How do YOU see others?

For this assignment we had 2 options and I chose the option that allowed me to take portraits. I did this because short of taking candid photos I usually don't take pictures of people. This first picture (above) is of my friend Alita, who kindly consented to let me take pictures of her while she worked on her art. Which eventually led me to get to the theme of "Art" for this set of pictures. For the picture above, we had already been taking some pictures, and I had done a lot of them while she was working (see below) and I decided that I wanted one of her looking at the camera and smiling. I decided not to get her straight on, but from the side, because I wanted to incorporate her drawing stance, and some of her art supplies and the paper she was drawing on. One problem that I encountered with her was her pale skin. This is a bigger problem when printing than anything else, but it was interesting to work with.
The settings on my camera for this photograph were: The ISO was 400, the aperture was f/4.5, the flash was not used, and I used the portrait setting on my camera.

This picture of Alita was taken while she was working on her art. The reason that I liked this photo was of the way that the light hit her from behind her hat. Also, I felt that this lighting gave her skin some tone and really brought out the color of her hair.
The settings that I used on my camera for this photograph were: The ISO was 800, the aperture was set at f/5.6, and I did not used the flash. White balance was on an automatic setting.

I actually took this pictures of myself in the mirror. Originally I was just taking pictures for fun when I realized that I could catch a picture of the reflection that shows in the camera lens. I was trying to get a picture of myself reflected in the camera lens, but in the end that didn't work out very well, but I was able to get a picture of my camera in reflected in my camera's lens.

The settings that I used on my camera to get this photo were: The ISO was 800, the aperture was f/5, and I did not use a flash. White balance was on automatic.

Try and get a little perspective...

For this assignment, our goal was to try and take pictures from different perspectives. So I also tried for each picture to have distinct lines to follow to help show the depth of field in the photograph.

This first photograph is on the soccer field. I just got down on my stomach in the resemblance of an army crawl so that I could get the point of view that I wanted. What I liked about this photo is that there is a very distinct line going from one end of the photograph to the other. Also, I liked the fact that the picture is blurry in the front and in the back of the photograph, but is focused in the middle.

The settings that I used on my camera to take this photograph were: The ISO was 200, the aperture was f/6.3, and there was no flash used.

This next photo is of a bench, however, its not from the perspective that one usually looks at a bench. What I did was, I crouched down next to the posts that make up the part that you lean up against and zoomed in on the woodwork letting the rest of the photograph fall out of focus. I wanted to focus on the detail of the bench that one usually never focuses on.
The settings that I used on my camera to take this photograph were: The ISO was 400, the aperture was f/5 and there was no flash used.

This last picture, of the tree, is slightly similar to the first picture in that the focus is in the center. Again, I did the same thing except that I just got very close to the tree to take the picture. I actually bent over backwards (literally!) to get this photograph, because the picture just took at a better angle that way.
The settings I used on my camera to take this photograph were: The ISO was 200, the aperture was f/4.5, and there was no flash used.

A Snapshot of Life...

This, I'm sorry to say, was my least favorite assignment because I had the hardest time with it. The idea of the assignment was to combine shutter speed and a good depth of field in our photograph. As you can see from both photographs, I didn't exactly do the best job of that.

This photo was taken at the park behind the Quarry at the baseball field. There were some kids playing baseball that I was trying to have the focus on, but instead (since I could not get any closer) the focus ended up being on the metal fence. What I was hoping to capture was a unfocused fence, with the focus on the baseball players throwing the ball back and forth. However, as you can see, that is not what I ended up actually capturing.
The settings I used on my camera to take this photograph were: The ISO was 1600, the aperture was set at f/5.7 and there was no flash.

This next photo was a sad attempt at trying to get a car in motion while giving the picture some depth of field.

What I do like about this picture is that even though the car is blurred, the trees in the background are not, emphasizing the stillness of the background against the foreground. I took this while I was in my car.
The settings I used on my camera for this photo were: The ISO was 1600, the aperture was set at f/36 and there was no flash.

Where's YOUR Focus?

What I liked about this photo was that I was able to put the focus in the center of the photo. The very foremost branches are blurry, as is the background, but the branches and leaves in the center are in sharp focus. I took this photo because I felt that it would be easiest to work with focus in nature. 

After taking the picture I adjusted the temperature and the brightness in the photograph to bring out the colors more, for I had taken this photo on a very dreary day.

The settings that I used on my camera for this photograph were: The ISO was 1600, the aperture was f/5.6 and there was no flash.

Originally, what I had wanted for this photograph was for the foreground on the picture to be blurry, and the tennis nets to be in focus. However, with the given lighting, this was almost not even an option. I sat there for almost 45 minutes playing with the settings on the camera trying to change the focus, the shutter speed, and even the aperture. This was the best picture that I got from that. What I do like about this photo though, was the lines that the nets and the tennis court lines created. But I do feel that this picture could be improved if I had moved the bench from it, so that the main focus was on the net and the lines instead of the bench.

The settings that I used on my camera for this photograph were: The ISO was 1600, the aperture was set at f/4.5, and there was no flash.

The Beginning...

This was our first assignment, and for our first assignment, we were told to work and experiment with our shutter speed and aperture on our cameras.

So I decided that my first picture would be of moving cars on Highway 281. I had seen many pictures of cities with blurred car lights and wanted to try and duplicate it myself. One of the biggest problems that I ran into on this photo was trying to keep the camera steady enough so as to not blur the background as well.

I used the following settings on my camera to take this photograph: The ISO was 1600, aperture was f/22, with no flash.














This photo of the dorms and the Trinity tower was particularly interesting to take. I had to set my aperture and shutter speed at a very exact setting to get a clear picture. I also had to hold very still. What I liked about this photo is that the tower is lit up in the background, and even though it is night time and the only lights are the ones that are lighting up the tower or coming from the dorms, there are still shadows in the picture. I also really liked that half of the tower is in the dark, yet you can still see the outline of it. It was difficult for me to take the photo well, because I had a hard time keeping the camera still for it detected every movement.

I used the following settings on my camera to take this photograph: The ISO was 1600, the aperture was f/5.6 and there was no flash. And white balance was on auto.

I had a lot of fun on this assignment when I was experimenting with the different shutter speeds on my camera. It was fun to change the shutter speed by just a little bit and see how much it would change the photographs.