Tag Archives: canon rebel xti


Photo: The Abandoned Baseball

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The Abandoned Baseball — the game is over, and the ball forgotten

The game is over, and the ball, forgotten. I found this on the ground outside the baseball field at the park. I moved it to where the grass was more brown (no one waters it), laid in the dirt, and shot this. I used a really large aperture — F1.6, so just the front of the baseball would be in focus, but nothing else, so the subject would seem singled out. I couldn’t even go down to F1.4, because I was maxing out with a 1/4000 second shutter speed.

Fun editing here. I cloned out the sky in the back, added contrast, and darkened a lot, for a (you guessed it) dark look. Before doing this, I used highlight recovery in Adobe Camera RAW, and burned in the highlight on the ball. It was a bit over-exposed, but only a little detail is lost.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/4000, F1.6, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-06-05T16:08:38-04, 20080605-200838rxt

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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: The Speedy Train

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The Speedy Train — a clear train in a blurry world

I was waiting for this quick-moving train to pass, so I took a picture of it, moving the camera with the this car as I exposed the image. It took me 30 tries, but I got this good one. To get a slow shutter speed, I closed way down to F22. Panning is a good technique; you should try it!

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/13, F22, 18mm, ISO100, 2008-05-13T17:08:44-04, 20080513-210844rxt

Source image. I think there’s some dust on my sensor, but I’m not going to try removing it because it only shows up at small apertures like F22 here. I cloned it out and added some nice colors and contrast. The sky is over-exposed, but I don’t mind it here; seems to match the movement of the train somehow. :sunglasses:

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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: Reach for the Dream

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Reach for the Dream — the red ornament

I found this red ornament on the ground while walking with my camera, and was inspired to set it on a nearby tree branch and reach my hand out as a reflection. The ornament represents your dreams, and the hand represents your continued pursuit of them. Don’t give up!

For this, I brightened the ornament while darkening my fingers, added contrast, a blurry glow effect, and stripped the background down to black and white (selective color).

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/80, F5.6, 55mm, ISO400, 2008-05-12T19:06:17-04, 20080512-230617rxt

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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: The Brave Rose

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The Brave Rose — a pink rose trapped by a chain-link fence

This is a brave rose, because she’s trapped behind a chain-link fence. I went out for a walk with my camera this morning and spotted this; the rose was right near the fence, so I moved it to be peeking through one of the diamonds. The background was a house and the rest of the fence, but I opened up to F2.5 to blur it almost completely, keeping your focus on the flower.

By only leaving color in the red channel, everything else went black and white. I used subtle coloring on the rose, a glow effect, and added plenty of contrast. To balance the frame and draw the eye toward the center, I darkened everything else with the burn tool, especially toward the edges. This is a good example of how editing can produce a mood, the mood here being one of sadness and reflection, not only from the rose being behind the fence, but from the dark feel I added, and by alienating the subject from its surroundings with selective coloring.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/100, F2.5, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-05-17T06:47:05-04, 20080517-104705rxt

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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: Sunrays 3

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Sunrays 3 — orange rays of sunshine pierce black clouds

Orange sunrays emerge from the black clouds. This is from the car like the second; we passed an open field where I had the chance to snap this. I like how the beams are shining down instead of up like you see normally, and the patterns of light and dark in the clouds and between the sunshine were quite a sight.

Added a lot of contrast here, and brightened the sunrays quite a bit, while darkening the spaces in between, to make them more compelling. I wanted the surrounding clouds and land to be black, but I was careful not to over-expose the bright clouds, so they still have detail. This is the kind of editing I enjoy; I’m glad there were no poles and trees to remove like in Pink and Purple Sunset 3. The ones in the bottom-right get to stay because I like them and they’re small.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/1000, F5.6, 55mm, ISO100, 2007-10-30T17:21:20-04, 2007-10-30_21h21m20

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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.

More of the Sunrays series.

