Life: Through the Lens

Hurray!  I was able to access the photos on my new point-and-shoot so can continue my comparison between iPhone photography, point-and-shoot, and a digital SLR camera.  Let the fun continue! I will admit to having purchased a higher end point-and-shoot - a Canon G7x.  So far I am loving it! First I want to know I can get strong colors.  In the photo of the Grand Hotel, above, I think it handled the colors very well - the yellow is true, as well as the color of the flags.  The flowers show up well, as well, and the white is not overly bright. In the photos below, the top one is not the "best" photo,  as the leaves were moving a bit, but it handled the contrast between the red and green well.  I do think the leaves are a bit washed out, but it cold have been a lighting issue.  Just keep shooting and see. The red on the side of the barn, below,  is very true and bright.  The sun was late in the day, so the light was quite good...

I think the iPhone handled this well, though I will admit the shadows were  quite dark and I lightened them a bit in post-processing. I am in the process of putting together some materials for a workshop I will be giving next month.  One of the things I am going to cover is the difference between photographs taken on the iPhone, a smaller digital camera  (point-and-shoot), and the DSLR. These flowers were in the shadows, which I find the iPhone favors.  The  more even the light, the richer the photos are.  The color in this photo is very strong. As most of you have found, the iPhone does take good photos, and it's biggest plus is the phone's size and portability.  Very convenient and it works well in a lot of instances.   I want to see how well it works under a variety of circumstances, so I take it on walks with the dog, shopping with friends, and to work. The photos in this post are the results of my first "formal" com...

Greeting a new group of University students. We are finally establishing our new routine, one which includes my teaching part time and being WAY busier than I want to be!  Our 10-week summer adventure was wonderful...now what?! Hanging out with grandchildren at the airport. One of the things that happened which has been a mixed blessing, was the invitation to do a presentation about our trip.  However, that invitation was for last night, and we have not even been home a full month. Making it up to Meesha for being gone so long this summer. We took on the challenge, partly because it pushed us to do that preliminary sort - the one where you have to delete some images which are duplicates, or triplicates, and you just don't need to save them! The beauty of switching to digital photography is that ability to push the "delete" button.  The nightmare of digital photography is that you can take so many photos that you can get overloaded with images.  Th...

Looking for the right  angle and composition. Finally a break in my very busy life, which gives me time to get caught up on my writing and sorting of photographs.  This narrative is Part 2 of a Field Trip adventure I was on a couple of weeks ago with another photo enthusiast. I love how the light plays on this flower, and that though the background is  blurred out, there are still  pops of color for interest. When Viki and I were finished shooting ducks, wildflowers and water, we moved across to a beautiful garden to see what we could find.  The woman who owns the garden was afraid we wouldn't find anything worthwhile to photograph, but gardens are more than the riot of vibrant blooms and color found at its peak.  Doesn't this photo capture a sense of movement?  Love the curves.  Look for the details, patterns, colors and "visitors."  The end of the summer brings a delicious fade, a softening as we change to earth tones an...

Viki works to get a wildflower shot, remembering that it's much better to get down to the level of your subject to get the best angle of view. Now and then it's important to drop everything and go take pictures.  It's also wonderful to share that experience with someone. Decide what our subject is,  then make sure it's obvious to your audience. Yesterday I had the opportunity to work with a talented novice photographer, someone who wanted some pointers.  We had agreed to meet at a local park where we could photograph sunrise on the river, the wildlife in the area, and then a friend's garden.  There was a lot of opportunity to share skills and ideas and get down and dirty as we collected photographs in our own "back yard," so to speak. The sun had technically risen, but had not reached it's beautiful fingers to the park.  As we talked a little about our experiences, and what we each liked to photograph the most, the color on the tree tops...