Fossils in New Haven
This weekend we decided to dip our toes in the mixing pot of New Haven. The day’s photography started with attempts at long exposure photography. I always thought the aesthetic of blurred cars/pedestrian was attractive and an easy way to draw attention to the subject in your photo. It was a bit of a spontaneous attempt. I happened to looked back after crossing a large intersection and thought the building directly across from me had some character. I snapped a first shots and was instantly bored of my images. There was nothing about them that drew my eye but when I looked over at the building again I notice the traffic passing by and I instantly new I had to try some long exposures. I knew of the technique behind it but I didn’t have much experience practicing it so I thought now would be as good a time as any to try.
Saying my first few attempts were mediocre is being kind. Too long of an exposure lead to a bloody mess of an image. Too short, it just seemed like I couldn’t keep the camera steady. Eventually, after some trial and error I was able to get my exposure just right. I realize this would be much easier with a tripod but I’m lazy and tripods get heavy when you’re walking all day. Below you can see the final product.
At first, I didn’t have as much fun taking photographs are the Peabody Museum, I felt all the creative work has already been done for you but after taking a quick snaps I was warmed up and back into the creative mindset. The Dinosaurs are cool exhibits in real life but fall flat in photos. It took some creative editing to get those photos to a point I was happy with.
The final challenge of the day was some low light photography. I was always told to keep ISO at a minimum so noise doesn’t creep into your photos, but with newer camera this wasn’t as much as a problem as a used to be so I practice letting go and pumped up my ISO in the mineral exhibits and the photos didn’t turn out half bad.
My biggest take away this weekend is a to remind myself that no matter how “boring or mundane” the subject matter of a photo may seems its all about perspective and there is always some new skill to learn and try.
