Tigers Got Talent

 ISO: 800  f/5.0  shutter speed: 1/50

ISO: 800  f/ 4.0  shutter speed: 1/100 

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/80 

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/80

These were taken at round 2 of Tigers Got Talent. It was really dark, and the spotlight wasn't bright enough, and I don't know why I didn't bump my ISO up to 1000. ugh! The first picture was of this guy doing something kinda strange, and I was trying to slow my shutter speed so you could tell the red thing was moving. The second picture I loved Cari's expression as she was telling a joke from a laffy taffy. The last two pictures were of Rachel Qualls. She started to play, but there were several technical difficulties, so the people were coming out to help her. I thought these were kinda cool pics as they were trying to fix the problem. For post-editing, I cropped, brought up the exposure, fill light, and recovery some. I really wish I had used a bigger ISO, and I am mad at myself for not.

Happy Thanksgiving Smith!!! :)

Duck Hunting

 ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/800

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1600

These were taken this past weekend when I had a photo assignment to get Cole Kennedy duck hunting. Unfortunately, they went duck hunting at 5:15 in the morning, so I had to get up really early. When we got out there, I couldn't start taking pictures until the sun came up because it was so dark, and supposedly it's bad to use flash when duck hunting. The first picture I was taking for the photo assignment. Since we aren't allowed to have a gun or dead duck in the yearbook, I took pictures of him duck calling out in the mud/water. I started out on the other side of him, but with the sun shining so bright on his face it didn't really work out. When on the side I took it on, I liked how I was kind of in the weed/stick things (I don't know what they're called). The second picture, I was actually taking several of them retrieving a dead duck, but then I got distracted by the thing in focus (again, I have no clue what that is). I ended up kind of liking this picture. I was using a 17-50mm lens. For post-editing, I color corrected and cropped the first image.

Walking Stick

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/400 

ISO: 400  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/125 

ISO: 400  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/250

These were taken this past Thursday. My dad was coming inside and saw this walking stick, so he called me over to come look. As soon as I saw it, I went and grabbed my camera. The sun was setting at this time, so they all had an orangeish/yellowish tint to them. The walking stick was frustrating me since he was the same color as our door. I wanted a bigger contrast, and I never thought to move him. I really like the shadow on the first two pictures, and I like his antennas in the last picture. I like these pictures, but they could definitely be better. I wish I would have closed my aperture more (bigger number) so more of the walking stick was in focus, and I wish he was on something that was a different color than him. I used a 17-50mm lens for all of the pictures. For post-editing, I cropped these, and used the white balance tool.

HDR pics 1st attempt

I took these pictures yesterday after learning how to do HDR pictures. I didn't have the most exciting place to take pictures to get the right lighting, but I still had a lot of fun taking these. In order to get it to look this way, I had to take several images of the same thing, and I had to have underexposed, overexposed, and exposed correctly images. I then put them in this program that puts all of them together, so that you can have detail in all parts of your image. After that I saved it, made another one of the same image, and used a preset on it. After that I put the two images in photoshop and merged them together by using the overlay. My favorite of these pictures, is the second one because I like the reflection on the windows. Doing this makes me want to go down town and try to get some HDR pics there. I used a 17-50mm lens for all of these, and a tripod. I had one more picture that I did, but I changed the focus point for the different exposures which ended up messing the picture up because it made it look blurry. Taking these images taught me a lot, and hopefully I'll now be able to go out and get some with a cool scenery/subject thing.

Lighting Ratios

ISO: 400  f/9.0  shutter speed: 1/320 

ISO: 400  f/10.0  shutter speed: 1/250 

ISO: 400  f/10.0  shutter speed: 1/250

I took these pictures Tuesday when I was learning how to use the light meter and about lighting ratios. The first picture is a 3:1 ratio and the last two are a 4:1 ratio. You can definitely tell a difference with the shadows. On the first picture, the shadow is a lot less than the next two with a bigger ratio. I do not like the composition of these images at all, but that was not what I was worried about or focusing on. It took me a little while to figure out the settings to get the ratio right, and Casey was being so patient with me, thankfully. The last picture is weird from the angle I took it at, but at the same time I kind of liked it. I just hit the black and white button on that picture. I'm hoping that next time I will be able to set up a lot faster and have a better composition. Next time, I'll set it up better, with a LOT better composition and background, and have a better image.

Swim Meet :)

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/250 

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/250 

ISO: 400  f/2.5  shutter speed: 1/500 

ISO: 400  f/2.5  shutter speed: 1/500 

ISO: 400  f/2.5  shutter speed: 1/500

These were Saturday at the swim meet. This was my first swim meet to shoot, and it was a lot of fun! Haley was always having to tell me what was going on, since I didn't really understand it, but towards the end I started to get the hang of it. Shooting this really makes me want to have or use an underwater camera. That would be so cool, but it was still really cool without it. I'm really sad that this was the last home swim meet, and I am really hoping that I can go to the TISCA meet so I can shoot swim again. I used the 50mm lens for all of these pictures, and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. For post-editing, I cropped, and used the recovery tool. 

Egg Toss

ISO: 100  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1600

 ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1250

 ISO: 100  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1600

 ISO: 100  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1600

ISO: 100  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1250

This was taken like a week or two ago, when Brianna and Claire were playing with the eggs after Claire finished her book cover. I was using a 17-50mm lens for all of these pictures. The second picture is of Brianna trying to balance an egg on her head. It was quite funny to watch. I wish I would have used the 28-75mm lens or gotten closer to them.

Six Weeks Project

You don't Love Me Yet

ISO: 200  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/125

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Sold

ISO: 200  f/2.8  shutter speed 1/250

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The first book cover picture was actually the second one I did. I had found several I wanted to do, but either didn't have the stuff I needed for them, or they had some scenery that we don't have anywhere in Texarkana. I found this one, and I liked it, but didn't know how to do the photoshop work for it, so Smith showed me, and it was easier than I had expected, but still really fun. The second picture (first one I took) is of Taylor. I was trying to get one of my book cover pictures done one weekend, but the only time I had available, no one was able to be my subject. I was going in my sister's room to see if she was there, and that's when I saw this book, which I thought was pretty cool. Taylor was a perfect subject and we used Brianna'a cardigan thing. For taking this picture, I learned more about off camera flash, which I haven't used very much. This made me want to get better at off camera flash and use it more often.