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Take Your Camera With You Someplace New
By sirsnapalot | December 5, 2007
Try taking your camera with you somewhere different next time you go out. For instance, I like to run a few times a week, and the other day happened to run a little before sunset. The fall colors in Dallas are at their peak right now (a bit late in the year, actually), and the intensity and color of the fading light was perfect- almost setting the trees on fire visually.
So, a couple of days later I purposefully ran at the same time, only this time I took my camera with me, running a bit more slowly so as not to trip and damage it. Here are some of the results and some pointers along the way.
Fountain Grass
This fountain grass was in a neighbor’s yard down the street. It had turned red from the recent cold weather, and the tussles were set aglow in the setting sun. In cases like this, you get the best results photographing right into the sun, keeping it just out of the picture. In this case, I got four rays of sunlight at the top, which for me really set off the image. There is a little sun reflection in the lens at the very bottom, but it’s not too noticeable, and certainly worth the tradeoff to get the rays at the top.
Fountain Grass Close-up
This is the same cluster of grass, but I’ve zoomed in quite a bit. I’m still looking towards the sun, getting the backlighting, but it’s toned down more and softer on the eye. This less-bold look is richer in detail and very pleasing to look at.
Moi
After continuing for a half mile or so, I turned north and saw my elongated shadow in these trees, and the linear shadows from the railings made for an unusual shot. There’s not much I can say about the shot other than it contains three elements that aren’t all that related. It was an experiment with results that I was happy with.
Crape Myrtle
Another half mile up the road and I saw a Crape Myrtle tree. These trees are awesome spring, summer and fall. I love their foliage in the spring, the flower half the year (in Texas) and turn bright colors in the fall.
Here, I shot upwards towards the sky, and the sun is down and to the left. So, indirectly, they are still backlit, as the sunlight is streaming in on the top of the canopy. The result is a glowing orange explosion of color- I love this shot and it’s one of my better fall color photographs.
Sweet Gum
The Sweet Gum is another one of my favorites. I love the 5-pointed leaves, the trees grow tall (more so than the average Texas tree in the Dallas area), and in the fall, they turn orange and red. This one proved to be no exception. The only drawback to them are spiny seed pods, which I would happily tolerate to have these in my yard.
In this photo- another half mile down the road, the sun is behind and to my left, so this shot is not backlit like the others. Maybe I should have walked around and tried that angle out, too. Oh well, didn’t think of that at the time.
Oak Tree
And finally, yet another half mile on the loop, and almost back home, I passed an apartment complex that is full of decently-grown trees, including Bradford Pears and Oak trees. A part of this oak tree was beautifully backlit by the sun, now getting very low and streaming between the buildings. I used the flash on the camera to give some fill light on the non-illuminated leaves to make the photo more interesting.
Conclusion
The thing I want stress is that to break out of your mold, try something different. Take the camera with you on a walk through your neighborhood. Or, take it to work and stop by a park at lunch or on the way home. Just look around you, where you live, work and play, and you’ll find many things worth taking photos of.
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Topics: Improvement | 1 Comment »
September 26th, 2009 at 07:45
these are amazing and really diffrent looks at plants that are on our national contest thanks for posting them