Movement: Scott Kotelnicki

I believe it is the trail that leads to the shot that gives life and movement.      

That is my philosophical thought for the day.

Now how did I get the shot? When I found this spot I did some test shots for composition but know the sun was to high by this time and I would have to return early the next day to get that wonderful morning glow. For the composition shots I moved around and even got in the water to see different points of view. That ended day one.

Day two I was on site by 5:45 with a sunrise due at 6:00.

Once on site I cleans some of the scene from dead branches. I also thought the scene was lacking color so I added the green branches down on the lower left for foreground.

Some will disagree with any altering of the scene. 

Sorry but I took my chances at offending you folk.

I used a tripod and viewed my shot through "Live View" on the back of my camera.  I used a wide angle lens, 10-17 with a polarizer filter. The filter allowed me to shoot into the pool to reveal the texture of the sandy bottom.

My Len was on manual focus and my camera on manual so I could control the look of the water.

I shoot at f/22 @ 30 sec. with an ISO of 160.  In post production I did the usual dodge and burn, saturation and here I have added a white vignette  to keep your eyes from falling off the page which I felt was happening.

There is it folks my blog on movement.

www.kotelnickiphoto.com

Decay: Scott Kotelnicki

Decay is not always the sign of death but often the beginning of life.

In response to the classes comment about adding a grape to the bottom right to balance the color of the scene. Here it is.  I had shot several that way during my shoot and have added this version now.  I did like this look better except the shots have a strong light on the grapes and drew your eye towards the unfocused grape on top. The version you see now I used some post production to burn the grapes out. This dropped the contrast of that area and brings your eye back to the focal point of the raisin. Thank you for your crit!

Staying with the beauty of nature I shot this still life on my dining room table. Shooting with a the window blind open I had only residual light.  I waited patently for one beam of light to cross my scene. This was one of the first shots before the sunbeam crosses my set. When the beam finally did cross I didn't like the harsh contrast it left on the back of the raisins. Even with my reflector I was unable to fill in the area.  Here the lack of a harsh light lowered the contrast and gives an even light across the seen. The reflector I used was gold to bring a warmer glow.  Below is a snap shot of set-up. You can see the small sun beam on the chair driving its way towards my set-up.

Beauty: Andrea Frase

Beauty can be a hard thing to notice if you're not looking for it. There is beauty all around you, but maybe this summer you want to have that beauty right in your own back yard. Here are a few great places to go for roses, lilacs, and maybe even some pansies to give a little more color. I hope everyone takes the time out of their day to stop and smell the roses, just be careful not to smell the bees.