And we're back (!!!!!)

First: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I got a camera!! I still can't really believe I actually have this amazing thing. (Canon rebel XS, in case you're wondering)

Here's a few of my first pics I took with it.


I have a lot to learn now, but I am so glad I am now able to really take what I want. Key word there is "able". So please feel very free to be as critical as possible on pics I post from now on. Any pointers would be appreciated.


And along the lines of the actual content; I am being taught the ways of photojournalism at school. The photography group I've been going to lately has been pretty helpful. The main thing I've learned so far is to never take a picture that I can't answer the question "why did you take that". In other words don't take pictures that only serve to look pretty. If someone were to ask, "why did you tilt the camera that way?" make sure you have a very specific reason for that; as to why that visual element helps tell the story of your picture (not just make it look pretty).

But keep in mind that this is for journalistic photos. Photos that help to tell a story. But I think that it is somewhat applicable to any other type of photo too. Just sharing what I learned the hard way a couple weeks ago at school when I took some of my photos to a "portfolio workshop". I learned a lot, but it was the hard way =^ P Oh well, one way or another.


So I hope this helps somewhat, I super excited to have a camera again. Please be super critical. I will definitely be posting more regularly now.

Finally!

My computer has been in the hospital for awhile! It's better now... so I thought I would finally post some more pictures.

Some from Jamaica...

HDR imaging defined

High dynamic range imaging

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An example of a rendering of an HDRI tone-mapped image in a New York City nighttime cityscape.

Tone-mapped image made from nine exposures of Trenčín, Slovakia at night.

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

High dynamic range imaging was originally developed in the 1930s and 1940s by Charles Wyckoff. Wyckoff's detailed pictures of nuclear explosions appeared on the cover of Life magazine in the mid 1940s. The process of tone mapping together with bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range, was first reported in 1993^[1], and resulted in a mathematical theory of differently exposed pictures of the same subject matter that was published in 1995^[2]. In 1997 this technique of combining several differently exposed images to produce a single HDR image was presented to the computer graphics community by Paul Debevec.

This method was developed to produce a high dynamic range image from a set of photographs taken with a range of exposures. With the rising popularity of digital cameras and easy-to-use desktop software, the term HDR is now popularly used^[3] to refer to this process. This composite technique is different from (and may be of lesser or greater quality than) the production of an image from a single exposure of a sensor that has a native high dynamic range. Tone mapping is also used to display HDR images on devices with a low native dynamic range, such as a computer screen.

Introducing... HDR Photography!

I just discovered the great new technique that i'm hooked on. It's called HDR (high dynamic range) and, in a nutshell, it takes advantage of digital technology by expanding the dynamic range (the histogram shows this) using 2 or more shots combined in a 32 bit environment. Here's an excellent tutorial for those interested: http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/HDR_ps/hdr-ps.htm .
Here's some of my very own HDR's...

Pictures

This picture, and the next one, were taken during Jesus at the Beach. If I remeber right I messed with the ISO setting.

This is from Jamestown. Settings were set on Auto.

This one was also taken on Auto and in Jamestown.

This one is of a reenactor in Williamsburg during a colonial dance demo.

Finally

Yes....oh yes. 

I finally got a camera from the USC newspaper. And it was worth the wait: nikon D40x with the standard 35-80mm lens and an amazing 70-300mm macro lens. It looked like it wasn't brand new, but that didn't matter one bit. The 35-80mm lens was a bit easier to control, and better for general purposes, but the other lens opened up so many more options. 

I got the camera at about 5:30, went to the horseshoe, which for my purposes, was a photographers paradise, and just tried to let the camera do its thing. I still managed to take some out of focus, ill-cropped, and plain bad pictures, but it was kinda hard to take a bad picture. 

I only kept about 120 pics of all that i took. There's only about 12 different subjects, just a lot if hit-and-miss shots. If anyone wants to see the others, let me know, and i'll put up a album (in picasa). I know this is too many, but i haven't had a camera in a while, and when i got a nikon D40x.......

None are edited for color, contrast, etc. Only one is edited to straighten it out. 

And yes, i barely knew how to adjust any settings on the camera.

Ya, so i was already excited to have a sweet camera in my hands, and then this squirrel comes out of no where, right next to me. This is in his mid-jump. 

Just messin around with the 70-300mm lens

I think i should have put more of this tree in focus. (?)

Probably one of my favorites. This was the hardest to get, as i had to wait for the wind to stop. Defininetly could have focused better. I have a ton of these tries.

The Horseshoe

I felt like a stalker. 

This is the one i straightened out. 

I kinda wish this came across better; focusing on the sandals. Maybe if they were mine, and i moved them closer together and got down lower....

This is just outside my dorm. I wish there was someone unlocking their bike. This is also an example of a photo i would edit for contrast/white balance, etc.

Not sure which of these next two i like better

Oh ya, i did crop this one a little too. 

Can you say 'oversaturated' ?

4th of July (in August)

Since i've been using my mom's camera (kodak point-and-shoot), i have to wait till i can get it back from her to get the pictures off. So here are the pics i took on the 4th of July at my grandma's house in Virginia Beach: (fireworks turn a point-and-shoot into a point-and-hope)

Canon Rebel XTi

I took these pictures, of my triangle loom, using my friend's DSLR Canon Rebel XTi. So cool. I kept it on Auto mode though. I wish I knew how to use all the options but then again i only had about an hour to give it a "test run". I thought they turned out pretty well. I will probably mess with them on photoshop or something. Let me know what you think.

Detail

Aside from being flat out cool, and darn impressive, i thought this might help understanding detail and lighting. Ya, computers are cheating, but just watch this simply to see how much the kind of lighting can effect a shot. I know this isn't a photograph, but at this level, the principles are the same.

Or, maybe i'm just putting this up because i don't have a camera right now.

Flowers

I love taking shots of flowers. I think it's because no matter how bad the shot is, the flower is still beautiful... usually. Let me know what you think!

Shadows & Sand

I love shadows. A simple shadow can add so much to an ordinary shot. Of course my camera doesn't like shadows so trying to keep a shadow in a photo can be (is) a constant source of frustration.

By the way... all photos I post are unedited... I'll let y'all know if I ever have the time to mess with them. :)