall is that, no matter where you go, uptown, downtown, ANYWHERE, you’ll always find trees near the houses that people live in. Often times as a child, I’d climb up and hide high up in the trees in my back yard (before they were removed, of course). I have fond memories of using the trees as cover during Nerf wars with friends, evergreen of not. And during the summer and beginning of autumn, we’d have hammocks strung between some of our trees to hang out in, and of course, to swing back and forth til we could see over the fence….. Good times…
Long sidewalks, lots of storefronts, crunchy leaves on the sidewalk, and Christmas lights…. A staple of Duvall in the winter months… No, we don’t lose our leaves in fall, of course, but in NOVEMBER. Autumn is second, colder summer, Winter is Autumn, and then RIGHT at the end, we get ALL our snow at once! >v< Of course, being cold never stopped MY family from getting some CC’s, nor does it stop me from biking. Only rain, snow, or smoke can stop that.
These long, stretching sidewalks offer lots of room for the Halloween activities, summertime parade, and perhaps any other large street activity I’m not aware of. It’s more or less a staple of my Duvall experience, since I go biking somewhat regularly
One thing that’s truly lovely about the river area is how tranquil it is sometimes, it makes for a great space to sit and gather your thoughts. Watching the river rush past, skipping stones, watching dogs play with their owners, listening to the birds angrily chirp at each other during summer, or geese honk overhead, and seeing all the shapes the clouds create in the sky, modifying the area the sun shines on… I don’t know how else to really explain Duvall other than “tranquil, yet energetic.” It’s a place of rest most days, but you better expect that when the weather reaches its extremes, we have plans to make things a TON more fun!
It’s a bit weird to see how my eye for photography has developed over the year (and some extra) that I’ve been learning how to use a camera. I found something good to photograph at every turn, and I often had to stop myself from taking too MANY pictures. There were several strips of road with trees, kids playing in Taylor park, the GIANT downward hill leading downtown… all things I needed to just let slip by for those moments and shots which would truly capture Duvall as it is to me, not as I travel it. I tried to go to the places where I had strong memories tied to, but some of them have been vandalized by spray paint, and others simply don’t mean the same thing to me anymore… Either way, with a standard(ish) 28-80mm lens, I think I captured as much of the essence of Duvall as I could, although I did have another few places in mind. It was too rainy for people to be clambering around the new park, however….. I have a very fond & scary memory of climbing up the side of something that was BARELY meant to be climbed, and NEARLY losing my grip 0~0′
This was the FIRST picture I took and the first picture I saw as an opportunity to take. Just seeing the leaves, signs, mountains, and how the road curves into obscurity behind the trees felt like a scene from a movie, and I just HAD to capture it
I felt that this picture was a very good example of aperture and also just a pretty cute photo. Someone’s toddler looking at animals for the first time felt like an excellent moment to capture, plus framing it through the face hole of the painting was just too good an opportunity to pass up
I saw the twisty, cragged tree, and I just KNEW I had to frame something thru it, and when I saw the house in the background, again, it was too perfectly set up to not take a picture. My first attempt made the house too far in the background, but after adjusting my position to make the house look larger, I snapped this wonderful picture!!!
I took inspiration from one of Noah Veyman’s example pictures while we were in class, about to go on the trip. He caught a photo of a flower up close, the background completely blurred, and I told myself I’d find a way to produce a similar photo. So, after I snapped the picture of the house framed by the tree, I walked a bit and found just a lone flower, got up close to it, and snapped a series of pictures from multiple angles. By far, my favorite was this one, with the flower more in the bottom right
Directly after the flower photo 2 above, I heard some bird chatter, and looked upward to see a flock of birds, so I tracked them with my camera for a while. After a couple minutes, the flock was set on landing on this tree, so I caught this, a photo of them all RIGHT before they landed on it. I love the way this photo subtly follows the rule of thirds, it’s great!
