Serendipity.

By curiousillusion ( December 6, 2009 at 5:40 pm) · Filed under photography, seasons, , ,

Serendipity.  A fortunate accident.   Also, the name of the movie I am currently watching (omg I love John Cusack). But I started watching the movie after I came up with the title.

One of the things that I struggle with is composition of my photographs.  I get too into *what* I am taking a picture of, and I forget that if I frame the picture a certain way, it can completely change everything.  It’s something I’m still working on and probably will always be working on.

Now, as a preface: I don’t consider these pictures that I’m sharing superb, excellent, the best pictures *ever*.  Heck, I know that there’s probably a million different ways to improve them. However, I do think the sequence of events that happened which led to the final product are pretty interesting, and I am kind of pleased with what I ended up with after all.

It all started when I remembered that we had bought some Christmas ornaments the other day that I really wanted to take a picture of.  My dad had just put up the Christmas tree and we were settling down to eat lunch so I set up the shot that I wanted to take and took a few pictures.  I was experimenting with focusing manually too, to see how that would work out for me.

Step 1 Meh, the lighting wasn’t great so I think that’s why the shot is kinda blurry looking.  Although playing with manual focus is fun!  That being said, I think the focus is on the wrong ornament, if you will.

Then I was told to put the camera down and eat lunch.  Boo.  But as soon as I was done eating, I took a few more shots, this time messing with different settings on the camera. Which led to this:

Step 2 Testing out the flash… and a different angle.

Okay, then I moved *myself* to try to get the shot from a different angle.  And I thought it was kind of neat:

Step 3 Kind of interesting, I do like the blue-green background.

And then, one more move and bam!  I found my picture:

[6/24] Serendipity Ohhh Christmas tree bokeh.

Btw, my dad totally doesn’t get bokeh.  He goes, “why do you spend so much money on a camera to take out of focus pictures.”  Sigh.  Because it’s beautiful.

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  • great shots!

    I haven't had time to really start playing yet...soon VERY soon!
  • Start playing!!
  • That last shot is so lovely! I love when happy "accidents" like this happen. I also love seeing your progression of pictures. Such a cool learning experience. The composition on that last one is just perfect though. Congrats!
  • Hee hee thanks! Happy accidents seem to happen with this camera a lot. My camera must be lucky!
  • Quave
    Yay for dads and their amazingly insightful comments!
    I like the sequence of events.
    Do you have an external flash? If not, have you tried sticking things in front of the flash to weaken it a bit? Like a single layer of Kleenex or something like that.
    Anyway... nice one :)
  • Pffft, with what money would I have bought the external flash? And yeah I need to try that tip. Hmm...
  • Quave
    Does your dad have an external flash? Borrow it! :) (Then move out).
  • That's a lovely final shot Ari - definitely sounds like you're having fun with the new camera!
  • I am having fun!
  • Hehe. What was the aperture for this particular photo? Did you manually focus? I think the bokeh looks amazing, but I either woould stop down a little bit to gt a little more of the balls in focus or, think of if you let the foreground ball out of focus and manually focused on the two in the back.

    The picture is good I think, I'm just trying to stimulate your compositional brain a little since you're working on it :D

    And yes, when it comes to friends and family, I constantly have to tell them to use their "art brain" with regard to photos.:)
  • The aperture was f/5.0 and yes, I manually focused. So stop down... So I should have tried it at f/5.3 or f/5.6 instead? (still trying to get the hang of all the photography lingo)

