The Great Pictures

Hey! I'll say right now.. I'm really happy with these pictures. I don't think they could've come out any better than they are now. So go check them out!

These are some late bloomers. I captured this picture in early October, around lunch time. There's a lot of light around lunch time, which is what is making this picture glow. The amount of detail makes the flowers just really pop out too. 

This picture just looks so delicate. You can sort of see the sun behind the flower, giving it a slight silhouette. The edges of the flower is letting light pass through, because none of the outer petals are overlapping (in a 2D view). The flower just looks so fragile, as if it was glasswork. Even the background is perfect. It's just a perfect dull blue...

These next few pictures are interesting. All of them are showing motion, in a different way. I took them while the car was moving, which is why the pictures are in someway blurred. This picture has everything blurred. It shows that the shutter speed was kept low, which is what gives that blurred effect. Although, this blur isn't a proper blur because you can see the detail quite well, so it's the light just skimmed over the picture. 

This one is very similar to the picture right above. Except here, the entire picture isn't blurred. You can see the middle section quite clearly, as if I took it in still motion. The tops and bottoms are blurred, different from the middle. The middle of the picture doesn't seem to have that effect, which is what makes the picture looks pretty neat. 

This is also another interesting picture because the entire picture is blurry in a different way. You could honestly take this as a painting because nothing is clear, and it's just a mix of colors. You know those landscape paintings, when you look from faraway, it looks brilliant in detail. Then when you go up close to see the picture, you notice there is no detail and the colors are just splotched together. That's what the detail in this picture looks like. Y

Here... I have a light silhouette. The torch in the picture actually doesn't have an intentional purpose. It's just there to make the picture more interesting as it also adds a subject to the picture... Just taking a picture of the landscape isn't as interesting than adding a subject in front of it. The color scheme here also looks really cool. What I mean by this is that the color theme are all ones that can collaborate with each other. The different components don't look bad when added together and the colors aren't just random either. 

The Insect Troop

All of these pictures are ones I obviously took over the past year. I don't like to take pictures of things that move, but I've started to leave that comfort zone. All of these are pictures that I took...of bugs! They're not in any particular order though. Now, think about something that I explained in the last post... The photographers position. Think about how close I were to these bugs! Lucky me, they didn't move as I got closer. But... I'm always saying... keep snapping... meaning, keep clicking because you may miss the shot and you can always go back and delete the extra pictures. So probably for each bug, I took perhaps 15-20, and that was until they moved away. 

This is a beetle, a False Potato Beetle in specific. It's named this because it's commonly mistaken for the Colorado Potato Beetle. They feed on husk ground cherry tomatoes and weeds, which makes sense for why I saw them because we are growing tomatoes. What you see in this picture is actually a fake. What I mean by this is... the white floor the bug is on is actually a wall. The brown floorboard on the side is actually the floor.

This isa Katydid (a leaf bug). I was so close to stepping on it, it was scary. It's a wicked looking bug because it resembles a leaf so much. It even has the veins running through like leaves, which is why I didn't recognize this as a bug at first. Now recognize the detail of the entire picture in general. You can see the details of the bug as well as the background. Did you know there are pink leaf bugs too?!? (It's a natural genetic mutation.)

This is a praying mantis. Now a funny story behind this picture. Right behind these rocks are some jalapeno plants we grow. So I was walking on top of the row of rocks, checking out all the vegetables, just like a kid would. Of course I was looking where I was going just to make sure I wouldn't fall, but I was barely paying attention to what was there. So I was walking, walking, walking, then stopped to check out a plant. I was crouched down, observing the jalapenos. And that was when I looked to my right and saw this creature. I did jump a bit, but mainly I was creeped out because I wasn't wearing shoes. What if I stepped on it?  I promise you, it was scary because it just looks like grass. These camouflage bugs are pretty creepy.  

This was just some honey bee strolling through our yard. I was actually really surprised about how close I was to take the picture, and how it didn't move once I was so close. 

This is some grasshopper...not sure what type exactly. I really like this picture because of the detail visible. You can also see the depth of feild (DOF), which places the grasshopper in a perspective. The way you can tell depth of field is by noticing that the camera is focused only on one subject. So here  the floor closest and farthest to the camera is blurred. Only the area around the grasshopper is well in focus, which is basically depth of field. 

