Day 292- Rule of Thirds

Probably the most basic rule of composition in photography is the rule of thirds (imagine your photo divided into a 3X3 grid- objects should line up to one of those lines and/or intersections).  I consciously and unconsciously use this rule when framing and/or cropping my photos, so I thought this challenge would be an easy one for me.  Hmmmm- not so.

Our deck has just been stained, and I wanted to capture its new look.  Of course it is already littered with leaves, which make a natural subject for my macro lens. This photo was so hard for me to frame using the rule of thirds- maybe one of the other rules of composition (triangle, golden ratio, golden spiral?) applies…

 

Here is a more easy to see example of the rule of thirds.

Melinda4 Comments

Day 286- Back-lighting on a cloudy day

Back-lighting is today’s theme.  I was in a hurry, grabbed my macro lens, found a whatchamacallit caught in a spider web- and then had some weird adventures in back-lighting.  This is NOT a black and white conversion; it is just a very cloudy day.  It probably doesn’t quite fit the assignment, but this is all I will be getting this afternoon.

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Day 275- October!

I love October and have been looking for signs of Fall.  I found these little things on a walk recently and am not sure what they are. Acorn caps? Shells from nuts?  Anyone know what they are?

I took this with my macro lens- and added a bit of a texture in processing.

Melinda1 Comment

Day 274- Gnarly, dude!

Because the topic was gnarly, I ventured out back this morning, knowing there were all sorts of gnarly things out there.  To be clear, I was thinking of gnarly as in gnarled or nasty  or hairy- not in the sense of extreme coolness.  When I came upon this spider busily completing her web, I couldn’t resist going back inside for my macro lens.  I think she is extremely cool, but kind of nasty and hairy as well.

 

 

Melinda2 Comments

Day 202- Flower Frenzy

A Trader Joe’s bouquet- hooray!

Here’s an image taken with my beloved 50mm 1.4 lens:

And another (which is my favorite for today):

I’ve been playing a bit with creating textures in Photoshop.  None of mine are good enough to stand on their own yet- so here is one of today’s flower photos textured with one of my amateurish textures paired with one of Kim Klassen’s fabulous ones.

I couldn’t resist getting out my macro lens.  Here are two versions of a macro shot- one with a black and white conversion.

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Day 190- Eucalyptus

I gathered these seeds when we visited the Bay Area Discovery Museum with the grandbabies last April.  I find the star and cross shapes in the middle so charming, I just had to photograph them.

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Day 185- I do, I will

It will be forty-one years next week.

The theme today is ring- and I chose the vows we made as the backdrop for my wedding ring. Episcopalians, take note: it’s the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Photography note: I used my speedlight today, so that I could have a fairly wide depth of field for this macro. The aperture was f/14.  I hadn’t used my flash since starting the photography class in April (not allowed), and it was comforting to not have to be concerned about getting enough light onto the subject.

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Day 181- Feather Dance

I sat outside waiting for my fine-feathered friends to fly in for a photoshoot today, because today the theme is, indeed, feather.  I finally gave up, and came in for lunch, only to find on the floor a tiny feather which had worked its way out of a couch cushion.  I set it on the cabinet by the open (for natural light) front door, but the breeze caused it to dance and skitter around on the surface.  I managed to capture these images of the dancing feather with my trusty macro lens.

 

 

 

Melinda3 Comments

Day 177- Spoon Wars

Early this morning, in response to the theme pile or stack, I stacked some spoons and photographed them in slightly different compositions and positions.  We were gone to a workshop all day, and I’m just now looking at the resulting photos. I’m a little rummy- so I had my husband (!) choose his favorites of the mix. So- of the three chosen, which one is the best?

 

 

They were all shot at ISO 1600- and I forgot noise reduction! Oooops!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 176- Mary Amanda’s Fan

My great-grandmother’s fan is today’s subject, in response to the Flickr topic, fan.  I just couldn’t get excited about what I was seeing through my viewfinder until I saw the light shining through the fan, making a pattern on the table.

f/9, 1/80, ISO 1600, 85mm macro

Melinda2 Comments