I just returned from a quick jaunt out of state. Every time I go somewhere I try to make at least one good shot through (or out) the window of the room in which I’m staying. Here is my favorite from this trip:
Tree in Parking Lot
I don’t travel all that often, so this is a good exercise for me. It really comes thanks to Jay Maisel, who made the statement at the 2008 NAPP conference in Vegas (and doubtlessly, many more times).
Check out a previous favorite here.
It’s probably the season, but I’ve been seeing in increase in traffic looking for bokeh shots. So here you go: an all bokeh Xmas/New Year tree.
Bokeh Tree
From our Alaskan Cruise in August 2009:
Cliffs by Hoonah
View from our roof - doing repairs
Yesterday I posted about “frame within a frame” and metioned that it was a topic going around a while ago. Well, it’s apparently back – I noticed in on Digital Photo School a post named “Crop and Chop.” A slightly different point than I was trying to make yesterday, but the same concept.
Another meme going around these days is “shoot in your own backyard.” As several pros have stated, there are thousands of photos of foreign places, sunsets, and exotic things. Where are the common things? Where is the spectacular in the ordinary?
I’m not so sure I’m all that big on shooting in my own back yard. But it beats not shooting at all, and from the correct vantage point I can find fairly impressive views.
Take the shot to the right, for example. I had some repairs I needed to do on the roof, so up I went. Started looking around, and after a few days of rainy weather, noticed that the not only was it sunny, but it was a well saturated sunny!
So I did the logical thing: set my hammer & nails down, scrambled for my SLR (sorry, love that far more than my P&S – but the P&S is much, much more portable), and fired of a series of 9 photos. Spent another 20 minutes shooting up there, so you’ll see a few more pics this week.
This shot: an HDR from 9 photos, all at maximum aperture (f/25). Fired off on a tripod. Much fun.
Well, for now. The same day that I took the photo of the mountains across Turnagain arm also yielded the photo below. This one didn’t come out as well as I would have liked, but it does have something of that light, old-timey feel. I like that.
In post-processing, I did actually do a bit of burning to the shadows of the trunk, and dodged the details back in to some of the branches. When working in black & white, I usually stick to that – I feel it’s closer to the original techniques in the darkroom.
Bird Creek Tree in B&W
Bokeh around buds of a tree
Bokeh – the big spots in the background. Yesterday I was at my folk’s place, playing around with my SLR and the big 18-200mm lens. Noticed when I tried to pull off a macro shot that the bokeh was wild.
I’m not normally one for doing bokeh – it can be beautiful in the hands of a master, but I’ve seen a lot of gimicky things. Thinks that I’d doubtlessly love to play with, mind you – but don’t feel honest to me.
This pic is different. I noticed the effect and worked with it until I got what I wanted. Then the wind blew & spoiled the composition. Three times in a row.
A more patient photographer would have waited, but I was without tripod. So consider this good enough: a sample of boken, and a reminder: just a week ago, this tree just barely had leaves on it. Pretty amazing how quickly the flowers came out.