Photography: Behind the Photographs

I came across a really cool book the other day. Behind the Photographs, by Tim Mantoani, features over 150 photographs of famous photographers holding their most iconic photograph. Tim uses a large format Polaroid 20x24 Land Camera to take the photos. It is fascinating to see the faces behind some of the most well know photos of the last 50 years.

 {all images by Tim Mantoani}

The images are featured in two editions of a book that can be purchased here.

Beautiful Photos

One of my favorite things to find on the web is a beautiful photo. An amazing photo can capture so many emotions, and often says more then words ever could. As an amateur photographer, I'm always trying to capture that special something in each photo I take. Most of the time the perfect shot is elusive, but every now and then you see a shot on the screen that is even better than you hoped it could be.

These two caught my eye today.

 {The Milky Way. Photo by andyspictures via Flickr}

{Magical Sparkles. Photo by Images by John 'K' via Flickr}

Stephanie Rausser: Photographer

I don't remember when or where I first discovered the work of Stephanie Rausser, but when I clicked over to her site I was blown away! Her photos are full of so much love, emotion, color, and life!  I want to jump right into her photos and join in the action because it just looks like so much fun!

{all photos by Stephanie Rausser}

Photography: Downtown D.C.

I bought a new set of Lightroom presets the other day and decided to try them out on some photos I took last weekend in downtown D.C. The presets are Cinnamon Rose Zing presets for Adobe Lightroom. I love the pop of color these presets added to my photos!

Lots of colorful row houses in D.C.:

I loved the white with red trim and touches of black in this row house:

I love this shot of the Washington Monument. The grass is so green, the trees blooming white, and the flag's color really pops. I think it's interesting how the color of the stone in the monument changes halfway up:

This is actually the EPA building, but I loved the carvings in the front. Even office buildings in D.C. are beautiful!

The Capitol! I took several shots of the Capitol and tried different presets on each shot for several different looks. Which do you like best? I think I like the first one best myself:

I don't know where these statues were, but I love how the photo turned out:

This was a pretty stone church we passed, and I loved the contrast of the door with the stone:

Flickr Magic

Today is such a gloomy day outside; I think I'm beginning to suffer from SAD! To cheer myself up, I decided to pull together my favorite cheery, yellow photos on Flickr. Enjoy!

1. {another summer ferris wheeel♥}, 2. 14/365, 3. Sun kissed daisies, 4. “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”, 5. ., 6. meyer lemon gift, 7. Birch-keh, 8. Chloe Aftel Photography, 9. alive, 10. Untitled, 11. "rise and touch the sky", 12. sunshine, 13. Untitled, 14. lemon girl, 15. The Photographer - Day 82/365 (explore), 16. .yellow yumminess., 17. Untitled, 18. Gorro - Semana 10/52, 19. waiting for spring, 20. Spring is comming to town

Alexey Titarenko: Photographer

Russian Photographer Alexey Titarenko views the crowds of people rushing through cities as streams of water. His lovely photographs reflect this, turning crowds of individuals into a stream of humanity. See his portfolio here.

(images from Alexey Titarenko via NPR.)

Holger Thoss: Photographer

I love, love, love these family panoramas taken by photographer Holger Thoss.  The panoramas merge several shots taken of the same people into one image. Just beautiful! His landscapes and portraits are also amazing. Check out his website here.

(images from Holger Thoss.)

Fave New Blog

Two of my favorite Shutter Sisters have started a new blog. Called London vs. Paris, the blog is a "photographic treasure hunt" between Irene Nam's home in Paris and Xanthe Berkeley's home in London. They photograph the same subject in their own cities, then post the resulting diptych. I love photographic collaborations like this and can't wait to see more!

(images from London vs. Paris.)

Rinne Allen: Photographer

As you may know, I love great food photography. I would love to develop my skills in this area and love to study beautiful photos of food to see how they're styled and lighted.

Photographer Rinne Allen has some beautiful food photos on her site, among other images. She has a garden at her home in Georgia, and loves to photograph details and document process. Check out her portfolio here.

(via Creature Comforts.)

Andrea Hubner: Photographer

German photographer Andrea Hubner takes beautiful, dreamy images, using not only a Canon SLR, but also a Hasselblad, Holga, and Polaroid. She is inspired by people and nudes, but I am especially drawn to her beautiful nature shots. Check out her portfolio here and her shop here.

(via Creature Comforts.)

Photography Class #5

This week we learned about shutter speed and experimented with both slow and fast shutter speeds, and with manual mode. Why use shutter priority you might ask? The trick is to know what you want out of your photo. If you want a shallow depth of field or conversely everything in focus, you would probably want to choose aperture priority mode. If you want to blur the background or the subject to give a sense of motion, you would want shutter priority mode. A good example of this would be taking photos of a waterfall or ocean waves. If you want those beautiful, soft shots of water pouring over rocks you would use a very slow shutter, or if you want to catch all the water drops mid-air you would use a very fast shutter speed.

The part that has always confused me is the numbers. When I looked through my camera I could never figure out what the numbers on the bottom of the viewfinder meant: 25, 100, 8000. Basically those are fractions of a second, so you just have to remember to put a 1/ in front of those numbers. So: 1/25, 1/100, 1/8000. The higher the number the smaller the fraction of a second, so the faster the shutter speed. That's why it's as confusing as aperture--it's always backwards! When something's higher it means smaller or when something's bigger the number is smaller. Why couldn't they make it easy! Once you understand it though, it does begin to make sense.

So the assignment this week was to first of all try shooting in manual mode, which I could now do once I understood the way the numbers all work. Secondly we were to experiment with different shutter speeds, both fast and slow. I tried two basic ways of shooting with a slow shutter. First, while my son rode his bike in front of me I tried panning my camera with him in order to blur the background while leaving him (hopefully) in focus. It's not always easy to get the speed and timing right on this one! Second, I held the camera still while he rode by, thereby keeping the background in focus but blurring him. I also tried the panning method with my other son running by me. Which do you prefer?

My favorite is the top left photo as I think I was able to keep my son in focus while still showing movement. It's a great mode to experiment with--try it and have fun!

Flickr Magic

magic a photo by Hanna Lerski on Flickr.

a photo by Bryant Thompson on Flickr.

Small world a photo by IrenaS on Flickr.

Vol sur Marymoor, a photo by Sparth on Flickr.


untitled, by Ashatay on Flickr.




untitled, by Dream's Photography on Flickr.