Aces

So I don't always have ideas of subjects to photograph but feel I should push myself to take more pictures and one idea I have seen people use is to go through the alphabet. You start at A and find a subject that starts with A and photograph it, working on composition ideas with that subject till you get a picture you like. After one letter is done you move on to the next letter and so on. So I am going to start today at the beginning and my idea for the letter A was, obviously, Aces. I actually had a hard time coming up with things that started with A and as we have no aardvarks around here I settled on the idea of photographing a poker hand with 4 Aces. I have never had this hand in poker but it would be a nice one to have!! Now to think up ideas for B.

Interview with Po

So Po came buy the other day and I had a chance to sit down and talk with him about how things have been going lately.
Me: So how is it being the Dragon Warrior?
Po: It has been great! I have really earned the respect of the others as they now see the potential I had all along. Monkey even forgave me for eating all his cookies......though he did find a new hiding place for them!
Me: How are things in the kingdom? Any new enemies lately?
Po: No big ones. A few small time foes that thought they could take on me and the others but failed miserably. I think a bowl of noodles has a better chance of taking us out lately!
Me: Speaking of noodles are you still making noodle soup for the rest of the gang?
Po: OH YES! They love my noodle soup so I can not get away from making it several times a week.
Me: Well Thank You for sitting down with me Po. It has been great to have this chance to talk with you.
Po: Oh it was my pleasure, you are my favorite interviewer!
Me: Oh well Thank You for the kind comment!
Po: Would you like some noodle soup?
Me: Yes I would love some!

Well it was a fun interview and now I am off to practice the Wuxi finger hold!

Dog Portrait

So I guess the kids got tired of being my subjects and I had to move on to making the dog pose for me. You can tell it was real rough for him having to lay there on his pillow and all but he managed. Took several different photos, I was actually surprised he stayed there as well as he did, I guess after 7-8 years he is finally starting to settle down a bit!

Back Lit Fall Leaf

After photographing some solo leafs the other day on a solid black back ground I though this also might make a good opportunity to photograph them back lit so the light filters through the leaf and really lights up the colors in the leaf. To do this I put a piece of Plexiglas spanning across the back of two chairs, then I put the leaf on top the Plexiglas and the flash on the seat below pointing up at the leaf. Then from above I took the picture and this is what I got.

More Fall Colors

This is another shot from the day I was out with my dad a few weeks back. Took this over between Truckee and Sierraville. The grove of trees we were in were at their peek and the yellows were really nice and bright.

Wild Horse

I took the girls out last week to an area where there are usually several deer hanging out in a field so that they could do a little wildlife viewing. After checking out the deer I noticed a few wild horses up on the hill behind us so we drove up the dirt road a little ways to get a better look. After checking out the three horses we first spotted I notice this horse further up the road and decided to get a closer look. With the way this horse was standing in this photo his body was mostly shaded so I did some shadow enhancement in my post processing to get more detail in the shaded area of his body. The kids had a good outing day as after we watched the wildlife for a bit we headed of and walked through the car museum.

Fall Leaf

I had wanted to try to do more of a close up picture of a solo leaf with a totally black background, so yesterday when were were out I grabbed a few leaves to start working with on this. The leaf was held by a clothes line pin that was attached to a stand, then I framed the shot so you would not see the clothes pin. I had my flash about 3 feet off to the right with a snoot on it, something like this but for mine I used cardboard. Basically the snoot allowed me to have the light mainly hitting the leaf and nothing else, so between that and a dark towel I had further in the background I was sure to get the solid black background I wanted. The other thing I did was to place a piece of vellum drawing paper in front of the flash to filter the light and give it a softer look.
I have seen this type of photo done in the past with flowers and I would like to do more and put together a series of a few images together.