Aperture

I'm taking advantage of the power right now to submit homework and do things like post on my blog :). To the girls from my class: you get to see my pictures early, because I think Hurricane Sandy will probably knock out our power at some point! ;)
This past week, we were set loose to work on using aperture to capture photos with expansive and shallow depths of field. On my walk in the woods, I ended up with about a 2/1 ratio of random pictures to pictures for homework. I really need to work on focusing. Anyway, here are my aperture photos: 

Expansive depth of field.

Shallow depth of field. 

And these are some of my other homework/random shots.

 Narsil, a sword from Lord of the Rings. These pictures turned out way too blue, and after I fixed the problem, I decided to go shoot something else. And yes, I really am ADD.

More shallow DOF shots

  

I liked the colors in this picture.

 Leaves in a puddle covered with a sheen of oil.

A wild Lamb's Ear plant.

 

I'm not quite sure whether this is good or bad. It was taken on the highway, and I think the high speeds are what makes it look kind of like a painting. 

These aren't particularly good, but it was something I'd never seen before. This was smack in the middle of the sky. 

I darkened this picture a bit so that you could make out the rainbow better. It was perfectly dry on the ground, which made this an even more spectacular sight.

Just figured I'd throw in a closer shot of the vine that Elise was sitting on. There are several of these in the woods, and they make for awesome swings! (This picture got a bit blurry when I shrunk the image size - sorry about that)

Well, the power just turned off and on again, so I'm getting off now. All of you in the hurricane's path: stay safe! :)

Shutter Speeds 2 & Photo Challenge

Motion. Fall. One picture per subject showing an effective use of the technique. 
We reviewed the motion photos in class, then looked at each student's fall photo (no one knew whose picture was whose) and voted on our favorite. 
Below are my submissions:

This is my friend Madison. Or rather, these are Madison's hands. While we were waiting for a class at co-op to start, she sat down and started playing a piano in the room. I had my camera with me, and jumped at the opportunity to do some homework. 

My cousin Jess and her husband Levi were here visiting for the weekend. Jess (who lives in CA but is from NJ) needed her fall fix, so we went to a farm and got hot apple cider, shot pumpkins from a pumpkin slingshot, and just had fun. This little boy had just walked over and was sitting on the edge of an enormous pile of pumpkins. About five seconds after I snapped the picture, he got up and walked away. 

~Some other photos from the week~

Playing with some blurred motion in front of our house. These were really fun to take! 

I have a bunch more, but these two are probably the coolest. 
 

This is my friend's little sister running in a field. The grasses are starting to flatten now, but in the summer, they're taller than me!

Ahh, fall. It used to be my least favorite season because it was when the weather got cold again. Now, I don't mind the cold as much, and I thoroughly enjoy watching the colors change. It never ceases to amaze me how many different colors and shades there are, and how magnificent they look blowing in the wind together.

Corn mazes and hot apple cider are two of the best things of fall! 

 Although, shooting little pumpkins from big slingshots is pretty darn sweet too...

Random

Some random pictures taken in the last few days:
 

 I seem to get sidetracked very easily by dew-covered objects.

 I would have been very tempted to go for a walk, but these woods are covered in poison ivy.

 Head-on chicken shots are the best!

 Coco taking a nap on mom's lap.

Who knows where the next few days will lead me?

Shutter Speeds 1

In last week's photography class, we learned about shutter speeds, choosing the correct shutter speed and compensating for lighting, relativity of motion, and other subjects corresponding to shutter speeds. We were sent from class with the assignment of submitting a picture that showed stopped motion and another that showed blurred motion. Here are the two that I ended up choosing:

Stopped motion. 

 

Blurred motion. 

Because most of my pictures were experiments with new techniques, not very many turned out well. Here are a few of my other photos from the week:

This was one of the pictures from when I was playing around with an LED flashlight and a shutter release cable. I also tried with a candle, but it didn't work out quite as well.

And this is my dog, Coco. She's very unique. Here, I'll show you what I mean...

 

When we got her as a puppy, her tongue actually fit inside her mouth. However, when she stopped growing, her tongue forgot to stop as well. The older she gets, the longer it gets. (BTW, this picture isn't from this week)

Okay, getting back on track, the last picture is from when I was practicing panning on cars in front of our house. I stopped and switched to working on panning with Coco as the subject because I was attracting some pretty weird stares from the drivers :P.

Feel free to critique my work - that's how I'll get better!

October 14th

Today for my birthday, my parents surprised me with my very own Canon Rebel XSi!
These are some of the first photos I've taken with it:

I was experimenting on manual today, so some of these pictures didn't turn out quite the way I would have liked. By the way, this was a Marbled Orb Weaver. Despite the appearance, it isn't poisonous. 

This was some type of fungus growing on a small branch.

Waterfalls at Hacklebarney State Park.

I was messing around with the camera settings trying to find out what made the water look the best. This one is probably the best - it has a shutter speed of 1/400, f/5.6, and ISO 800.

Repetition and Thirds

Last week, our assignment for photography class was to take a minimum of seventy frames - without looking at the LCD screen - and submit one picture that demonstrated an effective use of the repetition and one that demonstrated an effective use of the rule of thirds. Also, until we are given permission, none of us in the photography class are allowed to edit our pictures. (So, unless I specify, all the pictures on this blog are completely unedited.)

The purpose of these rules is to teach us how to compose a solid picture in our heads before we snap the picture. 

Below are the two pictures that I submitted. I was really pleased with how the first picture turned out, but the second could have been better. I have other pictures of the same subject that I prefer, but they didn't quite fit the requirements.

  My repetition picture: chair legs.

  My rule of thirds picture: part of a wasp nest.

 After I weeded through all the pictures, I was still left with over 100 frames. Some of them I'm not too crazy about, but others I really like. These are some of the good ones from the shoot:

Here's another picture of the wasp that I like better than the one that I submitted. 

 I went for a walk in the woods and found this one red and green leaf among all the other red and yellow ones. The picture doesn't capture it too well, but it was gorgeous!

Yesterday morning, I went outside with the intention of taking pictures of a birch sapling, and ended up on my hands and knees taking pictures of the dewy grass.

You'll probably want to enlarge these - just click the photo. 

I just had to throw in this picture for fun. I told my friend Jacob that I was looking for a good picture of lines, so he obligingly climbed a tree and proceeded to plank in it.

The Beginning

Hello, and welcome to my new blog, The Photosphere!

I've always liked taking pictures. I used to do it with our little silver Canon PowerShot A560, but that was only until my mom got a sweet Canon Rebel XSi. Now I take pictures with that :D.
During the last few months, I've been kicking around the idea of starting a blog, but what was I going to blog about? 
This September, I began a year-long photography class with The Potter School. Several of my classmates were sharing their blogs so that we can all see each other's photos, and I figured this gave me the perfect opportunity!
So, this blog is going to be a place where I can share all my favorite pictures from the year with you. I have a few that I've taken already that I really like, so I'll just post them now until I have some new pictures from my shoot this week. Enjoy! 

This was the bleeding heart plant in our front garden.

This is Nate's favorite horse at the stable, Caramel.

And, last but not least, there are some of the eggs from our chickens.

Oh, and by the way, a HUGE thanks goes to my Grampa Tom for helping me come up with the blog name! :D