Carla's Blog

What did I learn?  There is a really nice group of photographers out there.  Don’t cut off body limbs.  Think –  what do I want to say?  I must make the images my own. Be authentic to yourself. Photograph the reaction not the action. Think in metaphors. If I see a place that says to me I need to make a picture. Stay there, sit and wait. And the computer – Copy all raw into DNG when exporting from my camera. It’s not going to rain today. We’ll be at the wall on Valencia and 23rd putting up our images of San Francisco. These images are for the People.

Photos that are high key have a very beautiful look, in which there’s very low contrast with light tones and soft colors – in other words, a scene that’s mostly white/bright. This definition is cut and paste straight out of betterphoto.com! Bright fog came right up to the window. Sun from another window fell on the tulips.

With the help of nature’s fog and a free 15 day trial from Nik Software, Inc. – Silver Efex Pro I came up with this image. My model was a flat rusted sculpture of a man.

Using a tripod I took this shot on Christmas Eve. Apparently the “star” is in a small room at the top of the transamerica building. Three or five people can fit into the space if they make themselves small. f/13, -1.00, 30/1 seconds, did not fire, compulsory flash mode, ISO 100, White balance Auto white balance, 50.00 mm . Canon EOS Rebel XTi

“Sculpture’s Shadow” placed in the top ten of BetterPhoto.com’s Masterpiece Membership entries. Masterpiece Membership is made up of a group of people from around the world who participate in monthly assignments,  exchange of ideas and critiques. For this assignment, Visual Creativity, I worked with light, shadow and color. Instead of taking a photograph of the statue I took a photograph of  it’s shadow.  To me the shadow almost looks real.

When you take a picture always turn around and check out what is behind you.  The light may be working its magic there, too. After taking a picture of the amazing sunlit fog floating between the buildings, I turned around  in order to leave. But, right there, the sun, landing on a black stone sculpture, was casting its shadow on the wall. I just kept clicking. It was an  exciting half  hour.