We had clouds roll in not long after I had investigated the new assignment, so I quickly grabbed my camera book to figure out how to set my camera to Shutter Priority. I tried using several different objects and backdrops for this challenge. In the end I liked how this glass gazing ball turned out so well I am turning my assignment in way early when compared to my prior submissions. It is on a small gray pedestal, with the bottom portion of the globe nestled in the pedestal. I set the pedestal on top of the deck railing positioned so the globe was in front of a big pine tree. I took lots and lots of shots and will keep playing with this technique. Very fun! Basic LR adjustments, no cropping, hand held.
All of Colorado is in a drought currently, some areas more severe than others. I had to evacuate in 2012 for the Waldo Canyon fire so fire is quick to come to mind when the drought becomes so prevalent. I first thought of the old red door texture I shared with the class. It reminded me of parched earth with the cracks in the paint. I remembered I have an old 3D map of Colorado that I inherited from my Dad so I decided to try the two images in a composite photo. As I work on this we have a light rain, so I am grateful for that! I used the clone tool on a few spots that looked like old paint on the red door image. I used the burn tool very lightly around the edges because that seemed a natural for this composite photo. Cue the Bonanza Theme Song! Map image: ISO 100, f/13, 225mm, 1/8 sec
I used Shutter priority mode with ISO 400. I had set my shutter speed to 1/500th sec and went to town. I had set my lens such that I thought I could judge where my focus would be and held my camera at waist height. I was thinking that my subject matter would be moving as would I, I did not plan to sit on a bench waiting for the scene to come to me which was why I had thought shutter priority might work well. I did not raise my camera to my eye for any shots I took, and I ended up with many I liked. None are technically wonderful. I am sure one big improvement I could have made was to use Aperture priority and getting in closer. But in the end, I found I enjoyed this assignment even though it made me uncomfortable. I did ask my sister to join me, on her birthday, nonetheless! Well, I did treat her to a fancy lunch and it was a very lovely day outside. I went out on other occasions this week but did not have the same success in finding interesting situations. My main take away for this week’s lesson is to always have your camera with you!
