Fuji X-T1, XF18-55mm @ 55mm, f/4.0, 1/1200 sec, ISO 400
I could not let this iconic sculpture in downtown Philly pass by. It was Red, so I shot it of course. To further highlight the red, I converted to B&W with NIK Silver Efex Pro and used selective color.
I am posting this today for my wonderful wife on her birthday!
Fuji XT-1, XF60mm F2.4R Macro @ 60mm, f/4.0, 1/210 sec, ISO 400
We have had a downpour of rain for the past two days. One good thing about rain is raindrops. So, this mornings shoot focus was to try to capture them. The day was cloudy so I could not capture the sunlight starbursts or the bokeh. It was still a nice morning walk and shoot in the garden. It was a gift.
Fuji X-T1, XF55-200mm @ 50.5mm, f/11, 1/340 sec, ISO 200
The pink of the Red Bud always attracts me. I used the emerging buds to frame our white garden shed. I used NIK software to add additional blur and defocus the foreground while leaving the shed “as shot”. Typically I focus on the details of individual flowers or plants. This and my post from yesterday, I focused on using spring color as a foreground or background to frame and bring focus to another object.
Fuji X-T1, XF55-200mm @ 55mm, f/5.0, 1/400 sec, ISO 200
This post will start a series on Spring as it comes into our garden. This image is a composite of two images. The first is a straight image of the garden bench against a red Weigela. I then overlaid a C-blur of the Weigela on top and adjusted the opacity to my taste. I can never pass by an opportunity to capture red!
Spring has come slow to SE Pennsylvania this year. The plants and trees are now rushing into bloom before we can catch up cleaning the yard. Each new day is a gift that we very much appreciate. So here’s to 27 April 2014 … it is a beautiful day!
Canon 5D Mark III, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, ISO 400
In our back yard field of white, the red of the coral bark maple stands against the bleakness of a cloudy winter day. I walked around the tree multiple times trying to get the right balance for the image. I found this foreground “Y” (or “V”) framing two other “Ys” I added a touch of graduated fog in NIK Color EFEX Pro to focus on the foreground “Y”.
This image is based on a couple of lessons I have received in the past. The first one is from Tony Sweet: “When you see a cool background, find something to put in front of it”. The second lesson is from John Barclay: “When you see red … shoot”. Walking along a trail in the woods a patch of red leaves caught my eye. By themselves, they were not very interesting, but their combined color made me look twice. I walked around and saw this scrawny branch with green leaves hanging down. Again, by itself it was just ho-hum. But when I lined up the bright green against the red background, the image “popped” in my mind.
Tony would have further critiqued this image and suggest that the green leaf in the top right corner should be removed. He would also have commented that the small white dot in the top third of the red background be cloned out. Tony is a sticker on details. So here is the corrected file:
It does make a difference!
From John Barclay, “When you see RED … Shoot!” Yesterday evening I walked out our front door and saw this Salvia “on fire” from the early evening sun. I ran inside to get my camera and try to capture the brilliance of the light. I walked around the Salvia to find a suitable background to set the red against. I stood on my tip toes to see if I could get it against some dark green foliage. I got down on my back to see if I could set off the red against a cloudless blue sky. I finally rolled on by belly and look up against the house and this is what I came up with. I spent about 20 minutes trying to beat the setting sun to find this one image.
Lessons employed/learned:
1. When you see red > shoot
2. Find a good background, then put something in front of it.
3. Explore all angles.
4. Wait for the image to come to me, sometimes it doesn’t.