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Photo 101 ~ My 10 Favourites from the Course

I had finished the Photo 101 Course with a daily post for more than 20 continuous days. In face of some obstacles like having no internet for nearly 16 hours, unstable internet in my area, the unfortunate incident of my dogs “biting incident” resulting with my two bitten fingers on my left hand and the heat wave in the country with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius, everything ended favourably. If there is a will, there is a way unless one kick the bucket.

Some facts I discovered and learned from the bloggers/photographers are :-

1. The thinking and subsequent action on the given theme is not always the same with the participating bloggers. True, as every human being is different from each other, thus we are see an array of different photographs uploaded on their individual blog. Different thinking on the theme so we have different photographs.

2. Every blogger is usually a loving, caring, kind, compassionate person with the place of residence that is generally peaceful and beautiful in nature. I had seen so many beautiful places, buildings, landscapes, animals, birds, sea creatures, flowers and other interesting things which in my life-time I shall have no time or opportunity to travel and see due to my matured age. Thank you for all these lovely and informative photographs that are shared on these blogs.

3. I was just wondering why the current troubled world cannot emulate the blogosphere we have here – peaceful, loving, friendly, diverse, harmonious and caring community of people from different countries, ideology, religions and culture. War, human conflicts, terror, global warming and climate threats shall result in more problems and troubles for us on this only home we have – Earth.

I end here and crawl back into my tiny space of peace and harmony with my pets. Bye, my fellow bloggers, photographers, viewers, friends, and the people of this planet.

SP Lim

Photo 101 ~ Day Eighteen – Edge & Alignment

The Kek Lok Si Temple at dusk or evening half-light before the sunset.

Photo 101 ~ Photo 101 ~ Day Seventeen: Glass, Squared – The Looking Glass of Beauty 2

A Hill View of the City of George Town, Penang at sunrise

This is another colour version of a Thai Wat or Buddhist Temple in Vietnam near Ho Chi Minh City.

The Floating Kuan Yin Temple of Hean Boo Thean at night.

The sun rose slowly over Penang Bridge

The Sunrise while we were on the way for a photographic outing in Kedah and Perlis.

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Hooray! You made it.
(Virtual) high-fives all around! Congratulations on finishing Photography 101 — we’re so happy you joined us for this photo-a-day journey this month, and hope that the daily themes and tips inspired you.

A quiet moment among feluccas on the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt.

Feel free to sit back and take it easy this weekend. But if you’re itching for a bit more, consider these projects as we wrap up the course:

Browse your collection of shots from the course, select up to ten favorites, and publish a wrap-up post with a gallery.
Look through your shots to see which themes and tips you enjoyed the most. Did you take a lot of establishing shots? Close ups? Abstract images? Great color shots? Compile your favorites in a post.
Pick one element we covered during the course, then head out with your camera to practice: composition, light, movement, color, or something else of your choosing.
Revisit the themes. Are there any themes you’d like to try again? What would you do differently? What have you learned?
Want to explore photography topics in more depth? Browse the “Craft of Photography” topic on The Daily Post. You can also download our Photography 101 e-book, which compiles resources and tutorials from various photographers on WordPress.com.

The Commons will remain open for posting and commenting for one more week, so you can catch up on anything you’ve missed.

Thank you for joining us this month!

Cheers,
Josh and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101
Day Twenty: Triumph & Contrast

“The Triumphant Return to Life.”

After the unfortunate incident of the biting incident between my dogs yesterday, the little poodle called Baron was bitten on the throat and neck area. The veterinary clinic was closed yesterday and he was sent to the veterinary surgeon as its neck area has swollen. The Veterinary Doctor immediately perform emergency surgery on Baron’s throat as the trachea has some punctured wounds and the poodle was not breathing properly. After the emergency surgery, baron is back home at 5.30 pm recovering from this critical surgery. The Veterinary Doctor said Baron was strong to survive all these wounds and the subsequent surgery. Yes, it was a triumphant return to his normal life though still a bit tired.

Baron was found running around the busy road near my house. We rescued the poodle with all his fur all cut very short and fed it. We tried to ask around to fing the owner and even telephone an owner who had put some posters about his lost dog. However, he did not show any interest at all and did not attempt to see the dog. Anyhow, Baron joined the discarded dogs in the group. Many thanks to kind doctor who stopped seeing his “patients” and attended to Baron immediately thus saving his life.

SP Lim
Though today is First of April, 2016 – this is NOT an April’s Fool Joke.

