Peek-A-Boo
Mar, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is one of my all time favorite photographs I have created. At the time I created this photograph, I was 16 years old and a sophomore in high school. A few months after creating this image, I entered it into the Professional Photographers of Washington's Annual Competition and I won the prestigious Kodak Gallery Award, becoming the youngest photographer to win the award. There is this little Calla Lilly that grows right up against my house and blooms 3-4 flowers conveniently right around Mother's Day. On March 31, 2011 the flowers hadn't bloomed yet, but the Calla Lily's leaves were looking beautiful.Time
It was right around 11:30am and I was taking pictures in my front yard. All of a sudden, I saw this little newt on the ground. With the help of my mom (also a photographer), we carefully placed the newt on the Calla Lily's lush green leaves and with a few clicks of my shutter, this image was created.Lighting
To complement the natural lighting, my mom assisted me by holding a small reflector to pop some light into the eyes of the newt and its nose and legs. The light softly embraces the curves of the leaf and adds a nice highlight to the face of this little creature.Equipment
This image was created with a Nikon D700 and a 105mm Nikkor Macro Portrait Lens.Inspiration
At the time of this photo's creation, I was just starting to get interested in photographing small things and creatures up close. Many of my favorite images are spontaneous. Even if I make a rough plan of what I want to photograph, the end result are always unpredictable. For this image, I was inspired by the light and the spontaneous finding of this little newt.Editing
For nearly all of my images, there is some element of post-processing, even if it is just a levels or color balance adjustment. For this image, I cropped it to a 10x20 and did some minor adjustments with level and light dodging on the catchlights in the eyes.In my camera bag
I upgraded my camera to the Nikon D800 in 2014. My favorite lens is the Nikkor 105mm Macro Portrait lens, what I shot this image with. I always have that lens in my bag! I also like keeping the Nikon 70-300mm and the 24-120mm lens in my bag! I try and keep a small reflector in my bag and a lens cloth.Feedback
Photography is all about seeing. My advice is to look up, look down, look all around; you never know where you'll see your next bit of inspiration! Images are all around, quietly being asked to be photographed, you just have to slow down and wait for something to speak to you.
