Breaking Rules

Composition is a super important aspect to photography. It requires tremendous creativity and hundreds of rules to memorize. Jkjk, composition is simply and easy to follow. Just keep in mind that there are rules and guidelines that can only help you take more mature pictures. Soo, cheers to leading lines, simplification, and the 2/3rds rule.

For example, this is a super busy picture. There's many color and contrasts and subjects and lightings and such. So to keep it simple, I could have zoomed up on something close, like just the log cabin. Or just the white wheel in front. But I wanted the whole scene, by all means I went for it. That's the thing with pictures, you're free do to as you please. 

This picture also relates to the idea of leading lines. Using leading lines in photography is a draw towards any picture. So using diagonal lines, circles, patterns, and perspective lines, really draws attention to the subject. And most of the time, perspective lines are used, such as a hiking trail or a boardwalk leading to a beach. I'm sort of using leading lines here (the black cannon at the bottom),   and patterns (the wheel and log cabin).

   

This picture does not follow the 2/3rds rule, but hey, it still looks pleasing. And to recap, the 2/3rds rule is when you split the picture into thirds vertically and horizontally, and where the subject is placed in the outer thirds. My subject- the flowers, are right in the middle, therefore not following the rule of thirds. So break the rules as long as you understand the rule. 

Another rule here that was used was simplification. Simplification is basically taking out distractions, or things not needed in the picture. I simplified this by avoiding the bushes at the bottom and sides of the frame.

Philly Arctic

Welcome to the Philadelphia area Arctic zone, where the weather fools all the weathermen, mwahahaha. 

A huge snowstorm hits the zone and you're left stranded in your home. You're sitting at your dining table, staring through the backdoor, wondering, why won't the sun be powerful enough to melt the storm as fast as it does ice cream? 

What a dead rose, but I brought it back to life in this picture by the way the light goes around. The sunlight from the left just illuminates the entire picture and gives a great spotlight on the rose. What a great dead rose, and funny thing is... I kept this as my background pic on my phone for weeks, no idea why. 

I love this picture, so thick with colors and textures. It's got light coming in from everywhere, blurry and clear. This is actually a picture of snow on a car window... those lights at the bottom are the traffic and cars on the road!!

And lastly, a sparkly pic in our backyard. I actually took all these pictures with an iPhone, so I was super surprised with how clear and pristine these pictures came out. I took a really good picture of my sister, in a setting like this, where the snow is the air and the sun shines bright. 

Imperfect Vision

Ring ring ring simultaneously ringing, annoyingly.

Eyelashes opening wide and pupils staring into the shady ceiling.

With thoughts chasing each other, you decide to get your legs on the floor,

but first your arm flexes to the right, fingers searching for some plastic, nothing.

Moments later, head jerks up and you hear the hair unsticking from the pillow,

pupils shift gaze from the ceiling to look at your frantic fingers.

You search with those pupils for frames but you can't see nothing.

Finally your legs hit the floor but conveniently lands with a crack.

Those pupils then squint to the floor and fingers dart to the sound,

and you reach down and sadly pick up broken pieces of that plastic, that frame. 

Your glasses broke. 

Broken glasses, not good. 

The gardens awaits your presence but how,

tape might stick but it'll bother the brow.

Broken in three bits,

 your sight feels abandoned.

Broken glasses, terrible timing.

Bits clasped in fingers, only wondering what you'll see.

Without the plastic on your nose-bridge, you're toast.

No time to get it fixed, no contacts, no extras, you're scrambled.

You're visiting an exclusive garden, and the anxiety creeps in,

vultures settle in after they ate the butterflies in your stomach .

You pay the tickets and enter the unfamiliar gardens.

Nothing is clear.

With zero aid in vision,

Missing opportunities to see,

the marigolds swarming with bees,

 the sunflower gowned in rays of early light,

the breeze of her step subtly rocking the daffodils,

the brave and bold tulips drowning in armies of themselves,

the daisies showing off their photogenic skin for more pictures,

the ladybugs hiding in the spirals and circles of the roses freshly bloomed.

The Flower Power

Over spring break, our family dog-sat our cousin's dog, and the little dog is adorable! So one shiny, sparkly afternoon, I took him out to let him do his business. We walked a little, he did his business, and we started heading back inside. Then, as I put my right foot on the step, I felt something touch the back of my neck, and saw a petal fall down. And then I dramatically turn my head to the left and caught a glimpse at the trees next to the front door. Then this brilliant idea whizzed by... I was going to take pictures of the flowers on the tree. 

The thing was, as I was taking the pictures, I was literally tied down. The dog was my responsibility at that time, but I had to take pictures that afternoon because the weather was toasty and clear. The dog could've remained inside, but why leave him indoors while I'm appreciating the weather outdoors.... What I did was keep his leash tied to my leg, and he's a well behaved chap so I didn't have to worry about him dragging me away. And therefore I was literally tied down. 

So here are the glossy images, and I'm just going to lightly comment on each because the huge pictures can speak for themselves.

An airy, breezy message from this picture. In fact, it was certainly breezy while I took this picture.

I discovered that filters work so well for these flowers. 

Even a black and white filter with high clarity.

Composition is the main idea here, the branch going through the top and the flowers dropping down porportionately.