“The Triumphant Return to Life.” My little poodle, Baron. is resting and recovering after its throat surgery this morning.

Photo 101
Day Twenty: Triumph & Contrast

Triumph comes in all shapes and sizes: finding enough coffee to make a full pot. Having just enough gas in the tank to get to the filling station. Finding out your story was accepted for publication in that awesome magazine.

My triumph was fighting inertia to walk through the park on a cold winter day. My reward was this photo of a massive, naked elm tree with a bit of sun flare and bold shadows from thin light.

What does triumph mean to you? It could mean that goal in the dying seconds, nailing “tree pose” without quivering, or any victory — big or small, personal or public.

Today’s Tip: Triumph usually denotes drama of some sort, no matter whether it’s big or small. Playing with contrast is a great way to enhance your photos for a more dramatic effect.

Contrast in photography generally refers to the difference between the lights and darks in an image — and the interplay between white, black, and gray. When someone says a black-and-white photo has high contrast, oftentimes the white and black are prominent, while a low-contrast image includes subtler tones and layers of gray. In color images, contrast might refer to the juxtaposition of two bright colors, or a cold color (blue) next to a warm color (red).

Tips on increasing/decreasing contrast:
Increase to bring out bold accents (a red lantern, a yellow balloon).
Increase to make the blacks blacker, the whites whiter.
Decrease slightly to even out a blue sky.
Don’t boost the contrast too much — you’ll lose the details.
Be careful when tweaking pictures of people — you can easily “wash out” faces.
While you can use Photoshop, Lightroom, or other software to tweak the contrast on your images, you don’t need to spend money to enhance your photos. PicMonkey and PhotoCat allow you to edit photos (including contrast) for free.

Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101
Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation

After the instability of my local internet, I got badly bitten on my two left fingers by my small poodle called Baron as he was being bitten by a bigger dog – a Dalmatian named Duke. After two hours of treatment with dressing and an Anti-Tetanus injection at the General hospital. I am back home. According to the doctors at Emergency Ward, my wounds cannot be stitched as there are bacteria present with animal bites. There shall be further dressing tomorrow to change the bandages. Luckily, this is last but one day before the end of the Photo 101 Course – a rather eventful one for me! From my photo archives, I make two submissions of a photograph of two clowns entitled “Double the Fun and Laughter” trying my best to forget the unfortunate incident this morning and the pain. The second is that of two baked crabs ready to be eaten.

Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation ~ “Double the Fun and Laughter” from the two Clowns

Photograph two shows the baked crabs which had turned red after being fully cooked. These were ready to be eaten. So, for the second time around I must express my sincere apology as my emails has piled again to 200 over and I promise I shall view all these emails relating to your blogs and posts as soon as I can possibly can.

Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation ~ “Double the Enjoyment and Food Offering” from the two baked Crabs

As there was no necessity to rotate these two photographs, I have no attempt to rotate these two snap shots.

My two injured fingers

My two injured fingers

SP Lim

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Photo 101
Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation
Your twin sisters. Your neighbor’s two poodles. Your vision during a dizzy spell. Your doppelgänger.

Double can be interpreted in many ways. Here’s our take, courtesy of two yellow lines on a colorful street in East London, England:

There’s one more day left in this course — have fun with this one!

Today’s Tip: Sometimes, you might wish an image were oriented differently — maybe you want a vertically-focused image to be horizontal, so you can use it as a header image:

Photo 101, Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation‏

Here, we’ve rotated the original to create a horizontal version.

You, too, might need to rotate an image occasionally. After you upload images to your dashboard, you can use them in various ways — embedded right in your post, inserted in a gallery, or displayed as Featured Images.

Photo 101, Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation‏

Themes display Featured Images in different ways. Check this list to see if your theme supports Featured Images.

You can use the rotation tool in your Media Library to change the orientation of an image, and use the new version in areas like your blog’s header. Access this tool in your Media Library, where you learned to crop your images:

When viewing an image in your Media Library, click Edit Image.
Use the two rotation icons — the second and third icons from the left — to set and save your desired orientation.

Photo 101, Day Nineteen: Double & Rotation‏

If you prefer not to use the tool in your Media Library, try the rotation feature in your preferred software or image editor — like Photoshop, Lightroom, PicMonkey — or your favorite mobile app.

Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101
Day Eighteen: Edge & Alignment

Two submissions of photograph can be seen below:-

I submit this first photograph of the Kek Lok Si Temple of Penang with the frame of the stone door as the “edge and straight lines” requirement. I had straighten the vertical portion of the door on the right side, as it was slanting slightly. I use the free Picasa software as my photographic tool in all my photographs.

