Red - Color Day 2 - 04/21/10

(f/4.5, 1/30 sec., ISO-800)

Red. I took pictures of this snuggling duo at three different saturation levels to see what it did to the red. The first photo is minimum saturation, the second neutral and the third, maximum. The first is quite dull, but it does make the red pop a bit more. The second is the most accurate. The third muddles the colors quite a bit and causes the red to bleed some, I think.

(f/4.5, 1/25 sec., ISO-800)

Pink - Color Day 1 - 04/20/10

Today, I am moving on to this week's theme: color.

(f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

For day 1, I chose pink because of all the beautiful pink tulips in Boston Common. There were clouds in about 50 percent of the sky, so the light alternated every few minutes between cloudy and sunny. I tried using the sunny, shady and cloudy settings on the camera to get the most accurate color available in each picture. The pink flowers, I think, turned out beautifully.

(f/4.5, 1/1250 sec., ISO-200)

See the butterfly?

(f/4.5, 1/1250 sec., ISO-200)

I love it when one guy is just a little bit different.

Boston Marathon - Action Day 6 - 04/19/10

Since today was the 114th Boston Marathon, and since I missed the first two 'action' days this week, I thought I would extend the action theme one more day.

(f/8, 1/640 sec., ISO-400)

The wheelchair racers were the first to come down Boylston Street around 10:45 a.m.

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

She didn't even look tired!

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Bruna Genovese (Italy) - Women's fifth-place finisher, just after turning on Boylston Street.

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Robert Cheruiyot (Kenya) - Men's Winner of the 2010 Boston Marathon about a half-mile from the finish line on Boylston Street.

(f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Ryan Hall (U.S.A.) - Men's fourth place finisher - Hall came around the corner, smiling, to lots of cheering from the American crowd. A helpful crowd member in a gray shirt pointed the way to the finish line, just in case Hall forgot.

(f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO-400)

I picked an aperture of 8 to increase the depth of field and stuck with an ISO speed of 400 - good for the low light of the day but still fast enough for action. Then, I just played with the shutter speed to get the light right.

(f/8, 1/320 sec., ISO-400)

The race was a testament to human kindness, with the crowd cheering on runners who got cramps and had to stop and rest with the finish line in sight. One runner stopped suddenly and began stumbling around in the middle of the road. Two other runners stopped to grab him before he fell and after making sure he was okay, supported him as they all three trotted to the finish.

(f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

A view of the crowd and Boylston Street from the Prudential Center.

I'm very proud of how all of these pictures turned out because I was on manual the whole time, including manual focus. I used my macro lens because it was the only lens besides my telephoto with decent zoom. (I left the telephoto at home because I wanted to get some crowd shots and I don't think it would have been wide enough for those.) The only issue with the macro is that it would not stick with a focal point. It would stutter between infinity and macro about twice a second, useless to me. But focusing manually proved to work all right. I was mostly at infinity the whole time anyway.

Rally Experience - Action Day 5 - 04/18/10

Team O'Neil Rally School Experience Day. Happy birthday to me.

(f/5.6, 1/640 sec., ISO-400)

The only bad thing about these pictures is the light. It was raining and snowing and overcast all day: pretty much the nastiest conditions for picture-taking. The picture below was taken with the "automatic" setting and you can see even the camera struggled to get something decent. I touched up the light in this photo some, but the color is just sad. Doesn't matter. I had a blast!

(f/9, 1/200 sec., ISO-400)

The black car was my favorite. I think it drove the best. Please note the mismatched wheels.

(f/9, 1/200 sec., ISO-400)

Wyatt, one of the instructors, taking several students on the end-of-the-day "maximum attack" ride in the "83" Audi.

(f/9, 1/200 sec., ISO-400)

For the "maximum attack," the instructors drove five cars at once and let all family and friends of the class participants go along for the ride. You can see where the cars came down the hill and made a sharp right turn in the parking lot before heading back up the hill. Not sure who was driving these two...

(f/7.1, 1/250 sec., ISO-400)

If you look at the car (click on the picture to make it bigger), you will see that the wheels are pointed at the camera even though the car is already pointed in the direction of the next part of the road. Pretty groovy, huh? I think I might have put the camera into "automatic" mode here, but it might still have been me on manual. Either way, I'm pretty happy with the picture. Still wish the sun would have come out, though!

(f/9, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

Though the "89" car was going fast (as you can see), whomever was driving it was totally holding back. I'd had the best driving experience with Alan, so I hopped into his car for the "maximum attack." Excellent decision.

