Lesson Four: Don't make lessons...

...unless you're going to follow them.

Seriously, at the beginning of this project I really planned to stay dedicated...and I did, kind of. I had made additional photographs after my last post, but I never wrote about them. My apologies for anyone who's actually reading this stuff. Summer got a little odd and my motivation for blogging on either space just...dissipated.

Anyhow, a few months back my friend Jeff challenged me to wake up early and shoot the morning light specifically for this project. Jeff knows I am not a fan of early mornings, but he also knows I dig the light. It had been a while since I greeted it.

Fine, challenge accepted.

I went out around 7am and just drove until I found a scene I liked. When I saw the sunlight casting around this solo tree, I knew I had to pull over.

After photographing the tree, I turned around and watched the sun fill a field full of weeds. I wondered if the sunny sixteen rule would apply when also shooting into the direction of the sun, rather than with the sun behind me, so I photographed my question...and then I got my answer.
 

The rule worked just the same. I'm sure these lessons are pretty basic, but until this summer, I hadn't really learned them. Certainly not first hand. Learning how to play with light...it made me smile. I adore natural light and it's what I use almost every time I lift my camera. I like that we've began this new relationship and that we work so well together.

After playing in the weed field, I drove up the road a little ways and found the sun pouring through a gathering of tall trees. I loved the way the light spilled onto the road, so I snapped a few frames. And that was that.

Thanks, Jeff, for the challenge. It made a nice ending for my summer project. Yes, that's right...an ending. I had originally hoped to shoot this project over the span of a year, but decided it worked better as a summer project, especially since I've been so terrible at keeping up with posts (hello...it's December!). What I will do, however, is post photos here once in a while that were made using the same rule. So, while the "lessons" are - in some sense - done, I'll still be putting them to use and sharing with you here. Thanks for following along. And sorry I was such a slacker.

Lesson Three: Don't be a slacker. And don't be narrow focused.

my original plan was to update this project at least once a week. it's been over three weeks. i can put blame in various places, but really i've just been lazy. i haven't even been out to purposefully shoot for this project much. past few weeks have been kinda hazy, but thanks to the encouragement of a fellow photog and friend, here i am...updating. and hopefully my slacker self will do so more consistently. my apologies.

so, the last time i focused on shooting via the sunny sixteen rule was on the 4th of july. i had an assignment to cover a parade and i found a couple that was playing volleyball in some really nice light, and the trees behind them made a great, clean, contrasting background. however, for some reason i forgot that, while shooting via sunny sixteen, you can also make adjustments for which the situation calls. example: this couple was playing volleyball and, because i didn't think to change my shutter to a faster speed (and thus changing my fstop as well), the movement in the frames became blurry. it doesn't bother me too much, but it did remind me that i have a habit of being too focused on one thing. shooting in this mindset causes me to miss making what can be better and/or more interesting photos. hopefully, in the future, i'll remember to keep my options open while still following the rules.

 

 

Lesson Two: Out of the house, onto the streets.

My summer workload tends to be drastically lighter than the rest of the year. Considering I live in southern California where the summer temps become unbearable for me (I get cranky at 76°F), I can easily spend a lot of time indoors lounging around with Netflix. That's fun and all, and I've seen a lot of great films, but this habit doesn't really help me improve my photography. So today I decided to get off my butt and out into the streets.

I wanted to find a place that had a mix of people and architecture, so I made my way to downtown Redlands. Being that it's Sunday, the streets weren't too busy. Fortunately I did get a few people involved in my images. Oh...that reminds me. For those of you who don't know me...street photography is something I also struggle with. While I absolutely adore street photography and find myself jealous of the giftings of Elliott Erwitt, Henry Cartier-Bresson, and Scott Strazzante, I have often been terrified of photographing people on the street. We won't go into the psycho babble of why this fear exists, but it's something I've been well aware of for quite some time and it's something I've wanted to fight against. It is no doubt of mine that this sunny 16 project will teach me much more than lessons in exposure. Anyhow, back to the streets...

Today's sky was sunny but hazy, which meant I needed to shoot at f/11. I don't know why I was so suprised, but I felt like a giddy little girl when, with one click, a properly exposed photo shown itself on my LCD screen.

This first image was mostly full of direct sunlight with just a slight shadow on the wall of the building. With the camera set to an f/11 aperture, I sat and waited for people to enter the frame. Once I saw the man in blue making his way up the street I knew he was who I wanted to photograph. I made one photo of him alone as he walked into my frame from the left (which was what I previsioned), but decided to keep snapping while the other three people entered in from the right. I think the latter image worked better.







Next I made my way around the corner where I found some ivy growing underneath a wood porch. Because the ivy was in shade, my first reaction was to drop my shutter speed (for the past few years I almost always shoot at f/2.8, which has me in the habit of controlling my light with the shutter). I had completely forgotten about the sunny sixteen rule. I snapped a few images before I realized I needed to treat the shade as though I were now shooting on a cloudy day. After I got over my feeling like a dummy, I set my aperture to f/5.6 and put my shutter back to match my ISO. Magically, the exposure was correct...






Now that I was in full-on sunny 16 mode, I treated a nearby puddle with the appropriate settings...



Eventually I made my way to State Street, which is the main walking street downtown. Not too long after arriving, I found this little patch of light falling on a walkway that was otherwise covered in shade. Because I didn't want the patch of light overexposed, I played around between f/4 and f/5.6. Then, I waited for people. Eventually, I was pleasantly suprised with a pitbull named Cannon and his owner...






After making the photo, I thought to myself that I would've loved if these two had been walking the opposite direction, thus having the light cast on their faces. However, I really like the shadow on the ground and how it fills the patch of light perfectly.

Around another corner, I found some light to play with in an allyway. This was the only image I made hastily as it was very last minute that I noticed the man walking towards the light. I only had a few seconds to get in place and make it work. I was pretty happy with the result...








After about forty minutes of shooting, I decided to walk back to my car so that I could then get the images and blog ready and officially begin this project. I'm really excited with the images I made today, and I believe I'm on my way to improving my work. I've always loved days where I make photos, but today was particularly exciting. I'm happy to have begun this project and I can't wait to see what's to come. See you soon!