This two week challenge is about the process of taking better pictures. The process of picture taking is about seeing something that interests you, then thinking about how to take the image rather than just pressing the shutter impulsively without thinking. One way to help you think about your prospective images is by thinking about the well established photographic composition rules. Click here for a 30 minute video with examples on 30 composition rules.
The objective of this challenge is to take two images of your chosen subject. The first one showing an overview of the subject and its surroundings. The second one where you have applied one of the 30 composition rules.
Do NOT enhance your image in post processing other than reducing the image pixel size for uploading. Your post processed “enhanced” image is to be posted in the “2023-10-03 Enhance” web page
Keep your submitted images at or below 1600 pixels wide or 1050 pixels high.
This is the initial image recognizing the potential of an interesting tree root at the entrance to Big Hill Springs. It looked to me like a lizard with the tail draped over a rock. This image is un-altered, straight out of the camera. I thought I could improve the angle by approaching the roots from a different angle.
I changed my angle and walked up to the more intricate tree roots and snapped this image.
After reviewing the image I decided to back up a bit and include the large diagonal “tail” root.
I was in Kyoto Japan in the Bamboo Grove in the spring. I struggled to find an angle for a good shot of the bamboo so I wandered off to see some temples and shrines. When I returned I was walking down hill and had a different angle which included more of the sky. Taken with my iphone.
Apologies, the picture above was supposed to be rotated to the right, but I couldn’t get it aligned and saved.
The second picture is on my way to the bamboo grove with more sky visible.
Taken with my iphone.
I went to Weed Lake looking for snow geese but only found pelicans in the choppy water. the light was not good with grey sky and strong winds.
this is another photo of the pelicans, I chose the three pelicans that faced the same direction and cropped the photo to be processed
the composition principles were rule of odds and simplicity
the photo
I darkened the water and added some blue to it . I selected the subjects and warmed up the temperature and increased contrast.
A log in water with reflection . this is the first view
A log in water with reflection . this is the first view
tried a lower perspective
I decided the first view was better .The image was cropped a little. Composition approaches included triangle, leading lines and repetition
Two photographs from Valour Park in Currie. The park has three full size bronzed statues — a soldier, sailor and aviator.
Captured late afternoon Oct 7th with a Fuji Medium format camera. Shot both RAW and jpeg, but used the jpeg for submission (still 28MB file before cropping and size adjustment. Only adjustment ws to crop.
F5.0/ISO 320/SS@1/125 with a 40mm focal length.
Photo two the cropped version.
Some of you know that I play a game called Geocaching and Saturday was designated as an International Earth Cache Day for a special virtual souvenir. So I went out with a friend to Hidden Valley to find an earth cache called Fossil. We found it at this location and had to examine the fossil and send answers to the cache owner to be able to log the cache. The telephone pole factored into the answers because there was a number on the pole that we needed. The fossil was in the broken sandstone. I took my camera along because I thought that I could use the fossil for my assignment. The GPS coordinates are N 51° 09.245 W 114° 07.071
Oops! I don’t know how the picture turned sideways! But you get the picture. The fossil picture and enhancements are in the next section.
Ravine to hit over from the 10th hole tee box at Shaganappi. Great fall colours but overexposed and not much of a composition.
ISO 800, 30 mm, f/11, 1/320th sec
I zoomed in and changed a couple of settings.
ISO 800, 53 mm, f/13, 1/500th instead of
ISO 800, 30 mm, f/11, 1/320th sec
Compositionally I think this is much better balanced. The green part and the sky fill about one-third of the frame horizontally. The darkness of the ravine forms a triangle and the coloured trees above it form another triangle. For the Enhance section I cropped the left edge out and bumped the colours slightly.
View of downtown from St Patrick’s Island. River in the bottom third, city in the middle, sky in the top. Poplar tree on the right side frames the picture.
f/3.2, 1/1250 sec, ISO 100, 37 mm, +0.3 ev
Second view. Lower perspective, more negative space in the sky. Zoomed in slightly. A little underexposed.
f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, 40 mm, +0.3 mm
I think that I like the second shot better.
When this challenge started, I was travelling in Europe. The first photo is a general picture I took from a café across a canal in Amsterdam – it’s a pretty ordinary scene. The next two photos follow composition guidelines – both are iPhone 14 Pro telephoto images of the white building on the left side of this frame – the first photo is a closeup of the windows with people visible, and the second photo is a closeup of the area where garbage is piled up near the yellow sign on the ground to the right.
Pre-processing version using ‘frame within a frame’ compositional rule, also incorporating a human-interest aspect.
The second pre-processing version uses the ‘decisive moment’ compositional rule – the scene of just a pile of garbage on the ground was transformed when a garbage truck rolled up, and two guys in bright orange outfits jumped off and started flinging garbage into the back of the truck. This photo is quite busy and does not conform to the ‘simplicity’ compositional rule, but communicates the sudden transformation of an otherwise ordinary scene.
A Rainy Day at Glenmore
I arrived hear hoping to get a rainy fall shot with reflections and leaves on the path…. What luck a Mom and her 2 daughters appeared out of nowhere… a quick snap with my cell phone f1.8 1/300 sec ISO 32
A Rainy Day at Glenmore continued…
The mom and girls were on a mission, it was raining… they quickly headed for the stairs down to the shore line… I quickly took another shot, with my trusty cell phone,,,
f1.8 1/360sec ISO 32
Did not have much time as the clouds were moving pretty fast. I think it shows a bit of layering composition.
f/9, 1/160, iso160
Second shot zoomed pretty much the same location – I prefer the wide angle shot
f/5.2, 1/800, iso100
Went on a cruise of the New England Area at the end of Sept. Hoping for fall colors which were not as vivid as I had hoped due to the area not having a hard frost yet. On the last day was wandering around Quebec City and saw this house with a beautiful bright red tree in front. Love the contrast with the blue trim of the house and the bright colors of the tree. Shot with my 18-55 mm lens at f/22, 1/20 sec, ISO 250. This was my first shot unedited.
Second shot taken at same settings from a different angle which I liked much better.