# photography~growing your eye challenges #3- Crazy critters



## redtailgal (Mar 26, 2012)

OK, so we have talked about getting a unique perspective.

We have talked about looking for a pic within a pic.

and we have talked a little about texture........we'll have a challenge based on texture soon, I think.

This time, I want to add some color to the picture, along with your own creativity in the angle you choose.  Adding a color pop is a technique that I use alot......in my own pics (some of which I am sharing as examples, but also in the pics that I shoot for "work" and cannot share on here)

You may have to do a little set up for this shot, so be prepared for a little extra work.  

First color......you can do a number of dramatic things with color that will make your pictures stand out from the rest.  It's important, however, to not overdo the color.  Having oranges, reds, blues, greens pinks etc all in one pic makes for a busy pic and it distracts from your subject.  Keep it simple, and choose your colors carefully when you can.
Some examples:

You can have very little color, but highlight your pics with mostly black (as in the pics below).  You can also choose to highlight in mostly white.












You can also use a color, try to choose a color that will have a definate "pop" or accent with your subject well.

I chose this canola field simply based on the yellow color....the color itself is the subject of the photo.






but with this Flamingo, I chose my angle specifically to get this color in the background in order to make the pale pink of the flamingo pop a little.  Without the color in the background, the flamingo looked "washed out".






Now, for this challenge I want you to take a pic of ONE animal.  Only one animal in the shot, use a unique angle and find a creative way to get a color to pop in the picture.....make sure it's a color that accents your animal. (it's ok if you want to put in more than one picture).  Please, dont try to get what you think is "normal", dont be afraid to get a little weird if the mood strikes you.  

I want you to find something strange to use as your color pop. As in Elevan's wood pile pic, something as simple as a blue tarp shows a nice pop that accents and highlights the rest of the pic.  A bright red tennis shoe with a white bunny........ You get the idea.  The point is a pop of color, not a pretty picture.

The first step to taking better pictures is to learn and thoroughly grasp that there is no right or wrong way to express your own artistic side.  There are techniques and tips to help you get your point across, but what you see in your mind and what YOU like is right.

As always, keep it clean.......keep your feedback postive and have fun.  I know these challenges may seem silly, but the point is to take the pressure off the photographer, so that we are not focusing on getting the perfect picture as a whole.  If we perfect certain elements one at a time......the whole picture will come naturally, and the eye will recognize the opportunity much easier as time goes by.

FYI, some challenges that I have planned for the future:

BUGS! (cuz bugs are cool and they force you to look at fine details)
just texture
15 minutes and five pics
emotion
lines and diagonals
frames within a frame (shooting from within)


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## redtailgal (Mar 29, 2012)

Hello?

Do I need to change this challenge? or have ya'll just been busy?


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## BarredRockMomma (Mar 29, 2012)

I have one that I will post. It just needs a little croping work.


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## Teeah3612 (Mar 29, 2012)

I was still trying to work out the "ugly" challenge.


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## Mamaboid (Mar 29, 2012)

I love the sound of this challenge, but have not been able to get around well enough to get started yet.


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 29, 2012)

I have some pictures for this one, but photobucket isn't coorperating with me this afternoon... :/  Darn internet...


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## HankTheTank (Mar 29, 2012)




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## redtailgal (Mar 29, 2012)

The black behind the cat really helps her markings show better I think.

And there not much better than a goat in green grass!  The angles were very nice in the goat pics too.

Watch for a way to get that goat with a black background.....even a black bedsheet will do, if you have one.  The markings are lovely on her(?) and black would really give her the "glamor girl pop" (or stud muffin pop).


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## HankTheTank (Mar 29, 2012)

That would be "stud muffin pop", that's my wether Hank 
With the black background, would I have to pose him or anything? He's pretty hard to get pictures of because he always wants to be right up near me (or eating the camera!)

And I must add that how all of these pics turned out was a complete accident


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## redtailgal (Mar 29, 2012)

Some of my best pics are accidents, lol.

No, dont try to pose him.  If you will get him in front of your chosen background, and just wait, he will pose for you.  Get several shots when you do this, from different angles, a few body type shots, and a few head only shots.

Dont forget to turn your camera around.......hold it normal and stand it on end to get a more vertical shot (esp for the head shots).

Often when you stand a critter somewhere and just wait a minute, something will get their attention and you'll get the alert ears pricked shot.  If you want him looking at you for the shot, give him a minute to relax and make some soft subtle noises to get him to look towards you.


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 29, 2012)

All the animals I have to work with are the two cats, but even then they can be interesting subjects to work with.


