Thursday, June 16, 2011

Wherever there is light...

"Wherever there is light, one can photograph"
~Alfred Stieglitz
 
Lately, I've been missing photography... not taking digital pictures....

I mean I miss photography.  

You know... the artsy side of it.

I miss using a good ol' film SLR or a super fabulous Holga or an amazing twin lense reflex.  I miss playing with the shutter speed, f-stop, and all that jazz.  I miss taking that roll of film into the dark room, winding it up in the pitch black dark, and praying that something would turn out.  Then, if I was lucky enough to have something turn out on the film, I miss taking it into the dark room for developing.  Playing around with exposure time, dodging and burning certain areas, and then that purely magical feeling of watching the image appear when dropped into the developer.  ...:sigh:....

One day..... One day, I will have a place in my home for a dark room.  I will.

Since the dark room thing is entirely out of the question in our little base housing situation right now, and since I was feeling that longing for photography (not simply taking pictures), I decided to go out and play with my digital SLR the other night.  It's definitely not the same, but I did have a lot of fun playing with the manual settings to manipulate my images.  

When the inspiration struck, I decided to do "double duty" and go on my photo expedition while I rode my cruiser taking Duke on his evening jog.  I loaded up my little bike basket with my camera and my tripod, and we went down by the water in my neighborhood to see what we could do.  I hadn't attempted much nighttime photography with my DSLR.  I thought the light from the full moon would make things a little easier though. (Each photo I'm going to show you was taken after 9:00PM.)

On this particular adventure, I mostly played with exposure time.  It sure is cool how a couple of seconds can make such a difference.  Check it out...

I took several photos down by the water.  Here are a few that I thought turned out okay.  (I've done very little/if any editing.)





And then I had a little fun going crazy editing a few...



I know they aren't anything super spectacular, and I didn't get to take as many as I would have liked because of the dern mosquitoes.  (They must have been super desperate the other night because mosquitoes NEVER bother me... like EVER.)  I enjoyed my little expedition, nonetheless, and I plan to do it again soon.  

Even though it still doesn't compare to film, it is fun to have more control than the "automatic" setting.  :)

Oh, and just because I haven't asked in a while... If you read regularly, please, please, pretty please show me some love and become an "official" follower through Google Friend Connect.  (Click "Follow" to the right of this post.)  I love knowing who drops in and feeling the love! ;)

2 comments:

  1. L- I JUST LOVE following your blog! Inspires me to get back to writing on mine! You have a gift with words- keep going! BTW, I need a vacay- can I come stay with you?!?!:) Sounds just beautiful!

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  2. I would love having a dark room too! I'm glad you got out and had a little fun with your camera and settings, even though you're right, there's nothing more fun than tweaking in a dark room! Maybe one day!

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