Alvin

I was really excited to take a walk after class when I felt how warm it was outside. Unfortunately, the beautiful red and orange leaves have fallen and I was left with a bunch of branches.

The walk on the other hand was just what I had expected. The air was warm and the leaves on the ground rustled and crunched under my feet and the feet of the squirrels and chipmunks. Speaking of chipmunks, this little guy seemed to be interested in striking a pose. Of course I took advantage of it. If anyone sees him in the future, tell him I’m interested in an editorial shoot.

Update

I was really looking forward to keeping up with this ‘once photography assignment’ as a fun summer project for myself, but that hasn’t really happened yet. Since I’ve started working, I spend all my waking hours that aren’t spent in my uniform probably just lounging. I work a lot. 

Anyway, I’m pretty disappointed I haven’t been able to even think about posting anything the past month. I did however want to just say that I’m not gone forever. I wanted to go out every chance I got to take pictures and explore but that isn’t realistic. 

For the meantime, enjoy this photo I took of the sunset the other day. 

 

 

Behind the Scenes Pt. 2

Very similar to my post about a month ago, below are some quick photos of the few photos I took while messing around trying to get my first panning shot downtown Toronto.

And my personal favourite:

I definitely think I need to take more time this summer to take photos around downtown. It’s such an interesting place.

In Her Natural Habitat

My good friend and classmate, Laura, is my partner in crime when it comes to the photography studio. I love taking pictures of her hard at work; it’s so raw and honest. She’s totally in the zone! Watching a photographer try with all they can to get that perfect photo is something I find so interesting.

To see the final result, visit Laura’s post here!

Food for Thought

Food. Food. Foooooood….

In this case, dessert. Dessert. Desssseerrrrttt….

Already just thinking about it my mouth is watering! But just between you and I, dessert is for stuffing in your mouth, not photographing. Not for me anyway, let’s leave that to the professionals.

In all honesty, I was pretty bummed about this assignment as I thought I was going to be way better at it. Boy, was I wrong. Very, very wrong.

Let’s break it down.

First of all, the concept I had in mind was the best part. I was going for a New Year’s Eve snack platter vibe. I had chocolate chip cookies (delicious), chocolate straws (equally delicious), and some sort of coconut cluster thing (not very good). So I had my desserts, now I needed my decor. I hit up the ever faithful Dollarama for some of my supplies as I already had some useful things at home like plates and cups. So about $10 later I had a mini  New Year’s party for one going on in my car. Now, let’s fast forward to shooting day.

I brought everything to class and cleverly set it up to look like the end of the night after someone had a few snacks. I even filled a ‘red solo cup’ with pomegranate vitamin water for a red wine feel (super clever, I know. Thank you). Anyway, after I set it all up at my station, I realized how unhappy I was with the way everything looked! It was way too messy it didn’t have the feel I wanted. Just reminded me of a plate that someone left laying around because the food on it wasn’t very good… Right away I was super bummed because I was so looking forward to a good shoot. Now, I’m not saying I wasn’t pleased with the finished product, I was just not as good at arranging as I thought I was going to be. Even glancing around the room and seeing everyone else’s set ups bummed me out because I was thinking to myself like ‘Rachel! Come on, you could have done sooo much better!”

Okay, I probably sound really hard on myself. I’ll let you be the judge. What do you think of the finished product?

Part of the assignment was to throw the image in photoshop and play around with blur effects and I think that is what really improved my image. Since I know my way around photoshop about as well as a someone navigating a new home in the dark, I used this youtube tutorial to help me with the Gaussian blur effect. Found it hard to follow at first but if you give it a go, let me know. Happy snackin’!

Go Ahead and Jump!

Jump on in and take a look at the process of taking a good jumping photo!

    The perfect jumping shot is not as simple as it looks. These shots alone took about half an hour and once you get the right timing down, it’s all personal preference after that. I could have stopped at the first two photos because it is apparent that she’s jumping but I wanted it to look like she was floating and that’s what I got in the third photo. Really happy with how these turned out. To find out how the pros do it, visit this blog with nine tips on how to take the perfect jumping shot.

Saber-ific!

Hey guys, I hope you can forgive me for and look past the super cheesy title of this post and focus on how proud of these images I am! Although these were from back before the snow, I really wanted to share with you how cool painting with light could be. Yes, these are imperfect, but they’re still really cool nonetheless!

I also found that the following photos look fairly similar to a long exposure carnival landscape and I thought it was pretty wicked also!

Although the photos on this site don’t show the trail of light, the author still explains how to get that saber glow. Camera settings, model positions, and even props and costumes! The only thing we did differently was model movement, really. My models were moving and swinging their sabers around like I wasn’t there while the models in the blog linked above were still. Either way, saber shots are wicked awesome. Happy shooting!!!

Behind the Scenes

The photos you see in magazines or on billboards were not the first takes. A lot of prep goes into a model or prop to make it look just right for that perfect photo. Below are some behind the scene pictures of my friend Nick who helped me out with an assignment. I wasn’t completely pleased with my panning photographs so I used him instead of a car.

It was such a nice day, we were outside for almost two hours! Although he patiently posed for a whole bunch of “just because the lighting was right” photos, this one is my favourite.

Panning; the street at a standstill.

Many of the assignments in my photography class are concepts I have never heard about nor tried. Before this class I was a basic ‘point and shoot’ photographer; if I can even call myself that. Now, I’ve expanded my knowledge and capabilities behind the camera.

One of the more interesting techniques we’ve come to learn and I’ve come to (somewhat) understand is panning. A panning photo demonstrates the isolation of a moving subject, usually a car moving at high speeds, and shows the ‘movement’ of these things around it through blur. Inanimate, non moving things like fire hydrants and buildings appear blurred to exaggerate the movement of main subject of the photo.

Although this is tough to shoot, like anything, practice makes perfect. The key to a good panning shot is following your main subject at near the same speed they are passing you. No 100m/h, but once you can relatively match the movement of it, you start to get better images.

Another thing that’s really important to consider is the angle at which you are “panning”. This type of photography is best shot with a tripod; I learned that the hard way. Most of my images have half of a car or better yet just the bumper. Here are a few examples:

Another really difficult part of taking a good panning photo is getting the subject completely in focus. A lot of the well framed pictures I took were ruined by blur. The background was out of focus which is what I wanted but the main subject was as well, as shows here below:

All in all, I did get a few good shots. But, those will be kept secret for my assignment!

Here is a link i found that not only helpfully explains how to take a good panning shot, but also gives examples of other subjects like skateboarders and dogs! Let me know what you think and happy panning!

#selfie

iPhone cameras do not compare to the quality of a dslr when it comes to anything you’re photographing, so why stick to your cell phone for your selfies?! Not one of us, especially me, can truthfully say they haven’t snapped a pic or two when their make up looks just right or it happens to be a good hair day. And the whole reason to snap a #selfie is to share with your friends. That’s why I’m sharing these with you!

Now, like any selfietographer knows, you can take 300 pictures and end up with only 3 good ones. Here are the three best ones I took; two featuring my handsome boyfriend!

All three photographs were taken right by the window in my dorm so any natural light flowing in is what I/we used. The first was on a really nice, sunny day. The second one was take when it was rainy and gloomy. The third was taken on a pretty sunny day and I used the effects built into my camera to make the photo black and white.