This is the last picture I took with my father-in-law's Canon Rebel XTI digital SLR camera, before I sent it back to him. I really enjoyed playing with the camera during the few weeks I had it, and I learned a lot. I thank him for lending it to me.
Not wanting to miss out on a last chance to use such a nice camera, on the last day I had the camera, I decided to spend an hour taking pictures of some calla lilies my mom bought for Stephanie. I took this picture in our office, and my mom was nice enough to hold up a blue pillow behind the lily while I shot, so that I could get a nicely constrasting background (otherwise, the light blue walls in our office came off as almost white).
I spent more time just cropping this image on Photoshop than I've ever spent manipulating an image before. The original shot was fairly uninteresting, but by cropping to zoom in, I think it's added a lot to the shot. The subject is really just the front petal, which I hope leads your eyes down through elegant path. Without cropping, it didn't have nearly the same effect.
While exploring the possibilities with this flower, I also tried spraying it with a $3 spray bottle I purchased from Target. Typically, it's an easy way to add something to a shot, but I actually like the uninterrupted lines of the flower here. On the other hand, I did a better job of lighting the subject in this second version in order to avoid shadows.
This site is likely to go quiet now for more than a month. I leave for India on Thursday and won't be back until the end of July. I hope to have lots of nice pictures when I return. In the meantime, I've updated the photography portion of our webpage, and most of my favorite images are now posted there.
6 comments:
With or without the water droplets, both pictures are very good. I think the angle/cropping is better where the stem does not show.
I have enjoyed viewing all of you pictures. Let me know the next time you want to borrow my camera. I will drop it off. Enjoy your journey.
I agree with you about leaving out the stem. Unfortunately, the angle of the flower is a little different, and if I crop out the entire stem, the bend in the leaf is too low for my tastes. That's sort of a theme. These days, I find that my pictures are better than they once were, but there's always still a something like the lighting or the angle of the subject or whatever that is right in some pictures, wrong in others, and I often don't have any shots that get it everything I want.
Anyway, it's been lots of fun. I hope you get time to take lots of pictures. The camera is a great toy.
I like the reflectance and the depth the water drops added... the colors are just amazing.
What a great job
Nice picture! I like that tight dof highlighting the structures in the petal rather than the more obvious focus-on-the-thing-in-the-middle (pistil? stamen?)
I was meaning to try some shots of some sunflowers that my sister brought over last night, but the cats knocked the vase over in the middle of the night and the night without water wasn't kind to the flowers.
happy trails to India!
Yeah, I suppose that the books would tell you that you've got to focus on the stamen, but I really felt like the best thing about this flower was that petal in the foreground. I took this shot with the lights in the room on, which is why there is a bit of a shadow. Unfortunately, when I turned the lights off, I shifted my tripod, and never got quite the same angle again.
By the way, Barrett, speaking of sunflowers, there's supposed to be a new, giant sunflower field somewhere between Raleigh and Manteo. Some former judge transformed a farm into a giant sunflower patch. It's supposed to make great photography. I hope to get out there when I get back from the other side of the world.
Post a Comment