hippiechick-withcamera-blog
Hippie chick with camera
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A final inspiration
While I find many photographers / artists to be inspirational - I must give mention to https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajhaysom. We share similar passions when it comes to photography - especially street art. He also takes outstanding bird photos and is active in protecting the environment for their future.
Andrew is one of the key people who run the wonderful local camera club I am part of and is the Photoshop guru. I love the artworks he produces and they inspire me to grow my own skills.
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Image 3 - now THAT’s a close up!
With the third image, I opted for the standard “taking a photo of myself taking a photo” image, however I didn’t think that just taking an image was enough for this unit.
Again, I used the D90 mounted on a tripod, but this time my husband was the model. He’s a little taller than Big Ted. My first mistake here was that I didn’t get the focus quite right (shown below). A rookie mistake. It looked OK on the LCD screen. Another challenge with this one was that even though I marked the right spot to stand on, I did lean towards the camera for the pose - once again meaning I didn’t get the best focus. I took s series and chose the one I was happiest with to edit.
I always shoot in RAW format as I like to process my images in Lightroom. I am learning to use Photoshop slowly but am comfortable with Lightroom. Again having been self taught via YouTube.
The original image was not so tightly cropped. I much prefer the cropped version as there is no dead space around it and the camera is the star of the image. I converted to black and white - again because I thought it looked a lot better (plus I’m in need of a colour re touch as you’ll see in the colour image below). I then made some basic processing adjustments and played with the tone curve. Finally a slight dark vignette helped make the image stand out.
I have added the original, unprocessed image for reference.
Critiquing my own image - I would have liked a sharper focus on my eye. Again, doing a self portrait made this challenging. If I did it again though I would use a smaller aperture as this was shot at f2.8. I used a wide aperture to get a shallow depth of field but could have gone a little smaller.
Here is the image of my husband, where my first mistake was made.
And one of me face on to the camera - not my favourite pose - I much prefer being BEHIND the camera - not unusual for photographers.
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Image 2 - my tools of trade
With this image, I decided to photograph not myself, but my tools. These are my 2 cameras each with my favourite lenses.
My Nikon D90 is wearing a 50mm lens which I use for portraits and macro - My Nikon 1AW1 has a 10-100mm lens which I use for landscapes. The AW1 is a mirrorless camera, waterproof to 20mm and shock proof to 2m (as long as it has the appropriate lens on. It has been my inspiration to learn about photography - I can’t describe how much I have learned in the 2 years since I brought it.
I decided to capture this image with my mobile phone for fairly obvious reasons ;) They do say sometimes the best camera is the one you have in your hand.
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Image 1 - all of me
I have chosen this image because it shows all of me in my natural environment, clothed in my favourite attire, ready for adventure!
I never really like photos where I’m looking at the camera face on, though I did experiment with this. A more natural pose for me was to be looking at my camera instead.
I set up my Nikon D90 on a tripod and framed the shot. Focus can be a challenge in this situation so I engaged the help of Big Ted. As he was modelling for me I used auto focus on my camera, then set the lens to manual focus. This enabled me to push the shutter button (with the camera on a timer) then dart around to the appropriate spot and pose.
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My 3 images
In order to create the 3 images for assessment 2 I used the mind maps on my personal and professional images. They were fairly similar when it comes to photography. I have a love of nature and the outdoors, I enjoy photography and I’m influenced by my upbringing and now my own children. My actual profession is planning camps and activities for people with a disability, which in turn influences my personality and photography and links to the outdoor environment.
I have to say that I found this exercise pretty challenging. I decided to go with selfies as this is an area which is outside my comfort zone. I wanted to extend myself and push some boundaries. I decided to go with natural light as in the video I watched in the course material. Unfortunately, in my house there are no nice, blank walls to use as a background - plus - outdoors plays a big part in my life so I decided to do it in a tranquil corner of my backyard.
While I’m not as happy as I’d like to be with my results, I also know that I’m my own worst critic when it comes to my work - especially selfies.
I will post each of the 3 images separately and describe why I have chosen them, as well as the technical processes I engaged to create them.
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More inspiration
During this unit, we have looked at a number of different online resources, blogs, pinterest etc and asked to reflect on what has resonated with us, inspired us. One particular blog which caught my eye was Alison Thurstans’ “Little Miracles” http://theeverydaymiracles.blogspot.com.au/. Alison’s photography interests are similar to mine as I’ve recently become obsessed with capturing the little details in things, especially in my own backyard. I love using a shallow dept of field like Alison does. and the resulting bokeh.
What resonated with me about Alison is that she is a passionate yet untrained photographer. I have learned all my photography and post processing skills online and in informal group settings, yet have been told I turn out some high quality work. It’s the passion and having an artistic eye, coupled with a sound knowledge of technique and technical knowledge that gets me through.
Another person I have come across who’s work I find inspirational is @mitchelwuphotography. While I have no particular desire to replicate his work, I am blown away by the technical expertise and patience he has in planning and executing his shots. The results are mind blowing.
Social media has been an invaluable resource for me as I travel along on my photographic journey.
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Inspiration
One of the things I need to reflect upon for assessment task 2 is where I draw my inspiration from - online that is. When I began my journey in photography I looked to YouTube for technical advice and sites such as 500px for inspiration. I would spend hours scrolling through image after breathtaking image and dreaming of one day being that good - and of going to the beautiful places depicted.
The thing I liked about 500px was the quality. I have since found other good image sharing sites such as flickr and instagram, as well as competition sites like gurushots. I guess the underlying principle I have found with all these is that you need to be active to get your name out there. It isn’t always how good a photographer you are - though that helps. Using tools such as hashtagging and geo location go a long way to boosting your images, therefore increasing your audience and becoming known.
Facebook has become my social media tool of choice though. I enjoy the interaction that happens on Facebook which I don’t personally get in other formats. I started my own photography group “Amateur Photography Skill Sharing” or APSS about 18 months ago and it has become a wonderful community of supportive and encouraging people. Membership has grown to over 1,100 and while many of these people don’t directly interact, it is an engaging and active group.
I have drawn much of my inspiration from members of this group, some of whom I have gone on to meet personally at our regular meetups. I great example of social media being truly social. One member in particular who inspires me is Dave Lucas. He is my co admin and the real brains behind the group. With regard to this assessment, I much prefer this image he captured of me last weekend to any which I have taken myself.
Of course - while he was taking a photo of me, I was taking a photo of him....
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Set up in the back yard to tackle my “selfie” task for “photography for social media”
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Following on from the Redwoods post, I stumbled upon this enchanting lady while I was in the forest. True story - she was there as part of a cosplay group doing portraits - they were kind enough to let me snap a few for myself.
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Just starting up a tumblr account as part of a course I’m doing. Looks like fun :)
This image was taken in the Redwood Forest in the Otways, Victoria. Gotta love these magnificent life forms - they will hopefully endure for longer than a human life span.
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