Feast for the Eyes

I am three weeks into a summer long digital photography class. I was a bit hesitant to write about here, lest readers expect a giant leap forward in the quality of my photos. Not likely, since my little point and shoot camera seems to be chugging along just fine and hopefully won't have to be replaced anytime soon (knock on wood!) So far, I have learned that my camera shoots in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but all of our photos for class should be printed in a 3:2 format. Amazing what you can learn by actually reading the camera manual! I have also been informed about white balance and how I can make my food photos (esp the dinner ones that lack natural light) look less yellow.

Anyway, despite a slight initial shock when the instructor said we should take 75-100 photos a week, I have really been enjoying it. The first week's assignment was to take photos of our favorite subject, so I headed out to my garden. These are two of the three photos I had printed in 8" x 12" for class.

It was my mom's idea to put Lego people in the garden for some scale. Actually she suggested Barbie's, but they are all in a box at the top of my closet, and would have required some serious brushing/accessorizing, so Lego it was. This picture was a pretty lucky shot with the light cutting right across her face. She's pushing a baby watermelon...I don't know why it's so fuzzy. Two and half weeks later, that watermelon is the size of a softball!

Our second assignment was still life, and I really loved the variety of subjects and compositions everyone in the class used. There were a couple of lovely arrangements of wine and grapes, one woman experimented by taking pictures in the dark with only a flashlight on her subject, which came out really cool. Another woman had an old fashioned key on a chain hanging from a garden bench from several different angles, which was very Secret Garden. I did a few with costume jewelry and a book, but since I blog about food, I couldn't really ignore it as a subject.

Nice colors, but the focus isn't incredible. I didn't end up printing this one, or any of the ones I took in my first round of photos.

I did print the next two, and they were both well received. The class liked the one with the yellow background better, but I am fond of the blue one because that color is nothing like the color of the wall in real life. It is much more of a sage green than turquoise. Amazing what a different light filter can do.

During introductions the first week, I mentioned that I was taking the class in part because I had a food blog and wanted to improve my photography skills. Yesterday, a classmate asked if the zucchini/cucumber pictures were on my blog, and there didn't really seem to be a good reason for them not to be. Thanks for the idea!