“Bashful”

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Robyn Graham Photography

Last week when I was coming home from a run I noticed that my beloved peonies had all but wilted and the petals been discarded. At the time, there were only a few remaining flowers. Spring has been so rushed and harried with work and activities for the kids that I had almost missed the joy of photographing the peonies. That afternoon, instead of ironing and doing the banking, I cut the last of the living peonies and did some still life work. This was a time to be inspired, to create, take a deep breath and recharge my soul.

I didn’t have time to go to the studio, which means I didn’t have any back drops to use. I knew that for some of the shots I wanted a white back drop. I could have used a white table-cloth, or a sheet and hung them from a door, but, I didn’t feel like going to the trouble and I knew I could create the white back drop myself using light.

Using my Nikon D800 and my Nikkor 105mm 2.8 lens I set out to create. I grabbed some props, antique prescription bottles, an antique miniature milk bottle, a white cheese cloth, a black stool, some ribbon, and some sheets of music. I don’t know how long I moved around in front of my front door playing and creating. I lost all sense of time and felt so relaxed.

To create the white back drop effect I used only natural light. I metered my exposure on the flower so that it would be properly exposed and the backlight would be blown out. To avoid flare, I angled my lens down just enough to allow some haze, but to eliminate flare. I wanted this shot to be flawless and dreamy therefore colorful flare spots were not welcome. My settings are below for your reference:

ss 1/100 f 5.0 ISO 400

I could have worked with the above scenario for hours. But, alas, the kids needed to be picked up from school and driven to activities, and, honestly, my equipment is so heavy that after a considerable amount of time, my neck and arms begin to tire. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my equipment and the Nikon cameras and Nikkor lenses that I have give me great flexibility when working in the various areas of photography that I focus on. I do love them, but I have recently been evaluating mirrorless cameras, especially for travel and street work. Lighter weight cameras and lenses would be fabulous when having to hold or carry them for any length of time. In addition, I just recently came across a new camera that I found interesting. Light, is a compact camera that appears to have many features. I don’t know that it has the flexibility I need, but I think it is worth checking into for travel and street work. I thought I would share the link with you in the event you might have interest in a compact camera that appears to have a lot of great features.

To compare this photograph in black and white, please visit my Thursday post on Monochromia.

To view more of the photographs from this still life session, check back on the blog soon or follow me on Instagram. I post to Instagram much more frequently there.

Graffiti Artist

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Robyn Graham Photography

My family and I visited New York City yesterday. My husband and sons went to Yankee Stadium to watch Notre Dame play Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl. My daughter and I stayed in Manhattan and shopped, went to Central Park, took a carriage ride and went to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. As the day was intended to be a special day with my daughter I did not take one of my “good cameras”. Before we left home, however, I decided that I just couldn’t survive the day without being able to capture “that moment” that we might stumble upon. So, I grabbed our little family point and shoot Sony Cybershot and all 7.2 mega pixels that it has to offer. Of course, there were about 1000 opportunities to capture beautiful moments, but I didn’t have my “real camera” so I relied on the little point and shoot when my daughter allowed me the opportunity.

It actually proved to be quite fun. She wanted me to take pictures of everything! And she found such great pleasure in so many things that we took our time and stopped to shoot despite the fact that I knew I had no control over the light entering the camera or how the images would turn out. I kept thinking to myself that if the images were OK, the saying that I’ve heard so many times; “no wonder you take good pictures, you have a nice camera”, would prove worthless once and for all because taking good pictures is not the act of a camera’s automatic settings. The camera doesn’t control composition. Good composition in addition to knowing how to use a camera’s manual settings to control the light, motion, white balance, etc. that are being captured, are skills necessary to successfully make a good photograph.

So, with all of that said, take a look at what I captured with the little point and shoot camera. More to come over the next couple of days too!

The images below are of Bagdon using spray paint, plaster knives and various other objects to create art. My daughter and I were mesmerized by his work, the process he used and his talent. When I asked if he had been formerly trained in the techniques he was using he explained that he was a former graffiti artist. Simply put, it was really cool!

First Part of the Process

Making Stars

Using Tools to Create Details

The Finished Piece – a little crooked as I was holding my daughter’s hand at all times and taking pictures with just one hand – it can be done!

The “quality” of the images is not great as the resolution is so low. I was happy with the overall outcomes, however. You get the idea of what Bagdon’s creative process was and how he worked without having to look at completely inadequate compositions. You might be thinking, “why didn’t she just use her cell phone”. Well, because I didn’t want to run out of battery. 😉