The Blog of Photographer Jacob Vorpahl.
As the Nike slogan “Just Do It” goes, it’s probably as close to a cultural American proverb as anything else. Last Friday night I had some things scheduled with some friends of mine that fell through and Sarah had plans of her own so I found myself with nothing do on the eve of the weekend. Deciding that a night at home playing Xbox was too wasteful, I set my mind towards accomplishing something. Anything, but something. Clean up some of my mess in the house… nah, it’s Friday, ya know? Do some school work? Nope, that can wait until the following week (thanks Labor Day!). Take some pictures? Yeah, now there’s an idea.
I’m always reading on Flickr about how people set assignments up for themselves so I decided that I would go that route. The cross at my church, Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL, was put in some months ago, maybe even years. The deployment really messed up time line on it so I’m not sure. Regardless, I would drive by the thing at sunset on some nights and see potentially beautiful pictures but have no camera with me. This night I decided that I would head over there and photograph the darn thing while I had the time.
I packed up all essential photo gear, along with some extra stuff, and went over there. Sadly, the beautiful scenery that I would see in the sky was not there tonight. Instead there was just one big cloud with a little color to it. I came away with two pictures, only. I was bummed, but I guess that is what its all about, right? Getting out there and taking some photos, getting off your butt and not being lazy and practicing your craft, working to perfect yourself.
The first picture is very basic, you can’t identify the terrain where it was taken, but I like it.
It’s simple but the light in the back gives it a powerful feel, which it should. The next is my first real attempt at an HDR photo. I used my fisheye to pick up the landscape and used it to tilt the horizon downward so it would put the cross at the center:
I used Photomatix to combine three different exposures then I used Photoshop to crop and add a little light to the cross. It doesn’t look very realistic, obviously, but I like it in an artistic way, kind of like a painting. I won’t do too many of these, I’m sure, but for what it is I like it.
I’m going to make a whole list of assignments for myself to start working on and hopefully that will get the creative juices flowing. But, in the short term, look out for a tutorial/video on the SB-800 RPT function as I toy around with that more as well as some more of Nuts, who has LOTS to tell.