(f/5.6, 1/80 sec., ISO-400)

Unnnnnfortunately, I left my new flash at home which means that poor Alan's face is half-covered in shadow thanks to the Canon's fantastic built-in flash, perpetually obscured by 1/3 of the lens. That's okay! He didn't care either! (Notice the mud all over his pants. We were having fun.)

(f/8, 1/25 sec., ISO-400)

Alan, left, and my rally partner for the day, Brian, on our second go around the course.

(f/8, 1/80 sec., ISO-800)

I tried to get a good shot of the road outside as well as what was going on inside, but it was nearly impossible since: a) we were going fast, b) the windows were fogged up, c) the car was vibrating like mad, d) I couldn't settle on an exposure that would allow me to capture detail both inside and outside the car, and e) I was trying to enjoy myself and not worry too much about pictures!!

(f/8, 1/80 sec., ISO-800)

I think we were airborne for this one.

(f/4.5, 1/10 sec., ISO-800)

Back home. I don't think I'm ever going to wash these babies.

Team O'Neil Rally School

Chicken - Action Day 4 - 04/17/10

(f/10, 1/13 sec., ISO-400)

Why did the chicken cross the road? I still don't know. He wouldn't tell me. (Taking pictures of chickens is hard, by the way. They walk funny.)

The T Part 2 - Action Day 3 - 04/16/2010

More train pictures today! I must have looked like an idiot, panning the camera around in the T station, but I think the result is really cool. I want to play with this some more, maybe with cars, but since it was raining today, I stuck to what I could get underground.

(f/3.5, 1/125 sec., ISO-1600)

This picture is the antithesis of action, but I thought it was pretty beautiful, so I'm posting it anyway.

(f/3.5, 1/60 sec., ISO-800)

The T - Action Day 2 - 04/15/10

(f/10, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

This was fun. I'm not sure what it taught me except that taking pictures of trains from above is fun. One cool thing I noticed was that the front of the train, in the middle of the picture, was totally in focus, while the part of the train closest to me, at the bottom of the picture, was a little blurry. Neat action stuff. My guess is this train was going about 25 mph when it came out of the tunnel.

(f/10, 1/400 sec., ISO-400)

Tea Party - Action Day 1 - 04/14/10

(f/9, 1/320 sec., ISO-200)

Unfortunately, I had to take Monday and Tuesday off from the project, and, as you can see, I am very late in posting my pictures this week. School took precedence. However, on Wednesday, I was able to go to the tea party rally in Boston Common. I missed Sarah Palin (I heard the end of her speech, but because of the t.v. camera crews there, I couldn't see her) but I still got a look at all the people that turned up.

(f/9, 1/500 sec., ISO-200)

I learned some valuable lessons on this adventure. First, as you will notice, all of my pictures are a bit blue. This was not for effect. This happened because I didn't stop to double-check the settings on my camera and I was in indoor mode instead of in sunshine mode. The two symbols on the camera look very similar and with my sunglasses on and the Canon's small preview screen I didn't realize my mistake until I got home. The lesson here is to stop and double, triple check. It's worth missing a few good photos to make sure you don't sacrifice the whole lot.

(f/9, 1/500 sec., ISO-200)

The second lesson I learned was to stop and take in what I'm seeing. I spent the whole time there looking through the lens and didn't really soak in what was going on around me. I should have stopped, put down the camera, and sat down for 5-10 minutes just to get the lay of the land and see what was going on. Otherwise, how could I tell an effective - and accurate - story with my pictures?

(f/9, 1/500 sec., ISO-200)

Third, I didn't get anyone's name. Stupid, rookie mistake. Taking pictures of people is tough for me. This will go away with practice, I'm confident.

(f/14, 1/500 sec., ISO-200)

When the Camera Gets it Wrong - Light Day 7

Today is my last day playing with light! I shot a prism and it taught me something pretty cool: Sometimes the light meter gets it wrong. At first, I had everything lined up down the middle according to the camera, but the picture came out far underexposed, tricked by those bright sections of light in the prism. I slowed down the shutter speed a bit and then the light came out just right.

(f/5, 1/40 sec., ISO-400)

Blue Moon - Ligtht Day 6

Below are four series to see how my new flash behaved a) at different angles (both the camera and the flash itself) and b) with and without the built-in diffuser.

(1) In the first series, I held the camera horizontally and used the built-in diffuser.

(2) In the second series, I again held the camera horizontally, but used the flash without the diffuser.

(3) In the third series, I held the camera vertically, so the flash was out to the side, instead of pointed up towards the ceiling, and I used the diffuser.

(4) The fourth, and last, series, was again, vertical (with the flash to the side) but without the diffuser.

