Week 4

Paterson Great Falls

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks.  Besides working on my photography I've found a job!  Seems like a great bunch of people and my start date is the beginning of April.  This is a great opportunity as I am working from home full time.  Hopefully I won't go too stir crazy.  So that is my excuse for not posting last week.  Lame for sure but that's what I got.

Back to pictures.  My husband looks at my pictures and always asks how did you get that shot.  I've been thinking about it and I think that the answer is that I'm looking for it.  I look at things and think that would make a great picture.  While I may not have the technical knowledge and experience to capture the shot as I see as well as I'd like, I know that as I learn that will come.

The photo above was taken in Paterson, NJ.  Paterson is the third largest city in New Jersey and was established in 1792.  The city was designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant who also designed Washington, D.C.  In the late 1700's the falls were harnessed for energy and they provided power to many of the factories that still surround them today.  Paterson, NJ was in the heart of the Industrial Revolution and hundreds of years later it still is an urban center.  So why the history lesson?  Well the answer to that is personal for me.  You need to know that they are located not in some serene forest or some out of the way place that you'll never be able to visit.  They are in my back yard, in the center one of the most densely populated areas of the state.  While they no longer power the buildings surrounding them they still power the imagination. 

So that's what I offer you this week.  Take a look around you with different eyes whether you have a camera or not.

Photo Details:

Shutter Speed:     7.64
Aperture:            4.97
Focal Length:      150 mm
ISO Speed:           125

Week 2

Edited

Original

Well, its been a busy week.  I've gone through a bunch of photos, did some tweaking and filtering, started a deviantART account with the hopes of getting exposure and started to watch some really good video tutorials on lydia.com.  The lydia.com tutorials were on a recommendation of a fellow photographer that I asked to look over the photos I posted.  He's a photography hobbyist and felt that he couldn't really provide a critique but I think he is underestimating his talent.  Anywhoo, he was kind enough to give me a few pointers that I hope to be able to put to use in the coming weeks.  As for support on the home-front, my husband, James, thinks I have an eye for this sort of thing and encourages me which is great.  He also knows a lot about photo editing which is really helpful.  

Back to lydia.com... if you don't know, this is a paid membership site that provides video tutorials on various subjects, one of which is photography.  Some of this may be basic concepts so for intermediate to experienced photographs this is probably not for you.  But for someone who hasn't taken photography since high school it is well worth the membership for a month or two.  I feel like I learned a lot in just the hour or so that I watched.

Well, there you have it.  I hesitated about writing this for some reason but once I sat down to do it, voilà its done.  Tune in next week and hopefully I'll feel as accomplished.

Photo Details:

Shutter Speed:     1/60 second
Aperture:             F/5.6
Focal Length:       300 mm
ISO Speed:            400

For more photos:  http://wocket71.deviantart.com