The Sky Cries Aloud, Sensing the Coming Storm Amidst....

DARK CLOUDS

There's a dark cloud overhead

As if brought by a storm

But this cloud will not shift

And more clouds begin to form

The darkness lurks above

Bringing sorrow into the air

The fog begins to appear

As my heart starts to tear

The night falls apart 

In my shaking hands

Nothing can be repaired

In these despair-filled lands

I fall to my knees 

And beg for happiness

As the world crumbles down

I am lost in the darkness

-- Allyson Gordon

                        Recently I found myself loving poetry and linking them with photography. This picture was taken at Maracas Beach. In previous posts I mentioned here and the other shots that I got. Here I will share two pictures that I got here also. I might post 2 pictures in one post from here on, seeing as we are coming to the end of the semester, and I wouldn't want to waste my effort from the other pictures I took without displaying them. 

                        Below is the shot I took in between some coconut trees. The sky was overcast and rain was about to fall when I took this picture. I set the camera to the "Beach" setting which boosts the colour and sunlight in the photograph. The coconut trees look brighter, along with the sand, which highlights the darkness of the approaching rainclouds that were about to burst at any second.

I like this picture because of the natural contrast it has with the sunlight and the clouds, the pathway of the trees on the sand and the amount of greenery that is seen on the beach. Also, I love the character the trees give, as their stems are not fixed, perfectly straight, but are bent and winding, giving some personality to each one of them.

Another picture that I took this same day was just a coconut tree alone, while I was hiding from the blazing sun, under a coconut tree, fearful for my life; wondering of a coconut would fall on my head and put me into a coma; sorry I'm just kidding. I was relaxing with the soothing sound of the crashing waves and the constant cool breeze that hits your skin and passes through your hair while on this beach. I remembered a trick or guide that I acquired from previous investigation and research from photographers guidelines and tips. It deals with angles. 

I mentioned this in my previous post with the waves crashing over the rock. This was the same time that I was at the beach and was attempting to put the unusual angles to work, and see what interesting pictures I could possibly attain.

I stuck with low angles and twisting them. I bent in a weird twisted position as I put the camera to the bottom of a coconut tree, facing up. I tilted the camera so that the tree's branches would block out the sunlight. In this shot, I also used the beach setting for extra bright and colourful booms. 

I took a good few, but liked this one the most. 

If you would like to see my entire album, check out my Facebook Fanpage with these photos and more.

https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyInItsEssence?ref=ts&fref=ts

(Please note some of the pictures on the fan page have not been posted up here yet, so as not not spoil the surprises to come... just take a peek at the album there..)

Away! away! for I will fly to thee...

                        Welcome back!!!!


           Today I decided to go with another approach and to do a vidblog. This video is based around my trip to The Wild Fowl Trust, which is the same place I visited last, in my previous blog. 

           The following would be a little summary of the content that is in the video, for those who don't have the time to listen. Also, the video is very soft, and you might have to listen to it with headphone or with your volume on high, my microphones don't pick up sound that very well. 

For the remaining weeks I will post the captures that I got during the semester from the Wild fowl trust, Caroni Swamp, Petrotrin, Tobago and Maracas.

Today I will share another picture I took in The Wild Fowl trust. It is one of the birds there. While I was passing, it was bathing in one of the ponds and was shaking it’s feathers a lot, it was about to take flight when I hustled to get the picture.

 My mistake was to not have my camera readily at hand. I set the camera quickly to sport, which usually helps to capture an object in motion. The downside to this though, is usually you get grains on the image. This is called noise. If you look closely at the image you would see spots, or grains and it spoils the quality of the image. Luckily I did not get much noise for this shot, but one side of the bird’s wings was blurred completely. I would say about 70% of it’s body was in focus though. Unless  I had a professional camera, it would be veryyy difficult to get this entire bird still and in focus. 

This is the shot of the bird I got. It is not a picture to be all hyped about, but I gave it a try. 

I will have a few more videos up soon, so look out for them. 

