Day 15 Assignment – A Walk in the Park

Posted on by
For this assignment  we were to go to a local park and

  • identify subjects to photograph – Ask ‘What is this a picture of?’
  • decide on the context it goes in by asking ‘Does this support the subject?’.  If it does it’s in; if it doesn’t it’s out.
    • I found this assignment anything but a ‘walk in the park’. For a start it was difficult to decide on a subject. The choices were: children’s play equipment; a lot of greenery; and water features.
    Then, although I had spent most of the day revising what we had covered until now, I froze and felt almost as hopeless as I was on the first night shooting the sunset.
    I stuck at it however, and came up with these offerings.

    1/50 f4.5 ISO 80 Lens 80 mm

    Identify the Subject – I had noticed the fountain in the distance as we entered the park and climbed to the top of a hill to get an overall view.

    Decide on the context it goes in – I asked whether the surrounding park supported the fountain.

    I zoomed in to reduce the amount of park around the subject.

    1/20 f4.5 ISO 80 Lens 80 mm

    I narrowed it further by shooting a portrait view.

    1/20 f8.0 ISO 80 Lens 85 mm

    I also tried shooting the fountain off centre.

    1/20 f6.3 ISO 80 Lens 85 mm

    In the end I choose the third photo as it highlights the fountain and has the least amount of distraction.

    Other subjects included a bird on a nest metal art installation:

    Both 1/6 f8 ISO 80 Lens 100 mm and 143 mm

    I prefer the second shot as I think the pond detracts from the picture.

    Corkscrew Palms

    Both 1/6 f5.6 ISO 200 Lens 31 mm

    It was the pattern of the trunks that attracted my attention, therefore I prefer the idea of the second photo, though because it’s a bit blurry, I would have to return and step back a little to re-take the shot.

    I also took the opportunity to practise photographing flowing water while I was there. Again, the images appear darker here than on my camera’s display but I hope to be able to lighten them in post processing.

    1/30 f8.0 ISO 100 Lens 85 mm

    1/30 f8.0 ISO 100 Lens 24 mm

    1/30 f8.0 ISO 100 Lens 112 mm

    1/40 f8.0 ISO 200 Lens 80 mm

    1/40 f8.0 ISO 200 Lens 64 mm