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Remember when I used to post on this blog? Yeah, I know I've been awful. The worst part is that I don't even have any excuses. On the contrary. I have tons of free time. I've even been shooting a lot of photos. Just not posting.
Anyway, there's your sad excuse for an explanation. On to the photos. I've been going out and about, up various local canyons, etc. for a couple of weeks now, looking for those magical fall landscapes, especially waterscapes. I went a long way up American Fork canyon this morning/afternoon with my dad and finally got some good shots.
Aperture: f/16
Shutter Speed: 1.3 seconds
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm
Tripod
Aperture: f/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 100mm
Handheld
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm
Tripod
On an unrelated note, Flickr stopped letting me get to the actual URL of where my images are hosted, because they had problems with people hotlinking without putting links back to Flickr. I proudly say I was never part of that problem. But regardless, my images will be a little differently sized now, and clicking on them leads to the Flickr page rather than a direct enlargement. If you want to see the photos bigger, you can do so from the Flickr page.
I was heading home from working on my guitar, and I was running a little late for an errand in which I had to pick a couple people up. It was raining. So, despite my time shortage, I busted out my camera and got a few photos of the raindrop-covered leaves on a tree.
There were better pictures in the area, better lenses for the job, and taking the photo properly would have yielded better results by far. Nevertheless, this didn't turn out too bad.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 55mm
Handheld
I'll have to go back sometime with a tripod, a macro lens, and about 10 minutes. Hopefully I'll be able to try some different angles, etc. Also, even if it's not raining when I go back, there's a dirty trick I can use—you just bring a spray bottle of water. It looks very convincing. :)
I prefer to do my photography on cloudy days. The clouds diffuse the light wonderfully, making for "open shade" lighting everywhere. Unfortunately, I don't control the weather, and the percentage of days like this is relatively low. But sunny days are great too, if you know how to use the light. Front lighting, back lighting, side lighting, and anything in between can all make for great shots.
click to enlarge
This shot is fun - the color of the leaves and the lines all make for a warm, peaceful, happy shot. But be warned: this is cutting it close. You should never point a camera directly at the sun. It is extremely bad for your image sensor - too much direct light at that intensity will destroy it, rendering your camera useless.
One tip I picked up recently was to get down on the level of your subject. In most cases, photographing a subject (particularly a small subject) from above makes for a rather boring shot. When you get down and dirty, your shot will instantly become more personal, which makes it eye-catching. I took this photo while laying on my stomach in the road, but my short sacrifice of dignity rewarded me with a photo much better than if I had set up even a miniature tripod to take this exposure.
click to enlarge
Another nice thing about this photo is how the background, though blurred by a small depth of field, provides a stark contrast between the "importance" of the leaf, and the "importance" of the mountains. Something not so nice about this photo: that stupid light pole. A very distracting line that leads your eye to nowhere. And I'm not sure how I feel about the mountains being truncated at the top. Feedback?