The flowers are lit! :) The sunlight illuminates both flowers from the back, and it looks great against the contrasted branch behind.

The camera went awry here, it focused on something in the middle. But I'm not blaming it on the camera, I'm going to say that was intentional...!

This is not what it was supposed to look like either. I wanted to get the farthest flower in focus, but it was so windy, the camera had a hard time focusing. But again, not blaming it on the camera, going to say this was intentional...!

This picture gives the impression that the sun just rose and time to get the busy morning started. Backlight is a very powerful lighting technique for any picture.  

Witness the power of the spotlight and the black vinegrette in this picture. 

Conversational Flower Show

I admit, flowers can get boring to look at for tons of people, but hey, you haven't seen them through my lens. My camera lens just spoofs them up, so when I look through the eye-piece, I see everything remarkably. It's as if the camera auto-edits the flower and captures it far more beautifully than the eye can see.

When we took a "vacation" to the Philadelphia Flower Show, which is an event at a huge convention center, I just had to take my camera. Flowers here, flowers there, oh my goodness, my camera worked so hard. The goal for me was to just find a new angle at flowers. A new eye, a fresh look at flowers.

The theme at the Flower Show this year was America's national parks, so there were many flowers and set-ups that resembled national parks. In this picture, there's a crazy looking flower, with a filter I love. The filter just gives me the clean-and-clear vibes. Don't you agree that this picture could be called Ms. Pristine because of how unblemished and glassy it looks? If I didn't know any better, the  lighting makes the flower look like it's manufactured with glass.

In the convention center, there was this fantastic bed of tulips, brimming with soo many colors and variations. Buuut I decided to go the other way and be dull with this picture. Here you have Snow White in the midst of her people. The focus is on the white flower, and I emphasized that by editing the picture to lose some background color.

PTC- Pacific Trail Crest. Information: the PTC is a hiker's trail starting in Mexico and ending in Canada. There are three types of hikers whom hike these trails, the "thru-hikers" (those who hike the whole trail), the "long distance hikers", and the "sectional hikers" (those who hike a section)! In this picture, I decided to go with an eloquent capture of the PTC trail, which is what the exhibit was mimicking. There's good depth of field in the picture, which portrays the flower as the focal point and the sign as part of the background.

 I feel like this flower just grows wildly, it's got that rough and tear feel to it. Which is probably why it's in the flower show, because it fits the national park theme! Here's something easy to point out- the flower fits the two-thirds rule, which makes the picture more appealing.

I'd say the only thing I wish that had gone better was the grain on all of my pictures. There's so much grain, I could've easily avoided it by reducing the ISO, if I had noticed sooner. It's hard to edit out grain because smoothing the picture removes its quality. 

And there you have it, flowers ain't boring. Never give up the chance to go to visit anything nature-based.

Cups in a Cake

Let's be honest here, I've had many discussions about red velvet cake and either people love it or hate it. And usually they hate it because they're annoyingly unadventurous and haven't even tried the cake. (Not that eating red velvet cake requires an adventurous personality). So if you're one of those people out there who haven't tried this comfort cake, then seriously, take a step back and listen to the sobs of your poor taste buds!

And if you're one of those people who DO NOT KNOW what red velvet cake is, then READ THIS IMMEDIATELY...  Red velvet cake is, surprisingly, a Southern chocolate cake indulged in blood-red food coloring. Beet root was actually used instead back in the days to enhance the color of the cake, but I heard it still tastes good...! The cake is usually topped with roux icing (fluffy french icing), buttercream frosting, or more commonly, cream cheese frosting. 

For real, man-to-man talk now, eat some red velvet cake. It's delicious. 

These pictures were one of the first I took with a new 50mm lens I got. This lens is perfect for taking people pictures and the beauty of this lens is that it focuses on one subject and makes everything else blurry. This lens is a work of aperture and depth of field. 

In case you didn't know, this is not what red velvet cake looks like. My sister wanted to make red velvet cupcakes but didn't put enough food coloring, which is why it looks pink! Silly sister... but the cupcakes tasted as good as hot fudge brownies with ice cream, or raspberry cheesecake, or warm pumpkin spice pie, or even some s'mores. So good!

Hope I got you craving for some sugar and sweet and keep an eye out for some food photography!

A Pic in a Pic

I can't say this is a picture in a picture, it's more like taking a picture of a camera taking a picture but I never took a picture on that camera, I just captured a picture of the camera that's pretending to take a picture... jkjk! Sorry for the confusion (even though I know what I'm saying through all the poor writing), but thats just mumbo jumbo, sorta like this picture...

There's so much going on... the camera, the screen on the camera, the roses, the sunlight, the window, the outdoors, the table, and all the other space-fillers. 

 I deem this picture to be far simpler and easy-going, agreed? I bet if this picture could transform into any animal, it would choose to become a humpback whale... cause a humpback and this picture has a a calm demeanor, but still powerful. Just stare at the picture... so domestic and serene... 

And the picture above? Phew, that would become the most-attention-seeking crow in the photographic world. I bet it's so loud, the movie world could hear it cawing, all like "Cawww cawww I need more light, cawwww get more flowers and focus on my beak!" 

Haha just kidding, I like these pictures a ton and even though it's not what I visioned them to be, I'm glad to have checked off "a pic in a pic"!