Week three and I continue my photography momentum.  This week’s theme is “Quiet Moment.”  I tried to portray quiet moments with water, coffee, and birds, and books, with varying degrees of success.  It was a fun week though, and I am ultimately pretty happy with a few photos.

All photos this week still on Kodak Portra 400 metered at ISO 320. 

f22 1/4

This sunset ended up being pretty good.  The purple of the sky and water and yellow of the sun are pleasing.
I also like the details of the trees on the sky.
Not super happy about the foreground reeds.
And photo feels like it is just slightly askew.

f22 1/2
The extra 1/4 of a second helped smooth the water out a bit

Thought it feels like this photo is even more of a tilt than the last on
The beaver eaten tree in the foreground is much more interesting than previous photo.
And it is nice that the reeds in the foreground do not compete with the reflection of the trees.
This photo would probably look pretty good edited, maybe like this:

Edited in Lightroom.

f11 1/60th
Can you spot the duck?
This photo, would not look good edited in lightroom
It feels  a little top heavy,
not much interesting is going on
Its all just green.
Though the lack of exciting things here really helps me find the quiet/relaxing theme.

F22 1/15

Exposure on this was a bit too long
The bamboo/willow looking plant at the top is a bit blown out
Also a bit top heavy
Would feel better maybe if this one included 2/3 plant 1/3 water instead of 1/2 and 1/2
To be fair, a duck tricked me into taking this photo,
But when I went to get the shot it swam away.

f2.8 1/60

This photo turned out pretty okay.
The subject is crisp and in focus
Framed nicely by adults
I like the rim lighting on the hair/heads.
Its ok that window is blown out, nothing interesting out there anyway.
A nice quiet family moment.

f4 1/30

Another nice quiet moment
Would be improved if the notebook she is writing in was against a solid background
I like the placement of the subject
There is interesting things happening in each corner
And the books make for a nice backdrop.
Would have likely been better at f2.8 so the background was a bit more blurred
And at 1/60th of a second so the pen was crisp.
Not a terrible photo.

f11 1/60

This is the best photo of the roll.
It is also exactly what I had in mind when I went downtown to get a quiet moment shot
I walked around this city of books 3 times before I saw someone sitting next to the window.
However; it was luck that this couple walked by.
Also serendipity that the books behind the reader transform into the building in the reflection.
And if you look really close over the walking man’s shoulder there is a yelling head.  I don’t know if that is real or a billboard or a book.
Overall B++

f5.6 1/60
Perhaps my second favorite photo.
Light coming from the window next to jenny is so nice
As are the greens and red in the corners of the photo.
The deepness of the black of her jacket is perfect contrast for the white of the mug.
And her hands make me laugh
I told her to drink like that though, so it is my fault.
I should have told her to tilt the handle so it goes straight up like a dorsal fin.
You live and you learn.

f8 1/125
Bird photos.
Sure bird watching lends itself to quite a few quiet moments in my life, but…
Man, bird photos are hard enough with a digital camera and a zoom lens, taking thousands of photos…
What was I thinking?
This goose is the best of the bunch
And it isn’t that good…
Although the thing that sets this goose apart from my other photos is that it is in focus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

f8 1/250
These photos are not good.
Not interesting landscapes.
Not good bird photos.
These were both taken while I was laying on my stomach
Leaning head over the water with my camera inches from the water.
This weird pose made for shaky/rushed type of photos,
Meh…

f5.6 1/250

This could have been the best goose photo.
But instead it is a photo of gravel that has a goose hogging all of the attention.
I tried a film loading experiment
I didn’t actually think this photo was going to turn out.
I thought it was going to be blank.
So I was rushing this one as well.
Too bad, lighting is good, pose is good, eye catch-light is good.
It just lacks “critical focus.”

Ultimately, I got a few photos that I like a lot, and I always learn something new.  I now know how to load the film, so I should remove some problems.  I know that I need to slow down, make sure I have focus, and make sure I am close enough to my subjects to get an interesting photo.

I also learned that 1/60 of a second is pretty good for photos of humans and 1/30 for someone moving is a bit too slow.

Next week is another week where I get to pick my theme, so look forward to 12 more photos coming soon!