Posted on

Live Show Recap: Unexpected Beauty

Hey folks! We looked at your “unexpected beauty” shots this week which were… not always on theme. But it was a tough one.

Chelsea was not insulting carpenters last week. We just want to see your non-photography portfolios. Submit them next week! Sdp.io/link for that. 

Donate to our Patreon to vote on our show topic each week and to see videos early! Also, our t-shirts are on sale for $18.99! Get one at sdp.io/shirt.

So we start looking at your photos here, but we have some trouble at the top with Lightroom re-importing photos constantly:

post

silhouette

-fancy fly

-hey, hey guy? Don’t be jerk.

-“I’m very sensitive to poop!”

balloons over Bagan

-misty tree

-eagle attack

-building shadow

-hubba-hubba!

-funeral march

-oh! I got another pick.

-flooded beach

-double exposure

Over to me for some questions:

-where to shoot landscapes in/around Dallas? Not really. Your plan of going to New Mexico is good.

-Rob Tillitz! I am Wonder Woman.

-alternative to Paul C. Buff Einstein strobes? Godox!

Back to your photos:

-egg shells

wildfire

-just listen to Tony’s dog-saving story here, mostly for Chelsea saying “I would have gone Anchorman on that little shit” and “you can’t save a Pomeranian for the thanks, Tony. You just have to do it for the face-biting.”

-oil and water

-“I’d say that’s unexpected ugly, did you think a baby could be that ugly?”

Back to me for questions:

-a tutorial on the Mavic Pro? Someday.

-when you look at your older photos and think they were horrible, is it artistic growth or were they horrible? They were probably horrible. “Your first 10,000 pictures are your worst” -somebody. Getting mocked is part of success.

-*I DO NOT LIKE NICKELBACK.* “I should take up the fake recorder” “we should start a band, I’ll play air guitar”

Ok, photo news!

-FAA regulations have gone weird. “Our government is crazy”- accurate

Chit-chat! The part of the show where you say some things and we maybe respond.

-u r doing overacting

-Chelsea, are you related to Gina Linetti? Yes, she is related to a fictional character.

-live in your car!

-flip-flop sandals? “Pain don’t hurt” “A thong is also underwear with no butt cheeks.”

-this is a weird thing to say and do, Jude

-y’all related? “Traditions were meant to be broken” “that’s not a saying”

Back over to me, where I screw up my camera a dozen times:

-thanks for all the money, friends!

-what will we photography when our country turns to barren scrubland?

-it was pounds

-Rob is single-handedly funding our live show. You need to practice on that drone!

Time for a portfolio review! Dustin Rosenburg. Don’t lead with your about me page or with that enter screen, lead with your work. Also take out the heading of the work page. Take out duplicate shots, and similar shots. Maybe make each category a menu at the top instead of making people scroll. Your shots are nice, just work on your set-up!

Okay, back to your photos:

-Chelsea is trolling hard

covfefe “it doesn’t matter, we’re all gonna die in a flood”

cemetery 

-oil stain is perfectly on theme

Maya is so talented

dandelion

-pencil trash

-the dinner

stairway

-“this is very Addam’s family”

-old coal crane

-frozen flower

-“Alan Branch took a picture of a branch?”

ruins

-“sunsets are beautiful. And you expect it, because they happen every day.”

reflection in geometry

-crazy weather panorama

refinery “makes me want to play Matchbox cars on it”

Over to me for more questions:

-follow up on Rob’s question about drone video. Slow down the rudders to keep the drone smooth.

-can you remove AA filters from low-budget filter? Need no AA filter to shoot textures for video games. Almost all base-level Nikon cameras don’t have them, or entry-level Sonys.

-Kyle Wolfe won’t be on #TClive for the next year or so! Teaching photography at a national park and taking college courses. Congrats Kyle!!!

-what to do with a teenager for a photo tour? Ask her what she’s interested in. See what she shoots on Instagram already. Show her how to connect her camera to phone to internet, because that’s what she’ll probably want to do.

Back to a few last photos:

-that car is not a Pantera

-ballet through bars

-fog plan!

-“ninja baby!” “oh yeah, the photographer died shortly after, just got his butt kicked to death”

-get our books, y’all need editing help. sdp.io/l for Lightroom and sdp.io/p for Photoshop

And that’s a show! Thanks for all your submissions. Next week our topic is “old meets new” which is a fun one. See you then!

Posted on

Beginner Photography: Unexpected Beauty

Hello! This week’s photo topic is a weird one. I’m pretty sure by definition you should not be able to seek out “unexpected beauty” it’s just something that happens, but I did my best. I thought this tied in pretty well with last week’s topic of “abandoned.” I love abandoned buildings, especially at the point where nature starts to take back over. Living in a big city, there are a horrifying number of abandoned buildings, but seeing nature reclaim a space is pretty satisfying. Last week I added a human element as the subject, but this week I just went searching for something beautiful in what many people just see as decay.

I’m not sure if there’s any way to teach something like this, it’s just a matter of training your eye to find something to focus on in the midst of some amount of chaos. Finding a specific object, or a pattern, or the right light. Also some willingness to get close and get dirty. I for sure climbed into some places I wasn’t meant to be.

As usual, I shot with an Olympus E-M10 on aperture priority. I shot the same things multiple times from different angles to find what looked the most pleasing to me, and did some post-processing in Lightroom to crop, straighten, adjust the exposure, etc. 

  

f/5.6, 1/500th, ISO 200

Not sure why my shutter speed is so fast. The colors and pattern of these windows are so beautiful to me.

 

f/4.5, 1/80th, ISO 320

The vines growing through this piece and the natural framing of the leaves immediately caught my eye.

 

f/3.5, 1/160th, ISO 200

Ornate columns on a stunning abandoned home.

 

 f/3.5, 1/320th, ISO 200

 

So that’s what I came up with. Beauty is subjective, so I’m not sure if these will appeal to everyone, but since I was a teenager I have taken shots like this. I’ve always loved capturing age and wear on objects and seeing them change over time. 

So what do you think? Do these fit the criteria? How did you interpret “unexpected beauty”? I look forward to seeing your submissions this week!