Chris Marquardt

Chris gives us a mini assignment this week, similar to the ABC assignment last week. The A is for Abstract. Spend some times looking for abstract shapes, forms, colors and shoot a picture of them. B - Background. Today, we focus on the foreground. But what about the background? Take a picture that focuses on the background of the image, and how it interacts with your main subject. It could be a frame, color, shape, just about anything. Finally ...

Today's assignment review: JOURNEY

All photos:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?group_id=362537%40N20&sort=date-posted-desc&view_all=1&tags=TGjourney

Selected photos:

https://flic.kr/p/2imPH5Y

https://flic.kr/p/2iqpwJC

As we move from winter to spring, there's a lot of great opportunities to capture stunning images in the rain. You can go to flicker and type "rain, street, night," to see how stunning an image you can get after it rains. There are some remarkable reflections that can be had at night. 

Shooting in the fog can be an effective option as well. Fog can wash out color and make many things appear in silhouette. It provides an air of mystery to the image. 

Experiment with these three five minute assignments:

1. The Aperture assignment. Take a photo at the lowest aperture setting, and one at the highest aperture setting and compare. Also, try it with telephoto lenses.

2. The Burst Assignment. Use burst mode on your camera and capture motion with it. See what the camera grabs. Pick the best.

Chris joins Leo again to talk about the new Starlink satellites that Space X has been launching into orbit. Starlink's goal is to cover the world with ultra-fast gigabit wireless internet. Currently, there are 180 satellites in orbit, with the goal of 12,000 satellites total. The satellites will be in a low earth orbit, and as such, they will be visible in the night sky. That's going to be a problem for astronomers and astrophotographers. SpaceX is experimenting with a coating that they say will reduce reflectivity, but the other 179 satellites are still going to be a problem.

Here's the Industrial assignment review:

All photos:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?group_id=362537%40N20&sort=date-posted-desc&view_all=1&tags=TGindustrial

Reviews:

https://flic.kr/p/2ibiYCC

https://flic.kr/p/2i5ryno

Chris joins Leo to talk about how to get your creative juices flowing with photography in the new year. Chris offers three little assignments ... A) look for alternating structures. This can be color, texture, design; it doesn't matter: just something that alternates in the image. Shoot from different angles. Play with it. B) Break some rules, especially your own rules. This will make you aware of the rules you follow subconsciously. For example: shoot a portrait with a wide-angle lens. Raise the ISO as high as you can and lean into the noise.

Chris joins Leo for the last time in 2019 to talk about Flickr, which he calls the original social network for photography. But it's been a rough road for Flickr in the last few years, after an unlimited uploading scheme, Yahoo being bought by Verizon. And finally, SmugMug now owns them. Chris says that SmugMug is really the best platform for Flickr because it's all about photography. So Flickr is back to its original purpose. Sadly though, SmugMug has started pushing the pro tier aggressively, and that's a bad sign.

Here we go for today's HOT review.

All photos:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?group_id=362537%40N20&sort=date-posted-desc&view_all=1&tags=TGhot

Review pics:

https://flic.kr/p/2hWDMGn

https://flic.kr/p/2hSrcoT

https://flic.kr/p/2hNCnyJ

Next assignment:

Chris likes shooting pictures during the holidays because it's so different from any other time of the year. Lights, for instance, create a mode, and you can use the placement of those lights, with a shallow depth of field, to make a beautiful image. But you don't want to use a flash. It'll completely kill the mood that you're trying to create. It'll also wash things out and blind your subject. Ultimately, killing the mood. You could use an orange gel on the flash or bounce the flash off the ceiling. That could help.