November 19, 2009 - Armageddon cometh?

1/2000

f5.6

ISO 400

200mm

RAW

I was lucky to get this, and it didn't even turn out the way I expected. Coming home from work with my carpool, we had left Buckhead under party sunny skies. But by the time we got halfway home a thick layer of foggy, misty clouds had settled over us.

The setting sun gave us a rare moment when the sun was just off of the horizon and visible under the layer of clouds. I quickly pulled out my camera and attached my 70-200mm lens to get a few quick snapshots as we were going over the interstate. Most of my shots were jostled by the moving car (no, I wasn't driving) or blocked by the accompanying flow of cars. But this one shot was clear.

I used my long lens to put an emphasis the interaction between the sun and the edge of the clouds. I had to guess at an ISO because of the (extremely) short amount of time I had. But it worked, and for that I am glad. I wish I had a higher vantage point so I could have caught the long line of cars backed up on the highway, but the car was too low and the overpass' railing was in the way.

October 8, 2009 - Football practice under stormy skies

1/60

f5.0

ISO 400

18mm

RAW

I am not too thrilled about today's photo, but here it is. I was short on time and didn't know what to do, but as I was driving home from work (after staying late again) I saw the lights on at the local park. So I stopped for about 10 minutes to see if I could get a shot of a game.

I was disappointed, however, to find out there wasn't a game — just a practice. And it hadn't even started yet. I waited for as long as I felt I could, and grabbed a few snapshots as they moved out to the field for warmups. I purposefully put the ground along the bottom of the frame to bring in the overcast, stormy looking sky.

I wish I had been able to get closer to the players. Maybe catch them in some kind of pre-practice huddle, or lined up on the grass as they stretch. But I had two things going against me. First, I didn't have any time. And second, only the players and the coaches were allowed onto the field. Everyone (and I mean everyone) was to stay on the other side of the gates. The coach seemed like a no nonsense kind of guy, and I wasn't going to push him.

October 7, 2009 - Gorgeous sunset photo

2 sec

f11

ISO 100

18mm

RAW

We just had a strong front go pushing through today and it turned into a beautiful, clear day. From past experience, I knew this would produce some strong colors at sunset, so I planned out this shot in advance.

My son and I hiked through a field with waist high grass in order to get on the other side of this massive, old oak tree. We set the camera up on a tripod to insure stability, and took a bunch of photos.

Each shot was done on 'M' so we could alter each shot slightly from the previous one. We mostly experimented in longer or shorter shutter speeds, but we also changed angles and orientations.

Sunset photos are the best when you include something in the sunset. It doesn't matter much what it is (like a silhouetted tree, your best friend, or reflections off of a surface), but its inclusion is vital.

For this shot, I put the silhouetted oak down in the lower corner to also use the rule of thirds. As for the other settings, I wanted a good, deep depth of field, so I went with f11. ISO 100 insured the photo would be smooth and grain-free, and the tripod prevented any blurriness on such a long exposure.

I liked this one the best. There was still enough light so the field wasn't thrown into complete darkness, and the clouds had a little hint of pink in them at the top of the frame. But when I loaded it up into Photoshop Elements, however, I couldn't quite get the color that I wanted. Either the sky wasn't blue enough at the top, the clouds weren't bright enough, or the horizon wasn't yellow enough. And I totally couldn't see any pink in the clouds.

So what did I do? I pulled out The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photograhers (here's a link to the same book for the latest version of Photoshop Elements). I reviewed the book for ideas on getting the missing colors, and found the solution &mdash the 'Adjust Color Curves' tool. It's amazing! I'm going to need to use this one more. Not only did it bring out all of the color that was missing, but it also helped me keep the field from going completely black. It completely saved me from going into depression (because I was so frustrated with the lackluster look of the photo).

What do you guys think? Did I go to far? Is the color unreal? Or did I get it right?

October 2, 2009 - Water leak

1/125

f8

ISO 200

24mm

RAW

As a homeowner, I have come to realize there are all kinds of things that need attention and/or repairs around your house. Undoubtedly, one of the worst phrases you can hear is, "you've got a water leak."

And that's exactly what I was told yesterday.

Luckily, the leak was fairly simple and just a couple of feet from the city's water meter, so it wasn't too hard to find nor dig up. There was a sleeve put over the PVC pipe where it transitioned from 1-inch to 3/4-inch. The pipe had cracked coming out of the sleeve.

I had never worked with PVC before, but it wasn't too hard. Since I did all the work myself, it cost me only about $15. Much better than the $200 quote I had been given by a plumber!

This was a pretty straightforward shot. The sky was overcast, so there weren't any harsh shadows across the pipes. The f8 aperture setting helped insure everything was in focus, from the bottom to the top. I do wish I could have gotten the leak in the photo too, but it was too small to see from this distance. The standing water around the pipes and in the meter box, however, helps you know how bad the leak wss.

September 19, 2009 - Flower on a rainy day

1/25

f8

ISO 800

49mm

RAW

I am sure you have all heard about Atlanta's great flood of 2009 by now. This photo was taken two days before the flood happened. It had been raining for five straight days for a total of about seven inches so far, according to my rain gauge (a large bucket) in my front yard.

My youngest daugher, Tannah, was attending her best friend's birthday party. It was supposed to be at a petting zoo/animal ranch, but the rain had forced those plans to be canceled and the party was now at their home. When I dropped her off I saw their beautiful flowers on their front porch. I got this picture when I came back to pick her up.

The sky was completely overcast (and dark, too, because it was raining as I took this). While kind of gloomy, it offered a very even lighting. I made sure to take this in RAW format so I would have plenty of processing options later on when I loaded it into the computer. And I shot at f8 to have a good depth of field in the photo, which helped more of the flower be in focus.

I pumped up the exposure and contrast in Adobe Camera Raw, while also darkening the blacks a little bit to help keep the background dark. I didn't really like the flower in the background in the upper right, so I burned (darkened) that quite a bit to make the main flower separate from it more.

So what do you think? Overall, I think it is pleasant, but not a knock-out. The overcast skies provided even lighting, but I wouldn't consider it dynamic. I am worried I darkened the background too much and affected the overall mood of the photo. I also didn't have an umbrella as I was taking the photos, so I was a bit rushed (it wasn't a light rain!) and I didn't take my time. Ideally, I would love to find some flowers like this immediately after a storm is over with the sun coming out.

PS &mdash I would really like to know what kind of flowers these are. Anyone know?

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.