2009-2011 Comparison/Experiences

It's almost years end, and in one month, it'll have been two years since I begun this whole photography thing. In my last post, I said how I would dig through some of my old photos and then compare them to some of my more recent photos, in an attempt to see how much I've learned over the course of a year. Some of these first photos were taken were downtown Jacksonville at the Landing in 2009 over the course of two days. Yeah, I went there twice with my first camera, a Gateway MC-42 4.2 megapixel camera.

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Start/Winter 2009

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When I got my current camera in December (Polaroid i1236), it was like a huge upgrade for me. Still needing the practice though, it's true what they say about how the photographer makes the camera, not the other way around. Then/Summer-Winter 2010



Fourth of July

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Event Period/Summer 2011

Unfortunately, it was Rock on The River II that my camera seemed to have developed a smudge of dirt inside the lens, so within every photo, I get dark spots that are hard to edit out. I can either edit them, or use them to blend with the scenery.

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Freedom Festival

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Kelly JO-Dowd Car Wash

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Fourth of July






I wasn't going to contribute these, considering I wasn't only going for my own leisure, but to practice considering I only get to practice with fireworks once every six months. However, we were short on photos, so I decided to throw my share in.

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Now-Present/Fall 2011.

 

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Digging through the past

I've been going through some old pictures from 2010 to see my past mistakes and how much I've improved. I plan on posting some of them to compare with photos from recent times, but I want to get them together first. This time though, I found multiple shots of the pier at different angles. I stitched them all together to make a wider image with a little boost in contrast.

A gorgeous start to a gorgeous season.

As with all Saturdays, I was thinking about wasting my day playing video games, because I figured it was a scorcher outside outside. I noticed it was only 74 degrees. and. looking out my window, I saw clear blue skies and the sun shining bright. It was then I decided to take a trip to the park again to look for some photo opportunities. Unfortunately, there weren't too many despite how nice it was out. But I not only got some practice in while trying something new, but I also caught what I thought to be some pretty nice photos.

The Zapper

There was a pretty heavy electrical storm in the area a few hours ago. I decided to grab my camera and go out for some lightning practice. Photography or not, I've always wanted to take a picture of lightning, so even if I wasn't impressed with the results per say, I'd still have fulfilled a long-time want of mine.

The very first photo I took (the one below) was actually good enough for me to pack it in, but I stayed for a few more shots. After five or six more photos of black sky, I decided to pack it in.

This type of lightning bolt is a positive bolt, more commonly known as Anvil lightning. These can typically strike anywhere within a several mile radius, where I was only two miles away from the cell. Brandishing a metal tripod and a spot under a tree, not to mention standing in a puddle of water, I decided to go ahead and pack it in on the account I felt uncomfortably unsafe.