Here is another shot from the cemetery I visited a few weeks ago. For this particular image, I put on the wide angle lens (17mm) and composed the photo.
When I shoot with a wide angle lens, I normally will try to get very close to some part of the subject, otherwise everything in the photo would seem like a long way away. It is a great way to add some depth to the image.
Next time you are out taking photos, try different focal lengths on your lens (zoom in or out) and recompose your shots by using your feet. That is, walk around to compensate for the change of perspective. It’s amazing how different the same subject will look.
My wife came into the studio this afternoon and made the comment that I think outside the box. Hmmm, maybe I do as this is not your typical photo, but one that took a lot of setup, trial and error.
This is the first time I’d ever tried to do anything with smoke and by the end of the shoot, the studio was smelling strongly of incense.
I wanted the shot backlit to really bring out the smoke against the black background. A single softbox was used above the gun and a small white reflector was used to get some reflections on the side of the barrel.
Try thinking of some dramatic effects and create them in real life.
One place that I love to photograph is at old cemeteries. As you walk amongst the gravestones, you think about what life was like for those people in the days of old and how much easier we have it today.
There is one in particular in Boise that is in the foothills and is not visited very often. I was walking through it the other day looking for a good composition (I didn’t say decomposition ) and found this one that I actually took may years ago with a film camera, but decided to capture it again on digital.
I like the lead-in that the fence provides, taking your eye into the picture and up to the tree. The deep blue sky this winter day provided is quite nice as well.
Remember the time-lapse video I posted back in October? Well, I decided to try an experiment that centered around our experience we had cruising the the Caribbean. The cruise lines has a web cam on all of their cruise ships that update to the web every 2 minutes. I set up my computer to watch the web cam web page and capture the image of that page every 2 minutes. After 2 weeks of capturing nearly 10,000 jpg images, I put them together using Apple’s Quicktime Pro software and uploaded the attached movie to YouTube.
I left the nighttime footage in so you could get a feel for what the cruise was really like. Occasionally you can see the lights of other ships moving back and forth across the screen. Also, I lost connection to the web page a few times so there are some gaps in the video where it goes from the black of night to the mid day sun.
Can you spot the rainbow? You’ll have to look quick.
The other day while trying out some new photo gear, I went to a place that I frequent during the summer months. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this interesting natural ice sculpture.
I was zoomed in quite a bit on this, because the details are what make this shot rather interesting.
Go and visit some of your normal summer spots this winter and see what a difference the seasons make.
Today as we were taking down our Christmas decorations, I thought it would be a great time to take a couple of photos to show a good example of what is meant by the term “bokeh.”
Bokeh is derived from the Japanese language and means “blurred or fuzzy.” In photography it refers to the appearance of out of focus areas of an image caused by using a shallow depth of field.
The two photos at the right were taken with the camera on a tripod as to not change the physical layout of the scene. What was changed was the aperture of the lens from f16 (shown on the left) and f2.8 (shown on the right). In order to keep the exposure correct, the shutter speed was changed to compensate for the change in aperture.
The photo on the left with the small aperture (f16) shows a greater depth of field with the tree showing a lot more detail. The photo on the right with the large aperture (f2.8) really separates the subject from the background.
The Christmas tree lights change from a very sharp point of light to a large disk of color. Bokeh can add a very nice touch to a photograph. Give it a try.
Here is another shot from the cemetery I visited a few weeks ago. For this particular image, I put on the wide angle lens (17mm) and composed the photo.
) and found this one that I actually took may years ago with a film camera, but decided to capture it again on digital. 
The other day while trying out some new photo gear, I went to a place that I frequent during the summer months. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this interesting natural ice sculpture.
Today as we were taking down our Christmas decorations, I thought it would be a great time to take a couple of photos to show a good example of what is meant by the term “bokeh.” 
