a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Random Photos For First 4 Weeks of A Class I'm Taking

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Random Photos For First 4 Weeks of A Class I'm Taking

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday









(Locations, in order: My back yard, around the corner with Mt. Hamilton behind (Mr. Alien--compare and contrast), behind WAG Agility facility in Elk Grove,  Memorial Park in Cupertino, my back yard, last 3 also Memorial Park.)

15 comments:

  1. Cool! Like the lady with the stroller especially!

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  2. Took several tries to get the panning speed right--especially since, when the shutter is open for 1/8 second (which this was), you can't actually see through the viewfinder, so I had to pace her a bit and then try to keep the same speed blindly after pressing the shutter. I wonder whether Live View would help? Something else to experiment with. P.S. I used a tripod on this one.

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  3. OH! Plus just found out that one's the first of my photos ever to make it into Photo Of The Week in one of my BetterPhoto.com classes. Yowza!

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  4. I like the stroller one too, and the alien ones are neat as well. I'd be curious to hear what the lesson/topic was for all of them?

    Oh and congrats on the Photo Of The Week -- Very cool!

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  5. Lesson/topic--each week he gives us a choice of 3 assignments. I try to pick one that will be more challenging for me (which doesn't necessarily mean super challengin).
    Week 1 "Working Terms - Exposure, Density, Tonality, Color Balance and Contrast"; my chosen assignment was:

    1. Set the camera on ISO 100 and photograph outdoors with the sun falling over your shoulder and onto the subject. Set the subject in the foreground about five feet from the camera and make sure the background is at least 20 ft away. Focus on the foreground subject.
    Set the camera on Aperture Priority exposure mode (AV or A on the mode dial). Take one shot at the maximum aperture your lens allows (the lowest f/number) and one at the narrowest aperture your lens allows (the highest number). Compare and comment on the focus depth image effect.

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  6. Week 1 correction, my assignment was: "Set the camera on ISO 100 and shoot a few shots handheld (no tripod or steadying) in low light without flash. Make the same shots with the ISO set at 1600, and comment on the differences." (Alligator)

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  7. Week 2: "Lenses and Exposure," and I picked: " Use the longest focal length lens you own and set up a subject fifteen feet away. Make sure the background is quite far behind that subject. Focus on the subject and shoot one frame at the maximum aperture and one at the minimum aperture." (Mr. Alien)

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  8. Week 2, also the tall seedheads were for this assignment but there was too much wind and I wanted sharper photos, so didn't actually turn that in, but still kinda liked this one shot.

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  9. Week 3: "Shutter Speed, ISO and EV". I picked "Set shutter priority exposure mode and set the shutter speed at 1/8 second and make photographs only at that setting. Note effects for: a) camera shake and how to fix it; b) subjects in motion in the frame; c) change in effect if you pan (move along with the subject) as it moves through the frame." (EVERYone else in the class picked the assignment option to shoot flowing water at different shutter speeds. The instructor might have just been excited to get someone who tried something different.) (Leaves against fence; woman with baby carriage.)

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  10. Week 4: "Exposure Modes and Patterns", I picked "Work with various high contrast scenes and puzzle out how to make the best exposure using center-weighted metering, exposure lock and aperture priority mode." (The last 3 photos.)

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  11. Wish I could add some "commentary photos" to the comments, but nooooo...

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  12. Thanks for some assignments to play with over the holidays. I often use your blog as inspiration. I'm going to take a short Sports/Action photography class from the community college in February.

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  13. BetterPhoto.com has (or had, i took it) a short course on photographing dogs, which included action shots. It was very helpful to me. This current course is also through betterphoto.com.

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  14. Very neat! Sounds like a wide variety of topics to explore. Thanks for sharing.

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