Photography Challenge - Week 3
Photo Challenges
Week 3 of our photo challenge led us both to a new theme, with me getting ‘It’s a small world’ and Daz getting ‘In the frame’. Throughout the blog you can see how we tackled the theme, along with our thoughts, tips and hurdles.
My challenge - It’s a small world
When I was given ‘It’s a small world’ I thought it would be really easy, and decided to go down the route of macro. After I got one macro shot, I thought it may be a bit of a cop out, and decided to wait for clear skies instead.
‘Hang in there’ was my first shot. I loved the one piece clinging on and the background separation.
Although I am really happy with the shot, macro seemed like a simple solution to the challenge, and my idea behind wanting clear skies was to shoot the stars. The whole concept of ‘It’s a small world’ is really emphasised by staring into the endless skies.
This solo tree made a good foreground element, contrasted by the large landscape behind and the even bigger landscape in the stars above.
The clear night came on deadline night. Luckily for me we also realised it was the Orionids meteor shower as I was taking the above image. We headed to a dark skies site, and whilst the moon was still low on the horizon I managed to get a shot of the milky way, something in the foreground, and two meteors on the left hand side. I intentionally kept the foreground elements small in comparison to the large sky.
The meteors on the left hand side were a slice of luck, but I like to think of luck being preparation meeting opportunity.
What did I enjoy?
I absolutely loved getting to do more astro shots. By being completely relaxed about the challenge I was able to enjoy it a lot more. Opportunities will always come up, it’s just a matter of being prepared for when they do.
Lessons to learn
The lessons to take are to stay true to what you want. I could easily have gone back to macro, however I wanted something a little outside the box which is what I was able to achieve.
Darren’s Challenge
Darren’s challenge was ‘In the frame’ which was initially something that was proving to be a bit of a pain. On our first evening out it seemed a bit deflating, with no shots feeling right.
Daz then got off the mark by using his camera to create the frame.
This waterfall was nicely framed through the leaves.
As was this pathway.
The curved lines of the leaf perfectly frames the walkway and also shows the fallen leaves on the ground.
Baby Groot framed nicely between a blurred foreground and blurred background.
Plymouth’s highest building between figures of Scott of the Antarctic and Charles Darwin.
A solitary flower amongst the greenery.
Nature’s framing around a pathway.
The trees nicely framed Beckley Point from another perspective.
This beautiful autumn scene was framed through a side window of a shelter.
Beckley framed through a fence.
On a wet and windy day, Daz was able to make the use of framing in the doorway to get a shot without having to leave home!
A different perspective from the shelter from a couple of shots up.
A unique angle of Beckley.
A long exposure of a train passing through the window frame of a metal shelter.
Another long exposure of a train passing through the frame of the shelter.
In Daz’s words:
I asked myself ‘how did I want to approach this?’ To some I know that may sound like a silly thing to say, but as I've learnt people will always have their own style and spin on certain types of photography - or in this case a theme. I decided I would look at this theme as a way of taking a subject/s and try and frame them within another type of frame.
My biggest challenge came in the first few days. I had the ideas in my head on how I would like to accomplish photos for this theme, but I just couldn't get those ideas onto camera. I decided to take a step back and had a chat with my best mate, that person being Phil. He threw some ideas of his own at me and it gave me that little extra spark I needed to crack on with getting those photos I wanted.
In all, and despite the first few days I actually enjoyed this theme. It definitely made me consider a subject/s and how to perhaps capture them in a much different way.
Lessons to learn
If I had any advice for someone who would consider taking up this type of photography I would, as always, say when you get to a spot or location have a good look around your setting. Look at angles and perspectives. If needs be don't be afraid to ask someone else for advice and perhaps get new insight as well.
Next week…
We will have our themes for next week a little later on today - and shall be revealing them when we post our next set of photos. Keep an eye out, and we can’t wait to see what the next week will bring.