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)