Yesterday was the first football game, and I went to photograph the Kiltie Band (and, I guess, the game too). We won something like 34-6 (when I left it was something like 30-0)… but that’s not important, because no one cares about the game.
We were sitting behind some very vehement supporters of the other team, and it was funny to see them squirm.

Um… after that, I went and shot some film with Everett for my photo assignments. He’s an amazing creative influence… two rolls of film and something like 225 digitals shot over the span of 4 hours (and that’s just me). I’m really happy with a bunch of the digitals, and I’m hoping the film will turn out half as good. He has a really good eye for what’s interesting and what will photograph well, and knows how to achieve it with his camera. More importantly, he knows how to compose the picture: where to stand, how high to stand, what orientation, what framing… that’s something I’m severely lacking in right now. Even if I do find something that will photograph well, I’m bound to screw it up with my methods. Heh. Despite all of that, I got a ton of good photos yesterday. Highlights (none of the following images have been adjusted at all, just pulled from the camera, resized, and watermarked):

This caught my eye because of the colors: burnt sienna, green, and gray (and nothing else). Ev pointed out the hints of yellow (flowers and the chalk), and think those just improve the picture…

This is pretty much the same shot as I’d already done with film for class, but the lighting is really different. This picture looks a lot lighter, the colors are a little brighter, and the entire image took on a warmer tone. Unfortunately, I don’t think it particularly works for the image… the film one I took when it was overcast and rainy, and the lack of shadow combined with the darker green of the leaves worked better… but still, overall not a terrible image despite not being as good as before.

This is one of those scenes that just catches your eye and you say to yourself, “There’s a picture there. How do I get it out?” I had a hard time deciding whether this image worked better brighter with a lower saturation (to subdue the colors) or darker with a higher saturation (to bring out the color in the leaves). Ended up shooting it both ways (yay for my camera with its tons of features and adjustment options), and I think it works better with maxed out saturation. The different colors in the photo are just amazing, especially the reflected sky blue on the windows in the background.

This location (in the UC parking garage) caught my eye because of the light that we were getting through the slit thingies. Harsh, but not too harsh… good shadows but not-blown-out highlights. I think it ended up working really well for portraiture. This might actually be my favorite of all the digitals I shot yesterday.

Can’t go wrong with sunsets.

He also gave me a real appreciation for different lighting. I swear, Pittsburgh was cooperating with us, because it gave us the entire range of lighting, from direct lighting (for harsh shadows and washed-out colors) to soft lighting (excellent for portraiture) to evening lighting (as the sun was setting), and every range in-between. I got to play with shadows, reflections, and diffuse lighting. It’s amazing how much lighting can affect a shot and whether or not it comes out (the second photo I posted today, for example).

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