Common Trip to Portland

Traveling to Portland is such a common occurrence I figured I might as well photograph it. I was sitting in the passenger seat and my mother drove while I took pictures. I played around with settings so I could get blurred motion or If I wanted I would set the shutter speed to something close to 1/800, and this would give the effect of the car being parked on the highway. I especially liked taking pictures at night on the way back to Yarmouth because I captured the motion of all the lights moving down the highway.

Other NY Photographs

Grand Central Station

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Portraits in NY

"Worry"

"Happiness"

"Awestruck

"Determination"

"Anguish"

"Thought Provoking"

Times Square

"Reflection"

"Uneven"

"Looking Past"

Brooklyn Bridge

"Cables"

"Going up"

"The Flag"

"Brooklyn Bridge View"

"Locks"

"Love Locked"

NYC Reflection

    The biggest highlight of the trip for me was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the place where I had the most ideas for taking photographs and because of that I feel I took my best pictures there. I was able to take many portraits of people walking down the bridge. Taking pictures of people is tricky because of the difficulty in capturing their emotion. The bridge was an excellent subject to use for some of the basic rules in photography such as leading lines because of the cables. Another highlight was Grand Central Terminal. It was the first time I could take blurred motion photographs without having to create the blurred motion myself. It was a little hard adjusting the settings so that the picture wasn’t over-exposed but once the right settings were found, the results were pretty cool. It was nice to sit back for a second and watch everyone hustle to where they were going. Riding on the subway was a bit of a different experience. Everyone really was just trying to get where they were going whether you are in the way or not.
    There was so much hype about going to New York that when we finally got into China Town, where we were staying, I had rush of excitement, joy, and anticipation for the next two days. It’s a feeling that I hope to remember and recreate later times in life. There is also a feeling of confidence you get when you look through your camera, press down on the button, and hear the camera snap a photograph knowing that the picture you just took is going to be a fantastic shot. You take that photograph and you just want to share it with people, no matter if the other person doesn’t like it. Each morning when waking up, we would walk out into China Town. That was a completely different experience that I want to remember because it’s just like waking up into a different culture with all the street vendors selling somewhat exotic things.
    When I first started taking pictures in New York I would have to think for a bit about the settings I wanted to change to get the right the exposure. But by the end, I barely had to think about it. At Grand Central Terminal to capture the movement I had to turn the shutter speed down but I also had to turn the ISO down and the aperture up.. I now know that if you want a slow shutter speed in a darker place like GCT, the ISO should probably be on its lowest setting. On the Brooklyn Bridge, while I was taking pictures of people, I would take the picture as I was walking by them. In order to do this I would have to turn the shutter speed up, and I wanted the background to be blurred so I learned that I would have to turn the aperture to a low setting. Everything we did helped me to familiarize myself with my DSLR.

Out at Night

                                                            "Reaching for Impossibility"

"Leading Tracks"

"Moon"

     I walked out my back door out into the deep snow. Looking up I see fingers reaching for the moon; something they will never be able to grasp. I continue to walk with the snow nipping at my ankles. Next to the small stream behind my house I see multiple sets of tracks. I see tracks, what looks like human tracks, leading into the dark woods. Not knowing what is out farther than twenty feet into the forest I had the sudden urge to follow the tracks. But a bit of fear set in, so I stay within the shelter of the light from my house.