Saturday, March 26, 2016

Day 15: Hummingbird Pictures

     One of my goals this whole project was to get a picture of a hummingbird while it was flying. I'd tried doing this a couple times, but I had either lost my patience, or screwed up the pictures. So today, I committed myself to getting some. I was not going to go inside until I had at least one hummingbird picture I was happy with.
     For the first 15 minutes, there were no hummingbirds. I started to lose interest, and went to go take pictures of the bees in the flowers. This was a little bit scary for me, because I don't like bees. Eventually I made my way back to the plants where the hummingbirds usually come. Finally, after about 40 minutes total, a hummingbird appeared. I tried super hard to get some pictures of it, but they just weren't in focus. I was pretty mad at myself, because now I had to wait for another hummingbird. Lucky for me, the next hummingbird came about 10 minutes after that. I was able to get some pretty good pictures of this one. I was about to go inside, but then another hummingbird appeared. I started snapping pictures of it, hoping they'd turn out okay. I actually ended up liking these pictures the best. Even though waiting for the birds wasn't fun, I'm really glad I was able to achieve one of my goals for this project.

pics from today:





Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Day 14: Butterfly Pictures

     Today I went outside with the intent of taking cute pictures of my dogs. But, after about 10 minutes, a big yellow butterfly caught my eye. As it was fluttering around my backyard, I realized it would be super cool to get some pictures of it. So, I followed it around from a distance, waiting for it to land somewhere. I followed it around for about 3 minutes, but it felt more like 20. Finally, it landed on one of the palm trees in my yard. I crept up to it really slowly, so I wouldn't scare it. Once I was about 2 yards away, I took out my camera to take pictures of it. I took a lot, because I wasn't sure how long it would sit there for. I wanted to get a picture of it flying away, but I unfortunately missed that opportunity. I was really happy with the pictures I got of it, though. I got pictures of it from the side, and from the top. I got some cute pictures of my dogs too, but I personally think the butterfly is way cooler.

pics from today:




Sunday, March 13, 2016

Day 13: Action Shots Weekend 2, Day 2

     My sister Sydney had another soccer game today in Irvine. On the drive up, I entertained myself by looking through the window at all the places that I thought would be cool places to do photoshoots. When we got to the field, I noticed they were playing on turf. Because it was cloudy and the light was not great, I was curious to see if this would make a difference in the pictures.
     When I got home and uploaded the pictures to my computer, I was pleased to see that the pictures were better than the ones from yesterday. Not only were they brighter, but more of them were in focus. I've decided that I like shooting on turf better than grass. However, I'm not really sure if the turf actually does make the lighting better, or if I've just been lucky the times I've shot on turf. Anyway, I'm really happy with my pictures from this whole weekend, and I can definitely see a lot of improvement.

pics from today:






Saturday, March 12, 2016

Day 12 (part 2): Photoshoot with the Youngest One

     So today after the soccer game, I was finally able to convince my youngest sister to do a photoshoot with me. I was a little bit nervous about how she would be in front of the camera. I quickly discovered I was right to be nervous. She always looked awkward when she looked at the camera. I tried everything I could think of to make her look more natural, but nothing worked. I ended up having to take all the pictures of her not looking at the camera so she wouldn't look constipated. I actually really like the way my pictures turned out, but I wish I had been able to get some good ones of her looking at the camera.
     Another thing I discovered, is that when you work with younger kids, you have to make it fun for them. To do this I would take pictures of my sister balancing on the curb, or doing funny poses. I actually like these pictures a lot, maybe even more than the ones where I told her how to pose.

Pics from today:







Day 12: Action Shots Weekend 2

     My other sister had soccer games this weekend, so I decided to go try and take some action shots of her team. When I sat down and took my camera out to shoot, I noticed the lighting was really bad. So, I shot on sport mode, but manually changed the IOS to try and make my pictures brighter. It worked a little bit, but a lot of my pictures were still dark. In the second half, however, the lighting started to improve because it was getting sunny. I like these pictures better than the ones from the first half.
     When I got home and looked at my pictures, I noticed something. At the field they were playing at in Irvine, there was a giant orange balloon that would go up and down on a rope. It was in the background of some of the pictures. So, instead of the person being the first thing you see when you look at the picture, its this obnoxiously bright orange balloon. I could Photoshop it out, but I want all of my pictures unedited for this project, so I guess it'll have to stay for now.

Pics from today:







Saturday, March 5, 2016

Day 11: Photoshoot Round 2

     My favorite day out of this project so far was hands down taking pictures of my sister, Sydney. I really liked exploring places in my neighborhood to shoot at, especially with her. We had a lot of fun our first photoshoot, so we decided to do another one. We went to a lot of the same places we did for the first one, but we had more time this time around, so we explored some new places along the way. I've decided (for now) that taking pictures of people is my favorite. One thing that makes our photoshoots so fun is that we take a lot of silly pictures along with serious pictures. Sydney and I both had a lot of fun today, and I'm really happy with the pictures I took. I can definitely see improvement, which makes photography even more fun for me.

Pics from today:
















and here are some funny ones:




Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Day 10: Dog Pictures

     I've been really busy the last week, and didn't have time to take pictures until today. So, I started by taking more pictures of some flowers in my backyard. I took a couple, but then got distracted by my soccer ball sitting in the grass. I started kicking it around, and then decided to try and take some pictures of it, just to see how they would turn out. They turned out okay, but I felt like they were kind of boring, so I moved on. My dogs were the next thing to catch my eye, so I decided to take pictures of them. I was a little bit nervous after my first attempt at taking pictures of them, but I was actually happy with the pictures I took. I had my dad throw a tennis ball to them, so I could get pictures of them catching it. It looked super cool when they caught it, and there were also some funny ones of when they missed the ball. Overall, today was definitely not a failure.

Pics from today: