Portraits of Another Style

Okay, so I'm still not totally comfortable looking through the lens, and found this to be especially so in taking portraits.  I LOVE portraits.  That is, to draw and paint them.  Taking photo portraits was a little difficult for me.  I tried to think of how I like a composition set up for a drawing, and that didn't really work.  I like snapshots, and I like closeups; unfortunately, they are hard to get at the same time.
These first photos were taken at Oasis Union Ministry where my Art Therapy class was doing a mandala mural project.

I then took some playful shots of Rudd at work.  I love how this first one came out.

Vito in his truck.  I liked the grittier look, so when I edited I tried to enhance that feel.

Finally, training and resting at the Home Depot.

Good practice for when I one day I have time to do more drawing.  I would definitely like to do more original compositions.  

Next project: Series!  I am excited for this one.  Potentially heading back to the Gardens!

A Day at the Beach

Back to back posts.  yes, I'm catching up.  This next group was done over a couple of weeks.  I spent one day at Fort Monroe with Mike and his Labrador Rose.  It was one of those fluke Sundays with 70 degree and sunny weather- then turned around and snowed the next day.  Once again, my luck prevailed.  The assignment here was Depth of Field.

 There were lots more that didn't make the cut, but these were the final images turned in for class.

A couple of weekends later my parents came down and we toured around the Historical Triangle.  Most shots I got here didn't fit the assignment, so I only turned in a couple.

The man fishing was my absolute favorite.  He had been camped there relaxing all day, and the sun was just setting behind him.

I found that the shallow depth worked wonderfully for botanical shots.  I took several pictures in the greenhouse at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. Yes, I like to put my subjects in corners :/

My final shot came from a session I tried in the grow room ( aka garage) with Brenda's African Violets.  She has mentioned how difficult it is capturing the true colors of petals, especially blues.  I didn't have any luck with it, either.  I tried every white balance setting to no avail, and Photoshop made them awful.  While the colors weren't spot on, they were all still very pretty.

This one didn't make the cut for class, but I like it, so I'm gonna share it here anyway!  If you ever find yourself in Hampton Roads, the historic Jamestown settlement is great for a nice relaxing day of walking and history!

A Sense of Motion

While learning how to take motion photographs was fun, it was definitely challenging. (I suck at panning.)  We had 3 different methods, to include panning, frozen, and blur images.  My schedule is jam packed between work, school, duty, and the daily must-do stuff around the house.  I did manage to make it to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens (I was there for a TAVS meeting anyway, so I got lucky)

blur

blur

panning

panning

frozen

frozen

Capturing the water droplets was definitely the most challenging and time consuming.  If I ever try this one again, I will definitely use a solid color background instead.  I figured the pattern would be a bit more blurry- especially considering the aperture was set at 1.8.  Lesson learned.  Before this class, I never realized just how much time went into photography, as in when you have something specific you want to shoot and a particular look you want.