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This shot is one of six that I contributed to a large collection ofnew photos that hang in our church foyer. The theme for the projectwas, "The Church Unleashed," which refers to Christians being turnedloose into the world to do God's work.

This one was printed on canvas at about 20x30". It pictures mybrother, posing as a homeless person, reflected in my son's eye. Although this one gets lots of compliments from people in the church,I'm not entirely happy with the quality of the shot. I took 150photos during an hour long shoot using several different lensconfigurations, and this was the sharpest shot I could get of mybrother. It didn't help that leaning the camera (or the eye) in orout by half a millimeter made a huge difference in the focus point inthe reflection. This would have been much easier if I'd had a modernmacro lens with image stabilization and automatic aperture control,but my best macro lens is a 25-year-old manual lens.

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have.

This shot is one of six that I contributed to a large collection ofnew photos that hang in our church foyer. The theme for the projectwas, "The Church Unleashed," which refers to Christians being turnedloose into the world to do God's work.

This one was printed on canvas at about 18x24". It pictures my91-year-old grandmother doing one of the things she does best. Shewas posing, but not at my direction. I was just sitting across herkitchen table taking photos for this church project as we talked. Thelight is natural from a north-facing picture window. The darkbackground is a blanket draped over something a ways behind her. Theonly thing that bugs me about it is that her ring is turned inside out.

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions you have.

Played around a bit tonight with a pansy that my daughter just got.

The black lines on the bold yellow petals just jumped out at me as I

was walking by, and I had to grab my camera. I bumped the saturation

up a bit, but that's it. Is the B&W version of this shot (see my

gallery) worth anything? I also have a vertical version of this color

shot that includes more of the purple. (What you see here is just over

half the frame.) Might that be better than square? I think I tend to

prefer the square crop, since it's the black lines that got my

attention in the first place.

Played around a bit tonight with a pansy that my daughter just got.

The black lines on the bold yellow petals just jumped out at me as I

was walking by, and I had to grab my camera. I played with a B&W

version after I finished the color version (see my gallery). Is this

B&W version worth anything? I like the different shades and textures

that become apparent when you eliminate the distraction of

in-your-face yellow, but it might be just a little too bland for a

flower. I tried brightening the highlights, but then I lost a lot of

the texture in the petals.

A candid of my brother and his wife, goofing around with another

brother's pet rat on Christmas day. On-camera flash bounced off a

white ceiling & wall to the right. In-camera orange filter & mild

contrast stretch. I like the high contrast, B&W look that I got in

this series of photos. I feel like it gives a much more artsy look to

what would otherwise be a bunch of humorous snapshots. I also

couldn't have asked for a better surface to bounce the flash off. I'm

not sure how it'll come across when downsized for PN, but the

highlights on her nose & chest are NOT blown out in the full-size version.

 

What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement?

Wow, that's beautiful. You nailed the focus perfectly. Excellent depth of field. The hard edges on the round, tan spot are a little disturbing (almost making it look like a rising sun), but I still like how it turned out.

This is a common lawn dandelion. The entire scene is about 3/8" wide,

taken at 2:1. Even at f/32, it was hard to get a good focal point due

to the shallow depth of field. I desaturated it a bit to remove the

yellow color cast from the flash, and cropped just a hair to remove

some vignetting. There's also some sharpening to help counteract the

f/32 diffraction. I wish the center seed wasn't exactly in the

center, but I couldn't find a good crop that worked any better, and I

wasn't thinking about symmetry when I took the shot. What do you

think? Any suggestions for improvement?

Thanks. I won't tell you how many exposures I took while attempting to get one that was correctly focused with good DOF and no camera shake. :-) Between the breeze, partial clouds (occasional dim light) and jumping spiders, it wasn't easy.

Wow! This would be a great shot even if the balloons were over a field just due to the angle from which it is shot, but the low light hitting those rock/sand formations make the shot even better. The only thing I might try is to pop the saturation & brightness on the balloons (esp the near one) just a bit, since the land below nearly overpowers it visually.

I like the colors, the sharpness, the combinations of shapes, the bubbles offset to the left. It would make a cool abstract poster. But what is it?

I love the idea. Very unique. Good use of color and "solid" color spaces. I think it would work better if the droplet and leaf edge were in sharper focus, though.

The cedar bushes by our house are covered in spider webs these days.

Saturday morning finally broke sunny after three days of rain. This

little needle was tethered in place, and had captured a number of dew

droplets. The old, manual lens I used doesn't record EXIF data, but I

think it was shot at f/4 with about 36mm of extension tubes, placing

the magnification at about 1.15x. The whole scene is less than 1"

wide. What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement?

My brother named his poodle to be the ring bearer in his wedding. Of

course Monroe got his hair done up right for the occasion. It was

quite the site watching my brother and his best man trying to flat

iron the Monroe's hair in the dressing room before the ceremony. He

even got his own tux (photo elsewhere in my gallery).

My son, the ring bearer, and my brother, a groomsman, pass the time

during pre-ceremony pictures before my other brother's outdoor wedding

near Nashville by watching the koi in the courtyard pond. What do you

think about the crop? Should I have cut the top off just below the

table tops? I think that would leave some ambiguity about what those

black curtains are. I'm also not sure I like the look of cutting my

brother off right at the crotch. However, it might be nice to raise

the stone dividing line a little above the midpoint of the frame and

push my son a little closer to the top. Any other suggestions for

improvement?

My son, the ring bearer, and my brother, a groomsman, pass the time

during pre-ceremony pictures before my other brother's outdoor wedding

near Nashville by feeding the koi in the courtyard. What do you think

about this one? Any suggestions for improvement?

The ring bearer (my son) and the flower girl found a new pet at my

brother's outdoor wedding near Nashville. I actually missed this

shot, as the butterfly flew away a split second before I snapped the

shutter. I had to paste him back in from another, less interesting

shot taken a minute later. That's not as easy as it looks. Would you

have known if I didn't tell you? Any other suggestions?

This old Packard was one of several sitting outside a vintage repair

shop in Nashville. What do you think about the framing? Do you like

the color or B&W better?

This old Packard was one of several sitting outside a vintage repair

shop in Nashville. What do you think about the framing? Do you like

the color or B&W better?

This old Packard was one of several sitting outside a vintage repair

shop in Nashville. What do you think about the framing and choice of

focus point? Any suggestions?

My brother adjusts an ear ring before his wedding while a groomsman

looks on. This basement dressing room was extremely poorly lit and at

the time I didn't yet have a hot shoe flash, so getting a steady, well

exposed shot was difficult. What do you think of the shot? Any

suggestions?

The dog was the ring bearer in my brother's wedding (note the tux),

and my 7-year-old son was his handler during the ceremony. They were

waiting in the basement dressing room when the pro photographer got

their attention from the top of the stairs for a photo. I caught them

from the side at the same moment. I think I like my angle better.

What do you think? Can it be improved?

This large wine rack adorned the basement dressing room in a

150-yr-old house near Nashville where my brother got married last

year. What do you think? Any suggestions for improvement?

This is my brother's in-law's estate near Nashville. Low rainfall

that summer muted the normally lush, green hues of the Tennessee

countryside. Any suggestions for improvement?

This is my brother's in-law's estate near Nashville. Low rainfall

last summer muted the normally lush, green hues of the Tennessee

countryside. This was shot at 17mm, so I had to manually warp the

perspective to make the fence rails straight. Any suggestions?

This is my brother's in-law's estate near Nashville. I increased the

saturation quite a bit to make the sunset stand out. Any suggestions

are appreciated.