Capturing the sunrise

Last week when I left class I was totally inspired by the guy who takes black and white photographs. I was especially impressed with the concept of “Where you stand..and when you press the button”. I made it my mission to make this weekend an exercise in photography. My friends and I had planned a trip to St. Augustine and I was delighted at the opportunity for capturing beautiful images.

I remembered Kobre’s advice of getting the overall pictures and the medium and close up shots to convey different moods. Initially, on the road it was mostly photographs of the scenery trying to get the overall picture. It all seemed to blur past, making for very bad images and sometimes very surreal ones. That is when I started learning how to use my friends fancy zoom lens camera. I put it into sports mode and lo and behold! Suddenly the scenery didn’t look like a scene from a Nascar race.

Then I tried taking these “medium shots” of some people in the back of a pick up truck. That however, made me feel very paparazzi-like, especially when the subjects gave me some dirty looks. Not a good idea fellow photographers! (Unless of course, you are an investigative journalist)

However, most times I tried sticking to taking pictures without too much interference by the equipment, i.e., zooming in and out, changing modes and all that kind of thing. Remember…where you stand and when you click.

But, there was one aspect I was really interested in, which was taking pictures in soft, evening light and retaining the softness of the light (not making it look like a day shot), and simultaneously making sure they didn’t look all dark either. For that, I exposed the lens to the light (basically leaving the shutter open so it lets the light seep in for about 30 seconds), and then clicked, so there wasn’t too much light from the flash, or too little from not letting enough light in.

In all the scenery shots, I mostly concentrated on composition. I must admit, Professor McAdams’ advice of looking at the frame of the picture before shooting really made a difference. It is amazing how much difference half an inch of interference can make.

Coming back to the Kobre reading, his advice about arriving early and leaving late is not very new to me. My father who is a Public Relations Officer and a journalist ALWAYS dishes out that kind of advice. Hence, reading Kobre’s suggestions on how to network to get stories, etc. felt like revisiting teenage memories. I must admit though, I have seen in my father’s case, how well it works. I have proof that Kobre knows what he is talking about.