Book Review: Understanding Exposure (How to shoot great photographs with any camera) by Brian Peterson, 4th edition

Having been a photographer for over 35 years, I am pretty familiar with the Exposure Triangle, and how to use it, but it is always good to have a nice reference book at hand to inspire and encourage me to use my knowledge more effectively.
I enjoy all the varied photographs showing the same subject at different exposures, and how this can greatly effect the outcome.
I very much enjoyed the section on Light.  It included:  the best light, frontlight, overcast frontlight, sidelight, and backlight.  Again, giving good examples of each.  
Also, the section on shutter speed, giving good examples and techniques for freezing motion, and implying motion.
I have never been one for using filters, but recently acquired some polarizing and neutral density filters, so the Special Techniques section, outlining these exact filters, was quite welcome.
Despite my many years of photography, I have never quite mastered the art of using electronic flash.  There's a very comprehensive section on this, and I will no doubt refer to it many times in my quest for understanding it.
This is a good photography reference tool for beginners and advanced photographers as well.
For more information, click on these links:  

• More Info
• Author Bio

I received this book from Blogging for Books in return for publishing an honest review.

Winter From My Window

This is the first true snow of the season, and it's virtually a blizzard.  We had gained over a foot since noon, much earlier than expected, and there's still another 8 hours or so to go after that. 

A state of emergency has been issued for New York City.   Buses and outside trains suspended.  Road travel disallowed except for emergency vehicles.  The governor suggested stores and Broadway shows be closed down so workers could get home before public transit suspensions went fully into effect.  

None of this affecting me, really.  I am home and comfortable, and have no need to venture.

Here are some pics I took from my bedroom window.

 

Book Review: Learning To See Creatively; Design, Color, and Composition in Photography

This is the 3rd edition of Bryan Peterson's book, Learning to See Creatively.  Filled with all new images, and focusing on the new world of digital photography.
The book is designed to help you view the images in front of you in a new manner.  It deals with the elements of design: line, shape, form, texture, pattern, and color.  Concentrating on these elements will force the eye in new directions, thus making for new and exciting images.
In the Composition section, it teaches about the important "rule of thirds", teaching you how to compose a striking picture.  More importantly, maybe, is the idea of breaking all these rules and being a maverick when composing your own shot.
There's a section on "the magic of light", suggesting the same picture be taken at different times of day, producing different results.
Also, at the end, there is a small section which deals with Photoshop, and some how-tos associated with that.
I can't say that everything in this book is new and exciting to me.  As a photographer for the past 40 years, I have explored many of these things along the way.  It is a nice book to share with your photo group, if you have one, giving suggestions that would be appropriate for a photowalk where you concentrate on a particular subject, like textures, or color.
The photoshop tips at the end seem a bit cheesy to me, and the subsequent photos are a bit overdone.
It is a good book to refresh old ideas you may have had.  If you are a novice, it steers you in the right direction for creative photography.
For more information about the book and author, please click on the following links.

More Info

Author Bio
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

selfies

I don't take selfies.  I don't own a cell phone, so don't have one of those small gadgets to hold in front of my face to snap away. Not sure I would even do that if I had one!  I shoot with one of the heavier dslr's, the Nikon D800.  Pretty impossible to hold that with outstretched arm to capture selfies.  Once in a while, when I'm with Melissa, I will hand her the camera and ask her to take a picture of me with Logan or some such, just so I can have a remembrance of the day/event, etc.  I believe a photographers place is behind the camera, not in front of it.
People seem to be a little obsessed with taking pictures of themselves.  I see now that they even sell these sticks to place your cell phone camera on, to get a wider view.  I can understand maybe taking a pic of yourself with a friend or child..... at least someone else, but what's with all these self absorbed people shooting themselves?  Are you really that interesting?
I've seen pictures of people shooting smiling selfies when visiting the memorial space at ground zero of the WTC.  What the hell, people?  Have you no common decency for sacred ground?  What are you smiling about?  I can understand taking a photo of the place itself, as a remembrance, to show you've been there.  But get out of the picture!  Use some common sense.  Do people take smiling selfies while standing next to gas chambers at Auschwitz? I'm afraid they probably do.
I'm glad I'm not part of the madness.

on high

Been having trouble with the autofocus on the 50mm lens I've newly been using.  Trying it out now on manual , which makes more sense in my head.  Haven't been in the most photographic circumstances, so I am still testing things out.
It was a gloomy evening, grey clouds heavy with rain, cold skies.  Took a few shots without checking any images to determine whether my exposure was any good... and it wasn't.  The shots were just plain underexposed.  Added enough contrast in PP that I brought up a bit of something, but I was way off.  Had the fstop at 14 for a couple, and maybe would've been fine at f8.  Could've upped the iso from 200, but I don't often mess with that.  Speed was as slow as I could get it (1/60) and still be ok handheld.

