During This Morning's Walk...

[DUCeditor]

The sun was just coming up over Pack Monadnock when I came upon this quince tree in early bloom. I went back to the house and got my 60mm macro lens and took these...

Isn't this world a wonderful place to wake up in?

-don

[Leary Blaine]

Beautiful! Did you use the T2i? Would you be willing to share the settings you used for these photos? Many TIA!

[Bill_Anderson]

Any sunrise shots?

[CAlexio]

thank you!

[DUCeditor]

Originally Posted by Leary Blaine

Beautiful! Did you use the T2i? Would you be willing to share the settings you used for these photos? Many TIA!

Leary,

I am happy to share the data (below) but must tell you that it will have little meaning for two reasons:

First, although I was using shutter priority as a setting, I often lock my factors by holding the shutter button in its half way position on an area that has a differently tonality than that which I eventually frame. (I then re-frame and expose with the early captured setting.)

That is because in two out of the three shots here (1 and 3) the sky in the final composition would have led to underexposure of the foreground elements.

And secondly because I very often (as here) play with the factors in Photoshop before saving the final image.

In shot 1 and 3 I did something I do not very commonly do, I worked with the color channels separately so the red, for instance, actually has a slightly different density curve than the blue.

My goal in shot 1 was to create the feel of a Japanese watercolor. To that end I not only changed the above factors but I actually very slightly extended the length of the branch in the upper left using PS's Transform function.

Factors:

Images 1:

1/250
f:4.5
ISO 100

Image 2

1/100
f:6.3
ISO 1250

Image 3

1/60
f:5
ISO 200

These images could on a certain level be considered Subject Oriented, but for me it never ends there. Even my most basic work usually has some level of Image Orientation. These did from the start.

When I looked at the beauty of the buds the vision of that Japanese water color entered my thought process. That made me make a few choices.

The first was looking for a branch with sky behind it. Japanese water colors have very simple backgrounds. This was not the only "good" way to photograph these buds - another would have been to put a number of the buds out of focus in the background - which could have been especially effective here because the lens I was using, the Canon EF-S 60mm Macro is known for its beautiful bokeh (out of focus lens blur). But again, I had a specific goal for the final photograph that governed my choice.

That also governed the exposure, leading me to lock in the setting with the camera facing a larger cluster of buds. I had turned off the auto focus and thus with the exposure locked I was able to re-frame and capture my earlier focus at the same time by slightly moving the camera closer to and further from the principle subject.

I hope the above helps. I have to admit that talking about my approach to an image feels a bit like standing naked in public. It is far easier to keep ones cloths on than to reveal what's underneath.

-don

[Leary Blaine]

Wow, thank you. This is perfect! Though I must say that I'm going to have to go through it a number of times in order to get it all ... starting with this distinction between subject & image orientation.

You seem like you would be an excellent photography coach! But I've ridden to NH before, and it's at least 5 hours.

You've inspired me to one distinct decision, however: I've got to take a course. I'm just not going to be able to do what I want to do by just picking stuff up as I go along. I've got to take a structured approach to the basic variables and terminology.

I'll start this weekend by picking up a "Photography for Dummies" (or equivalent) intro book at B&N or Borders. Maybe something like this: Amazon.com: The Digital Photography Book (9780321474049): Scott Kelby: Books ... and the "dSLR Toolkit" app for iPhone?

[DUCeditor]

Leary, First off hosannas for your desire to learn and grow.

There are lots of good books. By far the best I ever read can be bought used and cheap on ebay. As here 12 HARD COVER TIME LIFE BOOKS OF PHOTOGRAPHY | eBay

Learning the craft of photography is great fun. Learning the art of imaging even more so, but as is usually the case, the study subject with the greater reward is a bit more difficult.

Which gets me back to my theme: That we think cameras. We think subject. But we often neglect the most important thing of all. We fail to think about the image itself.

If you take a course on basic photography (a good idea, especially if you can find an inspiring teacher), do, please, follow it with a course in the visual arts, especially the history of painting. Again, a boring "names and dates" type teacher will kill your newly budding enthusiasm, but one great teacher will inspire your work forever.

You might try The Teaching Company. I have not myself bought any of their visual art courses because I use my TC courses during my daily commute, but some of their teachers are truly the best in the world. (I have done many in music, history, science and philosophy.

This one for instance happens to be on sale at an unbelievable price (!!!):

A History of European Art

Enjoy! And keep sharing!

-don

[DUCeditor]

One of my biggest joys in photography is that active involvement start me looking and seeing. Sometimes that leads me to see little things like this...

Just some Winter plowing markers casually leaned against my bike-shed wall.

-don

[CAlexio]

wow, what a great picture. because of the texture, or some other reason that I'm not able to articulate, I prefer this one with the posts to the one with the flowers. Thanks for posting this stuff! very informative, even for a non-photographer.

[DUCeditor]

Strolled off my property this morning, up the street. The sun was streaming over Pac Monadnock burning off the morning dew.

Up the street, in a neighbor's field, this fellow too seemed to be enjoying a bit of a stroll...

Upon my return the warmth of the house beckoned, with the smell of fresh brewed coffee.

-don