First Day at the Forest Preserve

[PuckJunkey]

As predicted the weather turned nice this morning, so I headed over to a forest preserve that I really like around 10:00am. The light was pretty decent... billowy clouds and sun, so it was a good shoot and good exercise (walked about 3.5 miles). Only problem was my battery crapped out on me when it was still reading 1/3 full...live and learn. Possibly a firmware thing though.

Even so, what a thrill to be able to look at a mediocre composition or exposure and just delete it in real time, freeing up space for more shots. I'm going to love this. I still haven't done any golden hour type shooting and these are all hand-held, so I cannot fairly compare anything I've done yet to say Fuji Provia or Velvia, but so far so good.

These shots are pretty representative of the kinds of compositions I find when I'm out shooting, even though I did not have a tripod to work with this time around. So, what do you think?

[Lava Lamp]

Compositionally, I think these are good shots. As you sort of allude to, I think they need a little more saturation.

[gahspidy]

I think these are all good compositions with my favorite being the second from the top. I also like the pic of the water flowing as it has a nice soft flowing feel due to the somewhat slow shutter speed used. Also the lighting on it is good. The image on the bottom or the last one, I think has too much green without much variance in shades of or tones.Somehow the image looks a bit flat and might benefit from some increase in contrast and saturation. The sky is also not very effective and looks like it could have been made much more powerful with a polarizer. The road leading down to the blue water does give the image some appeal for me thanks to good comp and framing .Keep em coming . . .

[Young Shooter]

i like the fist picture and the last one, see these pictures are missing somting, i dont know what it is but i did work on the last one to see what u would say i think it gives more character, sorry for my spelling

[PuckJunkey]

Greetings on this fine Sunday afternoon. Thanks to all for your comments. I am anxious to learn all I can from you guys; lot of talent and good ideas on this board. What's more, it's been a long time since I've had anyone look at my work with a truly critical eye. I could stand to revisit some of my techniques I'm sure, so always feel free to say whatever is on your mind....

Now onto the shots: I agree the saturation /overall tonality is a little flat, particularly on the lake shot as I look at it again. The Dandelion I didn't mind being sort of monochromatic or subdued, as that was what caught my eye, amongst all the Spring green. I was trying to decide if I like the Floweing Tree shot because some of the little petals are soft / pretty much beyond the realm of USM (short of making them look unnatural). Do you guys think the focus points work? Also what about the tree trunk... I had a nearly identical version only without the trunk / more zoomed in? Yea? Nea?

Anyway, as my favorite instructor used to say, "everything follows the light"... outdoors, there's just no substitute for early morning or late afternoon glow (or certain combinations of sun and cloud). Guess I'm going to have to get my lazy hide out of bed on those mornings when I don't have any studio work to do.



Young Shooter, that's interesting that you saw a B&W when looking at the lake shot. I think you may be right. That's one thing I haven't done yet (converting the images to B&W). In point of fact, the Dandelion might work in that regard too. Thanks for the idea.

PS - I was just razzing you a bit about the spelling the other day; hope you didn't take offense. You'll have to pardon me as I have a journalism background (who else would notice something like that?). Anyway, this is a photography forum and not a grammar class so have no fear. I just like to razz people sometimes.

Not too long ago I had "CanuckleHead" in my signature, which I am pretty sure is not a real word, either. That's a person who follows the Vancouver Canucks, btw. Maybe I should try and trademark it.

[Young Shooter]

thanks alot puck yeah its cool u correct me im kinda ld anywayz yeah im trying to get into b/w alot i shot a whole roll of flowers in b/w and im going to get them printed now, it dose look better in b/w but i guess they way he scanned it or w.e it looks pixely towards the top but im not worried about that it was already like that cause the way the original was processed alright guys im off to do dirty work, laterz