Bacon Lettuce Photo

by Joe

If I tell you how this shot evolved, you will probably laugh at me. It goes something like this: as I walking my son to school, I noticed this stick in a neighbor’s yard. I immediately thought, “Hmm. I could use that stick.” I decided to pick it up on the way back home. After I dropped the boy at school, I decided to see if I could find anything in the charity shops that would go with …. a stick. This dress was hanging there, in my size, and cheap enough to buy with the change I’d grabbed on my way out the door. So. We have a stick and we have a dress and we have…absolutely nothing else. I let my mind wander on the bus back home and as so often happens, inspiration struck out of nowhere.

I was going for a civilized wildness with this shot. It took about 15 takes to get the look I was attempting to capture - the kind of look you might see on the face of a woman who has integrated herself into polite society but remains shrouded in a cloak of the wild wood that spawned her.

I shoot in natural light exclusively - in this case, it was the window the my left. My settings were f/2.8 and ISO200 with a Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens. I work with textures a lot, and there are several overlayed here to give the wall behind me some texture, and add to the overall organic feel of the image. This would be an easy PP technique to replicate as it only includes a basic sharpening, color balance, texture overlay, and vignette.

What caught my eye with this shot is the “dark” feel of it. The vignetting and texture overlay give it that grunge feel while the model has this eerie look about her.

Cassie has a great imagination with her work. Make sure to look at some of her other photos.
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by Joe

It was a dark and stormy day in rural Pennsylvania… hazy in more ways than one as we returned from the Roy Pitz Brewing Company in Chambersburg. My girlfriend and I have both been shooting digital for a few years now and whenever we travel it ends up taking twice as long because we shoot everything (30,000 photos in the last 18 months).

Cut to the chase: Over the hills in the distance we caught sight of clouds rushing down the side of a mountain.

Me: “Get off at the next exit!”
Girlfriend: “Are you sure? You don’t even know where we are?”
Me: “Just get off and go north.”

After a series of U turns and backtracking we end up coming over the crest of this hill and knew I was in the right spot.

Truth be told, I’m not 100% happy with the outcome of this shot, but I love the mood and the texture. Its an HDR (5 exposures - blended with photomatix) shot with a sigma 10-20. I love shooting from the hip or setting the camera down with this lens.

Note: Its important to have a spotter when laying down in the road

Thanks Marty, this is a great example of an HDR. Very well done with nice perspective, angle, and point of view.

The best program for creating HDR’s is photomatix. It is payware but definitely worth it.

by Joe

I am a fairly new photographer and just bought my first SLR camera right before our trip. This photo was taken in Prince Edward Island (PEI).

Technical aspects:
Canon Rebel Xsi
Sigma lens 18-200mm f3.5-6.3

Aperture: f/10.0
Shutter: 1/250
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 59mm

I saw this Lighthouse while on our drive out to Cavendish Beach on PEI. We actually came across this because we took a wrong turn somewhere. You always find the best things when it’s unexpected. This was just a quick snap from the car and it turned out to be one of my favorites from the entire trip! If you ever plan a trip out to Canada to visit the Maritimes, PEI is definitely worth it!!

Thanks for sharing Kim. People often ask me for good photo advice and one of the things I tell them is to ALWAYS carry a camera on them. I can’t tell you the number of photos I have that happened on accident or were unexpected. I carry a camera with me all the time. In fact, as I write this blog post I have my Nikon EM sitting right next to me. Always be prepared to take a photo.

by Joe

I feel kinda cheap making myself “Today’s Bacon” but I thought this was a special case.

The night sky on the Big Island of Hawaii is something to see, especially at Mauna Kea. Some of the clearest darkest sky is up there. I took the opportunity to shoot the night sky. You can try and replicate these photos as well.

Camera I used was a Nikon D80
My exposure was set for 30 seconds.
Aperture at f/4.5.
The lens I used was a 10-20mm Sigma lens and the focal length was 12mm.
My ISO was set for 3200 which is ridiculously high but needed to gather what little light was out there.