Tag Archives: photo assignment

Scott’s Assignment 25: Your Photography Passion

Posted by Mike on

This is the big 25 for Scott Thomas‘s photography assignments. He really took it in a different direction and is looking for our photography passion. I delayed as long as I could on this and even as I write this I’m not completely positive the direction I will go.

I’m not confident I am far enough along in my journey to identify or even understand what my passion is. I do know I love being out with the camera. I carry the thing with me everywhere I go. I will stop along the road and chase after a view I spotted. I’ll get up early and stay out late just to catch the light at the bookends of the day. Even tonight, I was getting ready to do the dishes after dinner and I spotted an illuminated solitary dandelion under the pine tree in the back yard. I dropped everything, grabbed the camera and tripod to headed outside. I’m not sure anything will come of the image but I had to try and capture what I saw.

Scott kindly provided a few links about photography passion in a separate post and I am going to borrow a few lines from one of them.  In a post on the Psychology for Photographers website this passage caught my attention:

Passions are often confused with hobbies, but there is a critical difference. A hobby is “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”

Passions, on the other hand, are not relaxing. Passions don’t leave you alone. Passions insert themselves into your life whether you have time for them or not. Passions soothe you and drive you crazy at the same time.

We think of a passion as something we love, an overwhelming feeling of devotion and obsession. But in older English, ‘passion’ also meant ‘suffering‘. And even now, passions will exact a high price from us – but one we never seem to mind paying.

By that definition I know I can identify a few passions in my life. One is Disney. As any reader of this blog might have concluded by now I am a huge fan of Disney. I’m not just talking about the theme parks but more about the man and what he built. I know it isn’t perfect, what is, but I enjoy it immensely. I travel to Walt Disney World numerous times a year. I enjoy reading about Walt, the company, the theme parks and just about anything I can get my hands on. I troll eBay for used books I can’t get new any more. I have close to 75 books on this subject alone.

The second passion in my life, although it has been on the back burner lately, is video games. I grew up when the whole culture was just beginning. I never had any of those early systems myself but would spends hours playing on anything I could when at friends houses. And then I grew up and could afford my own stuff. I’m writing this in a room that has an entertainment system in one corner with just about every modern video game system there is. Don’t look in the other corners… there are shelves full of Disney memorabilia. LOL

My third definite passion is photography. My only problem is I can’t identify what my photography passion is. I like to capture landscapes. I’m pining over a macro lens so I can get better close up images. I’ve recently discovered I really enjoy long exposure and intentional camera movement photography. And I have found I want to create images that do more than capture the scene. I want to try and capture the feeling or mood. I want the image to evoke an emotion. I’m not always successful and not every image has to bring that emotion forward. Sometimes, an image is just a pretty picture.

So for now, to answer to Scott’s question: my photography passion is photography. I’m passionate about learning everyday. I try new things, make mistakes, turn and try something different. I’m passionate about using the camera to let this unknown creative side come out. A side I think I forgot I had. And I’m passionate to share what I have created. The feeling I get when someone comments about an image is fantastic. I’m not sure if this is what Scott was looking for in this current assignment but I will say it had me thinking.

The dandelion under the pine tree…

Illumination Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/320s, 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

Illumination
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/320s, 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

You can view an assortment of my favorite types of images by following these links: landscapes, long exposure, intentional camera movement and Disney.

Black & White Photography

Posted by Mike on

Simple assignment, black & white photography.  Harder assignment, why you choose to photograph or present your photos in B&W. Scott Thomas just had to throw that last part into his current photographic assignment. I was hoping I would be able to get some fresh images for this assignment which would also help me answer the tougher question, but my opportunities dwindled as the deadline approached. Luckily the daylight savings time change last weekend provided the necessary extra light after work and I created time earlier this week to explore the creek behind my house. It is a favorite playground of mine and late in the day always manages to provide me with interesting subjects.

Around the Bend Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/5s, 90mm, f/18, ISO 200

Around the Bend
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/5s, 90mm, f/18, ISO 200

Beware the S-curve Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/5s, 62mm, f/20, ISO 100

Beware the S-curve
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/5s, 62mm, f/20, ISO 100

Straight on to you Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/2s, 55mm, f/20, ISO 100

Straight on to you
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/2s, 55mm, f/20, ISO 100

Of course these images are an easy fit for conversion to B&W. Color can be an important ingredient when making an image. Our eyes are automatically drawn to bright or contrasting color areas of an image. A B&W image relies more on the lines, composition, and a balance between light and dark areas. Shadows and highlights become more obvious in a B&W image. The details in a B&W image tend to stand out more for me than in the corresponding color version. I’m not sure it is a real phenomenon or just my perception. I find when I specifically set out to create an image in B&W I look for slightly different things before I press the shutter.

