8.31.2010
155:365 Before & After 8.25.10
Before.
After.
My two cents: Same lens (Canon 70-200 2.8) on both. The "before" is the minimum focusing distance (about 4 feet). The "after" is the minimum focusing distance once I put on my new close-up adapter (about 4 inches). Quite a difference. I'm happy with my purchase.
8.25.2010
153:365 Letters 8.23.10
8.24.2010
150:365 Letters 8.20.10
Oh.
Not at this one, but at similar structure at the corner of 13 mile and Southfield, not far from where I grew up, my friend Paul lied to me. He said that he had skateboarded all the way around the circle. The circle I'm speaking of is about 3 times the size of this one and about 5 feet higher off the ground. I believed him. I mean, what 7 year old wouldn't believe their best friend who had a rat-tail and a cross earring (his mom was a minister). I may have been a little gullible.
8.18.2010
146:365 Negative Space 8.16.10
145:365 Negative Space 8.15.10
What does it mean??
I couldn't resist. It may not be the best example of "negative space" but in honor of the recent youtube phenomenon and Ellen and Phil's wedding (where this was taken) I chose the double rainbow. All the way across the sky.
144:365 Negative Space 8.14.10
8.17.2010
143:365 Negative Space 8.12.10
gesture.
I'm pretty sure this wasn't an intentional photo. Sometimes you just get lucky. I had some cute shots of my dogs sitting at a street corner and some esoteric ones of some street lamps, but I kept coming back to this one. Maybe it's the simplicity or the abstractness of it that I struggled to capture 2 weeks ago... whatever it is, here it is.
142:365 Negative Space 8.11.10
8.11.2010
141:365 Negative Space 8.10.10
Positive space.
I spent part of the day photographing for Summer in the City. They are truly a creator of positive space in a place that has gotten such negative press - Detroit. Their volunteer projects range from muraling and community gardening to running free summer camps for children in underprivileged areas. Today I was photographing at the Latino Mission Society in southwest Detroit. SITC runs a camp there where they have an average of 80 kids show up every Tuesday through Friday. The kids are paired with a "buddy" and they play games and organized activities and just have an all around good time.
I took lots of photos of the kids and their volunteer buddies. I haven't had time to go through all of them, but here are a few more that fit with the "Negative Space" theme I'm going with this week. I hate to say anything is "negative" about SITC or these kids, so I'll call these "positive space."
Life is like a box of chocolates...
If you have some free time on Friday, you should stop by for the last day of SITC this summer. It's going to be a blast - I'll be there. Check out their website for more info.
139:365 Shadows 8.8.10
8.09.2010
138:365 Shadows 8.7.10
an alpaca in the shade and some detail in the sky.
Here's the thing about digital cameras, they can't really capture everything we see. Even the best ones pale in comparison to the human eye. Digital cameras have a notoriously narrow range of exposure (or "dynamic range" for those who speak tech talk). Basically, this means that if you are looking at a scene with a large contrast between the bright areas (highlights) and the dark areas (shadows), you can't properly expose (see) both at the same time.
This is the problem that arises when you are trying to shoot outside on a sunny day. There are bright areas in the photo, usually the sky, and then there are dark areas, or the harsh shadows cast in bright sun. Your eyes can see both at the same time, but the camera can't. You have to make a choice. Do I expose the photo for the highlights or for the shadows? If you choose one, you usually lose detail in the other. This photo is a great example of that bright sunny day... but wait, what's that you say? You see details in the shadows and the highlights? Well, that's the magic of post-processing. What comes out of the camera looks like blah, the sky is all white and the shade is too dark, but what you can do with the information hidden in the zeros and ones is quite remarkable. When you play around with the little sliders in Adobe Lightroom and find those details in the highlights and shadows that you thought had disappeared, you can massage the pixels into showing us something close to what our eyes can see. Unfortunately it takes a good amount of time on the computer to coax out these details, whereas our eyes do it instantaneously.
The funny thing is that most people will look at a photo like this and say "that's not real, they did something to it in photoshop." And while that is true, the intention for doing this was to be able to bring it back to reality - to show the full dynamic range of the scene, or simply, show what our eyes see. So the next time you are squinting on a sunny day, be thankful that you can see the bright blue in the sky as well as the girl under the umbrella laying on the beach. If your eyes were like a digital camera, you might have to choose which one to see (I'd go with the latter...).
137:365 Shadows 8.6.10
136:365 Shadows 8.5.10
134:365 Shadows 8.3.10
8.05.2010
133:365 Abstract 8.2.10
purple corn.
So now that abstract is done, I have come to appreciate good abstract photos much more that I previously did. I actually thought this would be a pretty easy week, but it turned out to be much more difficult. I define abstract as something that has no easily identifiable object in the image and looks at the light, color, shape or texture more so than any specific subject. I am usually trying to get sharp, well composed images of people, places or objects, so this week forced me to check my natural instincts at the door and see deeper than the physical subject. I found myself deferring to out-of-focus photos that are essentially all bokeh, or the blurry part of a photo (days 131 & 133). Because it was a struggle, it felt a little contrived or cliche most of the time - hopefully the results didn't come across in that way. In short, it's been a humbling week, but that's not a bad thing.
8.03.2010
129:365 Abstract 7.29.10
glass, wood & steel.
Shot at the Forest Grill in Birmingham while on assignment for StyleLine. Look for the drink photo in the October issue.
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