I really struggled with this assignment. Over the last six weeks, I feel like I’ve taken photos on every inch of our property and wasn’t feeling inspired to take more. Most of the five acres we live on is heavily wooded so open areas and light are sometimes hard to come by. I was surprised that a few of the photos came out nice but overall, I feel a little disenchanted by this week’s work. I think my mood carried over into some of my photos. I spent more time editing these after the fact, trying to give them more life or oomph. I am also disappointed that downsizing to web size made them look more blurry and dull. Maybe HDR is meant for large file size to bring out the vivid colors?
Definitely, some of my feelings of rain, changing weather, seclusion, and boredom bled into my photos this week. My goal was to play with depth of field, evening light, and shadows. My first mistake was that I didn’t use a tripod on the ground shots but rested my camera on my arm. I still think there is a bit of camera shake which causes the foreground to seem out of focus. I tried adding depth to the photos by finding objects in the foreground and adding layers. I also experimented with rule of thirds, breaking it at times and sticking to it for others. In the end, I actually had fun taking the photos and can see this tool being really useful for beautiful mountain, beach, and landscape photos when we finally venture away from our home.
As always, I think there is room for improvement. If I could reshoot, I’d mix up my location and go to the many magical places on the peninsula where the HDR process would really shine. I would use a tripod to make sure there is no movement or changes in the photograph so they come out sharp. I would possibly play down the HDR effect in post processing. Some of my photos might have been a little overdone and I can see how this is experimental and a learning process. I can’t tell you how many times I re-processed these to see differences in the effects. In the end, I really think the downsized web versions you see on the website do not serve the actual images justice.