These three images in particular where about capturing the flow of the dark water and the texture of the new, puffy snow. You might also notice that these are not exactly B&W images. I prefer either a platinum tone or a silver tone to a lot of the images I convert. The silver tone especially handles the slight tonal differences better in the mid tones. I like the way a platinum tone brings out the subtle differences in the highlights of the snow.

This winter I felt like I needed something to keep me motivated and get me to drag my lazy butt outside with the camera. I decided to create a series of images I called Monochrome Winter. I have tagged all the posts in this series so they can be viewed as a set. There is a link under the header image on my home page or you can use this link: Monochrome Winter.

I know this might sound cliche but I recently discovered Ansel Adams’ work. I tend to troll certain sections when I am at the library with no clear direction on the book I am looking for until something catches my eye. I brought home his book Ansel Adams: Our National Parks and was hooked. I have been working my way through everything the library has to offer. I know it has had an impact on how I approach my photography and even some of my processing. I definitely want to take a trip out west and view Yosemite for myself.

Another big influence on my desire to create B&W images is Nate Parker. I first found Nate on Google+ and was immediately captivated by his images. Nate lives in Acadia Natinal Park in Maine. His coastline images have me planning a return trip to Maine, just going farther north along the coast than I have in the past. If you haven’t viewed his work you can check it out here: Nate Parker Photography.

Well, the sun is out and the sky has some nice clouds. The battery is charged and the temps are rising. Time for me to go exploring…

Color Composition

Posted by Mike on

This post is a response to a Scott Thomas photographic assignment. Scott has a great blog, Views Infinitum, where he shares his photographic journey as well as a lot of great content for budding photographers like myself. It doesn’t hurt that he is a Disney fan as well, which is how I found him in the first place, even though he is just down I-90 from me.

Every couple of months Scott presents an assignment which helps us explore a particular aspect of photography. The first assignment I participated in concerned the ‘Rule of Thirds’. From that first post I was hooked, although to be honest I have missed more than I probably participated in. The current assignment is about color in composition (related post).

I decided when I read the post that I was going to approach it from two different angles. First I was going to make an effort to capture some fresh images with the intent of using them for the assignment, which means I would have to think about what I was doing more than I normally do. The second angle was to review my older images and see how I had used color in the composition. I waited until after I gathered the new images before searching through my hard drive.

Fresh Captures:

Fighting the Demise
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/3200s, f/2.8, EV -0.3, ISO 200


This first image uses the purple of the flowers against the green background to help draw the eye immediately to the subject. It also doesn’t hurt that I have placed the flowers on an intersecting third of the image. Every little bit helps…

Roll Out the Barrel
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/500s, f/8, EV -0.3, ISO 200


This second image once again uses a stand out color object, the orange, rusty barrel, against the muted colors of the grass and gravel. I probably cheated on this one too by creating an angular focus zone oriented with the barrel. The selective focus was just a little experiment on my part but it turned out kinda cool so I left it. 🙂

Silhouette on a Color Wheel
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/50s, f/8, ISO 200


This third image is all about the color of the sky. There was a great range of color created by the setting sun. I had the visible orange glow on the horizon as the sun slipped below and then the red reflection in the clouds with a nice blue background in the middle. I used the tree in silhouette to give some scale and I like the detail in the limbs of a bare tree.

Sill Waters, Sand Ripples
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/5s, 24mm, f/22, EV -0.3, ISO 200


The fourth image is one I am a little less sure of fits within the assignment. It is from my excursion to the beach on Saturday but after the sun decided to hide from me. The majority of the scene has a blue tone due to the late hour and the amount of cloud cover. The bottom third of the image has the color from the sand and the cloud reflections. It is definitely the first part of the image you notice and then you are drawn into the thin horizon and the rest of the picture by the cloud reflections in the water.

My second approach to Scott’s assignment was to review my older images and see how I have used color in my compositions. I have to say that I do have a tendency to use color to isolate or highlight my subject. I know it isn’t always a conscious effort on my part and I’m not sure where I picked it up but apparently something has been sinking in from all those books I have been reading.

Older Images:

Autumn Swan Song
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/3200s, 70mm, f/4, ISO 400


Color Pop
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/200s, 110mm, f/8, ISO 200


Red Leaf
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/400s, 62mm, f/5.6, ISO 100


and I even do it when on vacation…

Magic Kingdom – Tom Sawyer Island – Harper’s Mill


Hollywood Studios – Water Fountain


Well, this has probably been the longest post I have every done. It was great going out with the intent of capturing images for this assignment. It had me looking at everything differently. I spent more time selecting my view and composition. I know I should be doing that more as I’m out exploring but sometimes I just click away instinctively. I’m sure I will find the right balance and in the long run I’ll improve my images. Thanks Scott!