A curved bridge at Lord's Park

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A bridge in Elgin, Illinois

Sometimes it's worth it just to stop everything and take that shot. I was driving along and by the side of the road I noticed this little bridge with the concrete steps around it, with careful and tasteful landscaping around it. I thought...I wonder if I can get a shot of it without the buildings in the background? Now I'm thinking I should have taken longer shots to SHOW the buildings int he background.

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Botanic Garden path

This cobblestone path strikes me as surrounded on either side by lacy patterns of greenery and flowers.

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knot

For some reason the textures of the water in the background contrasted a lot with the coarseness of the roap, the smoothness of the metal it was wrapped around, and the wood of the pier.

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Sensory Garden

The sensory garden at the Botanic Garden is built around a big sycamore tree.  This picture shows one of the raised beds of lovely flowers of all types, scents and petal textures.

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Eyes

One might think "eyes" are easy to photograph. It's kind of like the idea of taking a picture of a white carnation. Sounds simple enough, right?

As far as "eyes" are concerned, there are all kinds of eyes out there, including potato eyes. Eyes by themselves are extremely expressive. I saw a post of very theatrical eyes of women that was by a photographer that does Maybelline ads. Mine aren't like that.

I was trying for something different with this experiment in photographing eyes, but you need some willing subjects.

Needless to say, my dog was mostly uncooperative.

I took these pictures of my husband's eyes with the 'portrait' setting on the Canon Rebel T1i, which softened the detail too much. Double click on all the photos to see the larger image.

My dog turned to me and his nose is so long that the camera focused on his nose.

These are my husband's eyes, taken with the macro setting, which provided much more detail.

This is a neighbor's long-haired dachsund with a muzzle on.  Why he needed a muzzle, I'll never know - he was the sweetest thing and wasn't aggressive at all.

And this is the dachsund's daddy. I was playing with black and white conversions on this one, the lines in his face are very interesting.

This is a neighbor right after she came home from work, perfectly willing to stand still for me for long enough to squeeze off a few snaps. Without the rest of her face, you can see her eyes are smiling.

This is a friend's Boxer. He always has the cutest expressions on his face.

Even without the rest of his face you can see his expression in his eyes.

The eyes truly are the window to the soul, and I took them on as my challenge this weekend. You can see more "eye" pictures from others in comments at this old post at the Digital Photography School.

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Mudge Bay, Kagawong, Canada

This one was taken on my way to Bridal Veil Falls.  It turns out the trip TO the falls yielded better pictures than the walk around the falls itself.  Bringing the camera everywhere is a must.

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English Garden

This is another Botanic Garden shot; I couldn't resist including it in the collection of snaps I have here.

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A cold wet nose!

A big wet nose and sad eyes; that's what this dog has. The challenge is capturing him when he's moving around so much. Pet portraits can present a definite challenge and take a long time to produce good snaps.

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Great Blue Heron

This magnificent bird makes it home right outside my window.  Because it was about to rain, it stood quite still for quite some time, giving me the opportunity to take some quick shots of it with my 300mm lens. 

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Canadian North American Indian woman

With some coaxing, I was able to get Gina to pose for this photo.  Asking people if you can take their photograph is not all that difficult.  What is necessary, though, and what I have to get more comfortable doing is to ask them to sign my model's release.

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The secretive Green Heron

This bird is small for a heron, but on close examination, its colors are extraordinary. Double click on the image to enlarge.  Once you've seen it, click on the 'back' button to bring you back here. This appears to be a juvenile green heron because of its brown and white streaked neck, slight crest, and light-tipped wing coverts.  The yellow markings around the bill and eye are also indicative of a juvenile, because the markings are less pronounced in the adult.  They average between 16 and 18 inches long, their wingspan is about 25 inches and they weigh about 8 or 9 ounces.  It's also called the green-backed heron.

This is a difficult bird to get pictures of because of its secretive nature.

This is a photo of the same bird with the colors punched up a little bit.

