Lincoln Capitol
Jan, 2013Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in front of the Capitol building in Charleston, West Virginia. It was one of my first times out taking pictures. I had an old android phone, a tripod and some lenses I wanted to try out. I figured the Capitol would be a great place to start, because there was plenty of room and a lot to photograph.Time
I believe it was around 6-7 pm. I had been researching photography and read that dawn and dusk were the best times to take pictures because of the lighting. I actually got out a little later then I should have, because by the time I got to my location I was racing the sunlight.Lighting
I had actually made a couple of stops before the Capitol so when this was taken the sunlight was almost fully gone. I relied mostly on the lamps and spot lights around the build. The Capitol grounds are well lit at night especially on the statues scattered across the grounds. The golden dome was glowing behind Lincoln and I felt it would make for a good picture. Although there was a little too much light reflecting off of the white building a lot of my pictures washed out.Equipment
I actual take all of my pictures with android phones. This image was taken with a Droid Incredible 2 which was on a cheap $10 tripod. I can't remember if this was the picture I took with my wide angle lens attachment or not.Inspiration
Well parking was off to the side of the building, so I started taking picture right there. As I walked around the building and fumbled with lense attachments and app settings, Abe caught my eye as he stared down at me. I felt that with my sunlight pretty much gone and the gold dome brightly lit, Abe would make the perfect foreground. So I set up my tripod and got some different angles, and played with some settings. Eventually I decided on off centering the statue and tilting the camera, I liked that I had tree framing too.Editing
Yes, like with most of my images I don't have as fine controls in the field, so I usually play with exposure, contrast, and noise reductions. There are times when I need some other things tweaked, but those three settings are my mainstays.In my camera bag
My bag consists of two smartphones, two tripods, a battery charger pack, microfiber cloth, tripod mount and lenses, and headphones with volume controls for remote photographing. One of the smartphones mainly does video and the other mainly does photos. There are two types of lense I have for the phones, one is a telephoto that screws into a tripod mount, and the other is a wide angle/ macro that attaches via a magnet and metal disc. I use a small tripod with bendable legs and a 4 foot one. I also have a nice big one but don't use it most of the time.Feedback
Buildings and statues are great for photography because they don't move. You quite literally have all day to get your shot. To get the shot try every angle, get closer, get farther, move up and down back and forth. Since these items aren't moving come back at different points in the day or the year, and use this one subject for multiple interesting shots. I was all over the place before I decided on this shot. Never underestimate the beauty of a common place your used to seeing, if I had I wouldn't have this picture. I'm an iphotographer and there are a few challenges trying to keep up with dslrs that come with that. Unfortunately there is also things, such as shutter speed, that for now are just impossible for a smartphone to do. It is, however, not impossible to take great and beautiful pictures with your phone. There are a couple of apps which give you a great amount of control over your camera. One such app is camera cf-v which gives you a dslr like view screen and some other useful features. With the popularity of cellphone camera use companies are make lense attachments like what I use, so you can even get some optical aspects in your pictures. Best of all if you already have the smartphone the apps come free and the attachments are fairly cheap. I would suggest looking into iphotography, it's cheap, easy, and has worked well for me.