Positioning Your Subject

Hey! Ever have that terribly bored feeling?You might be waiting for something and don't have anything to do? In this case, I was waiting for a ride, and I had absolutely nothing to do. I had my Ipod in hand though, so I looked around, saw some flowers, plucked them, and placed them in the grass. Literally, I tore the flowers from the stem (Hehe I'm so evil. Killing a plant just for a picture. Well there were more around...) and placed them in the grass as if they were growing from the grass. Honestly, if you look at these few pictures. they do look as if they are growing from the ground. Keep that in mind as you view them...

Think about this too...how was the photographer positioned??? It's always interesting to think about how the photographer was positioned when taking a picture. Its interesting because you always see the picture, and think about how good the picture looks but you never think about the photographer. . Think about some marine life pictures or even a desert picture. Imagine what to photographer had to go through  and how they were positioned to get the perfect picture! Good photographers will go into the weirdest positions, and those are the best because they are getting the right angles. Well in this picture, I am on the grass with the camera peeking through. For example, take a peek at the pictures I have in this post... If I had taken the picture sitting down, or even standing up, it wouldn't have been nearly as good as laying down and getting the full perspective of the object. Remember this.... position yourself and the object to perspective.

Here is an original. The sun was shining bright because I took it around 4 p.m. So it was high time for white light. 

Here is the photoshopped version...obviously. You can tell by the shadow border and the improved light and color quality. You can see that the purple flower is a little more purple (vibrancy and contrast) and light highlights were taken off. 

Here is a different picture, same object and setting. I like this more though for reasons as follows...The purple flower is so much clearer and you can see plenty of details. It is photoshopped, so the black vinaigrette border makes the grass and flowers pop out.  There is also a small filter added onto the picture. It's called an autumn picture and it adds some temperature and hint of brown. Plus, there is this streak of bronze cutting across the picture. I am not entirely sure what it is, but if I had to guess, it would be a blade of grass in fast motion.

These is clearly a different flower, but the same background. I plucked this flower as well and placed it in the grass. The purple flower looks a little more natural though. I guess pink doesn't go that well with green. ;)

Now this is the photoshopped. It's not really that different though. A major difference you can notice right away is, the border. There isn't much of a difference in the lighting or color either. 

Funny story about this picture. Photographers have to do whatever they can to get a good picture right? At least in most cases.... Can you see the water droplets on this flower? Now in all reality, it didn't rain magically for two mintues and then stop. I didn't take this at a seperate time either. (I was waiting outside for a ride, I took all the pictures in that period of time. Not staggered.) Then how is there water on just that one flower, and not even on the grass? Well I did the unthinkable ;) I just poured some water over the flower. At least it gives the rain effect or the early morning dew look. Look at how much power photographers have!

Leaves in Fall

Have the bored problem and you are outside? That's exactly what happened with me and lucky enough, it was fall time. All the trees around happened to change colors too. So enjoy these few fall pictures. :)

Now this picture happens to be one of those pictures that aren't in focus. It's artistically pretty cool because you are so use to seeing clear pictures. When you see a blurred or unfocused one, you automatically delete it. Some of them can be nice, especially if a part of it was in focus. Note that all of the leaves in this post are from a Red Maple Tree. 

Since this is in focus, you can see all the small details in the leaves. There are three different leaves of  all different shades of green, red, and orange. The special thing is the background. Its completely white, not sign of the sky. Now that's how blinding the sun was!

This one is pretty cool because a little more than half of the leaf is not in focus. Now what happened here was that the leaf got too close for the lens to focus. So, it could only focus the right part of the picture, which is what gives the picture nice depth perception. 

I'm quite content with these next pictures. The detail and precision in them really triggered me. I tried to get the sun to shine through the leaf so that the leaf would glow. It kind of worked for this picture. You can see there is a source of light coming from behind the leaf as well. (Since I was holding the leaf with my hand,  I was able to control its position.)

This would make a great wallpaper. The lead takes up pretty much the whole page. It's detail is so clear. Also notice how the leaf isn't centered. When the subject isn't centered in the middle of the picture, it is called " the two thirds rule". So what exactly is this? Imagine a line splitting a photograph into thirds, horizontally and vertically. When you take pictures, you just need to place your subject in any third that's not the middle. Photogrpahers use this mainly to give an appealing look. You don't have to use this, if you are going for a different look, which is completely fine. 

Now this is just the full view of the same leaf. Notice the amount of detail in this too. The sky seems so blue and vibrant compared all of the other pictures.