Shoot 2

I was inspired by Mischenko's use of really vibrant colours, quirky subjects and use of composition which makes his photographs so beautiful and unique. Mischenko was a photographer I was familiar with before commencing this unit, and over the summer I took a few pictures in my garden, where I found a few insects and animals around. I came across a beautiful, tiny grasshopper on a buttercup, and thought it could make the perfect shot. I approached it very slowly, aware about not breathing too heavily around it or blinking too forcefully and scaring the little insect away. I took a single picture before he hopped away and I lost him. I rummaged around the other flowers and the soil but no luck, I had well and truly lost him. I thought to myself 'oh well' and just moved onto the next flower, seeing what kind of shots I could do with it and whether there were any insects around it. It wasn't until I went inside and begun sifting through my images that I saw the grasshopper photo. Thankfully, I was very pleased with the resulting image, and the grasshopper was perfectly in focus, which is something I was really worried it wouldn't be. 
Although I was very fortunate to even capture the little creature, when I look at this photo I am annoyed that I have cut off half of his antenna. It is the sole thing that I dislike about the image, despite behind perfectly happy with how central my flower is and how my use of the rule of thirds is in fact obvious in this picture.

Nikon D5100 - Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 

The other day I went down the pond near my house and went to see whether I could capture any nice photos there. Unfortunately I do not have a macro lens of my own, nor can I borrow one from school as I use a Nikon camera and my school only has Canon equipment. For this shoot I used my 70 - 300mm f/5.6 Sigma lens on my Nikon D5100. I spent about half an hour there sat in the same place, looking over onto the island in the pond where two Canada Geese were nesting (or so I believe). I took some photos of the other water fowl but my main focus was the geese. They kept hiding behind the bushes and then reemerging briefly. It wasn't until about 20 minutes later that they begun going into the water, which is when I turned my camera back on and snapped some shots. I patiently waited for the perfect shot and it sure was worth it, because I captured a photo that I am extremely proud of:

Nikon D5100 - Sigma 70 - 300mm f/5.6

Here are some more photos I managed to take that day:

In terms of development, I thought I could use Mischenko's techniques as a starting point for this unit. I knew I wanted to do something which involved nature and wildlife photography and so I set out to take a few pictures and see if I could create any ideas from them. I then had the idea of showcasing the 'Magic in the everyday', so using Photoshop I played around and added a sparkle effect top some of my work, so I was interpreting the idea quite literally - with the intention of moving on and making it a bit more figurative. With regards to the picture of the grasshopper, I had the idea of showing some 'Magic in the everyday' by having some neon-like beams circling his antennae. I had an idea of what it would have looked like in my head but when it came to the actual editing process it didn't look anything like I had hoped... 

I wasn't best pleased with the result. In my opinion it looked really cheesy and very fake - without forgetting to mention that the beams don't look at all neon! Though I believe to have had followed the online tutorial step-by-step I believe I must have missed out the crucial part where the neon beams actually came to life. (They were meant to look a little more like the picture below). 

Example of the neon beams I was trying to achieve.

After this slight disaster I decided it was time to have a little re-think as to how I was going to edit my photos. I then begun playing around in my image manipulation program and had the idea of using a fuzzy brush and adding a yellow-white gradient to it, whilst also applying jitter to create something a little more magical. I then opened the picture to the Canada Goose and begun playing around with that. Here is the resulting image:

As you can see I subtly added some 'magic' to my photograph. I was far more pleased with this edit than with that of the grasshopper. I feel this is far less cheesy and I am happy with the end result. I did try and add a little more sparkle to it but the end result was pretty much the same - it hardly looks any different:

What I found a bit difficult with regards to taking pictures of wildlife was how patient I had to be, an how I wouldn't always necessarily go out and take the perfect picture instantly, but other times the perfect picture happens right in front of you - just like that of the grasshopper or that of the Canada Goose I took splashing into the water. 

Here are a couple more experiments I tried using the same techniques, but decided not to put in my portfolio as I don't deem them good enough:

Here are a couple of contact sheets from these shoots: