Self Portrait!!

ISO: 100 Aperture: 8.0 Shutter Speed: 30 sec. Lens: 17-50mm

This was one of the first pictures that I took when working on this picture. I kept wondering why I was all see through and then figured out that when I went to go light up the stockings behind me the light would reflect and the camera would catch it. So, what I did was get a snoot, that way the light couldn't get out.

ISO: 100 Aperture: 8.0 Shutter Speed: 30 sec. Lens: 17-50mm

So.. I was really conflicted when it came to doing this photo cause doing self portraits makes me feel conceited. However, I already had some kris kringle feet in my chimney. What I did for this picture was put the shutter speed on 30 seconds and then painted with light. After I pressed the shutter button, I had my friend flash me with a 580 flash, and then I went and took a flashlight and lit up santa's feet and the stockings on the mantle. 

Be Sneaky!!

 ISO: 100 Aperture: 6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/160 Lens: 28-135mm

 ISO: 100 Aperture: 6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/160 Lens: 28-135mm

ISO: 100 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens:28-135mm

So today Caroline and I went to Michaels to go and take pictures for a photo assignment about the Government project. When we got there, we were taking photos just like we would anywhere else, and then the manager came up to Caroline and told her that we couldn't take pictures in the store. So, on our way out, we kinda walked slowly and snagged some pictures on the way. It was kinda fun. This was the first time somebody had told me I couldn't take pictures, so it was new experience!!

ATPI Winners!!!!! :DD

Today during class I moved pictures from the ATPI folder to the winners folder. It was really fun because it gave me an excuse to go onto the ATPI website and look at a lot of the pictures. A lot of the pictures and there were sooo many good pictures, however, some of them I don't understand how they won anything. When going through the list of winners, it was very noticeable that THS did very good!! I'm sooo proud of my fellow photogs!! Hopefully we'll beast it again next time!! :DD

Santa!!! :DD

ISO: 100 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens:17-50mm

This was a picture that I took for the newspaper. The hardest part of this picture was constructing santa claus' legs and shoving them in the chimney. To get the lighting behind the legs, I put to  580 flashes behind them, one behind each leg. After taking a couple pictures, I noticed that they were really dark, so I took the brolley box and a 430 flash and put it over to the side. This picture was fun to take and eventually I want to take a picture with me in my christmas pj's in front of it looking all surprised and whatnot. 

Rearview Mirror

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/1000 Lens: 17-50mm

This was a picture that I took today during class for the newspaper. I wish I would have used a flash. It was difficult because there was so much light coming from outside, that the inside of the car was extremely dark. I haven't decided if I want to go and take some more pictures with a flash yet. However, what I did to brighten the picture was bring up the fill light and use the brush tool to brighten Ruth's face. This was a very interesting picture to take because I was all up in the back of my car trying to get the picture that I wanted. Overall this picture was ok, but I think that I could have done better.

headshots.... SO MANY HEADSHOTS!!!

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/40 Lens: 17-50mm

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/500 Lens: 17-50mm

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/25 Lens: 17-50mm

So this period, pretty much our whole priority was to get headshots of people for the cover of the yearbook. This sounds like a simple task, and for the most part it is. However, it takes forever because the room number that you are given half the time end out being the wrong ones and then you have to go back to the front office over and over and over again to get the class rooms the kids are in. Then, once you get to the room, some of the teachers won't let you take the pictures. So, as one can see, what should be an easy assignment sometimes can end up being rather difficult.

Happy Thanksgiving Smith!! :DD

Basketball!!

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 70-200mm

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 70-200mm

These are pictures that I took at the Texas High's girls JV game against Marshal. I learned a lot about lighting and how you set it up in the gym so that it reflects off the ceiling and goes down onto the players. The problem that I had though was that my pictures were still about a stop to a stop and a half underexposed. I think this is because of my aperture. The other thing that I would change is to not use a 70-200 lens. I had used it for volleyball and so I figured it would work for basketball, but I was wrong. I really enjoyed taking pictures of basketball, and I hope to get to shoot it again a lot more during the season.

