Ordinary things

November 08, 2020 • 1 Comment

"O" is for Ordinary.

If you are pursuing photography as a hobby, you are probably well aware how expensive it can be. I'm amazed sometimes that I stuck with it, especially in the beginning when I was totally broke! I saved aggressively to buy camera gear, books, take classes, and attend workshops. After all that, there wasn't a lot of money left over for exotic travels.

This was actually a good thing because I learned to see photographic opportunities in everyday life. I learned to improve my composition and exposure at, and near my home, before I invested even more money in photography trips.

I love to travel and do whenever I can but I love to take pictures no matter where I am, so I thought I'd share some examples of photos that were all shot from my home to show that you don't have to book a fancy trip to get some great shots.

Hover over any photo for additional information. Don't have time to read each caption? You can go straight to the gallery by clicking here.

AcornsI arranged these acorns in an interesting pattern and photographed them using a macro lens

Acorns

Gerbera DaisyI placed the flower with the pool in the background to create a pleasing contrast between the pick and blue-green tones.

Gerbera Daisy

Japanese Maple leafI framed this leaf against an area of the backyard that had a much warmer tone to create a nice contrast. I then shot it at a very larger aperture to blur out the background, helping the leaf to stand out.

Japanese Maple Leaf

Palm reflectionsThis is just the reflection of a sago palm in the swimming pool.

Sago Palm Reflection

Serving bowlsThis is a stack of serving bowls. I composed this to show the lines sweeping down the frame, but wanted to keep the color mostly monochrome.

Bowls

Chareed woodI pulled this charred piece of wood out of my husband's smoker.

Charred Wood

CloverThis is group of clovers in my backyard. I just shot it using a macro lens to isolate it and make it look like it is in its own world.

Clover

MochaI spent some time a few years ago shooting a lot of food. I like to cook and bake and I love photography so combining the two made sense. This is just a mocha I made and a stack of plates. Very basic and simple.

Mocha

CuicumbersIt doesn't get much more basic than a sliced up cucumber. Shooting food is a great way to practice studio lighting. I didn't have any fancy studio lights for this. Just a cheap goose neck lamp from Home Depot and a white board to reflect light.

Cucumbers

EggplantThree pieces of eggplant on a black dinner plate that I bought at the dollar store.

Eggplant

KiwisI used to shoot slide film and still have my light board that I used to view them. I placed these sliced kiwis on top, turned on the light, and shot away.

Kiwis

HammerI saw this hammer outside and turned it upside down to take a close up. I turned up the saturation in Lightroom to give it a little extra interest.

Hammer closeup

MushroomThis was a mushroom I found in my yard

Mushroom

ScoutWe recently had the opportunity to adopt a couple of kittens. We have had them week and I've already shot hundreds of photos of them. I might have to write a post about photographing pets just as an excuse to show them off. This is a candid I took of Scout that reminds me of an ad for Pottery Barn.

Scout

ShimsThis is just a stack of shims that I arranged to form geometric shapes.

Shims

SucculentI love succulents and we have many in our backyard. I had to limit myself to posting just one.

Succulent

Water dropsI think it is interesting how the water drops look on the shower door so I sat down on my bathroom floor and starting photographing them one day. I started shooting them straight on, but kept experimenting and liked how it looked when I shot them at an angle.

Water drops on glass

Milk dropA couple years ago, I spent a rainy day dropping water from a tiny hole in a plastic sandwich bag into a container of water, and trying to photograph the drops as they hit the water. After a while, I decided to drop some milk into the water. The pattern in the background is a printed piece of paper I placed behind the container.

Milk drop in water

That's it! I hope this post has inspired you to find something to photograph that you encounter every day in a fun and unique way. Stay tuned for what "P" is for.

Keywords: acorns, bowls, budget, clover, coffee, color, cucumber, daisy, droplets, drops, eggplant, food, hammer, home, kitten, kiwi, macro, maple, mocha, mushroom, ordinary, pattern, reflection, scout, shims, succulent, texture, tools, travel, water, wood

Comments

Truman Holtzclaw(non-registered)

Simple and powerful = Excellent!

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