A way to make web shots interesting

What struck me about these shots — stills from a CNN video — is how they made interesting pictures of what could have been simple shots of websites.  More generally, the point is that it’s worth looking at a lot of visual material to look for ideas about how to make images more interesting.  (Yes, when I’m bored I do watch silly videos, and not all of them are cats.)  The one quoting a Daily Show spokesperson has a video in the background.  Note also that 2 websites used in the same report (PETA and Alliance for Animals) are taken from different perspectives, adding a little more interest to the video.


Playing with Whitebalance

While camping, I played with some of the white balance when taking pictures of the campfire. Made for some interesting photos of the fire.

Edit- While taking the photo of the fire, I manually set my camera’s white balance (it is one of the white balance options). The camera tries to reset the white balance in accordance to the scene, which caused the change in color of the flame.

Colors from around the world

Thought you might enjoy the bright hues in this post. Having lived in Tokyo for over a year, I can attest to the multiplicity of colorful photo opportunities in Japan! I know these posted examples focus more on color than overall composition, but I was a little surprised by the pic of the Colombian rainbow over the coffee fields, which is nice if you take the time to read between the lines …

iPhones, Apps, and “Serious” Photography

More about the Hipstamatic images that made the front page of the NY Times

From the NYTimes Lens Blog:

Damon Winter of The New York Times has won third place for feature picture story from Pictures of the Year International (albeit anonymously, for the time being) with photographs taken on an iPhone using the Hipstamatic app. Critics have pounced. The debate over the propriety of using apps, already hot, is intensifying.

AM shots

Photography on the way to class

I spent a long time trying to get a photo of these flowers on my coffee table. It turns out my entire living room is filled with while cabinets, trim, and glass that reflects the sun in the morning. I’m still not quite happy with the picture, but here it is. My plan was to get one photo at home, one on the way to BART, and one in Berkeley, but I only managed to get the first 2 photos since I spent too long trying to get a better flower shot.

RedEye Photo Challenge winner

I am sharing my friend Matt’s winning entry in Chicago’s RedEye Photo Challenge. Over 2,000 photos were submitted after last week’s Great Blizzaster (which dumped 26″ of snow on the Chicagoland area!) so I’m extra proud 🙂 I love the subject, composition, light, and colors. He has other interesting pictures on his site, which the editor mentions in the accompanying blurb. After our discussion about composition today, I thought you might enjoy seeing this (and the other 31 top entries)!

N.B.: You’ll need to scroll all the way to the right to see Matt’s photo (the snowman pic that shows up on this link’s page is actually #32; the picture scroll is right below the enlarged image).