Do, Do, Do...Lookin' Out My [Front] Door

I asked shutterbug for a photo of the view out of her front door and said I would respond, in kind. This was the view out of my front door a little while ago.

We were having a thunderstorm.

Why, yes, I was outside in the rain working on my photography homework. What? (Don't worry; I had my golf-sized umbrella over me and Rebbie.)

Who knew homework could be so much fun?!?

Our lesson this week is about in-camera image manipulation. We talked about the things you can do with depth of field, exposure, burning, lighting, and other things to change an image before you ever get to the developing process. Our assignment is to leave our cameras stationary on our tripods and use some of those tricks to make images. I was most fascinated with burning (covering the lens during the exposure, so one portion of the frame is darker than the rest). For this one I used bulb mode, crossed a pen over the lens one way for 6 seconds, then crossed it over the lens the other way for 12 seconds.

The second image was made by fogging the legs. It gives the same scene a surreal look.

The fun I have had in this course for the past three weeks is worth the cost of the course...and we have six more weeks of classes to go!