"marathon route"

color under grey skies

Just images taken from the window.  Some leaves have changed, some remain green.  I like the colors of the private houses.
Depending on the skies, I will go to the roof soon, and hopefully shoot the bridge at sunset.  So many contraptions (mobile phone crap) on the roof that it is hard to navigate.

reading some sky

I have not yet gotten into the habit of shooting tons of pictures at once.  I'm not one to take twenty shots of the same subject, as I don't see much use in it.  When I am shooting, I tend to shoot between 25 and 40 shots at a time, roughly the same number of shots available in rolls of film (24 & 36).  Back then I would bracket my shots, upping or downing the exposure, and not knowing what settings worked until getting them developed. Three or four shoots would suffice.  Nowadays, I choose a setting, chimp the shot (i.e. look at it), and adjust accordingly for the next shot... again, three or four shots suffice.
Of course, other factors go into the shot.... one can change the angle or perspective.  This will add on to shots taken...  I'm talking about basically a straight on shot... like of the sunset.  I take a few, and have done with it, unless I'm shooting with a zoom and get several perspectives.
Often, the "wrong" exposure will result in a more dramatic shot.  Fun when that happens.  Creating something that isn't quite there.

Here are a few of my most recent sunsets, showing the difference in a shot at various settings.  All shot with a 50mm prime.  (Click on any pic to see the series larger)

the quiet time

It is 3am, and I'm wide awake. A side effect of having more than my normal amount of coffee today.  I used to be fairly addicted to coffee, drinking a pot (10 cups) a day, but now I drink maybe 2 cups.  Today I drank about four.

The air is cool and fresh tonight.  So thankful for that.

I have a new camera... a Nikon D800.  It's a top of the line model, and a full frame camera, with a huge 36.something mega pixels.  You can take photos in a FX format or a DX format.  I got it with a prime 50mm lens, 1.4, which I'm happy to have... haven't had a prime lens since my old film days.
The thing is, though, that I haven't been out with the camera yet.  I'm kind of intimidated by it.  Have got to get my feet wet with it, though, and I hope soon.

I've stopped wearing my wig (as you can see in a pic of me in the last post).  Got so tired of it, and  now that it's getting warmer, I certainly don't want anything covering my head.  I am even liking my Annie Lennox look... something very liberating about it.

 Hard to believe that nine months have gone by since I was first diagnosed with cancer.  The days seemed to disappear, really.  But I remember being sooo tired most of the time during those chemo days.  Geez.

Now I just have to find out when my "exchange" surgery is... when they exchange the expanders for the breast implants, and you get  your foobs (fake boobs). That's major surgery again, and will be glad to get past that, because it will the the sort of end of a long hard road.  I got through it okay with a little help from my family and friends.

Sometimes I feel guilty staying up so late.  I don't know why.  I can almost hear my mother calling "I hope you shut that light soon", as I stay up late in my room, the light peeking out from  under the door... enough to assault her senses at such hours.

Today I should not feel guilty at all.  I kicked cancer's butt, and I deserve to do whatever I like for a while.  If I want to sleep into the afternoon tomorrow, so be it.

Oh wow, I started reading over my novel tonight, with a critical eye!  Yikes, am I ever going to have to do some serious rewriting.  There is quite a bit of "telling" in the book, when I should be showing.  That alone will be a tremendous task.  If I do that, it may even be a good novel. 

real Spring weather

Today the weather is fine... it went to 75F, and those 90's are gone for now.  Lots of people out on the street.  Me and Evie walked a few blocks to the store and bought the fixings for a big salad, which we ate when we got back.
Hopefully these days will last a while and I can get out and do a lot of picture taking.  Just a few today.

pictures of Spring

~click on pics for larger view~

photographer's rant

.

