The first shot was self portrait. For this, we set up a tripod in our driveway and took shots in our front yard after church on Easter. You may have seen these pictures on Instagram but we thought we'd include them again here. I didn't realize until afterwards that I had forgotten to shoot in RAW format so my ability to touch these up was really limited.
Next up was the rule of thirds. This is a common composition technique where the frame is divided into a 3x3 grid. Instead of placing objects of interest (strong lines, eyes, light sources, etc.) in the center of the frame as we're all tempted to do, place them either along major lines or where lines intersect. After reading this, I came to realize that I was almost always violating this "rule". Here's an honest attempt to follow it!
Heather and I went to Percy Warner park last weekend and found these interesting curves. We wanted to make something out of it so here's a shot of what they look like, following by hopefully a more artistic approach including some foreground foliage.
For the black and white, I'm reusing one of my favorite shots I've ever taken of Heather. This was from a trip to Arrington vineyard last fall.
Next up was texture. You can find these stone walls all over Nashville, especially in the Belle Meade area. I particularly like how there are a bunch of small stones crammed in the extra spaces rather than using mortar.
For the high angle shot, I had to use one I took from a flight from Austin to Nashville. I had never seen clouds form like that before! Have you?
For the low angle shot, I took this at the John F.Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. At the end of the tour, you walk into this huge sun room overlooking the water. The huge American flag was an obvious point of interest and I happened to sneak behind Heather while she looked up at it. If I could do it again I'd try to get a little lower and closer to her.
We tried to get some good silhouette shots in Boston but none of them turned out. I think we learned some valuable things about what NOT to do, and we'll keep trying!
Sunset was next on the list and we got a great shot at McCabe golf course a few nights ago. The shot didn't really come together until I got to work on it in photoshop and we realized while we were out there that we definitely have some things to learn about sunset photography too!
Next up is bokeh (pronounced BOW-kay), which is the fancy termed for a blurred out background. This technique is typically used to isolate a subject from the background, as in portrait photography and/or to give some depth to the shot. Here are a couple of ours!
The last topic we've covered so far is lens flare. This one is probably self-explanatory. The first shot was pretty intentional while the rainbow in the second picture was a nice surprise when I started editing.
So that's it for now! We'll continue to get out there and experiment with various techniques and bring our results to you in bunches like this. We hope you enjoy this and ultimately that it inspires you to take a camera outside and experiment yourself with some of these ideas!
Until next time!
