Week 2 Homework Assignment

Tuesday night was my last photography class. I am sad that it's over since I really enjoyed the night out talking about ways to take great images. I learned so much in the process and was happy to get some positive feedback from the teacher. Below are the images I submitted for the assignment. Part 1 of the assignment was to capture and stop motion.  I did this before during the first class using a pinwheel.  It's fun to play with shutter speeds.  In this class though, we learned how playing around with stopping and capturing motion can create some really creative images.

The first image I used was of the boys throwing leaves from the pile into the air.  The blurriness of the leaves gives the impression of movement.

I took this one of the Halloween decoration in the yard. Because of the windy day and the slow shutter speed, I was able to create a ghost like feel. As opposed to the next shot of the ghost where it's all in focus.  I think the first image is much more interesting to look at!

And now using a fast shutter speed, I am aiming to stop the motion, or capture it!  I love this one because you can see every pine needle in clear focus, it just looks cool!  Plus it doesn't hurt that they are obviously having a blast!

Here is another example of capturing motion.  Plus I also incorporated some viewpoint into this one that makes it a really fun image!

Depth of Field has probably been one of the trickiest concepts for me.  Especially trying to find the right balance of blur/sharpness.  This picture is finally me acing it!  This is my example of creating a shallow depth of field.  You can see the blurriness of the front and back but Shaun is completely in focus, creating a small area of focus or a shallow DOF.  Something that is worth mentioning is that the better the lens, the easier it is to get really great shallow DOF.

And my example of a deep DOF where everything from the foreground to the background is (for the most part!) relatively sharp!

This was the most fun I had doing the assignment, working on angles, perspective and viewpoint!  Thinking outside the box of the typical shots from 5 to 6 feet.  This image got a lot of compliments from my peers.  Everything down from the angle, the point of view, to the lighting right down to the look on Shaun's face.  I am really proud of this image!

I had a fantastic time in class and I am looking forward to taking a few more.  I made my wishlist and I think after Santa (hopefully) brings me a Speedlite for Christmas, I'll be signing up for the Studio Lighting class after the Holiday!