Finally, about 10-15 minutes before we left, I saw a lush tree right next to a leafless tree, and I thought it would make a great contrasting picture of life and death so close to each other, It just felt right to take a picture of it. No real thought behind the picture other than the pure symbolism of the moment.
BONUS PICTURE!!! I’m sorry, we were only SUPPOSED to go up to 6, but this one was such a good picture and I felt so prideful after taking it, I couldn’t refuse putting it here! This picture was taken AS WE WERE BEING GATHERED UP TO LEAVE, and originally, I just liked the contrast of her red and black shirt with the grass and treeline, but then I saw the railing with pumpkins and the low ceiling with the suspended plants AND how the pumpkins line up with the ones in the background (look to the far right), It just genuinely looked like a shot straight from a movie to me! I loved this shot so much, it’s aperture, color, lines, framing, and shape ALL IN ONE! One giant assignment photo, meeting every requirement!!!
In this assignment, we needed to take a photo of someone who we were familiar with but not friends with in their workplace/natural space that they would inhabit, so I decided immediately that I should take a photo of my church’s pastor! Unfortunately for me, the pastor had to get his son to the airport quickly afterwards, so I didn’t get as good photos as I would have wanted, but still some good ones nonetheless!
This here is the best photo that we got from the couple minutes we had together! It’s basically exactly what I imagined when going into this project, it’s exactly the picture I was looking for! Admittedly, the background is rather messy, but I like that! It’s so genuine to the chaotic nature of our church, it just seems like a great fit! (not to mention the fact that we basically only had 10 minutes together, that’s a good shot for a 10 minute span!)
This is what I’d consider the only other good picture, albeit, a bit f***y because of the lighting and time issues. I rotated the shot a bit to capture him, the welcome sign, and the cross on the building, as just a vertical shot didn’t end up catching all three, but as a bonus, the tree adds a little splash of color into the picture! That red immediately grabs your attention, followed by the contrasting blue of the sign and the pastor’s shirt! It’s a photo that takes your eyes for a little rollercoaster ride, isn’t that fun?
It’s a picture that barely, BARELY follows the rule of thirds, and possibly follows a golden spiral rule from the top left corner to our pastor’s face? In any case, for the little time we had, it was a nice photo that emphasizes very well how quaint, yet exciting our church is!
Over the course of the weekend, I went to a Fall Retreat hosted by my church, and went to a house that was RRRRIGHT by the Columbia River. I thought that would be a great opportunity to take some good photos expanding and trying out a variety of styles and messing with settings in a place outside of my hometown and class. I initially had trouble with the camera as my mom insisted I take hers instead of the school’s so if I lost it it wouldn’t be as detrimental.
The first night, while I was accommodating myself to the settings of my mom’s camera, I was playing around with ISO, Aperture, and TV to see what the camera could do, and this photo was the result of playing with longer exposure shots to see if I could get good smear effects, turned out great! As a plus, the light was flickering, which made the spaces between the smeared copies more uniform, it looks like a will-o’-the-wisp!
This was during the second morning of the first waking day there, we went outside to think about God and such, and I got finished fast, and started taking pictures of people, and I found my youth pastor in a good pose for a photo, and I decided to use a higher ISO to make the scene seem more like it was “bathed in a holy light”
First night at the place, I took a 30 second exposure shot to capture the mountains, and originally, I was only trying to capture the mountains with this long exposure time, but I noticed that the cars that were passing had their headlights smeared across the picture, and so I just HAD to find a good picture to show that off! I think it looks brilliant!!!
First waking day there again, I specifically asked someone to help me out with a shot, and she agreed, so I took her to the dock and asked for a variety of poses. This was actually the VERY FIRST SHOT, and I hadn’t tweaked the settings much, and I was moving the camera very shakily, but I honestly like how the blurriness adds to the photo, makes it look like a “found footage ghost story” almost!
Same person and time as the picture above. This picture was one of the few that was actually PROPERLY focused on her, or close enough to focused. I noticed that focusing on this camera was not as easy as the model from school, which made this photoshoot difficult. This photo was basically the only one properly focused and had my friend in an interesting position.
