Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

I was putting my son to bed the other night when he pointed out that his lamp shade was tilted. He of course wanted to go fix it, but I asked if he could wait just a minute so I could snap a picture. Something about the off-kilter shade kind of struck me, especially since his toy giraffe was lying next to the lamp. It wasn’t until I was going through the pictures later on that I realized (duh) there were also two giraffes on the lamp shade itself. Kind of a cool bit of serendipity, really. I believe this was a 40-watt bulb, and pointing my D200 straight at it I was able to go down to ISO 200 which helped maintain a lot of the texture and detail in the plush giraffe, not to mention the wall.

In an effort to beautify our downtown, this statue and others like it were placed at some intersections a few years ago. I think it helped, and the sight of these still life pedestrians casually leaning on fences or sitting on benches helps lend a friendly and inviting atmosphere to the downtown aesthetic. I have often thought about getting a picture of one of them, but the light is never conducive to a good photo during the daytime. So one morning, as I often do in the warmer months, I brought my camera to work with me and stopped downtown briefly to snap a picture. Incidentally, one of the benefits of living in a small town is that this type of detour only adds about two minutes to the drive to work :)

It took a bit of experimenting to get the statue framed how I wanted it, and I had to shoot wide open at f/1.8 in order to get a quick enough shutter speed for a sharp handheld shot. I like to stick to ISO 200 or lower on my D200 if at all possible, which at this hour of the day, at f/1.8, resulted in a shutter speed of 1/160. That’s plenty fast enough for a sharp handheld shot like this, especially when the subject is standing still. I don’t know this guy’s name, but he seems like a chill dude who would be fun to hang with for a while. Or at least someone who enjoys a good sunrise.

I came across this elephant-looking thing while at the playground with my son, and it reminded me of something out of a Sandra Boynton Book. I don’t think this photo is anything special in and of itself, I just like that it looks vaguely anthropomorphic :)

This is actually the sequel to a photo I took a month ago, but since I was not especially pleased with the original I wanted to give it another shot (har!). Basically, I wanted to get a picture of this fountain along with the rainbow, but a lot of things had to come together in order for it to happen. It had to be a clear day, there couldn’t be a lot of people wandering around, I had to have my camera and tripod with me, etc. Since there’s only so much one can control when going out to shoot photos, sometimes it’s best to just work with what you’ve got and hope for the best. My goal here was to capture a sense of motion by leaving the shutter open for a little longer than on the first photo. To that end I think I succeeded, though as always, there are a few things I wish I could go back and change. But this type of self-reflection, if used carefully, can be one of the most valuable tools a photographer has. It’s important to walk the line between reflection and regret, though, and remember to use any successes or failures as opportunities to learn and grow, not as reasons to become complacent or to wallow wistfully longing for the photo that almost was.

That being said, it’s fitting that this post comes one year to the day after I started this weekly blog, and I appreciate all the feedback, both here and on other social mediums like Facebook and Google+.  I still don’t consider myself a photographer, but rather someone who just likes taking pictures.  It has been fun learning and growing, and perhaps one day I will get there, but in the meantime I hope to keep posting photos here one week at a time.

We don’t get snow all that often here in Oklahoma, so when the white flakes fall from the skies it’s kind of special. I took my camera with me to work hoping to find a decent photo opportunity, and a coworker and I went up to the top of one of the buildings on campus to try and get a better view of the situation. I happened to catch a photo of him when he was either thinking about how cold it was, or how to best pelt an unsuspecting pedestrian with a snowball from above.