May 16, 2011

Experimental Photography


I have always been interested in what a camera can do.  How it can capture light and how it shapes it with different exposure techniques.  My interest grew when I started playing with light and long exposures at night, and ever since then I've been finding new ways to capture a photograph. 

On the road awhile back I did some photographing out of a moving car.  Realistically and photographically this is usually a bad idea.  Nothing ever really comes of it except perhaps a reminder to come back to a certain area and stop for a real picture.  So, I took on a challenge.  I wanted to see what I could get from a moving car and how unique I could be in my approach.  In this case it was more of an accident than purposeful experimentation.  We drove through a wooded canyon with snow dusted trees with the morning sun coming though the clouds.  I rolled down the window to see if I could get some of the beauty when I shot this picture.  I had accidentally used a slow shutter speed making the photo come out nearly completely blown out.  In Adobe Lightroom I brought back the detail and turned it black and white and this is how it ended up.  Not sure what I think about it, but it's kind of cool looking.

Another experimental shot taken with a Holga toy camera using double exposure.  When composing this shot I knew I wanted to do a double exposure to really get the corners dark to focus on the subject and to put two simple images together to make a more complex one.  It makes an ordinary shot of empty beer bottles on asphalt a little more interesting. 
I like experimenting with film, because sometimes you don't know how the picture is going to turn out until it's developed.  With this picture I was getting adjusted to my dad's old Minolta camera.  A few of the photos had a white stripe going through them.  I'm not sure what happened to the film, but on some of them the effect was kind of cool looking.  

I love trying new things with a camera.  If you want to get better at photography get out and experiment with different effects. 

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