November 15, 2009 - the Earth's Shadow

1/60

f5.6

ISO 400

27mm

RAW

To be honest, this wasn't the photo I wanted to take today. True, I planned on taking a photo of my church while standing from this exact location — just not at sunset.

I had seen this shot earlier in the day when I was leaving the church after the service was done. It was with a deep, clear blue sky behind the building with all of the Autumn leaves brightly illuminated by the mid-day sun. In fact, the sun was at an angle where the sky would have had good, deep blue even without a polarized lens.

That's the photo I wanted to take.

But sadly, I wasn't able to get back to the church until the sun was going down. So instead, I settled for a sunset shot with the effect called the "Earth's Shadow" coloring the sky behind the building. What causes this shadow? The Earth itself. The sun has gone done below the western horizon behind me, which causes a shadow to appear just above the horizon in the eastern sky. A lot of people don't notice this because the eye is drawn to the brighter part of the sky (which is the setting sun in the west). But it can be a dramatic effect.

I shot this with my 18-55mm zoom at ISO 400 and f5.6. This was the best combination to still get a fast enough shutter speed (1/60) to avoid any camera shake (blurriness) yet still have enough aperture to make sure everything was in focus. The film speed was slow enough to create a clean image and avoid the graininess that can come at higher speeds. I do wish, however, that I had a vantage point that would have been a few feet higher.

I did quite a bit of experimenting in Photoshop Elements (using my new favorite tool, Adjust Color Curves) to get the color to the point that I remembered it. But I am worried I overdid the effect. What do you think? Does this look unnatural? Or does it look like a photo taken just as the sun is setting?

October 10, 2009 - Youth temple trip

Today I accompanied about half our church's youth group to Columbia, South Carolina, for a church activity. It was an all-day trip and I enjoyed being there very much.

When we were done, we gathered outside for a group shot. My camera bag was left home accidentally ("You asked me to pack it? Honest, Dad, I thought you said you were going to put it in the van!"), but one of the kids brought his Nikon D70. It was a little unfamiliar to me (remember, I shoot Canon), but I think I pulled off a decent photo.

I put the group in the shade of some trees to keep the sunlight off of them, but then turned on the camera's built in flash to make them brighter. Otherwise, the bright white building in the background would have over-powered the exposure, leaving them in the dark. I also dropped my shooting level down a little bit to make it easier for me to include the whole spire and statue in the shot.

I focused on the kids (which I think caused the Nikon to set the exposure mainly based on them) and then recomposed the shot to where they were in one corner and the angel atop the spire was in the other. I also helped them stand as a group, staggering each one so all of their faces were easy to see.

I definitely wish I had paid more attention to if I was keeping the camera level. It seems obvious to me that the shot is a little crooked. And there are two or three kids that are in less-than-ideal poses, which drives me crazy. I try to notice these kind of things when I shoot, but I don't always remember.

I apologize for not having any of the settings for the shot, but I was given a copy of the photo and it had lost all of its Exif data.

October 5, 2009 - Gloomy day

1/200

f8

ISO 200

32mm

RAW

The weather was pretty gloomy today. I took this around lunchtime from the patio on the 15th floor of our office building.

I apologize, but I have been busy the last week or so. I have been overworked and haven't been getting enough sleep.

September 3, 2009 – Buckhead sidewalk during lunch

1/640

f5.6

ISO 200

70mm

RAW

Today was packed with stuff that was demanding my time, and I really had one easy chance to get some photos &mdash walking to and from the Chick-Fil-A during my shortened lunch. I used my 70-200mm f2.8L lens to compress the angle of view. I liked how the longer lens compressed the view down to just the sidewalk, the trees that lined it, and the building in the background. This angle really helps convey how much greenery there is on this block of Peachtree Road where my building is, and the tress on the right provide a kind of leading line into the center of the photo.

I stayed a few minutes to get a few shots with a varying amount of pedestrians walking along. Now that I have looked at the results, I decided it looked a lot better with more people in the shot, so I went with this one. And the lighting was wonderful, too. When I took this photo, the sun had gone behind a thin cloud, giving a soft, diffused light. This eliminated the harsh shadows that full sunlight can create. Not sure what I mean? Just pay attention to the shadows of the closest pedestrians. They are soft and fuzzy. If the sun was shining fully, they would have been dark with sharp outlines.

Sometimes a photo is about what you leave out as much as it is what you leave in. One big thing I left out of this shot was a giant for sale sign. Technically, I guess you can say it's still in the photo, but it is behind the shubbery and flowers in the lower left corner of the photo. I definitely liked the angle, but the sign was obnoxious and immensely distracting. So instead of giving up on the photo, I found a way to get rid of the sign! I just backed up about 20 feet and moved a little to my left, and presto! The sign was gone.

