This is our cat, named Mommie Kitty. (yes, not particularly original, but she had this moniker when we took her in) Mommie is shown doing her fourth favorite thing, after eating, playing with a string on the end of a stick and sleeping. She's an indoor cat but thinks she's roaming free in the jungles of South America, Africa or India. She loves the fresh air and we like to give her as much as she wants, short of letting her outdoors. The plant in the background is a bouganvillia.
The shot was one of those happy "accidents" that photographers love. I was in the kitchen, just finishing up cleaning my lens, when I spotted her in the window. I was very worried that she'd move, so I quietly and quickly installed the lens, turned the camera on and set it to full "auto." I centered the viewfinder on her dark fur and hoped for the best. I can admit that I would have wanted her fur to be better exposed, showing off her grey on grey stripes, but, the result is still a stunning shot, almost as if I'd set it up deliberately.
Let's see, technical details. A Canon Rebel Xsi, with an 18-55 mm lens. I did do a little cropping from the left and right sides of the frame.
I've lived in my house for almost four years now, and I STILL don't know the name of this plant. All I know is that it is fragile in that it seems to "die" out quickly for lack of watering, but, is actually almost unkillable in that it always comes back, in spring and summer to reveal these stunning and totally weird flowers. They actually seem to bloom inside out, with the stem coming around from the back of the petals and joining up with that strange growth in the center. The petals stretch BACK towards the main stem. These beauties seem to attract humming birds and these enormous, black bees. I haven't yet "captured" a humming bird in my camera, but a lot of images of these beautiful bees. Besides their shiny black bodies, they have beautiful, glistening amber colored wings. You can just barely make out the color in this photo. I DO have a better image of one of those bees on another flower, but I couldn't located the file today. I'll post it later.
Again, a Canon Rebel Xsi with that 18 to 55 mm lens. I used the macro setting and let the camera set it's own exposure. Shot was taken in daylight, but under a carport, between two houses, so it was in full shade.
This photo is an example of how an artist can make something of beauty, even from the most humble of sources. (No, it's not ME that's humble. Far from it!) This was taken at the seaside town of Capitola, California. It's a view through a shop window of a mobile and other assorted wares inside the shop. One can, of course, see the reflections of buildings and a palm tree across the street, plus the glare of sunlight and blue sky. But, with the judicious applications of several Photoshop filters, I think I managed to breath a kind of fairytale "life" into the setting. Among others, I applied "Poster Edges," "Motion Blur," "Sharpen Edges," and "Solarize," not necessarily in that order.Canon Xsi, 18 to 55 mm lens. Shot at f-8, 1/200 sec. ISO 100. About mid day, early Summer.
Oh, how I always wanted to get a spectacular shot of multiple fireworks bursts. I've wanted to capture that image most people remember from fireworks shows; that of a moment, at the end of the show where they set of streams, sheets, curtains of firey colors and burn one's retinas with that image.
What I finally DID manage was, by trial and error, to set up my camera on a tripod and catch a small, community fireworks show and capture a handfull of individual bursts. I then assembled them in Photoshop. Not quite the "curtains of flame" I wanted but, they tell me that a Fourth of July comes around about once every year, so there is still hope.
This was done on an older camera; An HP 465 or something like that. For a point and shoot, it had some pretty advanced features, but, that night, I just set it on full auto, mounted it on a tripod, aimed it at some likely spot of sky and "shot from the hip," so to speak. After the first couple of bursts, I had a pretty good idea of where they would go off. I aimed the camera in that direction and then sat back, with my finger on the shutter release. I watched for the telltale streak of a rocket going up and then guestimated when the burst would go off. It was pretty much a chancy thing as this camera had a long, and very unpredictable shutter lag. I have just as many frames of black sky as I caught of any fireworks. It was a short show, so it only yeilded less than a dozen decent shots, but there was enough to create this composit image.
More images, coming soon. I plan to add them to my regular postings of rants gleaned from my Yahoo Answers experience.
Please remember that ALL of my images are copyrighted. Plus, some of them are from paid projects done for clients. While I own the copyrights, the use of these images can "dillute" the value of the work my clients pay for, so, please, respect those rights. Thank you.
luv,
vince
No comments:
Post a Comment