Weekly Photography Challenge

This week there was a nice little snowstorm and I made the best of it by taking a photo walk around the block. It being missouri the snow had all melted within a day but at least it was pretty while it fell. I had a very hard time picking my one favorite photograph from this shoot. I liked lots of different ones for different reasons. I think my favorite one is probably the first one above because I like the contrast of the very colorful fence with the gray snowy surroundings. But I also really like the two below the plow one because of the story it tells and I like how the red plow is the only colorful thing in the photograph and the road goes off into the snowy distance. And the car mirror I like because it shows such a small portion of the car yet tells so much about how the car is totally covered in snow.

This week I decided to use all the DIY studio gear I brought all the way down to Missouri by doing some micro photography. I clamped my compact florescent lights around found something to use as a background and started shooting. I was also playing around with using my 50mm prime lens as a tilt shift by holding it infront of the camera and moving it around. I had seen Becca do this at the wedding I shadowed her on and wanted to experiment with it myself. It took a little getting used to and there was defiantly some light finding its way in through the gap but it was really neat to be able to change where the in focus line went. The photograph below is the best example I was able to make with my makeshift tilt shift lens. As you can see the plane of focus is diagonal to the frame instead of horizontal like it would have been with the lens in its normal attached position. Unfortunately since I have to hold the lens separate from the camera I can't use a tripod and it si really h

I was searching for a project for this week and had the inspiration to try water drop photographs. I have read various articles about how to successfully to it but had never taken the time to try it out. It was so much fun and so challenging at the same time that it was incredibly simple. This one above is my favorite because the hole that the falling water made is in good focus and you can see more water falling down. I am very glad I put colorful paper under the glass bowl I was using, it really added much more drama. Although in the future I will try to not have straight edges. For this first attempt the setup was very simple. I had a large glass bowl filled with water and a measuring cup to dip water out and pour it in to create the splashes. At first is was just on a white towel but there wasn't enough drama of separation so I put colored paper under the bowl. I then had my flash set up on a tripod and firing a low power burst so that it would stop the motion of the falling

I assisted Becca Dilley, http://www.beccadilley.com/, at one of the weddings she was photographing. It was the marriage of Michael & Jessica in the Science Museum of Minnesota. It was incredibly fun and I learned a lot about photographing weddings and photography in general. I also learned that this is defiantly the type of photography that I want to specialize in. It was so incredible being a part of such a joyous event as a wedding and I spent so much time with the wedding party that I had gotten to know them by the end of the night. The Photograph above is my favorite out of the 300+ I made. I like how I caught Jessica at the perfect moment when she was touching the ring and looking lovingly up at Mike. This was made right after the ceremony when they were signing the official documents. There were a lot of great photographs from this so I felt I had to share a few more. We spent a few hours before the wedding outside taking photographs of the bride and groom and the weddin

For this week I had this plan of making a photograph of someone jumping high into the air maybe with a dog next to them or some other sort of creative twist. Laura's little brother was happy to be my model and had lots of fun showing off his cool jumps and flips. It was a very challenging shoot because the overcast day made for a low level of light and jumping on a trampoline is fast action. I did manage to make a few good photographs this one being my favorite because you can see al of James and it almost looks like he is flying instead of jumping. I like how you can see the trampoline but there is a lot of space between him and it. I wish that his head was more centered in the photograph and he wasn't looking out of the frame because as it is the composition doesn't keep your eyes in the image. I did also make some nice portraits when he took rest breaks.