Chrissy's Photography Blog: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Flat Stanley's Adventures in Studio

Flat Stanley scales the walls...with push pins, of course.

Flat Stanley finds his name on my trunk.

Flat Stanley drinks my coffee.

Flat Stanley stands in as a scale figure.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Reverse-Mounted Lens

In class we reverse-mounted our lenses to take macro photos. Here's some extreme close-ups of my watch (I had no idea the face was so scratched!).

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Spring Break (i.e. the opportunity to take one of my Dad's tripods back to school with me) can't come soon enough...

This weekend, Venus and Jupiter were really close to the Moon in the night sky. All of these are shot with ISO at 800, F-stop at 5.6, and shutter speed around 0.4-0.6 seconds (underexposed according to the meter so that the sky wouldn't look grayish).

The Moon, Jupiter, and Venus
Unfortunately, the photo looks really pixelated on this blog--the original is a little noisy, but not nearly this bad.

Another shot that turned out decent.
Used Camera Raw editing to make the color temperature cooler so the sky would appear blue, rather than the hazy red the city usually is.

Attempt at Framing--slightly blurry.
Color Temperature edited again.

Cropped/Color Temperature Edited

Finally, I found a good makeshift tripod--an old fire escape ladder!
A nearby streetlight illuminated the tree and wall, which frame the Moon and planets and add texture to the photo.

Assignment 7: Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley wakes up...

Considering I don't have a tripod to keep the camera angle consistent, I thought this sequence didn't turn out too bad.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

10 Rules of Composition

1. Impact

Washington Monument from WWII Memorial
(I wish I'd taken this photo while the horses were on the other side--there's no "room for logical movement")

2. Cropping

Colored Pencils
Cropped to emphasize the tips rather than the whole pencil

3. Big, Bold, Bright, and Favorably Placed

Global Architecture Brigade's Water Bottle Wall Mockup, Backlit

4. KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid

Pushpin
Blank background lets the pushpin form read clearly with slow shutter speed/camera movement

5. Thirds

Basil Seedling
I aligned the leaves and the base of the stem with the "intersections" of the imaginary grid dividing the photo in thirds

6. Leading Lines

Pennsylvania Avenue
Street lines as leading lines

7. Balance

National Portrait Gallery Kogod Courtyard
Balance between solidity of walls/floor and translucency of the roof

8. Framing

Second Floor Portico at the National Portrait Gallery
Architecture (columns) framing the street view

9. Avoid Mergers

Blocked a distracting signpost in the background with the subject matter itself (an early tulip in a garden of pansies)

10. Room for Logical Movement

View from the Clock Tower of the Old Post Office
Airplane flying by the Washington Monument is traveling further into the photo (not out of it)

Fat Tuesday

We were given a mini assignment to take a photo showing what Fat Tuesday means to us. Honestly, Fat Tuesday has never meant much of anything to me, but this year it coincided with CUA's "Administrative Monday." Fat Tuesday? What Tuesday? It's just Monday all over again...