Three Natural Materials

I loved how this new modern art building in Mississauga combined various different natural material side-by-side.  Here, stone, glass, and wood, is artfully balanced.

Learning the ropes

I bought my very first DSLR camera shortly before Christmas last year and have enjoyed playing with it and testing its and my own limits.  And even though it seemed daunting at first, manoeuvring through the settings and familiarizing myself with all the functions has been a great experience. 

Conducting these monthly activities has also allowed me to get to know my camera and my own skill-sets.  I believe that an amazing image isn’t just created via the camera tools but the creativity, motivation, passion and drive of the photographer behind the camera.  With that said, not having an assortment of lenses and accessories does limit your creative angles, but does not stop you.

I only own the standard 50 mm lens that came with my DSLR and on many occasions have become frustrated with its limitations.  It is hard to get close-ups of wildlife without scaring them away or getting extremely close to a cool insect without losing focus.  I have even tried shooting rooms with beautiful interior decorating and found that owning a wide-angle lens would have provided me with some more creative freedom. 

Even though I only have one lens, I have accepted the challenge to get great shots at various angles, perspectives, depths of fields, colour combinations. 

Here are a few more images were I have played with depth of field. 

Images of May

Okay, where did April go? 

Even though I did not post any April images, I did get out and shoot some great Spring scenes.  However, none of them followed April’s theme.  On a good note, I have been shooting subjects with shallow depth of field, which is May's theme.  Please take a look at what I was able to capture.

First Monochromatic Images!

I have some monochromatic photos for you to see.  However, they may not be as conventional as you would think.  I used 'white' as one of my monochromatic colours; even though white isn't a colour.  I have also used nature and its earthy colours to define my monochromatic images.

Fruit for thought

I tried to use the contrasting colours of purple and yellow fruit from my fruit basket to make some intriguing images.  However, the pictures are not as dynamic as I thought they would be, but they are interesting.  I learned that fruit are actually hard to photography, especially when placed on top of a reflective table top.

Below are two pictures of the same subject.  

You can see how the slightest change in lighting can modify the final look of a photo.

Seen through the branches

I've finally been able to download my pictures onto a computer.  Not my computer, but a friends computer. 

To showcase contrasting colours, like cyan (a bluey colour) and yellow, I've posted some tree images.  I came across this scene when I was walking home from work one day and the sun was setting.  I loved how the colours popped.

Sorry for the lack of pictures

I know, I know, you're wondering where my February images are.  Do not fret for I have been shooting.  It's just that I am having computer troubles.  I hope to have these issues rectified soon, so that I can start posting again. 

Picture Perfect Peppers

I was at the supermarket the other day and snapped this contrasting colour shot.  

First Images for February's Photography Project.

Yeah!  It’s February and that means my February Project is ‘Reveal Contrast with Complementary Colours’. 

Okay, if anyone looked outside they would see that its winter out there.  Well, if you’re in Canada ;)  Winter brings snow and lots of it.  Currently, my outdoor surroundings are blanketed with snow, which has made it a little difficult to find contrasting colours.  Therefore, to practice capturing images with complementary colours, I got in my car and drove to a local Green House.  And wow, I found lots of beautiful and colourful things to photograph.

Note –I not only practiced taking pictures of contrasting colours, I also had the opportunity to learn about post-production techniques to modify images. These images have been modified using an old canon point-and-click picture software program and not Photoshop. In due time, I will acquire Photoshop and familiarize myself with it.

Here are a few images I took.

FYI - I intentionally made the below photo look blurry!

Soaking it all up

I have found that I read more and more photography related books than I do novels. 

I spent Saturday at Second Cup reading about Lighting and then yesterday on my couch I read about Colour Photography.  I am a sponge for photo knowledge and cannot get enough of it. 

To prepare myself for February’s Photography Project I learned how to achieve brilliant, intense, and saturated colours in my images!   Just you wait and see what I will post. 

The Kelvin scale

We know that light is made of colour but did you know that colour is measured in degrees on the Kelvin scale?  This diagram shows you where the different types of light fall on the Kelvin scale. 

