Laugh it Off

Shit happens, right? And you simply can't do anything about it; you just gotta laugh about it and move on. This post is going to be my last for awhile, got that whole finals thing to worry about...

So this week is going to be a little unorthodox; a funny, carefree post, to remind you to enjoy the little things in life. Also, sorry not sorry to all my friends I may have slightly embarrassed with these pictures.

I am not teaching any lessons in this post, or saying that these images have any artistic value; I just feel that will all the sugar.honey.iced.tea going on in the world, we all just need a few things to laugh about.

Snap some candids! I swear, people have the best smile when they aren't aware there's a camera hiding in my hands... You're friend is surfing the internet? BAM, beautiful portrait with a nice soft lighting from the computer screen. Someone's cooking dinner? SNAP SNAP, you now have a nice, fun picture.

The funny pictures are always the ones most remembered, so don't be afraid to take an ugly picture. What else is your friend supposed to use as blackmail 20 years from now? There's a reason we don't take old-fashioned pictures like this anymore.

Hopefully you still found this post enjoyable, despite the lack of educational value...

Like I said before, I'm going to take a little hiatus with the blog; sorry! Keep checking back for more posts though. And if you have future post ideas or questions, please let me know in the comments!

Come On, Light my Fire

This week, I'm giving a shout-out to all my pyros. This week's post will deal with fire and fireworks, and the best ways to take pictures of them.

FIYAAAAHHHH. It's fun, it's exciting, it's hawt. So how do you take pictures of it? It's honestly not that hard. The hardest part is making sure you have a proper shutter speed. Just about all fire and firework pictures are taken at night, so it's hard to find the right shutter speed that doesn't make the subject (the fire) too bright and the background too dark, if you want it to show in the image.

So these three pictures are kinda cool, right? But they're just kinda okay; nothing too exciting, but not painful to look at. So how do you make them better? Hint hint, longer shutter speed...

So these look a little better, right? More colors, you're able to see more of the subject, and they're more visually appealing. But what if you want EVEN MORE??? I'd recommend using a tripod for exposures longer than 1/20 of a second, especially at night. 

These four pictures show what happens when you leave the shutter open for anything longer than 1/2 second. The longer the shutter is open, the more light that is let in, and you can also see movement with this. So that's how I got the paths of the fireworks to show up in these four images above. Don't be afraid; you will have bad pictures when still trying to find a shutter speed you're happy with. Just hopefully you figure it out before the fireworks end!

Now, I'll switch gears and show you some pictures of sparklers. They are small, can be close-by, and more consistent than fireworks, so it's easier to get the perfect picture with them.

The first picture is not in succession with the other four, but I still think it's pretty cool, so I included it. The last four show four stages of the life of a sparkler. The nice thing about these is that usually you have a box of them, so if you screw up your images on the first sparkler, you can simply learn from your mistakes and start over and light another! (You really can't ask people running a fireworks show to "start over"...)

So... Tips:

• This lesson was pretty simple, but MESS AROUND WITH THE SHUTTER SPEED
• This is why you use the "M" manual setting, NOT AUTO.
• Use a tripod if you're planning on taking long exposures at a fireworks show
• Bring a flashlight. As dumb as it sounds, you don't want to be fumbling with your settings on your camera in the dark.
• Don't get burnt.

Hope you enjoyed my post this week. Tell your family, your friends, that random guy at the grocery store about my blog. If you have any questions, comments, ideas for future posts, please post in the comments! It makes me do this when you comment!

Good luck and have fun shooting!

Flower Power

Greetings loyal fans! I'm going hippie-dippie this week and focusing my posts on flowers. One bouquet of flowers, though. That's right, just one. Taken from multiple different angles. They were a gift. Now that I took pictures of them, THEY CAN LAST FOREVER. MHUAHAHAHA (I apologize, my caffeine intake is higher than usual today...). Hope you think at least one of these pictures are pretty. If not, please tell me in the comments, so I can please you, oh fellow readers!

I am going to give you a little mini lesson before I subject you to several more pictures of flowers though. Probably should've told you in one of my first posts, but better late than never, right? It's called bracketing. For these three pictures, I changed the shutter speed so I could change the brightness/darkness, but still maintaining the blurred background. If I didn't want the background as blurred, I would've changed the f-stop. 

I like the middle one the best, but let me know which one is your favorite in the comments!

Now for shameless self-promotion of other flower pictures I took. Sorry not sorry.

If you're wondering how I got this cool lighting with the sun pouring in, I literally put the vase of flowers on the floor of my apartment in a patch of sunlight coming in through the window. Then I got on my stomach and pointed the camera up, having the sun come through the flowers in the background. Super easy, super fun. The more angles I tried, the better and more interesting the images came out. 

So I know what you're thinking. Damn, these are really good. Right? If you agree, let me know in the comments; I am desperate for feedback (and post ideas...)

Don't forget to stop and smell the roses every once in awhile! And after you do that, take pictures of the roses. Bam.