Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Photography At Its Best: Shooting Manual - BCP

* Before I got started with this week's post, I thought I should explain something. As a photographer, I shoot mostly landscapes, but I can shoot portrait as well, and enjoy doing it. *
-BCP-

QUOTE:
"You don't take a photograph, you make it." - Ansel Adams

This is a great quote. To be a good photographer, you need to be aware of what makes a good photo, and know how to capture it the right way and the right time. 

That being said, I've been taking a little deeper look into manual photography (thanks to a little inspiration, ;) you know who you are...) and have been using it to take most of my pictures. We have had quite a few pretty sunsets recently, and I got some great shots. :) 

When shooting in manual, I believe it is important to experiment. At the start, you don't have to know exactly what the shutter-speed is, what aperture means, or how ISO is used. At the first. To start out, you need to experiment with each of these features. You need to discover for yourself what they make the pictures look like. If you don't know the denotation of the word, it's fine, as long as you learn how it affects your photographs.

I don't want to make people think that knowing what these things mean is optional. Only when you start out, does what I'm saying apply. It's how you start. Then you can learn the depth of each aspect. Every great photographer knows how they affect the picture you take.

I've been doing some 'experimenting' myself, and I've been learning even more of how to craft my photos. It really helps, and I have learned a great deal about how to factor these aspects the right way to make my photos look good. Photography is an outlet for your imagination. You need to use it in the best way possible.

Here are the photos for this blog:

This photo was taken through the trees, manual mode, and I thought it turned out pretty good with the blue sky and brilliant sun. It has not been edited. I tried to hide the rays on this one. Experimenting with different ways and types of photography is one of my favorite parts of being a photographer.

This is just one of many beautiful sunsets we have had in the past few weeks. Once again taken on manual mode, this one has not been edited. I really like the varied display of colors portrayed on this one.

Well, I think the pictures are pretty good, but I *MIGHT* be biased! ;) Life has been good, and I've been taking even MORE pictures, which I think is great. With my external hard drive, I have plenty of space (1 TB) to put my photos, edited or not. The space is very nice when you take a lot of pictures, edit them, and then have large files. I can't shoot RAW with my little digital camera, so they aren't as big as many people's, but I know the feeling of a slow computer, and most of that would be dedicated to my extensive photography collection. :)

I have received great inspiration to take more photographs from multiple people, and from quotes. I want to give a special thanks to everyone that has inspired me and helped me. I have also signed up to receive weekly newsletters from Digital Photography School, to help give inspiration and tips about photography. :)

I also want to explain my photography a little more. I know this is going to be a big blog post, but I hope everyone reads it and enjoys it. :) I take a lot of pictures, and I use manual mode for a lot of things, but I have been guilty of being an auto reliant. I am trying to change that, because I know that if I get a DSLR soon (I want to), I will be needing to shoot manual to use the full potential of the camera. Right now, the camera I use is a Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd with 12x optical zoom and 10.0 mega pixels. It works pretty well right now, but tends to make the pictures grainy. It has worked great, though, so I'm glad that I was privileged to get it for a cheap price.

To edit my photos, I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4, the best software I have tried. I have used Adobe Photoshop CS6, Gimp, Pixlr Editor, and others, but none of them had the white balance and precision retouching abilities that I liked as much as Lightroom. I'm glad that I have been able to use this program, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quality photo editing software.

To extend the disclaimer at the beginning of this post, I want to say that I am looking for more portrait photography jobs. If you know someone who needs a photo shoot of them and/or their family, feel free to contact me at deanmail099@gmail.com. 

The weather has been pretty nice the past week, with no snow... no snow is the only con. But, every phase of weather has a pro and a con. The pro of the pretty weather as of now is sports. Ultimate Frisbee is one of my top three sports by now, and I love playing it whenever I get the chance. :) Around here, we only play with pro discs, sponsored by the AUDL (American United Disc League) and Brodie Smith. 

School is great, even if I don't particularly like science right now. :) English is going great, and we are doing a lot of writing; that's always exciting! In Publications, we are doing a lot of work on the Yearbook, and the pages are starting to look really good. In P.E., (Physical Education or Gym) we have been doing some fitness. We are doing that for the rest of this week, but contrary to popular 8th grader beliefs, I actually like what we are doing in gym. 

We are running the bleachers, doing squats, and working out. I have really wanted to get myself in better physical shape, and I think I will be by the end of this semester. We do weights, running, and stretches. I've really enjoyed it, and I can't wait for the Frisbee unit! ;) 

That is about all that I have for this post. I have finally gotten permission from my clients to post the best of the pictures from their photo shoot, so I will post one picture every week. They will be under the blog post at the very end. Enjoy! :)

- Brett Cole ♦ Photography


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