A Photo Story

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.

I’ve done it, you’ve done it, and your friends have done it. We all post way too many photos in a photo album for people to enjoy. While you may really enjoy the 50 different viewpoints of the same object, your friends only want to see your one favorite photo. I’ve posted below a short sorting process that I went through to choose only one photo to post.

I am participating in a 52-week photo project. There is one theme per week and only one photo can be posted per week in the group that I’ve joined. Sometimes the hardest part is choosing that one photo. In this case, for week 3, I chose to photograph flowers. Out of the 49 photos I took, I really liked about half of them. But how to narrow it down further?

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 0.6 sec at f/20, ISO 400

I like this photo because there is color, the white flower is in focus, you can see the detail of the petals, and you can see the whole flower.

I did not post this photo because, frankly looking at a whole flower like this is a little boring.  I was using a macro lens to pull out the details, but I didn’t focus on any one detail and it becomes uninteresting, though still pretty.

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 0.5 sec at f/16, ISO 400

I like this photo because of the color and the position of the white flower’s petals.  The out-of-focus pink flower created a good backdrop and the green in front created in interesting foreground.  Diagonals always make a photo more interesting and the fact that this flower hasn’t bloomed yet also creates interest and curved lines for the eye to follow.

I did not post this photo because, though the pink created a great background, it was distracting.  When I look at this photo, my eye follows the diagonal through the photo and finally lands on the pink in the background, which is not the focus of my photo.

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 1/5 sec at f/20, ISO 400

I like this photo because the details stand out.  I am using the micro lens to it’s capacity to show you the beautiful curves in the flower petals.  I also placed the center of the flower using the Rule of Thirds.

I did not post this photo because the lighting did not create enough contrast in the image, and I found that my eye followed from left to right and then finally rested on the right half of the photo (not the focal point I was hoping for).

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 0.5 sec at f/22, ISO 400

I like this photo because the details stand out, the Rule of Thirds is utilized and the light creates strong contrasts in the photo.

I was quick to rule out this photo, because the strong contrast made the photo too harsh and took away from the softness of the flower.  This and the photo above are a good example of how lighting can change the mood of a photo.

Camera Settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 1/3 sec at f/22, ISO 400

I finally chose to post this photo as my favorite of the 49 photos I took.  The details in the petals are just about perfect and the dark background contrasts with the white foreground perfectly.  Using a flower bud instead of a full flower showed how the petals curved around the center creating a circular direction for our eyes to travel.  I find that my eye starts just below the left center and follows the curve of the petals in a counter-clockwise direction until briefly resting on the center of the flower.  Then, my eye catches that same starting point again and I travel through the photograph to see the details one more time.  This was certainly the most interesting photo.

I hope my process of choosing a photograph can help you in your selections.  Also, if you are interested in following my 52-week photo project, I am posting one photo a week to my flickr set located at this link.

Time lapse photography involves taking a couple hundred photos over a long period of time and then condensing them into a short video.  I am a total sucker for time lapse photography, especially the kind that involves stars or clouds.  This is my first attempt at a time lapse video.  I took the photos in Colorado last September at Sprague Lake one morning.  The photos were taken every 30 seconds for about an hour.  I used my Nikon D300 with the 12-24mm f/4.0 wide angle lens.  The shutter speed varies depending on the light in the photos, but the f-stop was f/16 and ISO 100.  My D300 can take photos at intervals.  All I had to do was set up the camera on a tripod, set the timer and then wait around for an hour.  Many of today’s point and shoot cameras can take photos at intervals as well, so you can probably create a similar video yourself.  Just remember to use a tripod or set the camera down on a stable surface and let it do the work. I used the Quicktime Pro software to actually make the video. It costs $30, but the program did all the work for me. All I needed to do was feed it my photos.

I had an amazing week focusing on my photography last September in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain National Park.  During one of my photo forays, I found the location in the park where the tourists gathered to watch and take photos of the elk grazing in the field.  It was near rutting season and the elk had come down from the mountains early in the season putting on a grand display for all who watched.  However, since I did not bring any telephoto lenses with me for this particular trip, I decided to crouch down between all the cars lined up along the end of the road and search for bees in the flowers.  The elk are so predictable, that the park comes down to direct the traffic and answer questions about the elk.  I was nearly tripped over several times and got many strange looks since while everyone else was pointing their cameras at the elk, I was pointing mine at a flower.  The bees did not cooperate much for me, but I did get this interesting photo.  You can really see the bee gripping the petals of the flower and I feel that it gives the photo some emotion.  I’ve also included a panorama of the stunning view near sunset.

Camera Settings: Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 1/200 sec at f/13, ISO 400

Camera settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 105mm micro lens, 1/200 sec at f/13, ISO 200; Stitched 7 photos together in photoshop

Camera settings:  Nikon D300 with Nikkor 12-14mm lens, 64 seconds at f/16, ISO 400

I woke up early to catch the sunrise on Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I woke up so early in fact that I beat the sun to the lake and was able to catch the “blue hour” before the “golden  hour” of sunrise when the sky is a deep and rich blue.  In fact, the starts were still out.  I thought this photo came out remarkably well with a little bit of a star trail in the sky reflected in the lake and a nice deep blue sky against the black landscape.  I was the only one on the lake this morning and hiked to find a perfect spot in the near darkness.  Thankfully no wild animals jumped out at me.  I felt privileged just to be there in this gorgeous setting.  This is definitely one of my favorite photos from my trip.