Hey guys, I thought I'd share some of my best stuff with you and tell you how I shot them.

This shot was taken in Iao Valley. I used a low ISO and a slower shutter speed to make the water look smooth while still keeping good lighting. I wanted the stream to be in the middle of the photo but still keep some of the things upstream in the shot, so I chose to frame my photo that way.















This picture displays a group of horseshoes that I shot in South Dakota. I wanted to create blurriness in the background so that only a small part of the photo was in focus. I did this by focusing my camera on a specific horseshoe and using a relatively wide aperture.

This technique used to make this shot is similar to the horseshoe shot. I wanted that one piece of wire to be the main focus of the picture, and so I decided to focus my camera on that specific element using a wide aperture. I also wanted the sky in the background, so I used my wide angle lens to include that in the frame.

This shot  was taken at a beach near my house at sunset, and is of my sister and her boyfriend. I wanted the sun to peek through the space between their mouths so I positioned myself in a way so that it did peek through when I looked through the lens. I used a relatively fast shutter speed so that the picture wouldn't get too bright, and to create a near silhouette effect.

I took this shot in Chicago in Millennium Park by the Bean sculpture. In my opinion, it's kind of one of those shots you almost just have to be in the right place and the right time. And be able to react quickly enough before the shot is gone. I saw this kid touching his reflection and snapped a quick picture. I used the rule of thirds to place him more towards the right side of the picture.

This picture was also taken in Millennium Park by the Bean sculpture. The sculpture is very reflective and refracting, and I used that to create a shot that had a normal building as well as a few distorted buildings in it. I thought it made for an interesting effect. I also wanted to fill the frame as much as possible.

 This picture is of my neighbor's dog. I was taking pictures of her one day, and I was standing there and she looked up at me with "the eyes". I quickly snapped the shot; it's another one of those reaction shots. I used a wide aperture to create blur in the background.

 This picture was taken in South Dakota. I actually took three different exposures of this picture and combined them using an HDR program called Photomatix Pro. I believe you can get a student discount on the program. If you're interested, Google the program name or I can tell you about it. There's a free trial version that lasts forever but leaves a watermark on your pictures. Anyway, I again wanted to fill the frame by not leaving too much open space. I wanted to include all of the various elements but leave a little space in between them (the window and wheel) and the edge of the frame.

 I used a macro lens for this shot. I was in Santa Barbara and it can get foggy there. I noticed a branch with spider webs on it that had caught some dew. I thought it'd make an interesting macro shot, especially with the reflections visible in the drops. I centered the branch in the frame and focused on the large drop and used a wide aperture to create blur. Obviously I like using wider apertures to create blur but you can use whatever you like.

I took this picture wanting to get a basic shot of this flower. Because I think it's an interesting subject itself, I didn't want to change the focus from the flower to the composition of the picture. Because of this, I shot the picture with the flower in the center, using (again) a wider aperture to get a nice blurry background.





I took the shots I needed for this picture in Washington DC at a sculpture garden there. It is another shot that includes three different frames, but they are different frames, not different exposures. I combined them in Photoshop by using various blending modes. I think the three I used in this shot were overlay, darken, and luminosity. I inverted one of the layers to create a different effect. It's pretty easy to play around with the different blending modes, just use the arrow keys to toggle through the various blending modes.

If you have any questions, let me know! I'd be happy to tell you more about any of these photos and the various techniques I may have used, or any other questions you might have.

Thanks for reading my post!
Matt