Photo: Leafy Sunset 6

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Leafy Sunset 6 — silhouetted leaves and an orange evening sky

A stately orange sunset in my yard is the backdrop for silhouetted leaves of an American sycamore tree. Some of the leaves have been chewed by bugs; as you can see on the left. This only adds to the beauty, of course. :cool: There are even some raindrops on the leaves, left over from the storms earlier that day. I didn’t notice those till way after the shoot. This is the best of the Leafy Sunset series, trailing fifteen months after the fifth entry.

Initially, I underexposed to keep the sunset’s highlights from being clipped in the red channel, knowing that the leaves would be pure black anyway. I finished this up in editing, by bringing up the colors without any clipping, and I made a shift from red to burnt orange, which I find more appealing. The edited colors also print more faithfully.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/40, F3.5, 18mm, ISO200, 2007-08-31T19:52:43-04, 2007-08-31_23h52m43

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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.

More of the Leafy Sunset series.

Photo: Fly Away

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Fly Away — an escaping balloon against an inviting sky

A helium balloon, escaping into the great blue beyond, in black and white. I got this balloon for my sixteenth birthday (2007-08-17), and by nine days later, it still was trying to get away, so I set it free and photographed it. I’ve given out print copies, but this is the first online publication. I hope you enjoy it.

I switched to black and white, cropped out tree branches that snuck into the frame, and made the sky and balloon almost black with the curves function.

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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/100, F16, 18mm, ISO100, 2007-08-26T14:52:54-04, 2007-08-26_18h52m54

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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: The Eerie Sunset

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The Eerie Sunset — a cold evening sky

When the sun goes down, the monsters come out… This is a creepy looking sunset I saw out front of my house. I helped add to the creepiness with a cool white balance setting and boosting the blue color channel in Photoshop. The grain is there to add character.

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/50, F3.5, 18mm, ISO800, 2007-08-26T19:53:31-04, 2007-08-26_23h53m31

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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: The Beautiful Country

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The Beautiful Country — a cloudy blue sky over a waterfront town

A town near the sea, with a blue sky overhead, filled with clouds and chemical trails. This is at one of the most beautiful locales in Florida; Oak Hill (scroll down), where the white pelicans congregate. This shot is from the peer overlooking Goodrich’s Seafood Restaurant, which you can see at the bottom-left.

After adding contrast, gradating the sky, and darkening the corners, this became The Beautiful Country.
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Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/400, F8, 18mm, ISO100, 2008-03-05T13:41:17-05, 20080305-184117rxt

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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: The Night of Eternal and Unrelenting Darkness

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darkness eternal, insurmountable and unchallenged

Every once in a great while, I create a photograph that is so provocative, so controversial in its unorthodox message, that it sends waves of shock around the world. THE NIGHT OF ETERNAL AND UNRELENTING DARKNESS does just that. I woke up at 2 A.M. with this post-modern vision, immediately going to work on the complex issues of subject matter, composition, and lighting before my dream was forever lost. It is only through my hours of toiling that this ground-breaking achievement can be the domain of all humanity. This is the bifurcation point where new splits from old, from which a whole wave of art can emerge, disrupting our predilections and engaging our senses in new and unstable ways. Can the darkness inspire you? Of course it can. The question is, are you willing to let go of what you’ve learned, to accept that which you now believe you cannot accept? If you cannot, you are the same as the lowly rat, who goes through thousands of generations, never challenging, never innovating, never evolving, never thinking. My highest hope is that you can accept and befriend the darkness, for it represents the darkness of life. The darkness which we cannot escape, the darkness which is always there no matter how we struggle to drown it in light. The darkness which represents what we do not know yet attempt to explain—the darkness which we cannot understand and yet fight so bravely to understand. To know, we must know we cannot know. To understand, we must understand we cannot understand. These are the essential principles of this photograph, THE NIGHT OF ETERNAL AND UNRELENTING DARKNESS, and I know I can pass them on to you.

I had to put all my editing skills to use here, but the end result is so worth the days of torment.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/4000, F22, 50mm, ISO100, 2008-05-05T02:55:41-04, 20080505-065541rxt

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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.