Project 52 by Bryan (BJ Denning)

[Geoff F]

I'm not sure about the first two, Bryan. Something just doesn't look sufficiently relaxed for me. Maybe I'm just wanting to see more of the model's face.

But the last shot, of the singer, appears very natural and looks good to me.

[BJ Denning]

Thanks Geoff.

Oddly enough the singer was totally faking, no music and no sound coming from her. She had never been at a photo shoot before.

As for the scarf shot, I was thinking after that I should have spent more time with her and asked her for more expressions than just the straight on wide eyes. The "look" appeals to me. She was very attractive and the other photogs were shooting the standard seductive poses. I wanted something different, mysterious. She had modeled for photo classes before and was a champ. I was a bit rushed -- there were four stations and the next group was wandering around us, squeezing us out.

Just goes to show that there is no substituted for good direction and charisma from the photographer -- time for more practice.

Sure thing Frank. The Cheetahs are shy and it is starting to get warm around here. If I luck on a good opportunity, I'll post -- now I have a reason to rent the 400 2.8 , or maybe the 600 .

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I'm probably not sold on the first one either but the second one works for me in terms of what you were trying to achieve, as does your third shot which looks nice and natural.

It doesn't help that you were rushed though. I get rushed all the time with some of my shots and they never come out the way I want them. It's only when I have the time to experiment with different poses and scenes that I end up with people shots that I'm happy with.

[BJ Denning]

Spring is definitely here. A local Bird Sanctuary had an open house and a group from a local photo club enjoyed the afternoon. Below are a few of my shots. All taken with a 7d, 70-200mm

Barred Owl. Talkative guy, he made what I know as the classic hoot


Screech Owl. This little one weighed less than half a bar of soap.


European eagle owl, one of the largest of the owls


And can't forget the American Kestrel. A beautifully little falcon.

[FrankMi]

Every one of the (week 13) photos is spectacular, Bryan! The only thing I would have done (in hindsight) would be to get a shooting angle, like you did in # 3, that is more level with the bird's head.

[oldgreygary]

Couldn't agree with Frank more! Images of these birds are wonderful!

Cheers for now

Gary

[SpiderBob]

Great pics! focus seems right on. I have to get out and do this, but you make it look so easy.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bryan,

I have to agree, these are excellent technically - good exposure, focus and DoF, just problem of shooting angle on #1 and #4 - which I guess you would have addressed if you could.

Well done,

[Goldcoastgolfer]

x5

[kezmal]

Wonderful photography - love that one of the Screech Owl

[BJ Denning]

Thanks all. I appreciate the encouragement.

[BJ Denning]

This week was my attempt at event photography. I've learned that it is not my cup of tea. With all the event lights and action, the color balance is a challenge, the ISO is higher than I'm comfortable with, and my shutter was slower than I would have liked. All in all challenging. I think that allot of my dissatisfaction has to do with expectation -- I'm struggling with wanting crystal clear, noise free, blur free images. While it seems that good event photographers embrace white balance and blur and use it to their advantage.

FIRST Robotics is called sports for the mind. It combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of 25 students or more are challenged to raise funds, and build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. It’s as close to "real-world engineering" as a student can get. Volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. I've volunteered with this organization for ~5 years and every year my faith in the minds of our youth (at least a few of them) are renewed.

[Ryogenetic]

It looks like a lot of fun hopefully my kids will be into that when they get older. On most of the shots they seem a little to tightly cropped, I seem want more information about what is going on in the moment. The last one seeing the backboard and ball gives me a hint to what the event is. I can only assume in pic 2 they are attempting to cross a balancing bridge and part of the robot has fallen?

Great all the same
Ryo

[Geoff F]

As you say, Bryan, action shots of real events is challenging and you only get one attempt at a scene; and without any proper 'thinking time.

Events like this, sports, music festivals, even wildlife photography come under the same overall bracket of quick thinking required.

When you find a suitable angle, which can be difficult with too many people moving around, you have to just 'click and hope'.

Getting some basic settings beforehand can help as you are then half way there and 'merely' need a little quick final adjustment.

Then it is a case of cropping out the unwanted items to concentrate on the best that can be obtained from the shot. Which, with me, often isn't how I originally envisaged the scene.

But remember that most of the really successful photographers of these events take a lot of shots, and 95% get ditched. We only see their successes.

With your images, #2 is definitely the best, although personally, I would like to crop slightly differently and remove that black and white striped shirt on the left.

And with the last one, I would be tempted to try a more severe crop and concentrate on just the central group of 4 figures. I think I would try removing the upright post on the left and the right side blue square shape, then crop the top slightly above the horizontal bar.

Which would probably end up with a 4 x 5 ratio shot which showed those 4 characters plus part of the machine in the bottom left corner.

The way I see this scene, that machine is so out of focus that it has lost it's importance, therefore the only option is to concentrate on the area which is sharply focused.

[BJ Denning]

THanks Ryo, Geoff. I took my 70-200 thinking that the telephoto and fast apeture would be useful. Because of the lighting, I was shooting at 2.8, which while nice to blur out distractions in the back also blurs necessary elements in the front. However, I now realize that this "game" (it was somewhat like basketball) is not familiar to people, so the context a wide-angle lens brings would have been better. Unfortunately I do not own a fast wide angle (guess this is a reason to look into the 16-35).

Live, practice, and learn.

[BJ Denning]

This week has been a bit slow, as far as photos is concerned. So since spring and sprung around here, I took a few shots around my yard. These were just for fun, 24-105mm.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Wow Bryan - you're leaping ahead in leaps and bounds! Are we actually up to week 15 already?

Event photography is certainly challenging. I've been doing some market photos for Kerry's business and I'm always struggling to find something unique to create a photo with rather than just capturing a scene. That second photo of the robot is a good capture but I would have liked to have seen it in a scene with more context.

Lovely flower captures. I think with the first one two areas pull my eye from the flowers - the first being the out of focus leaf in the foreground, probably because it's as bright as the subjects. The second is the two pillars of light in the background which are just a little bright.

The second photo looks like a very nice, serene scene. From my monitor it looks like that flowers could do with a bit more exposure. Very nice captures all the same.

[BJ Denning]

Thanks for look Mal, I really appreciate you taking the time to look and comment.

I have probably posted two in a couple weeks, just creating a little room for a slow week ;-)

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Bryan, #2 for me, I like the composition of the two areas of different coloured flowers, nice sense of depth with the lattice providing a good background with the bird bath on the third line draws in the eye before looking at other aspects.

[ronno13]

Hi Bryan, This is a lovelly portrait, my only critism is that you ahve given him a haircut, be careful with your framing, if you are going to cut off a portion of a person (or animal) make the cut look deliberate rather than accidental, if this shot is all that was in your viewfinder it would have been much better to raise the camera slightly to get the top of his head in the image, losing a bit more of his elbow would not have been a problem. Otherwise I like the lighting and pose.
Well done
Ron