My internet is still very unstable and the telecommunications company is still looking into the problem/s. To all my dear bloggers and followers, I have still over 250 e-mails to go through and shall click yours in due course of time. I extend my sincere apologies and thank you for your patience.

Photo 101 ~ Day Eighteen – Edge & Alignment ” The Kek Lok Si Temple of Penang “

Photo 101
Day Eighteen: Edge & Alignment
Submission No: 2 ~ ” The New Door Guardians ” with recent re-painting of these Association Temple red wooden doors.

Photo 101 ~ Day Eighteen – Edge & Alignment …… The New Door Guardians

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Day Eighteen: Edge & Alignment
At the “jungle temple” in the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia, Ta Prohm, centuries-old carvings have fallen victim to time and tree roots. Still, it’s a living site — impossibly-hued moss covers tumbles of stone. Visitors clamber over, under, and behind, seeking hidden crannies.

In some areas, walls still stand, their intact windows creating frames and portals. The solid, straight edges of the windows are a stark contrast to the waterfall of stones on either side:

Day Eighteen – Edge & Alignment

Today, show us an edge — a straight line, a narrow ridge, a precipice.

Today’s Tip: To make sure your edge packs a punch, use a photo editing tool to check the alignment and adjust the image, if needed, so that your edge is perfectly straight.

Most photo editing software or apps include a straightening tool that imposes a grid over your photo — you move the image until your edge aligns with one of the straight grid lines, and voila! There are a few ways to tackle this, many of them free:

If you use Instagram, straighten an image with the Adjust Tool. Other phone editing apps — Snapseed, Camera+, VSCO — offer similar abilities.
Free photo editing site PicMonkey lets you upload and edit any photo. To straighten, choose a photo from your computer, then click “Edit” and choose the “Rotate” tab. Use the slider to adjust your photo’s angle.
Photoshop and Lightroom, two popular pieces of software, each have a straightening tool. In Photoshop, adjust a photo’s angle while cropping, or use the Ruler to see the precise angle of your line. In Lightroom, look for the “Crop and Straighten” tool; it’s the first icon on the left in the Develop Module.
You can also use these tools to make sure your leading lines go exactly where you want them, or to straighten a photo to emphasize the “Rule of Thirds.”

Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101

Day Seventeen: Glass, Squared – The Looking Glass of Beauty

Photo 101 ~ Photo 101 ~ Day Seventeen: Glass, Squared – The Looking Glass of Beauty

As a regular photographer at a Wayang or Chinese Opera performances, I also photo-shoot of the female performers of this Troupes. One must try not to intrude while taking the photographs of these performers. We always ask permission from the Troupe Manager and/or Owner and especially from these female performers for permission to take the portraits of them making-up their faces and wearing their head-dresses. The make-up is very dark and usually behind the props of the performing stage. It is my preference not to use my flash as shadows shall disappear away thus leaving a flat image. Patience and taking numerous snaps are the important actions of a seasoned Wayang photographer.

For this assignment on Glass, I submit three photographs on “Looking Glasses or Mirrors” used by these female Wayang performers to make-up before the performances and the third photograph of the yellow glass sculpture.

Photo 101 ~ Photo 101 ~ Day Seventeen: Glass, Squared – The Looking Glass of Beauty 2

Apology as I can only download my assignment only after 10.30 pm tonight as my internet was down from late morning till 10.30 pm tonight.

The Glass of Yellow. The yellow glass sculpture with the lighting and shadow designs.

I managed to capture this yellow & white glass sculpture with the lighting and shadow designs.

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Day Seventeen: Glass, Squared
I’ve always been drawn to glass: windows, mirrors, and other reflective surfaces. Glass is fun to experiment with when taking pictures, resulting in multi-layered and unexpected shots.

Consider this landscape from an estate near Inverness in Scotland:

It’s a lovely landscape, but what happens if we place an old, creaky window between the viewer and this garden?

Even if you prefer the view without the window, note how this pane of glass introduces a story and adds a layer of complexity to the image. What’s the story behind this estate? Who’s looking out the window?

Incorporate glass in today’s image: a window, a mirror, a wine glass, sunglasses, or something else. It doesn’t matter what form the glass takes.

Today’s Tip: We’ve practiced shooting at different angles and from unique POVs. How can you interact with glass to create an interesting photo?

