Jim Larson Photography

A few weeks ago I was shooting photos of all the participants of a local triathlon.  The first leg of the event was an open water swim of about 1.5 miles.  It’s fun to watch these guys and gals go through the water like fish.

I enjoy shooting the swimming leg of the event because the splashing of the water gives additional interest to the image.

Here is a shot of a swimmer making some very power strokes through the water.  I used a 200mm lens and shot it at a fairly large aperture (f4) to slightly blur the life guards in the kayaks which helped to keep the viewers eyes going to the main subject.  I also placed myself close to the surface of the water to give a sense of really being there.

When most people think of contrast in photography, they think of the variance between the light and the dark part of the image.  Here is an example of another form of contrast, that being between the water of the pool and the water of the river.  Same subject (water), but presented in two totally different ways.

I spotted this example while walking along the river in Portland.  Since the air was very calm and no one was hanging around the pool the surface of the water was just like glass.  I positioned myself to get the pool in the foreground and the river in the background.

It would have been nice had the pool been in the sun, like the rest of the picture, but sometimes you take what you can get.

The last photo in the blog was a photo taken in Portland while looking at the ground.  Here was one taken moments earler, but this time looking up.

Canada Geese are very pretty in flight.  It is amazing how a large bird can travel so gracefully and so very fast.  I took several photos of the goose in hopes of capturing different wing positions.  This was my favorite of the group.

When you are taking a picture of a fast moving object try to “pan” the camera keeping the subject at the same part of the frame.  This will reduce the motion blur of the subject, although it may blur the background.  With the sky as the background, this really didn’t matter too much.  Sometimes a blurred background is great to have, as it shows that your non-blurry subject was moving.

Experiment by taking multiple photos of a moving object.  Shoot some of them holding the camera still, the others panning the camera with the subject.

Here comes another abstract. Actually, I think this one is pretty cool because you can figure out what it is pretty easily.

During our last trip to Portland, Oregon, we were walking along the Columbia river one evening and I spotted a very large area of grass that I assume was meant to be driven on due to the concrete squares that were covering the area. Over time the grass will pretty much cover it, but here it was new enough that the concrete was quite pronounced.

Remember to look up, look down or look close up at things in your travel.  You may see something that everyone else just walks passed without ever noticing.

Here is a simple studio shot of our country’s beautiful flag.

Happy birthday America.

July is a patriotic time of year and thought that we should get our dog into the mood too.  We have a blanket that is made up of various stars and stripes patterns and thought we’d give it a try.

I set up the studio lights and a dark background for some good contrast.  Having a willing model always helps too.