As Freedom...

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee'

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,

But a plea, that upward to heaven he flings--

I know why the caged bird sings!

- from "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Until then, be creative in whatever you do, and don’t forget to see the beauty in everything that surrounds you.

Bad News...

Just a little update... 


My camera.. has officially been put out of use. I do believe it is has reached the end of its days. I need to carry it to fix as soon as possible. I honestly do not know what happened or how it did, but the lens won't open. 

I guess I will have to make funeral arrangements for it :( 

Luckily though, I have a few shots I took from this semester still in store so I would use those for my last posts. 

I was going to experiment with black and white and old buildings this week, but seeing as this dilemma has risen, I cannot do so. 

This situation was unforeseen and I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been supporting me and viewing my blogs, it is very much appreciated, and sorry for the inconvenience... 



Till the next post....

The Pathway of Life...

                           Guess who visited Wild Fowl Trust this weekend????? This person did!!! 



                           The Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust, now in its 47th year, is an independent, nation, non-profit, environmental, non-government, volunteer, membership organization, encompassing two lakes and about 30 hectares of land within a major petrochemical and oil refining complex, PETROTRIN.


If you would like to visit them, their website is http://www.papwildfowltrust.org/

                                                                           

You can get all the information you wish or need there. You would enjoy your journey, it is a different experience that you can get right here, south of our homeland, beautiful Trinidad. 

To drive to the Trust from Port of Spain or San Fernando, leave the Uriah Butler- Solomon Hochoy Highway at the Gasparillo exit and follow the signs to the Petrotrin Oil Refinery. On public transport, take a Port of Spain- San Fernando maxi, route taxi or bus, and get out at the Gasparillo exit, from where the refinery is a two- minute walk. Once inside, it's another fifteen-minute walk to the Trust. The best time to visit is before 11 am or after 3pm. 


                            In later posts, I shall post a capture I got of Petrotrin for all to see, even though it was more of a sunset, beauty shot, it did not capture the actual refinery and the industry itself. Further information will be added to that post, for now, the focus is the Wild Fowl Trust. 

                           I once came here before when I was secondary school for a Geography project or SBA I believe. Here, consists of 250, 000 square metres of attractively landscaped grounds that are home to many rare species of bird, including the wild Muscovy duck, the red- billed whistling duck and white- cheeked pintail. Some of the rarer birds, including scarlet ibis, are caged to allow breeding programmes to continue. 

                       After seeing all the birds, peacocks and the lovely pond with the rainy, gloomy weather, I took some shots, but found this one to be interesting. In trying to incorporate the rule of thirds that I learnt as a tip or guide from professional photographers; either from reading online, getting tips from the National Geographic and even Youtube, I tried to apply it, In my opinion, I believe I was successful. 

                       The rule of thirds simply states that you imagine the object or landscape that you wish to photograph and picture a tic- tac- toe. Imagine your viewfinder of LCD monitor divided into nine equal-size squares, like a tic- tac - toe grid. You are to try to compose your picture with your subject positioned at one of the four intersecting points. This in turn will then help you as a photographer to compose more aesthetic portraits. 

                      This is what I tried to achieve here. I did not focus the walkway to the center of the picture, but to the side. The arch like bush was at a point and the walkway was at a point. I refused to repeat my previous mistake of just taking photos with the objects focused to the center. Using social media I got a great deal of options to choose from in order to get advice; the best so far has been Youtube. 

This photo tip put into shorter terms is :

"By placing the most important part of a picture dead center in the frame, it is usually not very appealing. Remember the Rule of Thirds and seek a composition that strikes a balance between the strongest element and open areas, which will usually lead to a more successful image."
 --  Raymond Gehman, National Geographic



                 I came across a this poem that made me think about this picture. They gave so much more feeling and depth for me that aided the emotions that I want evoked in this capture. 

" Into the stilly woods I go,

Where the shades are deep and the wind-flowers blow,

And the hours are dreamy and lone and long,

And the power of silence is greater than song." 

