Learning Light

In my ven­tures to learn all about pho­tog­ra­phy, I have been focused on light (pun intended) this past week, specif­i­cally, learn­ing how to prop­erly use avail­able light and how to break the basic rules of using light in pho­tog­ra­phy. Since my main edu­ca­tional means is just tak­ing pho­tos as much as I can and see­ing what comes out and what doesn’t, time has not been on my side in learn­ing the basics of rec­og­niz­ing when the light is right for shoot­ing. I have got­ten frus­trated over the last sev­eral weeks numer­ous times when I have been out shoot­ing hop­ing for great results only to be dis­ap­pointed when I look at my pho­tos later and most if not all are just not pleas­ing mostly due to light­ing issues.  Some are blurry because of not enough light and some have blown out high­lights because of too much light. Oth­ers have bright spots or poor reflec­tion from harsh light or don’t come out at all from using wrong set­tings (or when I am in a hurry to catch a fleet­ing oppor­tu­nity I for­got entirely to change set­tings before press­ing the shut­ter release). With this recent post from This Week in Pho­tog­ra­phy and my par­tic­i­pa­tion in this assign­ment last week from Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy School, I now have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of light as it per­tains to mak­ing great pho­tographs and why I have been very dis­sat­is­fied with the out­come of my photos. 

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Vote for my photo please!

Please help send me (all expenses paid by the con­test spon­sors) to one of four scenic national parks to take pho­tos and receive instruc­tion from four dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­phers. There is less than 45 hours left in the con­test so be sure to vote for my photo before 2pm EST on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 5th. This is the first of four chances to win one of four spaces at these work­shops so if my photo doesn’t hap­pen to win this time (from the pool of almost 3,000),  I do plan to enter dif­fer­ent pho­tographs in the other con­tests. Your votes are very much appre­ci­ated. Thank you to all who have and will vote for my photos!

UPDATE: Final sub­mis­sion total for this con­test was 4,101 pho­tos. Thanks to all who voted.

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TWIP Assignment: Circles

Since TWIP has changed their con­test sub­mis­sions over to Pho­trade I have decided to take advan­tage of a but­ton they sup­ply and make it a reg­u­lar fea­ture here. When pho­tos are uploaded to this new ser­vice they give you the option of shar­ing your sub­mis­sions by sup­ply­ing some nifty lit­tle wid­gets. I already have one up for the con­test I have entered and I just posted another for this week’s TWIP assign­ment “cir­cles”. Every­time I enter the biweekly con­test I will post in my side­bar, a Pho­trade “vote for my photo” wid­get. If you like the photo I sub­mit for that week’s assign­ment, I would appre­ci­ate your vote.¹ Don’t for­get to check out all the other great sub­mis­sions. I will con­tinue to upload all my Dig­i­tal Pho­tog­ra­phy School Assign­ments to flickr so those sub­mis­sions will still show up in my photostream.

UPDATE: Vot­ing is now closed. Thank you to all who voted for my photo.

1. In order to vote, you must have an account at Pho­trade; If you don’t already have an account, click the wid­get to be taken to the pho­trade site then click vote under the photo to receive an invi­ta­tion code [↩]

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