Final self-portrait

 ISO: 100  f/ 5.6  shutter speed: 1/1600

ISO: 100 f/16.0  shutter speed: 1/250

The first picture I took several weeks ago. I would much rather be taking a picture than actual being in it, so I though I would do a silhouette. I love sunsets, so I got the idea of doing a picture of me taking a picture while the sun was setting(since that's good light for a silhouette anyways.) I set the camera up with a tripod, and pressed the shutter button than ran and got in place. Several times I wouldn't be right in front of the sun, so I finally got a stick to mark where I was supposed to stand. For the second picture, I got another silhouette idea. Since we already had newspapers hanging all over our wall, I decided that would be a cool back drop. Since newspaper has to do with reading, I thought it would be cool to be reading a book, and have the book lit up. I had a flash behind me that was sitting in a Styrofoam cup so it would stay, and a flash on a lightstand above me at an angle to get the book with a snoot on it. The flash in the snoot kept turning off which was making me really mad, and kept messing up my pictures. Since I didn't have a remote, I kept having to get up and run to go sit back down and get in place. I was having to be really careful with the book I was using because it was an old Bible from the 1800s so it was kind of falling apart. I was taking this picture in the middle of the day in a room filled with windows and no blinds, so that's why I had to put my aperture at 16, ISO at 100 and shutter speed at 1/250. I was using a 17-50mm lens. For post-editing, all I did was crop the image. I liked how it turned out since you can't see my face but you can see the book and my hand.

self-portrait attempts

 ISO:100  f/16.0 shutter speed: 1/250

 ISO: 100  f/16.0  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 100  f/ 16.0  shutter speed: 1/250

I took these pictures this past weekend. I had an idea to have me as a silhouette, but something right in front of me lit up. I enjoy cooking, so I thought it would be cool to be like flipping something in a skillet. This turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. I had a light behind me to make me a silhouette, and a light with a snoot from the diagonal side to get me flipping the tortilla in the skillet. I didn't have a remote, so it took me FOREVER to get these. I was using a 17-50mm lens. I liked how on these the tortilla was lit up, these were a couple of the tons i took that actually did that.

Parade time exposures

ISO: 100  f/22  shutter speed: 13 seconds 

ISO: 100  f/18  shutter speed: 15 seconds 

ISO: 100  f/29  shutter speed: 25 seconds 

ISO: 100  f/32  shutter speed: 15 seconds 

ISO: 100  f/32  shutter speed: 30 seconds 

ISO: 100  f/29  shutter speed: 20 seconds

I took these pictures at the Christmas parade last night. I kind of got lost going down there, so when I finally got there, I didn't have a whole lot of time left. I decided I wanted to do some time exposure pictures. I kind of had the photo contest for downtown in mind, and don't really know what they want yet, but when I figure that out, maybe I could do something like one of these. In the first picture I like how you can see people in it, and tell that the cars are turning. The second one is different because I took as the band was passing to see how that would turn out. I like how the buildings look in that picture. The fourth picture I really like how you can see people behind the lights. In the fifth picture, I thought it was cool how you could see both the red and green light from the stoplight. The two lines at the top were kind of cool, although I don't know what they are from. I used a 17-50mm lens for all of these, and a tripod. I was messing around with my settings depending on how bright the float/car/people were that were passing at that time. The parade ended way too quickly for me, but I was still pretty pleased with what I got. I brought up the clarity in all of these, in a couple of them I brought up the fill and recovery a little bit.

Thanksgiving break orb attempt

ISO: 100  f/5.6  shutter speed: bulb-80 seconds 

ISO: 100  f/5.6  shutter speed: bulb-161 seconds

I took these pictures over Thanksgiving break. I had been wanting to do it for a while, and I still really want to do it again. I didn't have any glow sticks so I had to use a flashlight. I also didn't have a remote, so my cousin was the one spinning in circles. I don't like the second picture as much because you can see her in it, and the first one isn't really the shape of an orb. I have been waiting to get glow sticks so I can do it again, and make it better. I was going to keep the shutter open longer, but the flashlight I had was too bright, so it would be blown. Over all, I had fun doing it, but learned a lot, and want to go get glow sticks so I can do it over and make it better.

Christmas Dinner

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/160 

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/160 

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/160 

ISO: 400  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/160

These were taken this past weekend at my house. My mom cooked a "Christmas dinner" and we wanted to illuminate the empty chair and really put emphasis on it. We did not have all the gear we needed at all. We had two flashes, but only one stand and one sync. We finally figured out how to use master and slave but with that we had to have one flash on the camera which isn't exactly what we wanted, but it worked. The first picture I like how it is above and you can see them praying, but it is too dark, and it kind of makes the empty chair look weird. The second one is underexposed, but we were still trying to figure out the flashes and everything. The third picture is still kind of dark, but I like how it looks. The newspaper just can't print a really dark picture :( So, for the last picture, we brought the fill light up quite a bit. For these pictures, I was holding the flash and Brianna was taking the picture and Haley joined my family, except for the first picture where Haley and Brianna's roles were switched. We all were figuring out our flashes together, and were being as resourceful as possible. For a snoot, we used a paper bag with black tissue paper. Since we didn't have an umbrella, we used one of mine and duck taped it to the light stand, but since we didn't have enough syncs and stuff, we weren't able to use that(but Brianna did for her self portrait) After we took the picture, we all pigged out on the food, and it was so delicious! This was an extremely fun photo assignment! :)

Thanksgiving break randomness

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/640 

 ISO: 400  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/5000

ISO: 500  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/125 

ISO: 500  f/ 5.6  shutter speed: 1/125

These were taken one day over Thanksgiving Break, I was using a macro lens and went outside and was just taking a bunch of random pictures. It was the day it rained, so I loved all the water droplets everywhere. The first picture is a water drop hanging from a leaf that I really liked. In the second picture I was trying to get a silhouette of it, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. I still kind of like how the leave is black and part of the drop is black and part of it is see through. The third picture was of this lemongrass plant my mom has. I wasn't used to the aperture on the macro lens cause that picture was shot at 5.6, but there are still several parts that are blurry. The last picture is my favorite of these, because I like the water on top of the rose and how it is brighter that the rest of the rose, and the bug crawling on it, and the green leaf. I love using the macro lens, and being able to get really close to objects. I had a lot of fun going around and taking these pictures. :)