--W.W. Campbell

    The Pathway of Life

"As you travel the pathway of life,
don't trample the flowers beneath your feet and if you dare,
stop a while, gaze upon them in their splendor.
Breathe deeply, smell the bouquet of the tender blossoms they bare .

As you travel the pathway of life,
pause a second and look at the reflection in the mirror.
What do you see; the person you have become,
or the person you strive to be, can it be any clearer.

As you travel the pathway of life,
take time to thank God for the things He has provided,
and the many blessings He has bestowed upon you;
no longer to worry about matters left undecided.

As you travel the pathway of life,
for just one brief moment, forget the misery in the world.
Contemplate the goodness in your fellowman,
and not the evil you see them begin to unfurl.

As you travel the pathway of life,
Stop and say hello to a stranger today, give it a try.
Watch their eyes light up and sparkle with a glow,
that can only be extinguished if you pass them by.

As you travel the pathway of life,
relish the time you spend with your family and friends.
Life is too short not to take delight in them while they are here.
Set your priorities, for one day their precious life will end.

As you travel the pathway of life,
spread a blanket beneath that majestic old oak tree with care.
See the initials etched with fondness; hear the secrets his leaves whisper.
Savor the memories left behind for you and that old tree to share.

As you travel the pathway of life,
I hope you can hear what my words are saying to you.
Use the time God has given to you on earth,
and focus on the really important things in your life to pursue." 

--Sylvia

Along with the National Geographic as a guide, this Youtube video also helped me a significant bit. 

                                                       

You should check it out too!!!

Imagination at play...

                        Sometimes shooting random objects can be a plus. People always look for the obvious: sunsets, landscape of mountains and greenery; just basic landscape and scenery. 

                        A mistake most amateur photographers make is to put the object that they are capturing in the dead center of the image. 

                        Unfortunately that was a mistake I made this time. I did not angle the picture better. I could have made more use of it and do a lower angle and capture probably a bird that was nearby in flight with the splashing of the waves in the background, or simply the sea or placing of the lighting of the sun.  

                         At the moment I took this I did not think of all that, it was only after the fact that I left the area, well the island actually, because it was in Pigeon Point, Tobago. As I was viewing the pictures on the computer I realised the potential it could have had. I only wanted to capture the strange looking tree? It was so strange looking to me. It was also humungous. A friend of mine thought, at first that it was a very large coral. I found at first though, that it looked somewhat like a skeleton of a huge animal, such as an elephant? , but that is just our imaginations at play. That is exactly one of the effects you would want on an audience, which is to put a little bit of suspense into it. 

http://thenoblewanderer.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/random-photos-inanimate-objects/

The above website is an example of some of the creative ideas one could try to incorporate into their photography when it pertains to shooting random objects. The trick behind it is not to be random at all, but to put  some thought into what you are photographing. 

One example is the two coolers on the sand, seeming like they are on a picnic on the beach. While their owners are taking a swim, the photographer snapped the objects alone, as if they were life like and wanted to portray or get the feeling that the coolers were on a date. 

Some questions you should always ask before taking a picture as such would be :

- What is the primary theme or subject?

- What mood am I hoping to create?

- Does the background contribute to or take away from the subject matter?

- Where is the light coming from?

- What would make my photo different from all others?

By approaching every photo with a simple objective, you'll inevitably end up with better photos!!

The Light and Life of the Sun, Making Wine of the Blue Air and Sea...

           

              Here we are again folks! I have managed to get another capture that I love and certainly would frame and put up on my wall. This journey landed me in Trinidad's beautiful twin isle, Tobago. Though Trinidad has its majestic locations and is a wonder on its own, it is not complete without the breathtaking places, culture and people in Tobago. As anyone can conclude by now, it is obvious that I'm a landscape kinda 'gal'. I don't particularly do well with photographing people, but I have a passion for landscape scenery and animals! 

