The Story of a Southern California Sky

Day 44: Story of a Southern California Sky, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

Today's Daily Shoot assignment was: Look up today and make a photograph of the sky. Cloudy, clear, or somewhere in between? Tell the story of your sky today.

The sky above our neighborhood told many stories today from pure clear blue to wispy clouds to heavier and darker clouds to an early rising moon and more in between. I took quite a few photos but picked this one because of the interesting cloud cover at the time.

Date Taken: February 13, 2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure: 1/100
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off

And here are the other stories of the sky that I captured today:

Looking Upward

Day 34: Looking Upward, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

The Daily Shoot theme for the day was Look upward today. Make a photograph with a low horizon and that emphasizes the sky. Technically this does not qualify because there's no horizon. Use your imagination, if there was a horizon, it would be low and it is looking upward & emphasizing the sky!

Oh, and about the flare, I have to admit that it was added in post processing. I did experiment with lens flare today and some of the photos I took have real flare. I just felt this needed something other than the branch and the blue sky.

Date Taken: February 3, 2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon 50mm 1.4
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure: 1/100
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: On, Fired

Basketball Hoop From Below

Basketball Hoop From Below, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

I have spent the last two afternoons taking photos at basketball games at school. I can't share those on this blog but after reading the Daily Shoot assignment - How low can you go? Make a photograph today from a low point of view. - I knew I had to take this basketball related shot after the game was over.

I metered for the sky & used my on camera flash to light up the hoop and then I applied an HDR effect in Photoshop using this tutorial.

Date Taken: January 20, 2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure: 1/100
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: On, Fired

Fly Me To The Moon

Fly Me To The Moon, originally uploaded by Visions By Vicky.

Looking for inspiration, I headed over to The Daily Shoot and found "Today's theme is blue. Make a photograph dominated by the color or that otherwise illustrates the theme."

My first thought was to try to find someone crying or depressed and then tone the whole thing blue to illustrate a person being "blue". That's a tough one though and didn't think I could convince either of my daughters to pretend for this one. I also thought about taking a photo of our recycling trash can because the blue can is for recyclables only.

Then, I noticed how blue the sky was today and how there were just enough clouds to make it interesting and how the moon had already risen so I took some photos of the afternoon sky. On this one, there happened to be a small plane flying overhead at just the right time!

Date Taken: January 16, 2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Tamron 28-75mm 2.8
Exposure Program: Manual
Exposure: 1/160
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 75 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off