A Taste of Spring

So Clayton and I agreed to do a photo assignment over our respective May long weekends. Theme for the assignment was "Spring", with one shot of each of the following:

• macro/close-up of plant(s)


• landscape/scenery


• wildlife


• action


• "emotion" of spring (happy, new, fresh)

I figured that during one of the two weekends, we'd be able to get away into the mountains for a hike somewhere which would present me with ample photo opportunities in general, not to mention for just this assignment. But, with a combination of family/personal commitments and general suspect weather both weekends, the trip to the mountains didn't happen and the only hike was a short one just outside Boulder this past Sunday.
But I think that despite the more limited environments in which to shoot, the choice of shots for this assignment ended up requiring a few moments of deliberation, fortunately choosing from good shots rather than other. 2 of the 5 shots came from that Sunday hike, while the other shots came from the home front (including shots taken a few feet from the house).

Without further delay, here are the final shots selected for this assignment:


Macro/Close-Up



Landscape/Scenery



Wildlife



Action



Spring "Emotion"




We've been discussing some more ideas for the next assignment which likely will be much bigger in terms of scale (i.e. topics) and time. Stay tuned.

21 Days of Photos

For three weeks of a mostly mild March in Denver, I followed Clayton's lead in completing 21 consecutive days of photo shoots. This posting is a summary of all 21 days; clicking on any day will reveal the story behind that day's photo.

Though there were days that this challenge resulted in a late day scramble to get out with the camera and find a topic to get some shots of, it was a very valuable experience. More than anything, it got the camera back in my hands on a regular basis, which I had been missing for quite some time. Hopefully we'll continue this routine in different forms going forward. And, I have to get a filter for my latest lens as well as find a replacement part for my tripod - both of those would have been very valuable the past three weeks, not to mention with every future shoot.

Day 21: March 24






Day 20: March 23






Day 19: March 22






Day 18: March 21






Day 17: March 20






Day 16: March 19






Day 15: March 18






Day 14: March 17






Day 13: March 16






Day 12: March 15






Day 11: March 14






Day 10: March 13






Day 09: March 12






Day 08: March 11






Day 07: March 10






Day 06: March 09






Day 05: March 08






Day 04: March 07






Day 03: March 06






Day 02: March 05






Day 01: March 04

RMSP Weekend

The RMSP Weekend in Denver is over and I have very high marks for it. Information was very valuable and the speakers were all very engaging keeping the atmosphere relaxed and light-hearted. I took many new ideas and techniques from it, there were many points that confirmed that I was taking right approaches to photographing certain scenarios (just now I know why it's the right way!), and some things just re-affirmed what (I thought) I already knew.

I arrived Saturday earlier than I expected and was able to get into the 2nd session of the day about 10 minutes late. Attended the "Beyond Basics" session from Doug Johnson. It was essentially a detailed review of ISO, Aperture, Shutter, etc. Got into color tones, metering, and, perhaps the most valuable, an insight into the histogram readings which is something I've been lacking.

The 3rd Saturday session attended was "Understanding Light" by Tim Cooper. This went into the details of base/neutral colors with photography, light temperature, reflection of light waves to generate light, forms vs. shapes, texture, and lighting angles. And also details about white-balancing including the custom setting (I never knew that existed) and the other WB settings and when to use them.

The 1st session Sunday I chose the "Photographing People" session presented by David Marx. This essentially got into Portrait vs. Environmental techniques, the differences, and subtle points of each that are important for success. Emotions, composition, direction of light, flash, and expressions were all touched on.

2nd Sunday session I attended was "Sports and Motion" again by David. Techniques and related results, preparation, difficulties, etc. were all touched on. Though I've never had great success with this type of photography, most of what was discussed was re-affirming that I knew what I was doing, and that my lack of success was due to not taking enough pictures, since the percentage of good shots is pretty low!

The critique was very interesting and entertaining. The three speakers critiqued and a lot more of their personality came out. They were very...shall I say...gentle...with their critiques in my opinion. But they kept it very relaxed and succeeding in never putting anyone on the defensive. My Teton photo was not included, but the ptarmigan photo was. It got very good review with the only mentioned flaw of sorts was the small leaf coming in from near the bottom left side.

So it was a very entertaining and educational weekend of photography. My only complaint of any sort is that they should try to extend the hours and offer many of the sessions a second time to acccommodate where one session was sacrificed in order to attend another. And I didn't win any of the great raffle prizes at the end. Their speakers were great and the level of content had basic concepts to advanced to hit most of the audience.

Now I just have to get out and use all this new knowledge! I did get out the camera and play with a few settings that I wasn't familiar with previously. But need a lot of practice to put all this information to use.

Photography Critique

So I've been working like a dog the past 5-10 days getting ready for a Monday morning presentation of Sharepoint to much of the company. Only have 15-20 minutes to talk about something that I could talk for 4 hours on and still not have it all covered. After Friday's walk thru, I still had to cut 10-15 minutes off the presentation, so a bit of practicing left to be done.
With the time I've spending on that, not much exercise achieved in that time. So Friday night went to the monthly tennis social - bunch of people get together, play tennis, meet some new people. Got some good matches in and burned some much needed calories. Saturday night is a date night for Cindy and I - meeting up with some folks I work with for dinner and whatever else.
Saturday morning is the 1st of 4 straight Saturday mornings that I have a class...more to be said on the class specifics another time. Because of this class, I will miss weeks 2-5 of Sarah's first time into the world of soccer, which sucks but needs to be done.

The big thing this weekend is a 2-day photography workshop being put on by Rocky Mountain School of Photography. I'll miss the Saturday morning sessions due to the previously mentioned class, but will make the rest of the weekend. Sessions I'm planning on hitting:

• Saturday Session III - Understanding Light


• Sunday Session I - Composition
**"Photographing People" is intriguing too!

• Sunday Session II - Sports And Motion
**contemplating "Sunrises, Sunsets & Flowing Water"

• Sunday Session III - Critique Session

I plan on submitting a couple of photos for the critique session. Here they are:

This was taken February of 2004 up at the top of Guinella Pass in Colorado. Found a flock of ptarmigans sitting in the snow and took a gob of photos of them. This was one of the most appealing.

Taken September, 2007, this is a southward looking view of Grand Teton from our North Cascade Valley campsite.

So hopefully I'll be on top of things and be able to post back with results from the critiquing, plus the Monday morning presentation! Meanwhile, feel free to offer up your own comments of the photos you see.