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## HankTheTank (Mar 29, 2012)

I'm definitely not an expert, but I love the way the semi-darkness makes the eyes stand out a lot on the second pic, and how there's a kind of frame around some of the picture

your kitties are adorable!


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 29, 2012)

Thanks!  I know, they're real sweethearts for sure.  Those eyes are something else, especially on Spider, the black cat.  They're like gold beams when he looks into the sun at you, so I'll have to see if I can get a good picture of him.  (Only problem is is that he likes to come trotting up to me every time I squat down to take a picture of him lol.)


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## elevan (Mar 29, 2012)

Blaine and I will be doing this challenge this weekend!  We've had a crazy few days lately.


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## redtailgal (Mar 29, 2012)

Wildrose........those are great!

Do you  have photoshop?  the first one is slightly overexposed (not your fault, the lighting was a little wonky)........the pic is great, but just a touch of darkening would make it fab.  The background is very nice, and that little touch of red behind the cat helps to bring out the eyes.

The second shot is also very nice.  I like the way the wood frames her face as well.  Save this pic......I will do a challenge on cropping later on, and this would be a great one for it.


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 30, 2012)

Thanks red.   The first pic is probably partly my fault since I probably had the exposure settings a little too low (could've taken it up to 1/160 or 1/200 instead of the 1/125 I had it set at), and the second one was a little too high, though the sunlight in the bottom right corner  probably played a little part as well.   That second pic you just cannot ignore those eyes! That's the first thing that my eye goes to when I look at it.  

I am currently experimenting with the manual settings in my camera, as those are way more fun to work with than simply having it on auto.  And I had used a telephoto lens for those pics too, didn't have enough pockets to be carting around my wide-angle lens.


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## redtailgal (Mar 30, 2012)

WildRoseBeef said:
			
		

> Thanks red.   The first pic is probably partly my fault since I probably had the exposure settings a little too low (could've taken it up to 1/160 or 1/200 instead of the 1/125 I had it set at), and the second one was a little too high, though the sunlight in the bottom right corner  probably played a little part as well.   That second pic you just cannot ignore those eyes! That's the first thing that my eye goes to when I look at it.
> 
> I am currently experimenting with the manual settings in my camera, as those are way more fun to work with than simply having it on auto.  And I had used a telephoto lens for those pics too, didn't have enough pockets to be carting around my wide-angle lens.


Do you know how to meter your exposure?


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 30, 2012)

I don't think so....


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## redtailgal (Mar 31, 2012)

http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2952-exposure-meteri

Read this page.  Learning to meter your camera will help you choose the best settings, giving you proper exposure and sharper images.  Metering will not work with night photography, for night photography you WANT the meter to read too dark.  If you are shooting the moon, a "too dark" exposure will bring out the details of the moon.  However, if you are shooting say, the barn at midnight, set your exposure time for longer and use a tripod.

Let me know if you have any questions.


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 31, 2012)

Thanks for that.

What camera do you use?  I have a Canon Rebel XS, and I think for me the "biggest" challenge is to know whether I'm going too high or too low in my exposure settings. I think by now I've figured out that the higher the number the best it is for darker photography, and the lower (like going into the fractions) is for high lighting conditions.  I think the things you had in that link you mentioned maybe similar in my camera, but I'll have to do more goofing around with it than before.

Speaking of night photography, you should try a night-photography eye challenge on here some time.  Things like lightning and that would be fun to experiment with.


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## redtailgal (Mar 31, 2012)

I shoot a Nikon D5000 with Nikkor lenses.

Read thru my photography pages........sometimes changing the F-stop is the right thing, and sometimes changing the shutter speed it the right thing.  You can get the same exposure from changing either one, but a totally different picture (which is esp handy if you want to play with your depth of field or try some nighttime light bokeh)

Yes, night photography would be a fun challenge, I'll keep it in mind for the future.  Gonna give number 3 a couple more days, then I'll add another challenge.


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## Blaine (Apr 2, 2012)

Ducks at the pond:







Jerry:






Snickers:


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## elevan (Apr 2, 2012)

Guinea in the grass:





Mad Broody:


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## redtailgal (Apr 2, 2012)

Blaine said:
			
		

> Ducks at the pond:
> https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...36934893_1159251741_32464443_1657617643_n.jpg
> 
> 
> ...


Blaine:

You did well on these.  I'll comment on each one.

Ducks:  I like the ducks, but I'd like to see a nicer background behind them. That chain link fence kin of makes their colors not so noticable. It's hard with animals because they dont always stand where you tell them to, so I'm not saying you did anything wrong.  