Look through.
Look between.
Find an unconventional surface.
Experiment with your flash both on and off.
Place a glass object against a totally white background.
Shine an artificial light source on it.
Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Cheng Beng (in Hokkien) or Qingming (in Mandarin)

The Qingming or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English, is a traditional Chinese festival on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4 or 5 April in a given year. Other common translations include Chinese Memorial Day and Ancestors’ Day.

Qingming has been regularly observed as a statutory public holiday in China. In Taiwan, the public holiday is now always observed on 5 April to honor the death of Chiang Kai-shek on that day in 1975. It became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008.

In the mainland, the holiday is associated with the consumption of qingtuan, green dumplings made of glutinous rice and barley grass. In Taiwan, the similar confection is known as caozaiguo or shuchuguo.

A similar holiday is observed in the Ryukyu Islands, called Shīmī in the local language.

Despite having no official status, the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asian nations, such as those in Singapore and Malaysia, take this festival seriously and observe its traditions faithfully. Some Qingming rituals and ancestral veneration decorum observed by the oversea Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore can be dated back to Ming and Qing dynasties, as the oversea communities were not affected by the Cultural Revolution in Mainland China. Qingming in Malaysia is an elaborate family function or a clan feast (usually organized by the respective clan association) to commemorate and honour recently deceased relatives at their grave sites and distant ancestors from China at home altars, clan temples or makeshift altars in Buddhist or Taoist temples. For the oversea Chinese community, the Qingming festival is very much a family celebration and, at the same time, a family obligation. They see this festival as a time of reflection and to honour and give thanks to their forefathers. Overseas Chinese normally visit the graves of their recently deceased relatives on the nearest weekend to the actual date. According to the ancient custom, grave site veneration is only feasible ten days before and after the Qingming Festival. If the visit is not on the actual date, normally veneration before Qingming is encouraged.

The Qingming Festival in Malaysia and Singapore normally starts early in the morning by paying respect to distant ancestors from China at home altars. This is followed by visiting the graves of close relatives in the country. Some follow the concept of filial piety to the extent of visiting the graves of their ancestors in mainland China. Traditionally, the family will burn spirit money and paper replicas of material goods such as cars, homes, phones and paper servants. In Chinese culture, it is believed that people still need all of those things in the afterlife. Then family members take turns to kowtow three to nine times (depending on the family adherence to traditional values) before the tomb of the ancestors. The Kowtowing ritual in front of the grave is performed in the order of patriarchal seniority within the family. After the ancestor worship at the grave site, the whole family or the whole clan feast on the food and drink they brought for the worship either at the site or in nearby gardens in the memorial park, signifying family reunion with the ancestors. Another ritual related to the festival is the cockfight, as well as being available within that historic and cultural context at Kaifeng Millennium City Park (Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden).

Inserted by SP Lim from Wikipedia.

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Weekend Three: Hone Your Eye

Practised a few assignments as proposed by Josh R. and Team on the following:-

(1) Observe and capture an entire scene, but also zoom in within it. Stick to architecture if you’d like: capture the size of a building, but get close to record its details. Or, choose something different — a farmer’s market, a festival — and take establishing shots as well as smaller moments within the scene.

Tried all sorts of shots with different but at very low angle close to the ground I find great difficulty as a senior citizen as my legs cannot bend too much.

(2) Whatever you shoot, pay attention to what’s along the borders — practice in-camera cropping and train your eye to edit in your viewfinder or screen.

Always practised these technique automatically if framing and composition are all right.

(3) As you prepare a post with a gallery, try a different gallery type. If you published a Thumbnail Grid gallery last weekend, try a Tiled Mosaic or Square Tiles. Or, never published a gallery of Circles? Do that instead!

Here I tried the Thumbnail Grid gallery with odd numbers of photographs, it should be better with even numbers of shots. Square Tiles are nice but some portions of the photographs were cropped off. Also tried Tiled Column gallery and found it to be satisfactory.

There are several more albums that shall be posted over the week or two.

SP Lim
Still under training by Photo 101.

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Day Sixteen: Treasure & Close-up

In our developing country, there are no treasures of exceptional materialistic value. As for myself, my treasure chest is my dry box of my photographic equipment of my DSLR Cameras, Lenses, Flashes, and other useful photographic appliances. This is due to my passion for photography after my retirement. Apart from these treasures, my photo archives of many photographs produced by these photographic equipment, is also my treasure. I did not take any close-up for this assignment as I just zoom in using a 17 – 40 mm lens and no macro lens was used.

