Macro Photography

Macro photography is one of my favorite forms of photography I like to do. Being able to get up close to a small object and take a picture of it, and have it be blown up to 10, even 50 times it's original size is pretty amazing. It also brings out a lot of detail the object might have. Another thing I like about macro photography is how everything else behind the object is blurred out, so you can just focus in on the object in question. The picture I posted is one of many macro shots that I have. Although this one, as some would say, would be counted as selective focus. I had to get up pretty close to it still for the macro function on my camera to work however.

http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/40-amazing-examples-of-macro-photography

The above link shows some really good examples of other macro photos. As you can see from what I said earlier, you can capture really amazing details on a subject up close, especially with insects. They have some crazy looking features! The macro feature on most point and shoot cameras work fairly well (which is what I have). However manuals can get different lenses that let you take macro shots even closer as well as allowing for more blur in the background. 50-60 mm range is typically used for small objects. 90-105 mm is the standard focal range to use for insects, flowers, and small objects. And then 150-200 is used for insects and other small animals. There are other things to factor in as well such as depth of field and lighting. All of that of course depends on what kind of macro shot you are trying to take. Happy shooting!

Photography: Painting with light

Painting with light is an interesting thing you can do with photography. It's fun, you can be as creative as you want, and you can really make some amazing looking images. Here you can find some really amazing images of painting with light:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/01/painting-with-light.html

People think, "oh gosh, that looks so hard!" I was one of those people. It turns out it's actually a fairly simple process. First you get your camera, make sure it's dark enough outside, or you can be in a dark room as well. Now all you have to do is open your shutter all the way (this allows more light to come in). Doing this will allow the camera to not only see the light you have, but also increase the exposure time so that it can record the design you want with your light. Exposure times varies between cameras. Most point and shoot cameras wont have that long of an exposure time like say, a DSLR would. It's no big deal though. My camera has an exposure time of about 20-30 seconds. That's plenty of time for me to at least make a simple design. It's also fun to have more people help you out as you can add even more to the design. The photo at the top of my page is a paint with light that I did as an assignment. It is slightly edited, adjusting some of the colors. I have titled this photo Spirits Within. I was not sure what else I could name it (lol)! Most of the designs I did were of me just randomly waving my cell phone around. I made some Xs some circles, a bunch of squiggles, pretty simple stuff basically. It is an enjoyable thing to try. The possibilities of things you can do is only limited by your creativity and imagination!

Photography in General~

Hello! This is a blog I'm doing for my Digital Writing class. I have chosen the topic of photography because to put it simply, I'm good at it. When you pick up a camera what do you do? You take a picture of course! Photography is a wonderful medium for capturing moments and places that mean something to you. Anyone can pick up a camera and take general pictures. However there are other advanced ways to take pictures. You have things like, depth of field, macro, painting with light, and many other other forms of photography one can look into and do themselves. You can also enhance your photos with software such as adobe photoshop, adobe lightroom and other such programs. My style of photography involves the use a filters which I add in photoshop. Some people would say "oh you should use the original photo because natural is better!" Sometimes that's true. However I dont exactly have a high end camera so the filters really help making my photos look more proffesional. You will see a lot of such photos throughout this blog. Another reason I choose to use filters is because for me they add depth, feeling, emotion. The picture I've used in this blog is a simple picture I took of some clouds. I imported it to photoshop and added retro/old style type filter. It's a bit more colorful and sort of has a nostalgic feel when I look at it. Some may also say my style is repedative as I use a lot of the same filters a lot, but that's just my style and it works for me. That's all for this week. Next week I'll talk about specific styles of photography.