The room was dark aside from one dim light in the kitchen about 8 feet away. Also, I let the flash determine the intensity automatically.

Chocolate! - Light Day 5

Today, mixed light sources: beautiful natural light coming in through the windows on a rainy day and some overhead and sideways lighting from several incandescent bulbs. Very homey, warm sort of look.

(f/5.6, 1/15 sec., ISO-800)

Today's subject: brownie cream-cheese bites! So yummy I had them for dessert last night and again for breakfast this morning! For the recipe, click here. Easy & fun to make. (Put a little more of the cream cheese mixture than I did!)

Pink & Red - Light Day 4

I tried to focus on back-lighting today. I'm disappointed with the way the pictures turned out. But I know back-lighting can be beautiful when done right, so I just need more practice. Anyway, red and pink ended up being the colors of the day, with red stop signs, buildings, and cars and the beautiful pink magnolias and the cherry blossoms that lined the street. Everything - everything - was blooming today. It was incredible.

(f/10, 1/125 sec., ISO-400)

I wish I had used a larger aperture here. I don't like that everything beyond the stop sign is out of focus. Also, it's a little overexposed. But I love how the trees are so full of flowers that it looks like snow.

(f/4, 1/1000 sec., ISO-400)

I managed to capture this guy as it was bouncing around in the wind. Lot's of fun!

Dusk - Light Day 3

What a beautiful night.

(f/4.5, 1/25 sec., ISO-1600)

I had forgotten I turned the saturation way down before taking this picture. I turned the saturation back to maximum after this, but once I got home and saw the pictures, I realized I loved how the colors turned out in this picture.

(f/4.5, 1/8 sec., ISO-1600)

You can see the saturation was back up at maximum here. But the blue of the sky is pretty incredible. Only wish I hadn't gone so wide-angle. It's a bit dizzying.

Flash - Light Day 2

I went on a little field trip this weekend and bought this: My very first flash! It's a Nissin Di466. Nissin makes the internal parts for Canon and Nikon digital flashes, which Canon and Nikon throw their plastic over. So, they decided to start selling their own equipment. At least, this is what Sean, at the camera store, told me.

(f/10, 1/160 sec., ISO-200)

It's pretty nifty, especially since the built-in flash on the Canon 20D always yields a shadow on the bottom third of my pictures. It also has a slave function so that if I set it to the side, as I did when photographing Owlie above, and use the built-in flash, it'll go as well. I predict much fun and excitement with this new toy in the near future. I'm going to carve out some time later this week to read through the instruction manual and see what my new baby can do. It is the most basic quality model they had at the store, but for me, it's a perfect start.

Fluorescent Heart - Light Day 1

I've been sluggish in posting here on time since my schoolwork has picked up in the last few days. That combined with the pollen that is out to get us all right now has made me reluctant to get work done. And it also means I am scrapping my former plan to shoot the same subject at different times of the day this week. Instead, I am going to focus on light in general.

Here is Monday's subject, a heart-shaped hair tie that was basking in glow of a fluorescent bulb. The color is quite true, though I changed the camera settings to take out some of the saturation to give it a bit of a pastel French countryside kind of look. (Too involved when photographing a hair tie??)

(f/5.6, 1/40 sec., ISO-800)

Easter Sunday - Black & White Day 5

Everyone was out on the town. It was beautiful and sunny. A perfect Easter Sunday. Once Church was over, my obliging muse and I headed to the park to enjoy the sunshine. (Please click on the photo to see its full size and the bubbles at the right in the shade of the tree.)

(f/4.5, 1/640 sec., ISO-200)

Easter Saturday - Black & White Day 4

Cracked a few eggs on accident, but the Easter bunny didn't seem to mind...
(f/5.6, 1/20 sec., ISO-800)

Dizzy - Black & White Day 3

He was sitting in a cardboard box on the kitchen table, totally oblivious to how ridiculous he looked. Luckily for him, he photographs well.

(f/8, 1/6 sec., ISO-800, green filter again. I'm in love.)

Black & White - Day 2

Today, I went to a city called Dedham to take some pictures for NENPA. Behind their offices was an old barn with the paint chipping off: a pretty cliche photo subject, but fun practice no less.
















(f/10, 1/80 sec., ISO-200)

I spent the afternoon playing with the filter settings on my camera. My favorite result both times was with the green filter, especially in the second photo where it made the sky very light and the tree in the foreground very black. I didn't edit either of these photos at all, which is unusual for me, since I usually go in and crank up the contrast (like in the photo up top).





(f/3.5, 1/320 sec., ISO-400)

(f/3.5, 1/4000 sec., ISO-400)