       
              As I was taking my evening bath in one of the most popular beaches in Tobago, called Store Bay, I basked in the setting sun and soaked up in the clear, serene waters of this island. I then noticed that the sun's rays were in a particular focal point in the sky, and it was not like the red and mystical colours were forming and spreading out as yet; it was different, and I loved it. I was getting so caught up in the peacefulness of its aura that I almost forgot to take a snap of it! 

             As usual, there was some exciting drama to take out my capture! Life passes us by so fast that it is difficult sometimes to just get a still of what pulls everything together and makes it beautiful. I quickly swam out to the shore, trying to beat the clouds as they were passing by, I was worried that I would miss it. My heart raced as I swam, arms going left, right, left and right; taking a gasp here and there. I tried not to wet the camera, seeing as it is my only one! Trying ever so hard to get the horizon straight and keep my hand still from the adrenaline rush that I was experiencing, I took off the automatic setting and set it to landscape. There is a 'smartcapture' setting that I use a lot but this time I could have chosen 'Sunset' but I preferred for this picture to be a little dark and not too bright for the ray of light effect. Funny enough, point and shoot cameras come with almost the option for everything these days, paving the way for amateur photographers like myself. The secret to being a photographer though, is not having an expensive camera that costs more than your car, it helps, but it is the creativity of it all, being able to form life out of something dull, making what others see as dirt or old into something majestic and wonderful that evokes feeling and creativity. 
  
             To get great sunset pictures, you must be able to control your camera manually. The use of fast shutter speeds, closing the aperture and setting the ISO to the lowest possible. A tip is to include subjects and get to the location before the sun is completely gone. For this image, I used the yacht.  A good time to be there is half an hour before a sunset; there the vast array of colours will shoot into the sky and light will refract and bend in so many colourful ways amongst the clouds. You never know what you can find, clouds have an energy of their own. Experiment and you would quickly find out what works for you as an individual and what meshes with your own style. 



             

Subscribing to Youtube channels such as the "Ultimate Photoguide' has some perks in it. I get some tips and go out and try some.  

Also watching some videos such as these on the same site, Youtube.

One thing that I am looking to buy is a tripod so I can steady my shots and an unstable, nervous, sweaty and shaky hand won't interfere with my photographs. Most of these sites and photographers tips is to have one, so sometime in the future I'm investing in one. I am positive it would make a great, significant improvement. 

I also created a flickr account where anyone could check out my pictures. I won't link them yet until I created my portfolio with the pictures that I want to be shown alone. 

I also posted this picture to my Facebook page. Remember to take a look at it for all the pictures that I took so far, if you do not wish to look at them here. 

https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyInItsEssence?ref=ts&fref=ts

Until next time...

 Enjoy your day and keep an eye out for the little wonders and beauty of life that surrounds you..

Send Me A Post Card!!

   

             Hey y'all! Sadly this past week and then some, my laptop has been down; got a virus and was flashed. AKA.. I lost ALL my stuff!! But I saved what little little I could. So that means that this week, I did not get a good picture either. All I had on me was my iPod which has basically like 2MP (megapixels) and takes horrible quality pictures. 


            As I was on my way to the grocery earlier this week, it was around sunset, and I was stuck in traffic. To the side of me, was a pretty decent shot, if I was higher off the ground and if I had a decent enough camera; my point and shoot Kodak would have sufficed. I was left with the option of, -- to take a grainy picture or to --  just leave it let it be and carry on; but you know me!!! ... I still wanted it, at least the idea and potential of the image could still be imagined.


            Here's the capture... It's nothing big, but would have been wonderful with my camera :( 

              This weekend I will be in Tobago, and most definitely would have my camera on me, and there would be some lovely settings and opportunities to take magnificent pictures in our wonderful twin isle. I shall share the beautiful pictures that I wish to take next week, the images WILL please your eyes, I can guarantee that ;) 


         Until then, I am short changed so, I was back on some posts because of no laptop. When I look at this picture, I see the resemblance to some postcards that they have in some tourist shops so people can post their loved ones; that's just me though.