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Beautiful Granddaughter - 50mm, f/1.4, 1/500 sec, ISO 640
I learned how important in portraiture it is to make sure the eyes are in sharp focus. I think I achieved that here, with the only drawback that the soft-lights my son had set up for me are reflected in her beautiful eyes. I also learned about "filling the frame," and was delighted with the way that this looks good even with part of her head and chin chopped off.
Volunteer Tomato Blossom - 50mm, f/4.5, 1/250 sec, ISO 100
This year I didn't plant any tomatoes, but this one came up all by itself. I like the look of it with the backlit sun almost at sunset, and the shallow depth of field that shows the hairy stem with hairs both sharp and blurred. I have learned a lot more about focus points, and planning exactly what I want to be in focus instead of just getting lucky.
Lighthouse, Ho! - 29mm, f/29, 1/8 sec, ISO 100
Perspective is everything! This worm's eye view of the St. Simon's, Georgia, lighthouse exaggerates how tall it is - although we did have to climb over 200 steps to get to the top! I looked for framing, and found it in the live oak tree by the side of the lighthouse. I'm amazed that I was able to hold still enough to take this shot at 1/8 sec, but it was drizzling rain and very dark out.
Golden Hour LightHouse - 50mm, f/16, 1/13 sec, ISO 200
This shot of the St. Simon's, Georgia, lighthouse portrays my love for shooting during golden hour. It was a rainy day, but the sun popped out for a quick shot, contrasting the lovely color of the rocks, trees, and lighthouse against the gray of the sky and sea. The lighthouse is just left of center and so is the big tree, so the composition is not super, but this shot speaks to me. Maybe my head is sygoddlin'!
My Man - 50mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 1600
Although I had to brighten the exposure on this portrait of my hubby, I did it in order to bring out the focus on his beautiful eyes. That's one of the things I learned, to make sure the eyes on a human or an animal are sharply in focus.
Scotch Thistle - 50mm, f/8.0, 1/30 sec, ISO 100
Early on in the class, I was in the British Isles trying out some of the techniques our teacher wanted us to learn, and this one is fill-the-frame. I have fallen in love with this technique, especially as if you are using an aperture that blurs the background a bit. This is an iron statue of a Scotch Thistle, the national flower of Scotland, and it is located in a lovely garden belonging to a motel in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
Spitting Naiads - 50mm, f/22, 1/15 sec, ISO 100
I was practicing with making water look silky in Savannah, and the day I took this shot the weather was also gray and spitting rain at times. I was using my fast lens, so was able to use a slow shutter speed to catch the apparently slow-moving water. I think it's beautiful, also a decent contrast with the background.
Intrepid Okra - 50mm, f/5.6,1/100 sec, ISO 250
I love so many things about this shot - I was trying out macro with my 16-50mm kit lens, I managed a shallow depth of field with a good focus on the blossom, not much camera shake at all and low ISO. After the fact, I could raise the ISO a stop I think. The blossom and stem are at a pleasing rule of thirds grid.
Reflection in a Raindrop - 65mm, f/?, 1/320 sec, ISO 125
After many tries to get a raindrop reflection, I got pretty close with my new 65mm macro lens. At this point I was still having a problem with not getting enough light, so the ISO could have gone up a bit. I think I was shooting with a fairly large f-stop, but I don’t remember since this lens doesn’t talk to my camera, so the camera doesn’t record the f-stop number. The stem worked with me in nicely lying across the rule-of-thirds grid. There is good secondary color going on with red and green, and the droplet reflects the side of the house and the sky.
Many Lines Landscape, taken November 2 with 49mm, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 125
As we traveled down Texas FM170, we followed the Rio Grande River into Big Texas Ranch State Park. I love this shot because of the many converging lines of the road, the river, the tops of the mountains, and the wall. The colors popped despite the high midday sun.
Lonely Outhouse, taken November 2 with 16mm, f/13, 1/320 sec, ISO 125
This one was a challenge in the hot middle-of-the-day sun, but I think I achieved a nice balance with the building against the mountains, and interesting lines from the roof, corners of building, mountain range, rail and slats of ramp. The sky was impossibly blue that day.
Wares for Sale, taken November 2 at daybreak with 16mm, f/16, 1/60 sec, ISO 250
My brother and I drove up to Boquillas Canyon to catch a sunrise, and we found all these lovely Mexican home-made items on top, with a can to put the money in. The colors caught my eye, and though this picture appears a little dark, we could see the sunlight just start to light up the town in Mexico across the river behind these wares. The composition doesn’t really follow rule of thirds, and I think that it is a bit off balance with all the big items on the left, but I still like it.
Waiting for Sunrise, taken November 2 with 16mm, f/22, 1/60 sec, ISO 1000
It was pretty dark while waiting for sunrise but I wanted a sharp depth-of-field in order to capture the town behind my brother; hence the high ISO. He is the focal point of the image, and his size emphasizes the incredible vastness of the place at Boquillas Canyon in Big Bend National Park.
Windmills of My Mind, taken October 31, 42mm, f/16, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
Another lucky golden hour shot, we were traveling through Western Texas and starting seeing windmills everywhere - thousands of them. I like the road going through the middle and up a little rise, saying, “Hello,” to the windmills as it passes through. There is enough color with the blue sky and the green scrubby trees to make it interesting.
Santa Elena Canyon, taken November 1 with 18mm, f/16, 1/30 sec, ISO 100
We walked down to the Rio Grande at the split between the cliffs in Santa Elena Canyon which divides Mexico on the left here with the USA on the right. I thought the photo showed the etherial feeling of the place, with the reflection of the cliffs in the water just as huge as the cliffs were themselves. If I had a chance to do this again, I would choose golden hour, as the sun was high overhead here and it looks washed out. I probably should have gone with a higher shutter speed or smaller aperture.
Impossible Green in an Arid Land, taken November 1, 50mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO 100
Keeping the ISO low was important in the bright light at Big Bend, and I wanted a blurred background so the f/5.6 did a good job with that. I love the composition as it turned out, with the branch sloping in and out of the top of the picture.
Through the Window, taken November 1 with 16mm, f/22, 1/40 sec, ISO 100
This is from the viewing area of the Window Trail in the Chisos Basin of Big Bend National Park. Because of the bright sun, I tried for a frame using the tree and the wall at the viewing area, in addition to the mountains on either side of the window.
Running for Your Life, taken October 29, 16mm, f/14, 180 sec, ISO 320
This was another day with really bright sunshine and a struggle to get the exposure right. At Fort Donelson National Battlefield in Tennessee, you walk up a sidewalk that depicts the soldiers running for their lives, and leaving things in their wake as they run or are shot down. This lonely shoe caught my heart, lying with a shadow against the backdrop of one of the battlefields.
Perfect Storm, taken November 1 under a new moon at Big Bend National Park, TX 11mm, f/1.8, 8 sec, ISO 2500
While shooting for the Milky Way to the Southwest, my brother and I noticed that behind us an incredible thunderstorm was going on. In my attempt to capture that and the clouds on the right, the frame also caught the stars in the Eastern sky, and my red headlamp added a balance by shining on the sign where we were parked.
Big Bend Milky Way, taken November 1 under a new moon with 11mm, f/2.2, 15 sec, ISO 500 (edited)
And here’s the money shot, the one I have been dreaming of taking ever since I first saw a photo like this in an art shop in Prescott, AZ. Did it look like this with my eyes? No, but I could see a faint paintbrush of stars in the SouthWest. I admit to learning how to make this pop using YouTube and LightRoom, and I think I finally have a photo that I can print and hang for myself. You can see Venus just below the clouds, and just above the Chisos Mountains.
