ATPI strugglin'

So, the reason I have not had a blog in the past forever is because instead of being outside and taking pictures, I have been working diligently to get everything together for the ATPI photo contest. After much trial and tribulation, we finally got everything in the mail and sent off for judging. Getting things together for ATPI was honestly a pain. I felt like I was pulling teeth just to get people to put a couple pictures in a folder. The seniors did a great job of contributing their efforts in accomplishing this feat. I do not know what I would have done without them. This year is the most people that we have had in photography yet, and we had less photos entered this year than we did last year. We didn't even break a hundred images and I was kinda disappointed about that. I guess for the next contest that rolls around I'm going to have to be on the photogs even more about getting their stuff together. Hopefully it won't be as difficult next time as it was this time. With any luck, we will be able to come hope with some good awards from the ATPI fall contest.

Boring Fall Clothing

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/40 Lens: 24-105mm

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/60 Lens: 24-105mm

ISO: 1000 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/60 Lens: 24-105mm

These were some pictures that I took today during class. The reason that the backgrounds aren't very good is because they just had to be contrasted enough with the subject so that we could cut them out in photoshop. These pictures are gonna be used in the yearbook for a fall clothes spread, however, I am confused as to how the shorts are part of fall clothing. Overall, I'm not going to lie, this was a boring assignment, but I haven't really had an assignment in a while so I was willing to take it!!

9th Grade Football

ISO: 100 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/320 Lens: bigma

ISO: 100 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/320 Lens: bigma

These were a couple of pictures that I took at one of the last 9th grade football games. Shooting football is something that I don't get to do a whole lot, so I usually end up having issues with shooting it. I'm pretty sure that this was one of the first games that I legitimately got to use bigma. The thing that I kinda found out about the bigma is that you really have to be paying attention to your focal point and what it is focused on. I also found that I also liked using the 70-200mm on the sidelines. However, I didn't like it when it got dark and I had to use the flash, because I don't really like using flash.

Hispanic Festival! HOLA

ISO: 500 Aperture: 4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/640 Lens: 70-200mm

This is a photo that I took for the Hispanic Festival yesterday. I know that this picture isn't a very good representation of hispanic heritage, but I liked the fact that the subject is framed within the photo. The exposure was also pretty spot on.  This assignment was pretty fun, especially because we got mexican food and we got to get out of class. This assignment was overall alright.

Today during class I didn't exactly take any photos, but I helped two people with two different pictures. The first photo was a painting with light picture. So i had to stay very still in order to not be out of focus. The ISO was 100 and the shutter speed was on bulb. The next picture was a dance picture. The ISO was 100 and the shutter speed was 320, which is weird for using strobes, but it wasn't fast enough to make a huge black bar. It was really fun.

Sugar Skull!!

ISO: 100 Aperture: 10.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: 24-105mm

This was a picture that I just took for fun/because I need something for ATPI. Originally, I had seen a photo similar to this online, and I decided that it would be neat to try it. I really wanted a blue background, but we didn't have one. However, we did have a blue tutu, and we figured that it  would make for a neat background. So, I opened by aperture some to get the tutu a little more in focus. I also used a strop to light her face, and I put a grid on the strobe. That is how I got the harsher shadows. After taking the picture, I edited a little bit in light room, and then Smith put it through a portrait process. One of the hardest parts of this photo was doing the makeup. Haley was such a good person for sitting there with me for like two hours while I smeared stuff on her face. I really liked doing this photo because it wasn't an assignment, I had free reign on what I wanted, and it was kinda artsy. I would love to do more of stuff like this in the future.

Haley/Ke$ha

ISO: 100 Aperture: 6.3 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: macro 

ISO: 100 Aperture: 11.0 Shutter Speed: 1/250 Lens: macro

ISO: 100 Aperture: 16.0 Shutter Speed: 1/160 Lens: macro

These were some pictures that I took for fun one day in class. I didn't have much of anything to do at the time, and I didn't feel like sitting around. To be honest, this is the kind of thing that I like to do the most. I like to go and be artsy and experiment with flashes, strobes, gels, etc. The first picture with the green gel in my opinion creates a totally different feel than the other two pictures. It almost seems as if Rushing is an alien or something in the first one. The second picture actually surprised be a little bit. I wasn't expecting the background of the picture to turn out black because the background was white, but I guess the aperture was big enough and the flash power was such that it didn't reach the background. I really want to go and experiment in the studio some more. These pictures were ok, but I think they could have been better.

FAIL

             Soooooo, today during class I tried to do something artsy so that I could have a picture worthy of ATPI. However, it was a giant fail. Although I did learn about shadows a little more. I was trying to project the shadows of the lace onto Woodsies and I could never get it the way I wanted. I think I'm going to try to do this one again, but as of right now, the pictures that I took are not even worthy to put on the blog. I think that if I try to do it again, I will need a larger piece of lace and maybe a bigger room, cause I wanted the light to be farther away from the lace and the subject because smaller light sources make darker shadows.