As for what I would change, I wish I had more time to get some variety (specifically, a few more women walking around). I also don't like the do not enter sign and the red hand beside it. I could use Photoshop to get rid of those, but I am a huge fan of getting photos right in the camera and not relying on tools like Photoshop to fix them.

August 26, 2009 – Sovereign building in Buckhead

1/640

f5.6

ISO 100

27mm

RAW

I know, I know . . . another building shot. But I was running out of time Wednesday for a photo and this is such an interesting building. It's called Soveriegn, and it combines commercial office space with residential and retail. There's a bank and two restaraunts on the ground floor, office space up to the 25th floor, a private club on the 26th floor (you can see the swimming pool area halfway up on the right), and condos (starting at a $1 million) up to the top.

But that's not what makes it unique. Pay attention to the outside walls of the building. They're curved, not square. They don't twist, but bend outward and then back in. At first it may seem like my shot is tilted, but if you look at the center of the building, you will see a straight line where the edge of the one of the curved corners is facing directly towards me.

I shot this at a fairly wide angle, placing the building in the top 60% of the photo. I then cropped out just the building. This really helped control the distortion that would normally happen when pointing the camera up at something tall.

I wish the clouds were a little better, however, like being smaller and more puffy. I even waited about 15 minutes for a large, darker, gray cloud to pass by, so these clouds are better than what were in the first picture.

August 20, 2009 – Party on the deck

1/125

f11

ISO 200

18mm

JPEG

Our company (HowStuffWorks.com) just launched the first portion of our social networking platform, so we had a party out on the deck (15 floors up) to celebrate. The weather was nice, but really overcast.

I wanted to get a photo that would capture how beautiful the view of the other buildings can be, but also capture the fun everyone was having. That was hard, and here is what I thought was my bast effort.

I shot this at a small aperture (f11) in order to get the people in front (who were about 18 feet away) in focus along with all of the buildings in the back. I might have been able to use a wider aperture, but they were laughing and I didn't have much time to react. So I went with an aperture I knew would do the job.

I used Photoshop Elements to correct most of the distortion from the wide angle shot. I also cropped the photo in a way to leave out the large trash can that was by the table of food on the right.

There were a couple of things I think that could have made this photo better. First, I should have shot it in RAW mode for more post-processing control over the exposure, contrast, and color. But alas, I had left it in JPEG mode after shooting the bees the day before. Second, I wish there were another couple of people talking in the empty space where you can see the tower crane. Ideally, I would have liked them to have been 15-20 feet from the camera.

August 17, 2009 – Suwanee City Hall

1/250

f8.0

ISO 200

35mm

RAW

I was driving home from a canceled Boy Scout training session and I noticed the beautiful bank of clouds being lit up by the early evening sun. It's the kind of setting where you want to find something nice to put in front of it, so I thought of the recently finished Suwanee City Hall.

As I was parking, I looked for where I thought would be the best perspective. I also noticed that the sun was dangerously close to going behind some clouds, so I knew I didn't have much time. I literally ran to a spot that, while not my choice for the best location, would let me get a good shot as soon as possible. I then went to the spot I had picked out initially and got some more photos.

When I got back home and looked at all of the shots, the first one turned out to have the best combination of clouds, color, and composition. It reminded me of something I read about how Ansel Adams got his Moonrise photo.

He was traveling down the highway when he noticed the moon rising over the mountain and the village in the evening light. He slammed on the brakes, pulled over, and hopped out with his gear. He feared there wasn't enough time to measure the light and determine the proper exposure, so he made his best guess and took the photo. Then he went through his normal process to take a photo, but before he was done the light was gone.

Adams probably drove away thinking he had missed a perfect opportunity for a wonderful photo, but we all know now that he didn't. One of his most famous photographs was a guess – a well-educated guess, mind you – but a guess all the same.

The main lesson to learn here is to pay attention to your surroundings and don't be afraid to snap off a quick shot at something that looks great. You never know when that moment may be the only chance you've got. Then take the time to make sure you have everything set for a great photo.

I shot this at f8 to get a really sharp photo, and then focused about two-thirds into the scene (around the water fountain in the front) to make sure everything was in focus, from front to back. I also shot it a little loose so I could crop it in the way I wanted once I got it loaded on the computer. Finally, I followed the rule of thirds by putting the building down in the lower third of the photo, which helps place more emphasis on the cloud formation above it.

In order to avoid a slanted effect (where the sides of the building seem to slant towards each other), I purposefully went up the slope in front of the building in order to be standing more on an equal elevation. You can see the camera level is just above the awning over the front doors. This way I was aiming the camera straight ahead instead of aiming it slightly upwards, which would have created the slanting sides of the building.

I really like this photo. Some of the impact is lost here in the small version, but the full-blown shot is fantastic. The only regret I have is something out of my control. I wish the clouds were more puffy and separated, instead of one massive cloudbank.