Jerry:  This is a nice pic!  I like the way he is not right in the center of the picture, and I like that it looks like he is walking and has a place to go (he could walk across the picture).  When you photograph something that is moving, it's a good idea to give him space to go in front of him (in the picture...........ask mom to explain if you dont understand what I am saying)  The other thing nice about this picture is the way Jerry's white color looks with that blue sky.  The colors go so nice in this picture, that I didnt even see the fence until I looked back a second time.

Snickers:  He sure is a cute goat!  I like the green grass in this picture.  The only thing I could find to complain about is something funny that happens to me ALOT.  If you look at the picture closely......see how it almost looks like he has a tree for a tail?  This happens a lot.  I wanted to show you a picture I had taken once, but I cant find it.  I was at the zoo and took a picture of an elephant.  But when I got home and looked at my picture......it looked like the elephant had a zebra head sticking out of the wrong end!  (her hiney)  

If you ever get a chance to take a picture of snickers in front of a black background, try it.  You be able to see all his colors so nicely.  And I'd love to see a head shot of Jerry in front of something red!

Blaine, you did a wonderful job.  I'm proud of you!


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## redtailgal (Apr 2, 2012)

elevan said:
			
		

> Guinea in the grass:
> https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...737574909_1159251741_32464444_677741177_n.jpg
> 
> Mad Broody:
> https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.ne...762055521_1159251741_32464484_545669296_n.jpg


Elevan........

Guinea:

Green is the perfect color for the background for this picture!  It's so hard to not get fences in critter pics, I know,  but even with the fence in there, the green really brings out the black and white, and the red on the birds head gives a nice pop.  I think that some people may find the dandelions distracting, but I sort of like them in there.......give a little more visual interest.  I'd have to try and get a shot from above.....looking down at the bird, not straight down, but just enough that the whole background is just grass.

Frizz:

Oh, that poor hen, lol.  I love this pic.  The background is nice.  The solid color, LACK of texture REALLY highlights the texture of her skin.  This pic belongs on the front of some humorous card, lol.

Nice job!


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## elevan (Apr 2, 2012)

That daggone guinea kept moving away from me.  He was in the middle of the backyard completely surrounded by dandelions.  That was the shot that I wanted.  But no...he wouldn't cooperate.  I finally sat on a swing and waited for this shot.


Yeah, poor Frizz.   But that girl is one fierce broody mama!


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## autumnprairie (Apr 12, 2012)




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## daisychick (Apr 16, 2012)

I decided to show off my chicks from the latest hatch.

Do you think my legs are too hairy??  





Do you think I could be a rooster??


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 16, 2012)

I wish this one didn't have the basketball hoop in the background.....


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## BarredRockMomma (Apr 18, 2012)

Ok here are my photos

The first one is Capone. I picked it because of the light.





The second one is Rosie. I like the way her pink collor stands out.





The last one is Rock the rooster and Princess the Silver Seabright. I love the colors in this one.


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 22, 2012)

PurpleQueen, I'm really liking that shot of that kitty!


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 23, 2012)

WildRoseBeef said:
			
		

> PurpleQueen, I'm really liking that shot of that kitty!


Thanks!


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## redtailgal (Apr 23, 2012)

I haven't forgotten you guys. I'm just too distracted to be benficial to this thread right now.

Keep up the pics, though, I'll play some more soon.


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## BarredRockMomma (Apr 24, 2012)

It's ok RTG you have more important things to worry about right now.


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## Lothiriel (Jun 2, 2012)

Guineas, guineas, guineas. 

















Riley after a romp in the field this morning. He had a grand time! (I do wish the tarp wasn't behind him though... :/)






The red eft/fire newt again.


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## elevan (Jun 4, 2012)




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## redtailgal (Jun 4, 2012)

That is one CUTE kitten!!!!  His/Her eyes seem to just reach out at me........


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## Lothiriel (Jun 7, 2012)

I always knew my cat had a naughty streak in her...


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## redtailgal (Jun 7, 2012)

Love it!  That one needs some really cool caption.


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## Lothiriel (Jun 21, 2012)




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## CochinBrahmaLover=) (Jun 22, 2012)

Okay so i was just out taking pictures of our new goaties and while I was reviweing them  found this one  I LOVE it ! I dont even remember TAKING it !!! But i TOTALLY love it cause it captures Honey/laura's (still deciding on a name XD) beauty and attitude.
SORRY ITS SO HUGE ~

I do wish my mom wasnt in the ackground, and that the fnce GATE wasnt ether. I'd be fine with a fence, but the gate is distracting


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## Lothiriel (Jun 22, 2012)

Aww she's so cute! 


I got this candid shot of my cat.....  o.o


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## CochinBrahmaLover=) (Jun 22, 2012)

Cute kitty  

Aw come on what the crap???? I can see my doe pic no more !!!!


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