Category Archives: fine art

365 Project – 213: Whirligig daisies and a lotta’ bokeh (July 31, 2012)

Shutter Speed: 1/100, Aperture: F/1.4, ISO: 400

See more of my 365 Project: Untouched photos from my Nikon D5000 with 50mm lens

365 Project – 33: Kanoodling cormorants (February 2, 2012)

Shutter Speed: 1/50, Aperture: F16, ISO: 320

The sun was out during my morning Olympic Discovery Trail walk and I obsessed over capturing some sun flare or sun burst in between these two cormorants. I was happy with this photo, straight out of the camera, where the sun seemed to be bursting out of the bottom cormorant’s heart, while the incoming cormorant looks like she (?) is coming in for a kiss. Can’t you see that? It was fun playing with different angles and setting the camera just right to sihlouette the cormorant sculpture and expose properly to get the blue sky and sun burst.

Focus and re-compose
To get this shot, I set my aperture as high as I could (F16), set my shutter speed at 50, then adjusted my ISO to exposure properly for the ground beneath the cormorants. Pointing towards the ground, I pressed my shutter button half-way down, moved the camera up to compose my shot with the sun in between the cormorants, THEN I took the shot. I had to do this a couple of times to get it right. To get sun flare or sun burst, you want to expose for the subject, not for the sun. If you try to focus on your subject while your lens is pointing towards the sun, your exposure will be for the sun, which could just completely wash out your entire photo. There are several tutorials on how to capture sun flare or sun burst. Most that are better at explaining it than I am. It’s a fun technique to play with you so, get out there and shoot into the sun! 🙂

See more of my 365 Project: Untouched photos from my Nikon D5000 with 50mm lens

365 Project – 15: Intentional blur (January 15, 2012)

Shutter Speed: 1/5, Aperture: F8, ISO: 400, +2.3 step

A new technique I learned during my last photography class was how to intentionally create blur or motion by either quickly zooming in and out your zoom lens. With a fixed lens you would use your body to move forward and back, or even jiggle the camera, which is what I did here with my 50mm. It was snowing outside this morning and I decided to try this effect by moving the camera in a circular motion and this is why I got. So, why do you want to intentionally create a blurry photo? I can barely draw a stick figure so with my camera now I can “draw” some abstract art, even straight out of the camera without post-processing. And, just because it looks cool! 🙂

Read more about my 365 Project: Untouched photos from my Nikon D5000 with 50mm lens

A photo as abstract art

I took this photo of Nora in Santa Cruz, Chile a few months ago and I just like the mood of it so I thought I’d share and open it up for critique from any of you photographers, or anyone, out there. There’s a story behind the photo but, I thought I’d post it and see what YOU think the photo says to you and how it makes you feel. Kind’ve looking at this as an abstract art exercise. PLEASE comment and critique. Thanks for stopping by!

F-stop: F/4   Exposure: 1/100   ISO: 400   Focal Length: 50mm   Camera: Nikon D5000