Photo: Eyes on You

Eyes on You

Amour is watching you. Or she is being watched. Either way, she’s not afraid . . . my caption-writing abilities are going down fast.

This is outside of the photography school at Daytona State College. They have these cool blue-tinted windows… you can see my reflection vaguely in the window on the left.

I just told Amour to do something interesting and I got this. Good job girl.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1000, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-11-02T10:10:38-05, 20091102-151038rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: With Nature

With Nature

The 3rd of 9 portraits of Amour. She’s stopping to smell the roses… or petunias, or whatever these blue flowers are.

The flowers and mulch was planted there, the flower in her hair is fake, and she’s wearing a dress and makeup, but I still say she’s with nature. :wink:

For editing I removed some freckles from Amour’s arm (spot healing brush), darkened the corners, added contrast, brightened her face, and toned down the greens a bit.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/1600, F2.8, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-11-02T09:58:38-05, 20091102-145838rxt

Location: Daytona State College, 1200 W. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL  32114

Photo: House Flowers

House Flowers

I was thinking of adding a big picture of Hugh Laurie in the background… but it’s not that House. Just blue flowers with a house in the background. :smile: I think the house is for sale.

This is a weird angle. I’m not sure if it works well, but it seems different. The sky was dark as though it was going to rain. I made the colors warmer on the computer. If they’re too blue the scene feels cold. The focus is on the flowers at the back, so the ones at the bottom are blurry.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F4.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-10-16T17:07:31-04, 20091016-210731rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Focus

Focus

Small blue flowers, sharply focused through a fence. The Canon EF 50mm F1.4 lens has good focus… you just have to close the aperture up a bit. I used F3.2. It’s hard to see if the image is sharp in the viewfinder. I zoom in afterward on the LCD screen and see if the subject looks sharp. The flowers weren’t extremely sharp because digital SLRs don’t sharpen much, but I sharpened this on the computer.

These flowers are behind a chain-link fence by someone’s sidewalk. If you just walk around with a camera you’ll find photo opportunities like this. There is no reason to spend thousands of dollars traveling if you’re just going to photograph nature and still life. You have plenty of still life around you.

I could have got down on the ground instead of shooting the flowers from above, but the house was painted bright white. I did not want it in the frame… just other flowers, bushes, and grass.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/125, F3.2, 50mm, ISO100, 2009-10-16T16:42:25-04, 20091016-204225rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Peaceful Neighborhood

Peaceful Neighborhood

I shot this on an evening walk in my neighborhood. The sunset and white car paired well in my eyes.

I brightened the car and darkened the sunset in Photoshop for balance. The car was much darker than the sunset, but I was able to bring the colors out since I always shoot RAW. The files are 10MB each, which is a lot bigger than JPEGs, but it’s worth it for creative flexibility.

This was my first outing with the XTi kit lens in a long time. Because it’s EF-S and goes down to 18mm, it has a much wider field of view than my EF 28-135mm lens, which I enjoyed.

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/60, F3.5, 18mm, ISO100, 2009-10-10T18:31:03-04, 20091010-223103rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Billowing Clouds

Billowing Clouds

Puffy clouds over a road around noon-time. I just took this through the windshield while my Dad was driving, which reduces contrast. In Photoshop I punched up the contrast while making sure not to white out the clouds.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/640, F6.3, 38mm, ISO100, 2009-10-10T16:04:22-04, 20091010-200422rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Colorful Widgets

Colorful Widgets

A product at Wal-Mart. I think these were post-it notes on a roll but I don’t remember. I just liked the colors. They were near the frozen foods.

Any product you don’t know the name of is a “widget.”

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/100, F3.2, 50mm, ISO200, 2009-03-01T12:47:23-05, 20090301-174723rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Battle for the Sun

Battle for the Sun

Pink Flowers at Lowe’s, against a blue sky with contrails out-of-focus, sun shining down.

I debated the title for a few minutes and went with it even though the flowers don’t appear to be battling for the sun; they all have plenty of light. They’re quite tall though, which is a trait of plants in crowded areas. When a tree is surrounded by other trees, it will grow straight up to get sunlight, but a tree alone will branch out because it has plenty of light. Plants are semi-intelligent.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/500, F5.6, 135mm, ISO100, 2009-03-02T14:26:54-05, 20090302-192654rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Flaming Hibiscus

Flaming Hibiscus

A red Hibiscus against the sun. This is an awfully gay flower so I’ve dubbed it “flaming.”

I had to remove so many dust spots from the sky. They don’t show up normally, but with a clean blue sky at 127mm and F14, they were quite prominent. They must be in the middle of my lens or on the sensor. Photoshop’s spot healing brush came in handy.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/320, F14, 127mm, ISO400, 2009-08-17T14:53:53-04, 20090817-185353rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.

Photo: Deadlands

Deadlands

The swamps of Ormond Beach! Took this on my 18th birthday out the car window. There is water and a lot of dead grass.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/3200, F3.5, 28mm, ISO200, 2009-08-17T14:36:04-04, 20090817-183604rxt

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Please credit me as “Photo by Richard Thripp” or something similar.