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leaf
After the Rain
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Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 400
Decided to finish out the week with a low key photo. I love the amount of detail that I got out of this shot. I always like going out to photograph after it rains but don’t get the opportunity to do that too often.
Some of you may have noticed that the past couple of weeks I’ve just been posting 4 times a week: Monday – Thursday. The reason for this is because I’ve noticed that my Friday posts weren’t getting a lot of attention compared to the posts through the rest of the week. Because of this I decided to just to leave out the Friday posts for now and it does save me a little time taking off that day. Hope you all have a great weekend and see you on Monday!
The Skeleton
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Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 320
As summer turns to autumn and autumn to winter, the leaves slowly change colors from green to a beautiful array of yellows, oranges, and reds to brown then slowly start to decay. We don’t think about a leaf having a skeleton but after seeing this one I would say that they do.
A New Beginning
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Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 400
Trying to get this photo to look the way it does was very difficult. Usually to get this look I would need to export it out to Nik’s Silver Efex Pro but lately I’ve been learning how to work with LR’s Tone Curve sliders in order to get a higher contrast photo. In order to get the leaf to stand out more I ended up dropping the exposure in the background by quite a bit. In the original photo the background wasn’t much darker than the leaf itself. For those that are interested this is a leaf from a grape vine.
Side note: It seems like the prologue I posted yesterday for my story took a nice start. In a way the title to this post also applies to my blog a little as it is also a new beginning for for my blog. I’ve restructured the menu to make it easier to find things if you are looking for something specific. I’ve been wanting to go through and tidy up the Categories for all of my photos but have yet to do so. It’s more or less on my list of “things to do” that I’m not sure when I’ll get around to doing it. I’ve also decided that since I’m going to try and keep up with the story that I might as well update the title of my blog as well to allow it to expand past the photography. Just need to think of a name now. Wish I could change the URL but oh well. I don’t really like the idea of creating a new blog and porting things over either. I’ll just live with it I guess.
I’m trying to become more structured in my schedule where I can hopefully find time to process and post photos on a more regular basis. I’ve finally figured out a working schedule that I think I can make work without feeling too tired all the time. Because of that I think I can get back to doing more of what I like outside of work instead of thinking about wanting to sleep most of the time. For now, if I can keep up, I plan on posting the story one chapter at a time on the first Monday of each month. So the first chapter is scheduled for Monday, February 2nd. It’s taking all I have to not post it now but I have to pace myself so too much time doesn’t lapse between postings. I’m hoping to be able to keep up with it and then hopefully that will force me to finally finish it. Something that has always been at the back of my mind the past few years. If I am able to write enough to post every other week then I’ll transition over to that. Thanks to everyone who supports me in my photographic journey and now in my writing journey!
Why Post Processing May be Important
Post processing. It’s something that is always hated in the beginning, but eventually loved, as one learns how to use the tools. Some just never seem to be friends with it ever. So what is all the hype with it anyways? Can’t we just press the shutter button and then display the result without needing to make any changes? Well….yes and no. Sometimes the shot we get out of the camera needs nothing done to it as it is perfect the way it was captured.
An example of this would be this shot I took of a new leaf. All I had to do was compose the right shot with the right settings and everything else was taken care of for me. Sure I pulled it into Lightroom to try and tweak it a bit but everything I tried didn’t seem to add anything to it, so I just left it as is. I didn’t even change the exposure.
A good example as to why post processing is important is this next photo:
To me this photo looks like just a mere snapshot with over exposed areas and a few harsh shadows on the left. The composition works, but there’s nothing that really stands out to me that leaves me with not remembering this shot for more than a few minutes after viewing it never to return. Because in this shot I wanted to focus more on details of the stairs and the railing of the bridge, I decided that some work needed to be done if I wanted to at least try to make an impression and to be able to remember the photo.
Here is the outcome:
As you can now see the harsh shadows on the left are no longer a distraction and the brightness of the stairs are replaced by a much more appealing view of the details of the stonework. Now the viewer is more focused on path that is set before them, a trip over the bridge into the unknown, rather than a snapshot that tries to express the purpose of this photo, but falls a bit short. Color may have worked, but I would have found the trees a little distracting as the main subject I wanted to portray in this work was the stairs and bridge rather than the surrounding area.
Happy shooting!
The Lone Leaf
Wrapped Up
Frosted Leaf
Fallen Leaves
J.T. Avery Photography 