Every December we poll the community asking what themes you want to cover the next year. And every year some form of "creative techniques" is thrown out there. Well, this is our 4th year doing this project and we FINALLY tackled creative techniques!
I'll be honest, it wasn't a theme I was overly excited about. Maybe that's why we've dragged our heels on doing it. When I was grumbling about it in our admin chat, Wendi tossed out a reply along the lines of: "But you always come up with something great."
That line made me pause. Not from the compliment (that was nice, of course), but because it reminded me of why we initially started this project -- to try new things, to experiment, to learn, to grow.
Sadly, I had become uninspired, coasting through the project. I was particpating out of habit. Four years, you guys! Four years I've been doing this. I've never missed a single week. Somewhere along the way, though, I lost my passion for it.
Although I might not have been particpating in this project wholeheartedly for a while now, I was still doing the work. Imagine what I can do if I actually put my whole heart into it?!
Here's my reminder to anyone that needs to hear it right now:
Inspiration is not a constant. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes it flows freely. Sometimes it's stuck. Sometimes we experience periods of huge growth. Sometimes we're stagnant. But it's all part of the process. And every part of the process is imporant.
If you find yourself stuck, be kind to yourself. I've tried all sorts of things to unstick myself from whatever inspiration rut I was in. Mostly, though, the thing that works the best is to just sit and wait and listen. When your next wave hits--because it will--you'll be ready.
Now on to the real reason for this post -- your work!
Speaking of inspiration, holy cow, you guys showed up this month! I'm blown away! Enjoy these images from our community.
xo Angie Mahlke
Gear: Canon 6D Mark II with 20mm 2.8
Settings: f/22 ~ 1/5 ~ ISO 100
The Shot: Intentional Camera Movement. My intent was to capture ICM with the leaves to mimick fall and the leaves falling off the tree.
Post Processing: Edited in Lightroom with basically just brightening it a bit, reducing the highlights and increase shadows.
Gear: Canon rebel t6i 18-55mm lens at 55
Settings: ISO 100, f18, 8 sec
The Shot: I set up the camera on a tripod and used a 2 second timer to reduce shake. My daughter and I were at the Bonneville Salt Flats, equipped with the necessary tools for this shot: a dog leash, a whisk, steel wool, and matches. We fluffed up a piece of the steel wool, tucked it into the whisk, then clipped the whisk onto the end of the leash. She lit it on fire and got it spinning!
Post Processing: I bumped up exposure and brightness to reveal the just-past-sunset blue coloring of the sky and mountains.
Gear: Nikon d3400, nikkor 50mm 1.4 antique, manual lens
Settings: SO 800, 1/500 and I think the f-stop was about 5
The Shot: I got right down in the grass to intentionally place the sun in the back and freelensed the last little clover.
Post Processing: Edited in snapseed. Raised the highlights, saturation and clarity just a bit and that's it.
Gear: Canon 6D, 35 Sigma Art. Settings
Settings: ISO/320, Fstop/2.5, Exposure-1/100
The Shot: I saw the perfect morning sun coming through our front door and had my son sit directly in it. I loved how the light made rainbow like colors considering how he is my rainbow baby.
Post Processing: I opened in camera raw and made most of my adjustments there. I added lots of contrast and lowered shadows quite a bit. I then opened in PS, added a GTG action and tweaked to my liking.
Gear: Nikon D3400, 20mm
Settings: ISO 100, f/29, 1/4s
The Shot: I used a slow shutter speed and then zoomed in at the same time as I took the photo.
Post Processing: Increased contrast and warmed the white balance up slightly.
Gear: Canon 6D Mark ii, Lensbaby Sol45
Settings: ISO 2000, f/3.5 (fixed), 1/320 sec
The Shot: I used my Sol 45 to focus on my daughter while she played in the yard. I then set up my multiple exposure settings and asked my son and his friend to run across the yard, intentionally keeping them out of focus. I liked the way they looked like ghosts in the shot- perfect for Halloween!
Post Processing: edited this in Lightroom using a Tribe Archipelago preset. I increased highlights, whites, and clarity and played around with the HSL panel. The double exposure of the grass over my daughter's face created a tricky skin tone, so I took the photo and merged it with the original shot of just her in Photoshop to eliminate the green cast.
Gear: Canon R6 with Canon RF28-70 at 28mm and Flashpoint R2 flash at full power
Settings: 1/5 sec, f18 ISO 160
The Shot: I wanted to play around with using flash to do some creative effects so I decided to balance ambient light and flash to capture movement. I put on some music for my daughter to dance to and experimented with capturing motion. I used rear curtain sync at the end of a longer exposure so my daughter had streaks where she had moved but the flash froze her as the shutter closed. I like the airy effect and I'm already thinking of different ways to play with it more.
Post Processing: Adjusted exposure in LR. Decreased highlights. Increased dehazing because it made the movement trails more distinct. Desaturated a bag that was on the floor in the corner because it was distracting. Cropped in closer.
Gear: Nikon d7100 and Nikon 50mm 1.8
Settings: iso 250 and f4 and -1ev
The Shot: I was at my sister’s house waiting for her to finish up a meeting so went for a walk in her yard. I love the texture on old dried hydrangeas. Removed my 50mm lens and turned it backwards. Had to work with a slight breeze since I shot it as is on the bush.
Post Processing: I prefer my macro shots with a matte finish so I adjusted in LR with a matte preset. Pulled down exposure a little as well but not many adjustments.
Gear: Canon Rebel T6 50mm
Settings: ISO 100, f22, 2sec
The Shot: This ended up being really fun! I used shutter priority inside of manual to help me with this one. In my daughter's room with window light, I had her look at me and when I released the shutter, we counted to 1 and she moved her head to the side and then back. It took several tries, but I loved how it turned out.
Post Processing: Edited in Lightroom with black and white preset. I lowered the exposure to help add even more contrast.
Gear: Nikon D810, Nikkor 24-70 2.8
Settings: F2.8, 1/400 ISO64 at 38mm
The Shot: I asked my son to stand on a small table next to the window and I placed a prism in front of the lens.
Post Processing: I did basic adjustments in Lightroom (adjusted the white balance, lifted shadows on my son, decreased highlights on the sky and added some vibrance). In Photoshop I adjusted the perspective of the window.