I went home this weekend and didn't want to take my laptop so I missed a couple days of the photo challenge. But this weekend was one of the best in a while! I worked at a wedding and a 60th birthday party with wonderful guests and co-workers. I met a lot of old friends at Affentennis (or "monkey-tennis"), the annual amatuer volleyball tournament which always ends in a great party, and I had such a blast that I went home slightly drunk with my mom at 5:30 am. And I got to go to the North Sea with my grandparents for a day. I cannot wait to join them for two weeks next Monday!
So I did take photos for the challenges eight and nine at the beach yesterday.
Day 8: Sunset
This one is quite obvious I think. Take a picture of a beautiful sunset. You should make sure that the horizon is not in the middle of the picture because that will let it look like two different images (Rule of Thirds). But also remember that photography rules are usually just guidelines and in some special cases a middle horizon might work really well.
Exp. 1/80; f/16; ISO 500. You might also want to include something in the foreground to make it more interesting as in the following two photos.
I took this the other day from my terrace. Exp. 1/50; f/5; ISO 100.
This is in Sunriver, Oregon. I went there in the Summer of 2009 with my host-family. I took it with my little Panasonic Lumix. Exp. 1/100; f/2.8; ISO 80.
Day 9: Bokeh
This is a tricky one. The bokeh is basically the background of your photo. The better the composition, the better the bokeh. I have a hard time understanding it myself, so you should refer to Josh's explanations: "Simply put, it’s the aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photograph. It relates to how nice the background blur looks when out-of-focus. Knowing that, you can start to see the uses for it."
Sandcastle and Strandkoerbe (leo-translator says "roofed wicker beach chair" :D anyway, it's a very traditional seating thing you will find at any beach in Germany). Exp. 1/160; f/5.6; ISO 200.
This is a dead tree at the Haus Weitmar in Bochum. It is considered art. ;) I shot it in BW and boosted the contrast later. Exp. 1/160; f/3.5; ISO 100.
Ivy leaves also at Haus Weitmar. This photo probably accomplishes the challenge best. Exp. 1/125; f/6.3; ISO 200.
Day 10: Lens Flare
Lens flare happens when you shoot directly into a light source. The light beams hit the lens and break up into the color spectrum, creating those beautiful flares in the image. You can use them as a creative tool.
Since I came home really late today, I did not take a lens flare picture today. But I found a very good example in my picture folder.
I took this somewhere near Clarholz while I was driving around taking landscape photos with my grandpa. Notice how the sun beams become separately visible and turn violet at the tips. To the right of the back-tire there are a couple more flares in orange and green. Exp. 1/60; f/16; ISO 100.
I also found one picture that actually combines all three challenges!
This was again taken at Haus Weitmar. The sunset creates a golden glow, the background is made up of beautiful spots and there is a little bit of a green lens flare around the sinking sun. Exp. 1/60; f/6.3; ISO 200.
This was a very long post so shout out to you for having read through all of it!
As always, comments and suggestions are very much appreciated!
Love,
Eileen