As a photographer it is good practice to get to know the different photographic light colours and how they affect your scene.  For example, if you are shooting a picture under fluorescent lights, you will notice that your scene will have a blue and green look to it.  Or if you are shooting under Tungsten or candlelight, you scene will take on a warm orangey glow.  The better you are at seeing the colour of a particular photographic light, the better you will be able to work with the light.    

Brainstorming

I am now brainstorming ideas for my January photography project: Reveal Contrast with Complementary Colours. 

Any ideas?

:)

Tidbit of information

Fortunately, light always moves in a straight line, allowing photographers to use tried and true techniques to control, manipulate and mold it to meet our desires.  If you shoot a ray of light into the distance at an angle of 45 degrees, it will keep going at that angle until it either hits something or looses its energy. 

Controlling Light

Your ability to control the amount of light passing through your camera lens will dictate whether your final image is sufficient, nice, or grandiose!  When a photograph elicits an emotional response from a person, we generally think it’s the subject, or contents and/or composition that draw out this response, however.  Lighting and the way the photographer controls it, is one big contributor to why a picture stands out as it does.  To get that amazing shot, a photographer may only need to make a subtle change to the amount of light passing through the lens, or a stark change in colour, direction or quality of light.  Ambient light in a scene and/or additional lighting tools and accessories, and a camera (aperture, shutter speed, ISO set accordingly) are all things used to obtain that perfect lighted image.

To start with the basics, we need to understand aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.  These three camera functions control the amount of light passing thought your lens.  Here is a visual of how you can alter the amount of light by changing your f-stop

Aperture diagram found at https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_KIbsFuo8yStMa8qKOsPznqiSqdUO5EDcwxps8XL2izGDh8r9ZImTBhA8Y1Aj9F62N_fVXTJtbkvlpK5JlM6pgplqF2aknNnDf3SyNJWCpGKGFUXb8D5Vtf81ekwsbnE1e7cz6Aw_WwJ/s1600/5+aperture.jpg

Yes, Light has Colour.

As a photographer, we learn quickly that light has colour and that this colour can be easily modified.  The source of light (a candle, bulb, sun or moon) dictates the light’s colour, however, light colour can change when it bounces off, reflects from or passes through an object.  Basically light picks up colour during its travels.

So that we can all see the difference between complementary colours, monochromatic colours, and analogous colours, here are some quick definitions and colour wheels.

Complementary colours – those that are on opposite sides of the colour wheel

Monochromatic colours – colours from a single hue or from one area of the colour wheel

Analagous colours – colours that exist side by side on the colour wheel

Monthly Photography Projects: An Excuse To Take Pictures

Welcome to the world of photography, seen through my camera lens.  I have constructed this Blog site as a means to develop, enhance, and practice my photography skill-sets. 

Inspiration for this Blog came to me when I finished reading ‘Digital Photography Composition For Dummies. The last chapter presents 10 photographic projects to inspire and encourage photographers to take more pictures and acquire hands-on experience. 

Once I read this book, I immediately wanted to work on these projects, but I also wanted this experience to be more involved.  I wanted to remember things I did, pictures I took, what worked and what didn’t work, etc.  But most of all, I wanted to see how I was doing and the best way to do this is to have people constructively critique your work.

Therefore, for the next 10 months I will post responses, comments, opinions, thoughts and even pictures related to the monthly project. This way you can follow along and read and see first hand how I am managing these photography projects.  By following along you can watch me struggle with or concur a project. 

10 Photography Projects

January            Paving the way to the first project

February          Reveal Contrast with Complementary Colours

March              Harmonize with Monochromatic Colours

April                 Make a Subtle Statement with Analogous Colours

May                 Using a Shallow Depth of Field to tell a Story

June                 Shoot Until You’ve Exhausted the Possibilities

July                  Choose a Background That Says Something

August              Tackle Transparent and Reflective Elements

September        Treat Light as the Subject

October           Incorporate A Compositional Frame

November        Create a Composite Image

In addition to these 10 projects, I will be posting other forms of my photography work, including interesting quotes, thoughts, links, and mini side-bar photography projects (e.g. photography all nearby waterfalls).  Please visit http://citizenphotographer.blogspot.com/ to view these photos and thoughts.

Please feel free to post your comments and suggestions.  Lets us learn and experience photography together.