Joey's Gallery: Backroads of Michigan

[boiltheocean]

Much better 👍

I like how the river leads me though the first photo.

The first Cooper shot is good but the car is slightly dark. If you plan on doing more shots like this I would suggest you invest in a Graduated ND Filter to help expose the car more while keeping the sky in check. It wouldn't cost much as I think you already have a Cokin filter holder right?

 

[Boffin]

The first and second-last shots are the best.

What I'd really like to see is you taking less wide angles for the nature shots. I'm not sure if theres a 'next time', but try focusing on...say...one tree or something. The content in that first one is good, but experimenting with composition is the way to go. I seem to remember there were one or two Autumn shots in the monthy photo competition doing this, and their results have considerable impact.

The second last Mini shot is amazing. The angle of the car is bang on 👍.

 

[Joey D]

Much better 👍

I like how the river leads me though the first photo.

The first Cooper shot is good but the car is slightly dark. If you plan on doing more shots like this I would suggest you invest in a Graduated ND Filter to help expose the car more while keeping the sky in check. It wouldn't cost much as I think you already have a Cokin filter holder right?

Thanks 👍!

I actually do have a Graduated ND Filter, for whatever reason I never think to use it. The only thing I've ever used it for in the past was to try Top Gear-esque pictures which never really worked. Guess I need to try it out again.

The first and second-last shots are the best.

What I'd really like to see is you taking less wide angles for the nature shots. I'm not sure if theres a 'next time', but try focusing on...say...one tree or something. The content in that first one is good, but experimenting with composition is the way to go. I seem to remember there were one or two Autumn shots in the monthy photo competition doing this, and their results have considerable impact.

The second last Mini shot is amazing. The angle of the car is bang on 👍.

Thanks 👍!

I don't know if there is going to be a next time since the weather is all over the place and the leaves are vacating the the trees pretty quickly. Barring the weather this weekend though I would like to try and get back out there and give it a go. I'll try narrowing my angle though to see what happens if I do go back out.

 

[homeforsummer]

Nice side-effect of the way this photo is composed - the extra detail in the clouds looking through your car windows.

 

[CDailey]

The 2nd Mini shot is awesome. 👍

 

[Joey D]

Nice side-effect of the way this photo is composed - the extra detail in the clouds looking through your car windows.

Polariser FTW! I'm glad I used it during these shots.

The 2nd Mini shot is awesome. 👍

Thanks 👍!

 

[Joey D]

So every year in downtown Rochester (where I work) they put thousands of lights on all the buildings. This causes drivers to stop, stare and quite frequently run into the car that has stopped to start in front of them. Businesses do pretty well because of it, but body shops are probably the most thankful.

Any way they call it the Big Bright Light Show. It's cool if you've never seen it before but if you work downtown it sucks because it takes up all the parking spaces and makes traffic pretty unbearable. So last night after work I thought I'd walk about and take some pictures of it since it gets dark here around 4:45 right now.

Any critiques are welcome, I typically don't shoot in long exposures like this so I'm still a n00b at trying to figure it all out.

 

[TB]

I think your exposure settings look pretty damn good but the parked cars on the sides of the shots distracts the eye a lot. Cropping would fix the first two rather nicely but I think the Chrysler kinda kills the third.

Damn Chryslers.

 

[Watchman]

I love the latest set! Very nice composition, colour balance and the shots are so well saturated A big 👍 to you Joey for this.

 

[Joey D]

I think your exposure settings look pretty damn good but the parked cars on the sides of the shots distracts the eye a lot. Cropping would fix the first two rather nicely but I think the Chrysler kinda kills the third.

Damn Chryslers.

It was just stupidly busy downtown last night, I need to go at 3am when the lights are still on but everyone has gone home. I won't, but that what I should do for some cool shots. Either that or convince one of the shop owners to let me out onto their roofs. Unfortunately the place I work at doesn't have roof access.

Thanks for the comments though 👍!

And you are right, I probably should have cropped them a bit more to take out the Civic and the Taurus X or whatever that Ford thing is.

I love the latest set! Very nice composition, colour balance and the shots are so well saturated A big 👍 to you Joey for this.

Thanks 👍! Glad you like them!

 

[Syntax error]

As mentioned, exposure is spot on, framing is a little off. Great subject as well Joey. 👍

 

[boiltheocean]

I'm going to echo what Syntax has said. Well exposed but you need to work on your framing more. You've got these nice storefronts and then right in the corner of your images you have part of a car that has no reason to be present.

Your camera control is comming on very well, now you need to bring your creative control up to match. Get working on those compositions!

 

[Boffin]

Hmmmmm - I can see what you are trying to do - and I can see the difficulty.

I like the first shot. Theres a sort of warm feeling to it with all the lights together and everything, but I think what is missing from the other shots is height. I don't know whats behind you in that case, but if you were higher up, the streaks of light from the cars would be spread out and appear more striking.

Apart from that I don't know what you could've done. I'm thinking more shots across the road, down the line of the building lights - but again I don't know the surroundings or foot traffic. All the shots are good, and striking to an extent, but I think more can be gotten from the subject/s.

👍

 

[Joey D]

Thanks for the comments 👍!

I have pretty much no artistic talent what-so-ever, but hey it's something to work towards, right? I got some books on photography from the library yesterday and I'm going to be reading up on composition to see how it all works.

