Challenges - Aquarium/Kroger

I went to the Georgia Aquarium with my sister last Friday. I had made mention of it on Facebook, which is something I rarely do. I particularly don’t advertise my location, but I felt like that was a special day. That’s when it happened. A challenge, so-to-speak. Raven told me to take shots that were different from everyone else. I accepted. I drove to my sisters, got into her car, and after mucking about on 400, while trying to survive unusual traffic at 11.30A.M., we arrived.

I brought both my kit lens, as well as my 50mm prime. When I got there, I realized that the prime lens would yield better results. I had used an f-stop of 1.8 and kept a rather constant ISO of 400-800 with varying shutter speeds to darken if needed. I didn’t want to use a marginally high ISO mostly in part of noise increase, and anything lower would be underexposed. I had originally wanted to take picture of the recent Dolphin show, sadly, photography was prohibited, there would be no proof of that sadly. Yet, I did get my first photo of the day. As I moved through the crowds of people, I saw a mom and daughter taking a picture on an iPad, I discreetly took her picture and I thought, quite honestly, it would have been the best image of the day.

We walked on taking in the sights, and I found a few more lucky photos. I will, disclaim, it was hard trying to find non-touristy pictures. So, I adjusted my settings using my live-view, and gave it what for. I think the best timing was seeing the staff feed the Alligators. It was only by sheer cuteness of the River Otters that we decided to see them do so.

Here are a few of my “favorites” from the day at the aquarium.

We left the Aquarium and headed back to Katy’s house, but before we could she insisted on going to the store. Now I countered with the “I am tired” and “I want to go home” arguments. It was then when we at the intersection when I caved by the words, “Why don’t you go inside and take awesome pictures of the Cheese displays?” So I did. It was not all of cheese, I added produce and legumes into the mix. I never really understood the appeal of photographing food until now. I understand.

I used to think that emotion in a photo had to do with people, or how the Sun accented a landscape. I now know better, emotion in photographs are ALMOST always about how the lighting affects the final outcome. When you play with an image to darken the blacks or bring out certain incidentals, then you can fully comprehend it. Then there are days when no amount of editing will bring justice to the final shot. I long for days when I don’t have to edit photos.

Insight like the ones above don’t come often, but when they do, the tend to make you rethink how you, well think.

Until next time.

Chris