Elfin Forest!

botanycolor

morebotany

even morebottany

botany

linda

plants

bottles

ND filter would be helpful

should do some more water

had to put a ring on it

nice water

This is my Elfin forest that we did a couple of mondays ago. Some are in black and white and some are in color. I had a lot of fun on this photoshoot and I decided to use my B&W skills and the main skill was to photograph water and try to get it in a special way. I should reshoot this again in the near future but we also had a lesson on native plants. I need to bring a snack as these field trips can make me hungry. I had a good time overall and got to meet some good people and I did get a bit wet in my feet but did not successfully cross the water. I guess it was for the better as I have bad balance and did not want to destroy my old DSLR. Other than that I had a blast.

Lake Hodges Shoot

I went out hiking and decided to go to Lake Hodges. I believe this part I have not really seen before, though I did not go to the bridge which I have not been to yet. I hope to go to there again and get the bridge. The shoot went well, but I should have gotten a tripod, but I took these photos yesterday, and the weather was gorgeous but rather warm. It did take a bit out of me, but I was fine doing that. Though this is what I have now and I think I am ready for Elfin Forest. A lot of the photos are in Black and White as I seem to enjoy editing in B&W rather than in color as Color is a great look, but sometimes I feel like the landscape is better in B&W. I also tried to experiment laying down but that did not turn out too well, I guess I can reshoot that somewhere else. I think the look I was going for in B&W was Ansel Adams, but I think I did a good job. I should have stayed longer and gotten the Magic Hour, but I already got that, so I think I am set. I think I learned that sometimes it is good to hike around and survey for a good photograph and to experiment with new trails. I also went there as it is relatively close to my house as well. In the end I had a good photoshoot.

lake hodges 1

mountain

ditch

waterfowl

Horgan_12MAR17_LakeHodges_014

landscape

water landscape

not sure if I should have taken this photo

tree

My sad attempt at MOPA

I did not realize that Mopa was not open on the 13th, however I did get some good shots of Balboa park. I plan to go back tomorrow and take some more photos of this wonderful place and get a sweet selfie for this blog as well as my Social media platforms. 😛 I am had a lot of fun regardless, and still made it early for class and I really want to thank Deborah Small for offering this, but I need to not screw up and go when it is closed. Despite this, I googled the exhibition and found that my inspiration for this shoot is John Gossange as his black and white landscapes serve as in inspiration for all but one that I also kept in Color. I feel that Landscapes are an interesting form of photography as you can just be one with the camera and whatever you are shooting

. I find Black and white landscaping to be rather fascinating. Some of the photos that I saw on Google from him are all in Black and white, so I felt that editing in B&W is a tribue or a nod to him. Despite this, I should have photographed MOPA and gotten a Selfie of that, but tomorrow is another day. I hope to get a Part 2 of this blog post with my actual reactions and perhaps a Reshoot of the photos with my favorite artist from that exhibit. In the end, I enjoyed doing this assignment. Sorry, for not having anything from the get go.

In Class Library Shoot

Today, I took some photos for my advanced Photography Class at California State University San Marcos. I used a 50D and a loaner camera (T2i) to take some great shots in both Black and White and Color. I used Adobe Lightroom 2015.8 to edit my photos, and I really seem to like the program. I took the actual photos in the Library at California State University San Marcos. This was due to the weather which forced us to not go on a fieldtrip. While my cameras were grainy, I had a blast photographing the library. The library has areas that allow for very high production value, as the stairs can really get a lot of nice lighting. While I would like to see better weather, the photoshoot was mainly as success. I wished my card reader was not acting up as it corrupted some images, but I still had enough images, to do a proper photoshoot. The photo below is of a class mate Han as she would like to be called. I cropped the image, as I did not want everything in that image, and felt it would be better to just simply crop it. I do think that the photo shoot had some other faults that I should have probably gotten another shot of the rain as it would make it rather nice to see. The photos you see are my favorite photos that I have taken in the class. My favorite so far is the Black and white of the Light flashing from the Metal shade. I like this photo, because it can really  transform from a really nice photo, to something that is rather extraordinary, or even rather creepy or dark as you think I had shot that at night or something like that.

Class is going good so far, I really like Deborah Small as a professor and her mindset is a little different than Nancy, but I love the fact that this class allows for a lot of freedom as you can do whatever you want. I think that the Cal State library is an awesome place to photograph images, and I would love to shoot some more. In the end, I enjoyed this photoshoot.

My Adventures in Downtown SD

My Adventures in Downtown San Diego by Michael Horgan | Make Your Own Book

 

Here is my book, and I had a lot of fun making it. I am still new at making nice books, but I hope to use Blurb more in the future to make even better books. Making this book was a lot of fun, as I could take some photos and turn them into black and white to make them even more powerful and add some basic text. I try to describe each photo with a basic description and I think I did a great job. I found the Blurb interface in Id (Indesign CC 2017) to be very easy and I am glad that they supported the 2017 version (latest version) on my laptop so I did not have to worry about compatibility. I do eventually want to publish even more books and maybe use even better paper. I really ought to thank Nancy my professor for letting me be creative and making this wonderful book, as without her, I could not have made it.

What I liked about it is the ease of making a book, and that I have used Id before so it is not an issue for me. Blurb has so many options in regards to size and even paper, but I chose the cheapest option so I could save some money, but next time I want to use even better paper and push myself some more.

I did not have any real dislikes in this project, other than getting all the photos in design to work right, but I got around it. Some of my photos could have been taken better, but I should have probably spent more time and not forgotten my memory card the first time I started to make my project.

I got out a lot of this project in making this book. I got to learn more about blurb and how to make books. I feel satisfied and confident that I can make books going forward to maybe even make money and possibly sell them on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Perhaps, I have found my niche (though that is for me to find out and debate about it). In the end I had fun in this book.

Photobooth

Today, I went and did a traveling photobooth around the waterfront park. This photobooth does have a video (that will be uploaded tomorrow), but I got to meet some nice people and had a good time, despite my setbacks. I had to move the photobooth from one location to another within the park as the backdrop was probably not a good idea in the wind. I think a simpler design against the wall in the later photos was probably a better idea. I really don’t know these people, but they seemed to enjoy having their pictures taken and even got them some water, as to reward them to their time. One of the people gave me idea in the first round to switch sides for better lighting, and that seemed like a good idea. Though the photos did clean up rather well. I used a rental lens this time, from a camera store and it seems to work very well for this assignment. I love the Tamron 24-70 IS 2.8 as that lens works out well. I probably should re do this, but I think I have some contenders in the wall for 16×20 portraits. I did some in Black and White and Color, as I think it makes it more unique. I used a variable ISO, despite the lens having a low ISO. This lens would probably go well in low light situations.

I did have to ask people as I forgot to bring my sign (grr). Despite that, I still was able to get the photos I wanted to get. I probably should have gotten more people, but it was getting late. Other than that, I had a blast. I hope I don’t get docked too much on some of the things I said in the post.

I can’t really say I have a favorite photo, but the Dog was really nice and the little girl has a great rembrandt style lighting, though it does have a bit of natural light. Everything was lit naturally. I think next time I will do it indoors. I hope you all enjoy it.