23. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

This week I want to continue our “water” exercise.

we had finally the first winter rain in the Central California Valley. This opened up some great opportunities for photographing water. I found this water puddle on a wooden picnic table. I wandered around the table looking at the light reflection and took several shots. This one I liked the best.

Enjoy and keep on photographing!

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20. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

Water is highly reflective. I photographed the reflection of the sun in the later afternoon. The plants in the water added an interesting pattern to the image.

Enjoy and keep on photographing!

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19. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

It was so dark that the autofocus did not work anymore. I had to estimate the distance and adjust the lens manually. Normally I try to shoot flowing water at around 1 second exposure time if I want to create this very soft flowing effect. In this image the exposure time was 30 seconds at f5.6 and ISO 800. Of course I used a tripod in this image.

Enjoy and keep on photographing!

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18. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I photographed these incoming waves from the top of a balcony at the San Francisco Cliffhouse.  I wanted to catch the dynamic of the waves and their fascinating energy.

Enjoy and keep on photographing!

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17. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I observed the birds taking a bath in this fountain. So I mounted my camera and 100-400mm lens on a tripod and waited. I shot several images. This is the one I liked.

Enjoy and keep on photographing!

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16. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I challenge you to photograph water for the next two weeks. Water is all around us and we need water to survive. Currently there is a drought in California and whenever we miss something important like water, we realize how important it really is.

We had this exercise already in October of 2010. If you did it then then photograph it again and see that you come up with different images. Don’t forget to enjoy you photography!

I photographed this small water fountain in front of a store in Carmel, CA. I love the colors in this image!

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14. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I went to the California coast yesterday. Right before sunset I went to the beach to photograph the waves against the sunset. Normally the fiery ball of the sun is in the center of attention. I wanted to create an image where the sun is used to show the dramatic of the high waves.

Enjoy and keep on creating images!

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13. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I like the different “quality of the light in this image. The highlights are totally differently reflected from the silver shining candy wrapper in comparison to the black surface on the bottom. Also see the small green spot created by the reflection on the edge of the candy wrapper.

Observing the light and how it reacts and how it can be manipulated and used to create an interesting image is on of the great fundamentals for every photographer!

Enjoy and have a great week-end!

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12. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I noticed that the inside of of the Chocolate wrapper had a nice reflective surface. In addition, the backlight created some very nice shadows. I took several shot with different f-stops. Also, notice how much attention the letters draw!

Enjoy and keep on trying to create beautiful images!

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11. January 2012 by Friedhelm.

I changed my set-up again. In this image I used a small flash set behind my subject. The flash is connect via cable and PC-connector to my camera. I collected small candy rapper that would give me besides the expected shadows also some reflection and maybe some interesting light pattern.

Enjoy and keep on experimenting with backlight!

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