Wally

IMGP0417, originally uploaded by bostonaday.

I had to do a little computer maintenance, which distracted me from posting, so here's a kitty picture to tide you over until I can get back to serious posting (expect something interesting when I return from London and Frankfurt).

Also, I entered the black and white picture of the government square building in the Boston Globe's monthly amateur photo contest. We'll see if I make the final cut (which honestly is a bit like making the line-up in tee-ball...pretty much everyone plays regardless of skill).

Still Photography...you're doing it wrong.

You know what the difference is between good photographers an great photographers? Great photographers don't show you their mistakes.

So keeping with my theme of constant improvement, there will be no photos published from my last attempt at still photography. It's not that they were so awful, but they were very uninspiring and boring and (most of all) incorrectly lit.

So the idea was to take some pictures of the irises and lilies that E got for Valentine's and for her Birthday. I thought I would try using multiple lighting sources to bring out the details (tricky since they were white flowers). So I gathered up all the lights and carefully positioned and pointed them loosely based on things I had read. So here's the list of things I did wrong:

Used lighting with different color temps
Subject too close to the background
Backlight too close to subject

Try as I might I wasn't able to tweak all of these things to produce an interesting picture. Luckily all of these are easily fixable, so I'll try again soon.

New uses for a backdrop

So yesterday E and I went looking for an inexpensive white sheet that I could use as a backdrop for shooting some flowers. After we got it home I washed it to get out all of the wrinkles and creases and spread it over a chair so it wouldn't get new creases before I used it today.

Well, Eddie and Wally thought it was a perfect backdrop for kittens to sleep on. Much cuteness followed:

Playing with B&W

This month's amateur contest is about black and white photography, so I've been playing around a bit with that. I thought this picture wound up being pretty dramatic and moody (especially when compared to the original).

Government Center at Night

Passing through Government Center this evening at just the right time. I thought the staircase was a very interesting detail that I had never seen before and you really only get to see at night. Took a handful of pictures and this is the one that worked the best.

Fading Flowers

I'm not a big fan of still life. If I have the opportunity to tinker with a picture I'll do just that until I get fed up and start thinking "take the picture already". Then later I'll wish that I had done even more tinkering.

Anyway, I took these pictures of some Tulips I got E for her Birthday (Happy Birthday E!). I liked the color contrast inside the red blooms and as E said, you don't often see pictures of tulips that are opened.

I don't completely understand studio lighting, but I wish I had a fill flash behind the flowers. It would have taken the shadows off the background and given a little glow to edges. Still I'm very please with this picture. Here's the color version which is solid, but not nearly as striking as the b/w.