Leaves!! :DD

ISO: 400 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 17-50mm

ISO: 100 Aperture: 10 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 17-50mm

Today during class I just felt like going and taking pictures... So I did!! It was super fun! Me, Haley, and Caroline had a blast! The only real difficulty that I had was taking the second picture because the sun kept coming in and out. It was IRRITATING!!! Taking the first picture was fun as well because Haley got all up in the leaves and it was super funny!! I liked taking pictures outside cause its fall and all the leaves were all pretty and the colors were all rich and deep.

Cupcakes!!

ISO: 800 Aperture: 3.5 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Lens: 17-50mm

ISO: 800 Aperture: 3.5 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Lens: 17-50mm

ISO: 800 Aperture: 3.5 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Lens: 17-50mm

Today I had an assignment to take pictures of students decorating cupcakes in Mrs. Platt's room. The most difficult part for me was getting all up in everybody's grill to get the pictures that I wanted. However, once they kind of forgot that I was there it made it a lot easier. The only problem that I ran into was that halfway through taking pictures my flash battery went out. Other than that taking these pictures wasn't that bad at all!!

Word of Wisdom!!

So today during class we had a skype session with Morgan Walker, a former commercial photography student from Texas High. I found what she had to say very interesting because of how much different photography is when you actually choose it for your job. She really put into perspective how time consuming photography is when you are a photo journalist or working for a newspaper. When it is your job, photography has to be your number one priority and a lot of the times you don't even get credit or a reward for your hard work. I mean, the pictures you take could end up being in somebody else's trash the next day. I also learned that the photography industry is very small and everybody knows everybody. Therefore, it is necessary to start networking and doing internships even if that particular internship isn't the most fun or the best out there. You have to start small and work your way up the "food chain." Another difficult aspect of photography is that because the industry is so small, if you mess up everybody knows about it and that could potentially keep you from getting a job some day. I found listening to what Morgan had to say very interesting and beneficial to someone like me who really has no idea what they want to do when they grow up.

FAILURE!!

ISO: 640 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 17-50mm

This picture is kind of a fail. For one, it is underexposed. Second of all, if you look at the reflection in the door I am in the picture. Third of all the picture is not centered and the sign is cut off. Overall this picture is just BAD. I'll have to make sure to watch out for reflective surfaces when taking pictures.

Robot! (October 6)

ISO: 100 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/6400 Lens: 17-50mm

This is a picture that I took during class today. I was looking on flikr to find a picture to take for my blog and I found one similar to the one I took and I thought it was kind of cute! The hardest part of taking this picture to me was getting the little paper robot to stand up because the wind was blowing. At one point I was chasing across the field for the little piece of paper. Other than that this picture was pretty fun to take.

2nd Six Weeks Project

ISO: 100 Aperture: 14.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: macro

This was the first picture that I took for my six weeks project. One of the things that I had to work on the most was getting close to the same angle that the book cover had. The other difficult part of it was cracking the egg (see egg videos above). In order to get the soft shadows I used the brolly box umbrella. In the picture that I took I feel like I might have been zoomed in bit too much and inside the cracks of the egg in my picture it's a lot darker than the one in to book. I wish that my eggs had been in a cardboard carton just because in the book cover the carton gives a lot of texture to the picture and I'm missing that in my picture.

ISO: 100 Aperture: 9.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: macro

This was the second picture I took for my six weeks project. When I saw this book cover I thought it was really cool first of all just because the fork was all bendy. I was really excited to take this picture because it was the first time I got to use a gel!!! I like them a lot!! The problem that I had with taking this picture was getting the shadows on the fork in the right place because my fork was all reflecty. Another thing about my picture was that I couldn't get my fork to be the same bended shape as the one in the book cover. Overall taking this picture was fun because it was something that I had never done before and it was different.

Melting Crayons

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: macro

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: macro

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: macro

This was a project that I did during class just for fun. I used a macro lens so I could get close up and a 580 flash. The hardest part of these pictures in my opinion was the set up. We had to get an easel, poster board, a hairdryer, and crayons. It was a little scary taking these pictures just because the wax from the crayons was kind of shooting out and I didn't want it to get on the camera. Anyway, I loved taking these pictures because of all the bright colors and it was just fun watching the wax drip and mix with the other colors as well. The only changes I made to these pictures were cropping them, bumping up the exposure a little bit, and bringing up the vibrance to really make the colors pop.