Being downtown Friday night made it difficult to shoot. There isn't much space in which to work and most people don't really want to get out of your way so you can take pictures. There are also 1000 little kids running around and a couple of times one knocked into my camera nearly toppling it over. I would have love to get up higher too but it's not really possible without knowing someone at a business and then convincing them to let you out onto their roof if they have access (most buildings don't).

 

[Daniel]

Two things to say:

#1: You're an awesome photographer.
#2: You really like your MINI.
You're welcome

 

[Joey D]

Thanks man!

 

[Joey D]

So I was working on my night moves for the past two nights. I've had this idea to mount my camera to a tripod and then wedge it in the boot and do moving shots on I-696 which is fairly lit. They came out decently well I think for not really having the proper mounting and kind of winging it. The only thing I'm disappointed with is it started to rain while I was doing the pictures so my windscreen got all funky.

And I know it looks like I'm going 80 in one of the photos but that's just an optical illusion, I would never break the speed limit on I-696 .

This would have been my favourite if it hadn't been raining.

And then I tried a dark, shady photo of the Cooper. I couldn't get it to look proper though so I'm looking for advice.

I got a new camera as well, instead of the Rebel XS, I now rock a T1i.

 

[Syntax error]

And I know it looks like I'm going 80 in one of the photos but that's just an optical illusion, I would never break the speed limit on I-696 .

PhoARRR!! looks like you were doing the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. tisk tisk.

Nice one dude. They turned out good. The first one is definitely the best of the bunch. I really dig the shot of your car against the wall. Very nice composition.

 

[boiltheocean]

My favourite of those would be the second, the colours are correct and the corner makes the background a little more interesting. Regarding the shady Mini, I would say it needs some really faint light on the side facing the camera, just enough to capture the basic shapes.

 

[Joey D]

PhoARRR!! looks like you were doing the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. tisk tisk.

Nice one dude. They turned out good. The first one is definitely the best of the bunch. I really dig the shot of your car against the wall. Very nice composition.

Thanks!

My favourite of those would be the second, the colours are correct and the corner makes the background a little more interesting. Regarding the shady Mini, I would say it needs some really faint light on the side facing the camera, just enough to capture the basic shapes.

Thanks!

Do you have any recommendations for auxiliary lighting to help illuminate the car by chance?

 

[MinoltaMan89]

Great update Joey. The lighting in the third shot is the best but the rain is a shame as you mentioned. The car shot is nice, but I agree with Sweet that a little highlight around the edge of the car would make it better. I think that moving the car a little farther away from the edge of the frame wouldn't do any harm either.

 

[Boffin]

These shots in general are a huge step up for you - they instantly looks excellent. I'd say the first of the interior shots is my favourtie out of the options, because I quite like the idea of the two people in car instead of one.

👍 👍 👍

 

[LongbowX]

Yeah, these are just generally pretty wicked. Love the first one, as others have said.

The composition is really quite well done on the side shot of your Mini. I agree that it could be lit more, but still think it works well overall without the additional lighting.

Also, Bob Seger would approve. Liz Lemon might as well.

 

[Joey D]

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.

I think this was more of a proof of concept that I could actually do the moving shots like that. I'm going to give it a go again when the weather is more cooperative.

 

[homeforsummer]

Great shots Joe, they've worked out a lot better than the similar shots I did with my car 👍

 

[Joey D]

Thanks! Ya I got the idea from the ones you did. I think having a slightly larger interior than an Miata helped out.

 

[homeforsummer]

Heh, probably. I'll have another go at some point. My main problem was finding somewhere to mount the tripod. In the end I had all the legs together and crammed up against the rear bulkhead by the passenger seat! At some point I'm going to get one of the braces that some models had that attaches to the seat-belt mounts and goes behind the seats - with that and a Gorillapod I should have a perfect mount.

 

[NLxAROSA]

I love those in-car shots while moving, great stuff! 👍 I gave this stuff a go myself, a Gorillapod SLR Zoom really comes in handy when doing this kind of shots.

 

[Joey D]

Thanks! I really need to get a Gorillapod, I just can't find them in any stores around here. I want to play around with one before I buy it, otherwise I'd just get it on the internet.

 

[Joey D]

I've been lame with updating this but I recently got a copy of Photoshop CS5 so I can process images again. For whatever reason there was no plugin for CS3 that allowed for editing RAW images off a T1i. All solved now!

These are pictures from Kari and I's trip to Mackinac/Traverse City a few weeks back, the Woodward Dream Cruise, and my first "professional" photoshoot. For the "professional" photoshoot I volunteered to shoot a bunch of pictures for the hospital I work at. We are attempting to get Magnet Certified and our whole theme is "Dream Cruisers" and our logo is a red Corvette. We gathered 18 Corvettes and a bunch of nurses and shot at the Meadowbrook Estate. It was pretty cool, but since they show a bunch of people I don't want to post them on the interwebz incase they aren't down with that.

Grand Traverse Bay

D.H. Day

The Mighty Mac

A Long Way Gone

The Light Bridge

Little Red Corvette

The Prancing Lion

Rebirth of a Legend

Red Snake

Living the Dream

Piston Powered

Old School Mini Truckin'