    Hmmm, I see what you mean. Thanks for your suggestions.
  • lovelyinlux
    Love the pictures!! Can I download one and use is as my desktop background? I'll take that as a "yes". No worries, I promise to at no time take any credit for it. :-)
  • Ha ha, sure! Actually you just made me realize I should use one as MY desktop background. I had some lame ugly pic from ages ago still up.
  • joe
    I am ROFL at your dad's comment! love that last shot Ari. I would recommend shooting in program rather than auto for now. you can change the settings and the flash won't pop up automatically. when shooting in manual, just remember that iso, shutter and aperture all work together. faster iso with slower shutter, and wider open aperture is what you want for indoor flash free pictures. the d90 does great at higher iso settings, so don't be afraid to bump it to 800 or 1000 if needed. looks like you have had a terrific weekend playing with the baby. :)
  • Thanks Joe!
  • Oh that is beautiful bokeh. Love it. I don't really like using the flash although the one you had the flash on for is really nice - but a friend showed me at the weekend that if you get some normal white paper and fold it a couple of times, then use that to block the flash, it softens it really nicely.
  • Oh that is beautiful bokeh. Love it. I don't really like using the flash although the one you had the flash on for is really nice - but a friend showed me at the weekend that if you get some normal white paper and fold it a couple of times, then use that to block the flash, it softens it really nicely.
  • Yeah I'm not a fan of the flash. And thanks for the tip, I'll have to try it.
  • I love that last shot. There's an interesting optical illusion that seems to be happening there where the colored light bokeh makes it almost seem to move.
  • Ah yes, I was going for the movement optical illusion the entire time. :)
  • Great pictures. Wish I could take them as good as you. I especially like the last one
  • I just get lucky. Lol! Don't tell anyone!
  • I'm the slow one who had to google bokeh. The last picture is so pretty. I love pictures like that, and always have although I didn't know the technical term for it.

    I can't stand John Cusack. I hate watching any movie with him in it. 2012 was a long pain in the ass, room 1408 irked me. I think its just him...
  • Aw sorry. Bokeh is mentioned on flickr a lot so I just figure that everyone knows what it is.

    Okay but 2012 was supposedly not good anyway and 1408 bugged me too. You can't blame John Cusack for those!
  • Gurrl - I absolutely love the bottom photo of the gold ornaments and the colorful bokeh!
  • Gurrl - I absolutely love the bottom photo of the gold ornaments and the colorful bokeh!
  • Aww thank you!
  • TotallyHeather
    Love love love your bokeh!

    I watched Serendipity the other day and thought of you and Ashley. Netflix suggested I watch it again.
  • Hee hee thanks! And how nice of Netflix!
  • justtheashes
    If you're good at getting bokeh dots (Im definitely not!) you should try this. I could never get it to work, cause I suck... but maybe you can.

    http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_create_your_o...
  • I remember seeing that a while back, I'll try it.

    Bokeh dots aren't that hard when you get the hang of it. Basically you need to focus on something up close to you and have the lights in the background so that they are out of focus.
  • Lucy
    Yeah my mum went on my photo stream and saw a photo titled flower bokeh, she was like Lucy you spelled it wrong It's flower bouquet lol.
  • Oh that is funny!
  • A.) I also LOVE John Cusack. He's just so darn endearing!

    B.) The last two photos are absolutely gorgeous. Maybe your Dad just doesn't "get" art? My husband's one of those, and I am constantly trying to make him understand why I paint what I paint, and how. He tries, but it's futile.
  • Mmmhmmm. But you can't have John Cusack. He's mine.

    Ha ha, yeah I don't think he gets art. Actually my dad thought the third pic was "different". Maybe in a good way?
  • beautiful colored light bokeh! That last image really is perfect. I love those moment of serendipity! So fun.
  • Thanks Beryl. Light bokeh pretty much rocks.
  • the last photo is SO gorgeous!!! I love love love the christmas tree light bokeh!
  • Thanks so much!
  • Carol
    Awesome progression. It's great to see.
  • Aw thanks.
  • Very nice... you really ended up with a great image!
  • Thank you!
  • *snort* Your dad's comment made me laugh out loud. Here's a conversation I had with FireDad the other day.

    Me: *takes off my glasses* Hey, when I take off my glasses, do you know what the Christmas lights look like?!
    FireDad: Like what you do with your camera?
    Me: YES!

    haha

    Great progression.
  • Lol! I see bokeh everywhere now! And thanks. :)
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