FORKS!!

ISO: 100 Aperture: 9.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: Macro

This was another picture that I took for my six weeks project. Taking this picture was very interesting because it was the first time that I had ever used a gel. In order to get the fork all bendy I had my dad use pliers cause there's no way on this earth that I could do that! Haha! But that's beside the point. The only problem I had trying to take this picture was placing the light cause it took me a while to figure out where to put it to get the shadows. Overall, I liked using the gel and will hopefully use it a lot more in the future.

EGGS!!!!!

Phase #1

Egg Deyolking

ISO: 100 Aperture: 14.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: Macro

This is a picture that I took during class today for our six weeks project. In order to get this picture, I had to first deyolk the egg (see videos above), set up the brolly box, and then figure out where to place the light stand in order to get the shadows I wanted. I also had a friend hold a silver reflector beside the eggs to get shadows on the other side of the eggs also. Overall this was a fun picture to take just because of all the shenanigans that went along with it! Taking this picture helped to give me a better understanding of lighting and how to use it to get the desired outcome.

BLUE!!! (October 19th)

ISO: 800 Aperture: 8.0 Shutter Speed: 1/40 Lens: 17-50mm

So, once again I was trying to come up with an idea for the thematic competition for ATPI. I got some food coloring and decided to just go at it. It was kind of hard to get the background I wanted just because I didn't have a white background. Another problem I had was getting the macro to focus although I ended up not using it. I think the picture could have been better if I had used a  tripod. I'd like to do this again with multiple colors together. Overall, this was pretty fun to shoot.

Haley in BLUE!!

ISO: 100  Aperture: 10 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: macro

This was a picture that I took of my friend Haley during class today. My inspiration came from a magazine that had a closeup picture of a girl with bright red lipstick and matching nails. So, I figured that I could kind of do the same thing, except, because the theme for ATPI is blue, I decided to use blue nail polish and lipstick instead. I used a brolly box with my flash in order to get the soft shadows on one side of her face and light on the other. It was the first time I used it, and I liked it a lot!! The power of my flash was at 1/4, and I matched the exposure by adjusting the aperture cause you can't go over 1/250 sec when using a flash. Overall, this picture was a great me to learn more about using flash, cause before this I hadn't really played with it a whole lot. Oh! and the only changes I made were cropping the picture and adding a filter!

Steve Jobs

ISO: 800 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 17-50mm

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 16 Shutter Speed: 1/40 Lens: 17-50mm

This was a picture that I took for the school newspaper about the death of Steve Jobs. What I tried to do was get a picture of someone reading about the death of Steve Jobs on their phone. I used a 430 flash and the problem that I had when taking this picture was getting the picture on the screen of the phone exposed while still keeping the person exposed correctly. However, I still wanted the person in focus (2nd picture) instead of blurry. So, I raised my aperture and then I bumped up my ISO so I could have the picture exposed correctly. Other than that, this photo wasn't too hard to take.  

Dive!!

ISO: 800 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/400 Lens: 17-50mm

So, this was my first time to shoot dive. I thought it was really fun to shoot, but I wish I would have had a 70-200mm. lens instead of the 17-50mm. Really the only problem I had was trying to keep the divers in focus while they were jumping and flipping in the air. Next time I shoot dive, I'm going to try to be a little more aggressive and get behind the board so that I can get some more shots of faces cause when they flip they always tuck their heads. The only change that I made to this picture was bringing up the exposure and cropping it. I hope I get to shoot dive sometime again.

1st Six Weeks Project

ISO: 800 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/50 Lens: 17-50mm.

ISO: 800 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/15 Lens: 17-50mm.

                      

ISO: 800 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: 17-50mm.

Flash: 580

  

ISO: 1600 Aperture: 8.0 Shutter Speed: 1/5 Lens: 17-50mm.

ISO: 100 Aperture: 11.0 Shutter Speed: 1/200 Lens: 70-200mm.

