This was a great week, it was a lot calmer than last week, and I also did a little bit of experimenting with shots, lenses, and some editing.
I also wanted to start by saying I completely forgot to write about last week. I did go out and shoot a few times, but writing about it completely missed me. I'll do a quick recap here: I went out and took photos around capitol square on Tuesday (5/5) and didn’t get too much other than a high contrast shot of the capitol building with a man walking past. I also got some film scans back which were from rolls taken in Richmond, NYC, and Chicago. They all look great and I’ll share some of the favorites down below. Then, at the end of the week I went to Pony Pasture for sunrise and got a beautiful shot facing upriver, which is somehow an angle I haven't really shot before, but I’m glad I did it turned out so well!
Apologies for the absence of last week, now back to this week!
Tuesday
Tuesdays seem to be my day to start shooting for the week, I don’t mean to do it on purpose, just noticing a pattern! Anyways, I went out during my lunch break and took a little walk around a small part of Jackson Ward in Richmond. It was bright, hot, and not ideal for any shooting, but I still went out. My plan was to go for some shots with a little bit of color and then in the edit, go for a flatter look. I’m not too sure if I accomplished that, but looking back at the photos I wasn’t feeling too inspired by anything.
I still gave it an effort and two of the better shots are of the Hippodrome, and a random street corner. I like the Hippodrome shot, but I think the biggest thing I would try differently, is to shoot it straight on. There isn’t any special reason for it to be shot at an angle, the light was harsh no matter what, so it would all be pretty much the same.
Wednesday
I went out on another photo walk during lunch today, but this time I was challenging myself a little to only use my wide angle 24mm prime lens. It was different. I’m so used to shooting in the 35 to 70mm range when doing street photography, so it took me some time seeing wider shots. Which I find kind of interesting because when I’m shooting landscapes, I usually visualize my shots with a wide angle. Anyways, it took some getting used to.
I did grab a shot of some people outside smoking, I was able to have the camera at my hip and get real close. I then cropped it to a 1:1 crop to get rid of the street and other distractions in the frame. I then made my way over to the capitol square and got some shots that, looking back, felt safe. Just some wide shots of buildings and the capitol building, I even retreaded an old composition, but just at a wider angle.
It was as I started my walk back and was about to put the camera away when I snapped the shot of the week. I was crossing Broad Street and saw a guy crossing the other road. He then stopped and waited for a second or so for some cars to go by. He was facing away from me, but him combined with the monolithic city hall building towering above, I saw the shot.
The edit is where everything came to life, the RAW shot had the base ingredients, but I just needed to bring it all together. The editing process was truly so much fun for this shot, and it is one of my favorites. Everything was perfect for a high contrast image, the angle of the building, where the guy was standing, and the other shadows being cast by the surrounding buildings.
Friday
I got some film scans back that were from a few camera test rolls. Over a year ago I got an old fully mechanical rangefinder from a friend for free and I slowly shot through that roll over 6 months or so. Then I got a Canon AE-1 from another friend of mine, and I shot the roll back in November of last year, but was holding onto the roll for so long.
To my surprise, both cameras turned out great! The AE-1 had more confidence in, it looked like it had been taken care of and those things are built like tanks. It was the other camera, a Petri 45 from the 50’s, that I was not confident in at all, but it gave great results.
I do see myself using the AE-1 more, it’s a great camera and a lot of fun to shoot. However, even though the Petri works well, it’s a little limited in its usage. Its max shutter speed is 1/250, and since it’s old and a bit worn, the focus screen in the viewfinder is a little faded and anything that’s not infinity becomes tough to find focus. It’s still a fun little camera and maybe I can find something to do with it in the future.
Saturday Part 1
On Saturday I went over to Forest Hill Park just after sunrise to shoot some of the small waterfalls along Reedy Creek. When I got there I was the only person in the whole park, which felt odd at first since I’ve only been there when it’s busy. I made my way over to the creek and began scrambling all over the rocks looking for the waterfalls. I found the biggest of them first and spotted a shot, but I wanted to go up just a little more to see what else was around. I then stumbled upon this scene where there was a small ledge made out of stone that had a little bit of water falling over in a few different spots. The exciting part about it though was that there was a large portion that was hollowed out and there was water flowing through it, and coming from a hole on the other side. This made for an interesting effect when looking through that I had to find a composition for.
I brought my telephoto lens this time, which came in really handy for these shots because the cave/tunnel under this ledge was a few feet long, and I was a couple feet back from the entrance. I was messing around with a few angles, with one using some rocks as a frame, then the other was fully focused on the inside of the cave. I’m flip flopping on which one I like better, at first it was the one fully in the cave. Now though, I’m liking the one with the rocks as a frame more, it brings in more of the environment and feels less chaotic. After I fiddled around for a little bit and got a few shots I was happy with, then made my way back down to the larger falls
I will say that when I say larger falls, it’s not that big, at most it’s roughly 2 feet tall. The water comes from a small cascade of a couple small falls, then leads into the larger one, which falls into a pool of water. On one end are a few large boulders acting as a wall for the pool, which then opens up on the other side. I sat on a small rock on the open end of the pool, facing the waterfall, then went in really tight so that there are only rocks and the main part of the falls. I played around with the composition a couple of times, but eventually ended up on this final shot.
I like how with the previous shot, it uses rocks as framing for the main subject. What I also was trying to do was make it seem like this small waterfall was much larger than it is, which the telephoto lens helps out with a lot here. I’m happy with this shot, and it was a lot of fun working on something a little different that I haven't really done in a long time. I have a couple of trips planned this summer that will feature some larger waterfalls that I’m super excited to shoot, so I’m getting myself warmed up.
Later in the morning I met up with a friend of mine at Pony Pasture to do a landscape photo walk! It honestly felt a little odd only because I am never there when there are a lot of people around, and there were a LOT of people around! It was still a lot of fun though. Since it was closer to midday and the sun was a lot harsher, I went in with the plan of getting some scenes that were full of trees and other greenery.
The first shot I got was of a small section of forest that stopped me, mostly due to the light shining through the leaves, everything was backlit and had a dreamy quality to it. To get the shot just right I had to stand and perch myself on a tall, skinny rock that didn’t offer much foot space. I did this because if I stayed on the ground, there would have been a big jumbled mess of bushes and branches cluttering up the bottom of the frame. It is slightly visible in the final shot, but it’s so little that it just blends in with the rest of the grass.
We continued on through the forest, and similar to the last shot, I spotted a break in the trees that allowed for light to shine through. This one is slightly different in that the light is more focused to one side, there is more contrast and it’s only in a couple of spots. I also like the tree and pile of logs in the background, they bring in a little bit of color contrast and help break up the complete wash of greens and yellows, even if it’s only a small portion.
One thing that’s tricky about shooting in conditions like this is how harsh the sun is. It creates bright highlights, and deep shadows, so there is a lot of dynamic range. For these shots I was underexposing by around 2 full stops, to bring down the highlights as much as I could, and looking back I probably could have done more, to really make sure the highlights didn’t get as blown out.
I got a few other shots, but nothing to report back on, most of them were either too bright in the highlights to recover, or too dark in the shadows to recover. All in all though, I had a good time, it was nice to get out and shoot no matter what! It was also a great week of shooting, the weather was beautiful, conditions were perfect, and I got out a lot. Couldn't ask for anything better!
Here are a few shots from the previous week!