I stood outside this morning as it was about to rain with my rebel T1i camera and 300mm telephoto lens and managed to get some shots of this one before it started to rain.  I tried different aperture settings because the light wasn't very bright, due to the cloud cover.  ISO 1600, shutter speed 1/100.

I didn't punch up the color on this one, although I did in a few of the other shots I took.

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Gay Civil Union

This was taken in June at Millenium Park where 33 civilian unions were performed.

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Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpeckers are very quick, almost as quick as a White Breasted Nuthatch, Goldfinch, or even a Black-Capped Chickadee.  At times I wonder if the world appreciates these creatures as much as I do, and at others I don't care because I'm continuing to practice taking shots in different scenarios and gaining more and more experience.

This photo would be another exercise in contrasts, as the colors are vibrant, and the background somewhat muted.

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Color Contrasts

This white egret standing on the boat launch against the darker water seemed a striking contrast.  Waterbirds are everywhere here, but they are not always obvious.

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A door and a shadow

It may seem somewhat monochromatic, but this is the side of one of the deteriorating buildings in Canada.  I just love the textures of old structures and buildings like this.  Espanola had some very rural areas with farmhouses that were very old, dilapidated and abandoned.  Some were burned out as though there had been a fire.  Others were open, but dangerous to walk into, with graffiti scrawled all over the inside and outside.

It made me wonder about what the history was of those homes and barns.  Surely they each had a story.  Who owned them?  It was apparent that families once lived in them, what made the people leave?  Who owns them now, and why are the houses still standing?

This is the same image using Picnik to enhance the colors.

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A Canadian Sunset

Is a sunset photo worthy of submitting for a contest?  Aren't there more unique things to capture than a sunset? Sunsets can be stunning and there is a lot that can be done in digital editing programs to pump up the richness and intensity of the colors.  This one was slightly enhanced in Aperture.

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A beautiful face

This is a wonderful face for a portrait; full of character and lines.  It was taken inside a bar in the afternoon, while the patrons were playing pool.  He and his wife raise potbellied pigs in Espanola, Canada.  The dramatic natural light is coming in through the window, but the inside was dark.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it ended up being one of my favorite photos taken from that trip.

What makes a great portrait?  It's a combination of things; and sometimes it's about breaking the rules.  Some suggest a noncompeting background, and if there are more than one person in the photo, it's suggested that they should have clothing that matches, or is in the same color family.  I've seen some stunning photos of large families where they wear blue jeans and black turtlenecks.  I saw one photograph of a group of related women, where they all wore black and white.

Good lighting is a bonus, because nobody wants to do a lot of work editing the photos when they're done.  Composition and the rule of thirds should be held in mind.  Try to capture an emotioin, crop it in close, and maybe use a telephoto lens so that the background is blurred.

But it depends on what you're looking to achieve.

I am surprised at my results sometimes because I tend to snap in a haphazard sort of a way.  My feeling is that many times a photographer is rushed because of a lot of activity such as a wedding or a reception, and you must be able to put something together that is stunning with little time beforehand to plan it out.  The ideal situation, though, is to know about the challenges in advance and to plan for them.

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Birds can help you improve

Might sound crazy, but taking photographs of birds is very helpful in terms of taking the shot before it gets away.  A photographer's response time needs to be fast and quick when taking pictures of birds, particularly when he's after a clear crisp shot.  A photographer needs a quick response time in many situations-in sports photography, with children, during weddings, receptions, events, with animal portraits, etc.  Birds are very quick to move and flit about, and it's for that reason that birds have helped me with my photos across-the-board.  This particular photo is a black-capped chickadee.

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The right moment

The right moment, the right light, the right angle, you have a snapshot of a captured moment.  Priceless.  Previously I talked about the Potowatomie Park Pavilion and how when standing at Boy Scout Island in the morning, the lighting wasn't the best to take a shot of the Pavilion.  This shot was taken that same morning at Ferson's Creek Park. 

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