Becoming a better photgrapher

Last September I met some local, enthusiastic photographers via Flickr and I’ve met up with them again three times since, the last meet being last Friday evening.

As it was going to be an evening shoot I went and bought myself a tripod, or ipod as JJ kept calling it. I’ve never had a tripod before and the only night shooting I’ve done is hand holding the camera and hoping like hell the image didn’t turn out to blurry with a longer shutter opening, or if I used the flash it didn’t bleed all the depth out of the photo.

JJ and I both went along, and I forgot to take his little camera. Luckily someone had a film camera which needed finishing so she lent it to JJ – bless her! The film somehow got stuck and he kept taking photos so I’ll be interested to see what happens when she develops the film.

We started off along near the Festival Centre along the River Torrens and went along the river, with some detours, from there.

I still like my close-up flower shots as shown above but I’m noticing what others are doing around me and realising that a photo doesn’t have to be a beautiful landscape or a pretty flower. So I’m experimenting. I copied a what a few others were doing with this shot and it took a few tries to get the type of effect I was after. I was hoping the people would be more blurry but the longer the exposure I used, the whiter the people were – almost like ghosts. And this was the first photo with the tripod.

I tried a reflection shot and it was a bit windy which made the water ripply but I quite like how it turned out.

Here’s my first real night shot. Initially these shots didn’t work out because when I pressed the button to take a photo the tripod shook so there were lines from the lights and there shouldn’t have been. Someone said to set it on timer. This is what I did from here on in. I’ve got a two second timer and after lining the shot up, I’d activate the timer and let it do its business. I wouldn’t say it’s the best city night shot around but it’s okay.

This is my favourite night shot. It wasn’t too long after the sun set which is why the sky is still a bit purple. This photo says ‘mystery’ to me. I want to know what’s around that corner of the path, but I’m too scared to go and have a look because it’s a bit spooky.

I’m enjoying meeting other photo fiends and I’m learning a bit from them. They’re very tolerant of JJ and they’re teaching him stuff too. Because I’m going on meets I’m taking more photos which means I’m getting more practise and probably getting a bit better.

You can see the whole set here.

I’m going to be away for most of the weekend and I’m also seeing a friend I met overseas who lives in Australia now but we hardly see each other. He’s staying for a night en-route elsewhere. So what I’m really saying is that I’ll be computer free for a few days. For you Aussies, enjoy the Australia Day long weekend.