Strawberry Banke

So I've decided to continue a little with this blog, sharing some of my better photos from my digital escapades. I still have 12 days left for my Adobe Lightroom trial, so I'm putting it to good use! I loved how my black and white photos turned out, so beautified some of the photos I took today from my trip to Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth.

Please note that not all the images below are in black and white.

Decordova Sculpture Park + Museum Gallery- Part 2

While wondering around the museum, I found myself most drawn to the Chakaia Booker: In and Out exhibit. I LOVED circling around the giant sculptures made out of shredded and cut-up bits of recycled tires. Pictured to the right(click image to enlarge) is Chikaia Booker's Meeting Ends, 2005. The first thing that comes to mind when I first see Booker's sculptures is, "What the hell is that?" of course, upon further inspection of the pieces (and notable tar smell) did I finally realize that these tall elaborate forms were made from car tires! Ok, first of all, has anyone felt how thick a car tire is? Imagine trying to bend one into shape, let alone make an eight foot sculpture out of the stubborn material. I am impressed by Booker's skill and creativity, especially when working with a medium such as recylced rubber tires.

Project #2- Promotion, Persuasion, Propaganda

"Play Harder"

Flash Lighting

I experimented with using flash on a subject. I first adjusted the camera exposure for the background(which is still a little over-exposed), then took two pictures. One picture with a normal flash and another with a filter over the flash. Notice how there is better detail in the background and on the subject with the filter?

(open flash)

(filter over flash)

HW #9- HDR Imaging

So for awhile now my dad has been bugging to bracket my images and merge them into HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. I found this process somewhat time consuming and for a lazy person such as myself, I would much prefer just shooting, uploading, et voila! My own computer does not include a Photoshop of any kind, let alone any kind of software to make HDR images.
I thought I'd please my old man, and give the new technique a shot.
So I uploaded a new program called HDR Expose, I had no idea what to expect and was actually reluctant to do any kind of HDRI. Lo and behold, my first attempt to make an HDR image was a DISASTER. I sepent a good 40 minutes attempting to correctly merge three images of different exposure fstops. The buttons and controlls were confusing and very frustrating. I eventually looked up the step-by-step video tutorials. Of course the video resolution and sound was aweful so I could hardly see the buttons the guys was clicking or even what he was saying. Lets just say I was a very unpleasant person for the rest of the day.

After a good sleep and weekend sailing trip, I desided to give the HDR thing another shot, with a new peace of mind. While hanging out at the marina, I proped my camera on the railings and bracked my images. Once home I quickly uploaded my images and once again gave the HDR Expose a shot, not expecting much. I played with every button, key, number, setting, Mr. Tuturial can go F himself, his advise was just confusing, I decided to to this my own way. I ended up with some pretty interesting results, and touched them up again in Adobe Lightroom(a VERY useful application, easy to use too). Here are my results from today:

(this one's my personal favorite)

HW #5- One Color

ORANGE! I used one color in different lighting situations, notice how the color changes?

For this homework assignment, I hunted down some places I thought might be interesting for shooting and dragged my model with me. We hunted around the field house, UNH track field, and the old abandoned bridge on the way to Portsmouth (I don't know that name). We did get some odd looks from pedestrians and cyclists, however this assignment became pretty fun and I think I came out with some pretty cool images. I didn't do any tweaking to the images, I wanted the images to be left as they were shot so show how different lightings will affect the same color in your photos.

deCordova Visit

Sorry these are on here late, but here they are! My top 10 images from the deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum field trip.

I feel like these images could have turned out just a bit finer if I had shot in RAW, however I knew I'd be taking a lot of images so I shot all of them in Large Fine

Orange

Skylight

Sat and Sat

Coat checked

Stairs

Leaflets

Shingles

Skyward

Leaves

Letters

HW #8- High Contrast

I read this exercise in the book and immediately thought the short paragraph long assignment was perfect. I love working with contrast and tweaking images just right to reflect the lights, darks, shadows, and highlights in different ways we wouldn't normally interpret natural lighting. I recently started a trial using Adobe Lightroom, each of these images I worked with in Lightroom and I think they came out fabulous.

The first two images I took while acting upon my flaneur instincts during my lunch break and took shots out side Stoke Hall and in UNH's very own Business Services. The second two images were in the parking lot of Sears, the third image is looking through a row of tractors. The rest of the photos were shot in and around the field house.

All these photos were taken in RAW

Pebble

Wallway


Low Rider

Swave


Splattered


Stand


Two-step


Underbelly


Laundry

HW #7- Flâneur

The french word "flâneur", in English terms, is basically another word for someone who idles of simply strolls. So for this Flâneur homework assignment, I strolled around campus, taking pictures as I went about my day. Starting at home on my front porch, then to the library for work, and back home a few hours later for dinner-- a rotisserie chicken I couldn't help to take a few delicious shots of when I finished carving it for chicken enchiladas mmm.

I also experimented with the printing of these images and the background fill color behind the photo. I used either white, black, or gray, depending on how light or dark the photo was. For darker images I tried to used white or gray background fills so the dark image wouldn't be lost in the printed frame. For lighter images I used white or gray. I like the lighter framing for images that had a lot of whites in the image, so the frame wouldn't be too high of a contrast against the image.

Splintered

Dead Chicken

That Fuzzy Feeling

Gilbert

Nature v. Civilization

Warmth

Shadow Excersise

Unadjusted shepard image

Unadjusted hole image

New adjusted image with shepard and sheep(notice the two sheep I put in the in the background?).