SP Lim

My treasure chest is my dry box of my photographic equipment of my DSLR Cameras, Lenses, Flashes, and other useful photographic appliances

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Day Sixteen: Treasure & Close-up

In the absence of a wooden chest full of gold doubloons, any object or experience that is deeply meaningful can be a treasure. Items, places, people — we all cherish something, or someone.

What’s your treasure? Perhaps you found a coat at the thrift store like the one your grandfather wore, or took a once-in-a-lifetime trip through the Himalaya. Maybe you treasure your children, or your cat, or a quiet space in the woods. Show us an image that represents a treasure to you.

Today’s Tip: Get close to your subject — either use the zoom function in your camera, if it has one, or physically move closer to it.

Often, our goal is to capture as much of the scene as we can. Zooming in (or focusing on) a particular detail can produce a beautiful image and help you tell a more interesting story.

When I first photographed this tart, I stood above the table and captured the entire thing on a platter. But when I squatted to get up close and personal, a prim rectangle of cream and fruit transformed into a luscious, glistening pile of jewels heaped on a pillowy bed. The first version was nice, but this one created a mood — all because I crouched a little.

Photo – not included

We tend to take photos from the same vantage points: a landscape from far away, or an ensemble of friends where everyone’s bodies are in the shot. In my case, a plate of food so that the entire dish is visible.

Today, zoom in. Get close. Show us the twinkle in your son’s eye. A glint of gold. One perfect flower in the garden. Show us your treasure.

Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101
Day Fifteen: Landscape & Cropping – Hill View of George Town

This photograph was taken during Photographic Society of Penang’s Photo Outing of Sunrise at Penang Hill. However, the sun did not appear due to intense cloud coverage on the mainland. In the end we just took photographs of the cityscape. As city dweller, I seldom take natural landscape nor have the luxury of shooting beautiful natural landscape in the city and I shall search further for natural landscape which I took a few years ago on the Mainland from my photo archives. I submit this first entry until I get another natural landscape from my archives which is in another hard disc. Apologies.

As for my photo editing, I use Picasa for cropping and other required editing. It is very convenient for me as I am using for many years but the problem is the storage of the photographs as I have a few hundreds of files of numerous photographs. As a senior citizen, I forgot to label the hard disc so the problem of recalling starts.

SP Lim

A Hill View of the City of George Town, Penang at sunrise

Can you observe the faint lightings of the two bridges connecting Penang Island to the Mainland Penang? The First Penang Bridge is 13.5 km or 8.4 miles long, built by the Koreans of South Korea or Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; hanja: 大韓民國), while the Second Bridge is 24 km or 15 miles long, built by the Chinese of People’s Republic of China. The Second Penang Bridges is known as the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge (Malay: Jambatan Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah or Jambatan Kedua Pulau Pinang).

The landscape of Seberang Perai Utara (Northern Part of Mainland Penang) with more natural greenery.

I managed to take this more natural landscape of the Northern part of Mainland Penang (Seberang Perai Utara in Malay) where animals like goats, cattle and chicken were reared. There are padi (rice) fields nearby.

SP Lim

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Photo 101
Day Fifteen: Landscape & Cropping

We’ve practiced our establishing shots, captured street scenes, and observed the natural world. Today, let’s walk in the footsteps of masters like Ansel Adams and focus on landscape photography.

Landscapes generally focus on wide, vast depictions of nature and all of its elements, from formations to weather. In this genre of photography, you won’t find much of a human presence: nature itself is the subject. A focus on nature isn’t mandatory, however — you can capture a sweeping panorama of an entire city, town, or industrial area.

Today, snap a picture of a landscape. Focus on the gestalt — the entire setting as a whole, like the shot above of the English countryside in Kent — rather than a specific subject or focal point within the scene. The setting itself is the star.

Get inspired: the landscapes of nature photographer Kerry Mark Leibowitz are stunning.

Today’s Tip: Ready to do some basic image editing? Sift through your landscapes and find one that needs cropping. (You can look back to previous shots from the course, too.) Look for:

Stray objects in the background, near the frame’s edges and corners.
People around the perimeter that have “photo-bombed” your picture.
A foreground or background that is too prominent or “heavy.”
A composition that is too-centered, with your subject right in the middle, that might benefit from cropping along two sides (in other words, cropping to the “Rule of Thirds”).
You can crop any image in your dashboard. When viewing the image in your Media Library, click Edit Image:

In the Edit Image screen, drag your cursor across the frame to select the area of the image you’d like to keep. When you release, the crop option — the first icon at the far left — will become clickable. Clicking this button will crop your image.