The six weeks project that I was assigned to do was to take five different pictures with different aperture settings. This sounded pretty easy, but when I started to shoot, it proved to be kinda difficult. It was really difficult to get my fourth picture exposed just because usually when I have my shutter speed set, I change my aperture to get the picture exposed right. Due to the fact that it was dark in the room, it was really difficult to get it exposed right without changing the aperture. So what I did was bring my ISO up and then I had to hold the camera extremely still. All the other pictures weren't that difficult to shoot just because of the lighting that I had. Overall, I think that changing the aperture in a picture can help bring out the focus of the photo and it gives the photographer creative control over the image.

Water Drops :)

The settings for all of these pictures are the same:

ISO: 100 Aperture: 8.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: Macro 50mm. 

Today during class I did water drops. In a nutshell, it is capturing images with lights. However, I leanred that you can't take your shutter speed over 1/250 of a second because if so you will get a black bar across your picture. This is because it is the fasted sync speed you can take with your strobes. These pictures were really fun for me to take because the results you get if you do it correctly are so cool!!! I will definitely be doing some more of this in the future. Really the only problem I had was getting it focused and in the frame there at the beginning.

ISO: 800 Aperture: 4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/125 Lens: 17-50mm.

This is a picture that I took today at the school’s annual blood drive. It was a different experience for me to take these pictures because I had to ask the people to take pictures of them because of some law or something. I used a 430 flash and that helped a lot because whenever I take pictures in the gym they always turn out yellow. I really like this picture because of how the hand is really in focus and then the girl is blurry in the background. The only change I made to this picture was to bring up the fill light because the shadows were kind of dark.

I'm awful at football!!!

ISO: 1250 Aperture: 4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/200 Lens: 70-200mm.

So I was sent to go take pictures of Freshman football, and as it turns out, I am absolutely awful at shooting football. I could never get the camera to focus fast enough on the football players so all of my pictures that would have been good were out of focus.. it made me want to CRY!!!!! However, I was able to get some good pictures of the cheerleaders! I liked this picture in particular because of how the light is lighting up the girls face. I also like how the background is blurred and how she is looking to the left.

Hillbilly Day

ISO: 800 Aperture: 4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: 70-200mm.

ISO: 800 Aperture: 4.5 Shutter Speed: 1/80 Lens: 70-200mm.

Today during photography I went and took some pictures of hillbilly day. The first problem I had was that the camera settings were set for using a flash so my pictures were kind of yellow. Another problem that I had was that a lot of my pictures were out of focus and I'm still working on figuring that problem out. It was a lot better taking pictures of the spirit day today though, because I used the 70-200mm so I could "snipe" people from a long ways away. This was really helpful because when you get close up to people they tend to look at you and pictures for the yearbook need to be candid. 

FAIL

ISO: 100 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/100 Lens: 28-75 mm.

This was a picture that I took this past week at my school's annual bacon fry. As you can see already, this picture is a definite fail. Not only is this picture extremely underexposed, but if you look in the background there is another photographer in the picture. It was kind of difficult to get the exposure correct though because there was a black person standing beside a white person and there were white plates and cups in the background. It probably would have helped if I had used a flash. I didn't change anything on this picture in lightroom because I think that it is just messed up beyond repair. 

Painting with Light (part deux)

ISO: 100 Aperture: 3.5 Shutter Speed: 30 sec. Lens: 17-50mm.

ISO: 100 Aperture: 3.5 Shutter Speed: 30 sec. Lens: 17-50mm.

ISO: 100 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 30 sec. Lens: 17-50mm.

ISO: 100 Aperture: 5.0 Shutter Speed: 32 sec. Lens: 17-50mm.

Today in class me and some friends went and messed with painting with light. My friend came up with the idea to do the hear/see/speak no evil. The first images I took were kind of a fail. In the very first picture I just used a regular light bulb and I would just flash it each time my friend changed poses. I really wanted the background to be black so I decided I need to go up the the subject and shine the light myself. This worked a lot better, except I had to figure out how long to hold the light in front of my friends face or her face would be extremely over exposed. After taking even more pictures, I decided to change from a regular light bulb to an orangey looking light bulb. That's what I used on my last picture and I liked it a lot better. This picture went through a bunch of phases before I was finally pleased with it. The only changes I made to the last picture besides cropping and straightening it was lighting up the subjects face just a little bit more.