Overall, I think I can see my photography skills at work, at it really makes me happy to see that I’m at least DECENT at photography!
In this picture, I tried to have the “start” of the tree branch a little out of focus, however, I had my F-stop too high, and it’s in focus. I did end up enjoying this picture because of the lens flare on the branch in the bottom right, however! (TV:1/60, F-stop: 22, ISO: Auto, around 100-200)
In this photo, I specifically tried to replicate the dandelion example, and I think that it turned out really well, especially when looking at the leaf stuck in the thistle! (TV:1/60, F-stop: 36, aka MAX, ISO: Auto, around 100-200)
The last known photo of a Tasmanian Tiger, a species which is now extinct. Seeing such a unique animal, yet knowing it will never exist again is such a juxtaposition for my brain. I get to see what humanity documented of this animal before it disappeared forever, knowing I’ll never see or hear one in person ever. This is it. This is all that remains…… It’s a really sad feeling
Neil Armstrong’s photo of a buddy on the mission to walk on the moon. The Space Race was one big test of humanity’s mastery over technology, physics, and cooperation. We got together and tried to each be the first ones to land on the moon, and eventually, the USA won. Looking at the surface of the moon, there’s nothing but black space stretching on forever in all directions, simply because there’s no atmosphere on the moon. The footprints never leave the surface as there’s no wind to disturb them, and the entirety of the time on it, you would have perfect silence…
“The Gadget,” Oppenheimer’s test device to try and create a working nuclear bomb. This is the device that helped end WWII, in a fiery inferno of raw unmatched atomic power, capable of leveling cities easily. This invention and marvel of engineering was what ended one war and started a colder one. It turned the tides in a way only Moses could have replicated on the seas. The whole invention was precision personified too, as every explosive in the device had to go off at THE SAME time, not even a micro-instant apart. One teeny error would cause The Gadget to not function correctly.
I find the first photo to be a reminder that what’s living must be preserved, the second a reminder that when we cooperate, we can achieve greatness, and the third just a terrifyingly powerful device that I love to nerd out about. They all have tremendous significance and historical importance, and they all have a story to tell in them
In the first photo of Henri’s I’ve attached, I feel like his sense of timing is very good, as he managed to capture a racing biker with his camera. His composition is very good too, as the staircase helps frame the biker a bit better and overall adds more to the scene that makes it look nicer (although I think just the street behind the biker would have been nicer, I’m a sucker for the rule of 3rds). In the second photo I’ve chosen, I feel that Henri captured a child’s pride and smile at carrying some bottles very well and found a great moment to snap a shot of. Seeing the smiling faces of other children in the background is also a very good touch to the photo as well, if I may say so!
1/200, ISO…. either 400 or 800, Aperture 22, lens 18-55 mm, Mode: TV
I got into a conversation with Kira (SORRY IF THAT’S NOT HOW YOUR NAME IS SPELLED 😭😭😭), and I kept my camera on my stomach, ready to take a picture without her knowing. We talked about how she’d modeled for Elle before and the rock she used for her own pictures, and I caught a moment of her lost in thought. This picture was so spontaneous and majestic that I just felt it needed to be one I used for my assignment this week!
1/200, ISO, again, either 400 or 800, Aperture 22, lens 18-55 mm, Mode: TV
While in class, waiting for the bell to ring, I saw Greta and Lily having a passionate conversation, saw Greta take a sip of her drink, and just felt like that would be a great moment to have on camera, so I quietly kept watch over them from across the room for a good moment to capture. Then, Greta started using hand signals to communicate emphasis during her story, and I managed to snap the moment right before Mrs. Schutte walked by and blocked the view (you can see her dress on the far left) as Kira looked back because of her, which led to this excellent photo of the two which captures quite well how classes (especially study hall) feel like in Parade! Very proud to have gotten this shot!!!