While you can crop as much as you’d like off the sides, top, or bottom, your image may only need a subtle snip. Start slow, and crop little by little. If you make a mistake, restore the original version in the Edit Image tool under Restore Original Image.

If you choose not to use the crop tool in your dashboard, you can also use Photoshop, PicMonkey, or an application on your computer like Preview (Mac) or Photo Gallery (Windows).

Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101

Day Fourteen: Scale & Observation – The Man, the Offering and the Moon

As I am a regular photographer at this Teochew Chinese Opera or Wayang Troupe of Thai origin, I had the opportunity of taking photographs of them at the Mooncake Festival Prayers to the Dieties on the Moon as per Taoist beliefs. Before taking this photograph, I was thinking to myself on how to capture the essence of the Prayers Ceremony to the Moon Dieties in one single photograph. The interesting offering of a fresh pomelo fruit with a lot of burning joss sticks stick into it was a significant one to these Thai Opera performers as it definitely symbolized the moon. As I saw the actual rising at the back of the altar table, I quickly chose an angle to capture 3 elements in one composition. The Man offering the Smoking Pomelo signifying the moon and the actual full Moon in the distance at the back. The actual moon was so small in the photograph while the “man-made” Moon was so large in comparison.

SP Lim

The Man, the Offering and the Moon

Photo 101
Day Fourteen: Scale & Observation

Last Mardi Gras, WordPress.com editor Michelle W. wandered New Orleans, Louisiana, with an unlikely companion: a tiny plastic baby (courtesy of Randazzo’s, a bakery that hides and serves this little figurine in their King Cake), using him to experiment with scale.

Photo – not included

A park bench dwarfed him. A margarita glass made him look huge. And an old dollhouse at an artist’s workshop proved to be just right. In the photo above, he takes a rest on a peeling iron fence outside an old home in New Orleans’ Garden District.

Today, play with scale: you can use anything and everything to help convey size in your image, from your Chihuahua to your Mini Cooper, to an aerial view or perspective from a penthouse floor.

Today’s Tip: Don’t just point and shoot. Observe your scene before pressing the shutter, considering how all the elements in the frame interact with one another. Make an object appear larger through a ground-level POV. Place two things side by side in an unexpected way.

Surprise us!

Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team

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Photo 101

Day Thirteen: Moment & Motion – The Race
Josh R., Blogging U.

The Race.
This is a night fun run for participants. This race is reserved for veterans and amateurs. As the space around me, was quite crowded, I did not use panning.

The Race. This is a night fun run for participants. This race is reserved for veterans and amateurs.

Day Thirteen: Moment & Motion
Our lives are made up of big events and tiny moments. Ultimately, life is fleeting, and oftentimes it’s these small moments, this motion, that we love to document.

Consider one such moment brought to life by a Sufi dancer, in the courtyard of a former traveler’s inn in Cairo one evening:

Photo – not attached

The colors, the music, the chanting, the whirling — watching Sufi dancers is a mesmerizing experience, as bodies spin themselves into meditative states. Here, a moment becomes an eternity.

Think about the fleeting moments you experience each day — from a quiet moment with your child to a busy commute through the subway, among strangers. What will you share with us?

Today’s Tip: Movement is a great way to convey time and fleetingness. If you’d like to play with motion, try the following:

For all cameras and cameraphones:

Turn your auto-flash off, even in low-light conditions: I took the image of the Sufi dancer in the dark, with no flash. A bit grainy, it’s not the best quality — yet the fuzziness evokes being transfixed in that moment.
While photographing moving subjects, use a tripod or lay your device on a surface to keep it still: for the image above, I rested the camera on an empty seat.
Experiment with panning: pan your camera across your scene while following your moving subject. It takes practice, but if done right you can produce images with clear subjects against blurred backgrounds.
Intermediate and advanced-level photographers: Check out Marcus Kazmierczak’s night photography tutorial for more tips on working with your dSLR and manual settings.

For cameras with manual settings:

Slow down your shutter speed (meaning, keep the shutter open longer): when the shutter is open longer, your subject has more time to move across the frame, creating a blur effect. This can lead to overexposure, especially during the day, as you’re letting in more light to take a picture. To compensate, close your aperture (the size of the opening) more and use a higher f-stop number, or adjust to a lower ISO.
Alternatively, set your camera to “shutter priority mode,” so you can set your shutter speed, but let the camera auto-select other settings, like the aperture, to ensure proper exposure.
Cheers,
Josh R. and the WordPress.com Team