A Photo Story

On my quest to find a photo of my favorite place, I’m reminded of one my favorite photos from September 2009.  I’ve sold this photo a couple times, even.  My Mountain Deer photo was taken early one morning at sunrise on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.  I heard that sunrise was magical here, but with the long drive to get here, we had to wake up before dawn to pack up our tent and drive up to the ridge.  When we arrived there were a couple other photographers out here including one professional photographer showing off his photos on his i-device.  This was really when I started salivating for my own pretty i-device to show off photos.  The sunrise lit the sky on fire and there was certainly no shortage of beautiful photo opportunities.   Towards the end of the actual sunrise, while I was photographing an area, my husband suddenly tapped my shoulder and asked me to turn around to see several deer grazing on a ridge-line in the distance.  It was perfect!  I quickly spun around on the spot and just barely caught the deer as they wandered off.  I love this photo because of the color scheme.  I couldn’t have planned out this photo if I tried and I’ve been trying to duplicate it ever since.  Olympic National Park held a special magic for me this morning and this is on the list of my favorite places.

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with 18-200mm lens at 200mm, 1/50 sec at f/18, ISO 200.

As you recall from yesterday, I am on the prowl for a photo of my favorite place.  Searching through my 2011 photos, I found this sunset silhouette that I really just love.  We were on the beach in Ireland when we took this shot.  Actually, we just stumbled on the beach at the perfect time for sunset after spending the day driving around the country.  I love photographing sunsets, and this is one of my favorites in recent memory.  The key to photographing a silhouette is to correctly expose the background instead of the foreground.  This is really pretty easy for sunset shots as long as you focus on the background.  In this case, the photo was an experiment with self-portraits and I was extremely happy with the result.

Camera settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 18-200mm lens at 27mm, 1/640 sec at f/9.0, ISO 200.

This week’s 52-week photo project theme is asking me to explore my photographs and find one of my favorite place, or the place that finishes the sentence, “I left my heart in…”  I am searching through my photos looking for the one place that meets this requirement, however I have no one specific, favorite location.  Every new beautiful location instantly becomes my favorite place.  For instance, take this location in the Canary Islands.  We hiked above the clouds to get this photo just as the golden hour was starting.  I love the beauty of nature.  It is going to be hard to pick a favorite place.

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with 18-200mm lens at 18mm; 5 photos stitched together at 1/40 sec at f/7.1, ISO 320

I was out for a walk with my camera in Oia, Santorini, Greece taking photos of the beautiful white wash buildings and blue dome churches when a dog with the perfect blue collar wandered over.  I immediately had to take the opportunity and shoot a photo of him with the Oia buildings in the background.  Photowalks are fun and interesting ways to explore an area.  I encourage you to walk around with your camera for an hour or more and see what you find.

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 18-200mm lens at 18mm, 1/100 sec at f/10, ISO 200.

These days when everyone has a camera in their pocket, it is important to learn how to take more interesting photos than the next guy.  This way your posted photos on the internet will stand out.  Also, you’ll have a higher chance that your friends will click on the thumbnail of your photo and really look at it.  One way to make photos more interesting is to change up the angle.  See these examples:

(Photos taken in Hania, Crete, Greece)

Camera specs:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 18-200mm lens at 20mm, 1/400 sec at f/10, ISO 320

Notice how this photo looks like any other tourist photo.  The front of the building is the focus of the shot, there are people walking around and there are cars parked.  I included some plants on the sides to frame the photo, but really, this is a rather uninteresting photo that I would not click on to view larger.  Now look at the next two photos:

Camera specs:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 18-200mm lens at 18mm, 1/640 sec at f/10, ISO 320

Camera specs:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 18-200mm lens at 18mm, 1/800 sec at f/10, ISO 320

With these photos, I walked up to the church and turned my camera at different angles.  These photos are different.  They are interesting.  Diagonals have always helped add intrigue and interest to art.  Try to put some diagonal lines in your photos.  Also, by aiming up at the building, I was able to cut out the cars and the people and get more of the sky.  I waited until the sun came out and brightened up the blue sky and building to get rid of that overcast look of the first photo.  You can’t always control the light, but on a day like this when the clouds are moving across the sun, you can wait an extra minute for the sun to make your scene brighter.  I prefer the 3rd photo because my diagonals are traveling from left to right and up across the photo, but that is just my preference.

Try it out, see how you can make your photo more interesting.  This is photo composition; it can be done with any camera you have, even a camera phone.