Tulips

I love taking pictures.  Over the last year or so I have tried to make photography a priority in my life by taking pictures at least weekly.  Mostly I take pictures of the pets and any friends or family I can convince/cajole/threaten into letting me take pictures of them. 

People photography is, without a doubt, my favourite type of photography.  People come in all shapes and sizes, colours and ages, and I want to capture them all.  I have a Canon Rebel that Ben gave me when he upgraded and I mostly use a 50 mm lens, which I love because it gives me awesome bokeh.  I use natural light as much as I can, partly because I love the look of natural light and partly because I struggle with understanding the technical aspects of lighting in photography. My friend Kim and I will be taking a photography course in May which I'm hopeful will give me some understanding of lighting.  Black and white is what I typically shoot in but I do try to remember to take some colour pictures from time to time.

Occasionally I am inspired by other photography and with spring just around the corner (I hope!), I was unable to resist buying some tulips at the local grocery store last night.  Nor was I able to resist taking pictures of said tulips.

I decided to post a "pull-out" or "pull-back" shot to show you how I took the pictures of the tulips indoors.  I don't have the money for lights, backdrops etc. so I tend to MacGyver my photo shoots.  In this particular set-up, I have the flowers on the counter beside the window to use as much available natural light as I can.  I have a white mat board as my background (I would prefer grey or blue but I'm learning that the frugal work with what they have) which may have reflected more light than I would have liked.  And let's not forget my two photography "assistants", Kaneyko and Murray.

By getting in close and using my cropping tool in post processing, you can see how a simple, cheap set up can almost work (I definitely need to find a more neutral colour for my backdrop).

That being said?  Natural outdoor light is best and today was a great day for shooting.  Cloudy and overcast with no bright sunlight to fight with.