I cannot set either the aperture or the speed on this P&S.  So, the camera automatically decides these, and is always dead wrong when it comes to my sunsets.  The speed is too slow, and since the camera is hand-held, I get complete blur. I don't own a tripod; the one I had broke long ago. There's even a "sunset" setting on this camera, but that doesn't seem to help much.

I feel a little naked...or rather, my blog seems a little naked without pictures of the sky, but as long as my good camera is out of commission I have little choice.  There will probably not be many sunset pictures to come, but I sure hope I can knock out a few.

Haven't been out to take any pictures at all, really.  Just a couple of Logan recently, no outdoor shots.  Came upon a red leafed bush outside my mother's house, but car service showed up to pick me up before I could get the camera out.  I felt funny to let the guy wait.  It was night, and I would've had to use the flash, but I would've loved to have captured the color.   There were also two more trees that turned color...one yellow, the other gold.  I don't know the names of these trees, unfortunately.

So, photography has become something I'm not doing these days very much.  I hope it picks up soon, despite the lack of decent equipment.

(a picture from the past...I guess I could post those for a while) (click on it to view larger image)

sky makes good

I took this photograph on the evening of my birthday (May 6th). It was chosen as an "approver's choice" at  Weather Underground, where I post my sky pics sometimes. Kind've like a little birthday present for me. I already posted this pic the other day, but here's another look.



 

(click to view larger image)

from on high

,Went up to the roof around sunset to see what I could see. :)  Sunsets taken from my window don't include the view of the harbor, which is so close by, but you can see it from the roof, which is nice.   I took more pics of rooftops, from the roof... the light was blue.  It's the kind of light where you can see fairies out and about, if you are lucky.  Then there's a pic taken from between part of the building..I pumped that one up with some post-processing, but still didn't achieve the gritty look I was after.

buried cars

I post some of my pics on the WeatherUnderground (wunderground.com) from time to time, and this one got chosen as an Approver's Choice yesterday.  I thought that was pretty neat.

(click to view larger image)

hunter's moon, and the bridge

I don't understand how people get good shots of the moon, showing the texture on its surface and all.  All I can get is a glowing white globe.  I guess I need a tripod and a stronger lens (though I thought my 55-200mm would have worked well).  Someday I would like to learn the knack of shooting the moon.
I guess any of the night scenes really require a tripod.
There's a pic of the moon beyond one of the antenna's on the roof... I call that The Receptive Moon, hehehe.

two years blogging

Earlier this month... the 8th, to be exact... was my two year anniversary of blogging. Seems I skipped right over it, but at least I remembered in the same month.


I am still enjoying my blogging ventures. I still keep up with reading other bloggers I follow ( and I follow a lot), and try to leave comments more often than not.

I know I started blogger without a digital camera, and it was a while before I got one from a friend... a 1.3mp camera, and I was delighted to have it. I have certainly upgraded since then, first going to a Canon Power Shot A1000 IS, and now using a Nikon 3000 DSLR. Each camera I cherished while it was in my hands, even the 1 mp one. A camera records, with amazing precision, that which we can and cannot see. And then there it is in the photograph.

Tomorrow I think we (the photo group) will go on a short photo walk. Too bad we don't have much time for the group (just one hour). There are sure to be a few shots to share, however mundane.

I look forward to entering my third year of blogging with you.

Barbara  

October sunset

(click on pics to view larger images)

starting up again

Today the Photography group started up again, with me in charge, along with my cohort, Louie. It was a small group today, the first meeting since Faye left the clinic. The wrong time schedule had been announced, before it was corrected, and it was a holiday, too, so maybe that's why there were just four of us, myself included.


We just had a congenial chat really, about places we can go on photo walks, and possible themes we can try concentrating on. Also came up with ideas for photographers we'd like to see documentaries on. All in all it was a fairly productive first meeting, and hopefully everyone will bring their cameras next week, and we'll go on a little jaunt.
 
Today's participants, besides myself, were: Sue, Evie, and Louie.  Evie was kind enough to let us use the room, where she runs her art groups, for our meetings.

 
 

early morning light, looking NW

The sun was just rising in the east.  You can see 2 seagulls under the cloud if you enlarge the photo.  They are traveling to breakfast, in the harbor, just beyond the trees..

(click to view larger image)

brooklyn promenade - brooklyn heights

Today was a beautiful sunny day, breezy and dry. Went with my photo group down to the Brooklyn Promenade in Brooklyn Heights.

(please click on pics to view larger images)