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. 

      

Splash your troubles away...

             

                  How LOW can YOU go?? This is a question that should always be in the back of your head as a photographer, as well as some other unusual questions. In photography, angles mean almost everything! It changes the mood and perception of a picture; it can either make the image more captivating or turn the other direction and leave the viewer lost. Be careful when doing this, because the wrong angle can confuse its audience; sometimes the image might be lost in trying to capture it, because the viewer can no longer tell what the object really is. 

                 In landscape photography, there are three elements pertaining to distance: the foreground, mid-ground and background. A lovely technique to use, and one of my personal favourites is to take a picture from the fore-ground; that is, taking an object closest to you, going down to that level and snapping the picture. It makes the picture interesting and gives it a little more mystery to it.

                 One of the reasons for having an element present in the foreground of your photo is to make the viewer of the photograph feel like they're there, because they can see the depth of what's close and what's far away. It basically 'sucks' them into the scene, and that is what you want as a photographer. 

                  Weekend past, I visited the lovely Maracas Bay, where I took several shots that all led to this one being my most favourite. Sadly I did not get sufficient time to experiment with this angle because I only saw the potential of this as I was on the road and about to leave. I jumped out the car, ran through a crowd of intoxicated Indian men who were stirring up some curry and went slippers first, into the crashing waves. Clothes on, camera ready in hand, and gleaming eyes, I took the risk of snapping this picture right before the wave soaked me entirely.
 Please Note: My camera IS NOT... WATER PROOF. 

            I was ecstatic to see my result.. and I was indeed happy with it.

                      
                                                            Sometimes the angle makes all the difference...


                         http://digital-photography-school.com/20-examples-of-low-angle-photography



                                                                                       and

               




                The above sites, gave me some ideas for my picture. Low photography is almost all the time...wonderful. They also give some wonderful examples of low angled photography, that also gave me the inspiration I needed for this. 
             

Enigmatic Demise...

         In capturing an image, the important parts of a scene need to have the focus centered on them, and dramatic light always helps make for dramatic photos.


         No beginner ever picked up a camera and knew what all the controls did; For the serious photographer, f-stops and shutter speeds were definitely not instinctive either.



        "Digital cameras come in a variety of forms, from point-and-shoot pocket cameras to advanced digital SLRs. There is no right or wrong type, though a specific one may be best for you and your photography.
Simple point-and-shoot digital cameras can give surprising quality when they have the right lenses and sensors. Because they are totally automatic in focus and exposure, they just have to be pointed at a subject and clicked. They have limited capabilities for controlling the image, although even very inexpensive cameras often have white balance controls. Some are exceptionally compact, able to fit easily into a shirt pocket, making them ideal cameras to keep at hand so you won't miss a great photo opportunity." - -Photography Field Guide: Digital Media and Ultimate Field Guide to Photography

 

http://blog.sigmaphoto.com/2012/top-macro-photography-tips-by-robert-otoole/

 

From this link, there are tips on macro photography from a photographer on Twitter. It is a blog that was linked from his Twitter page. (seen below)

 

 

 

 

 

         "The way to get the best photos from a digital camera is to do it right from the start. Yet there is an idea that one doesn't need to devote much effort when you have the computer to "help." This idea has sometimes reached almost surreal proportions. A couple of years ago, a digital photography article in a major news magazine said software was available that would automatically transform amateurs' photos into images that would rival the best of pros. That software never existed, nor will it, because good photography has always been about art and craft; about understanding the tools of the craft and using them well; and about perception and the ability to capture an image that catches an audience's attention and communicates well."
 -Photography Field Guide: Digital Media and Ultimate Field Guide to Photography

 

                        JUST REMEMBER THAT DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
                                                                                           IS STILL PHOTOGRAPHY!!!"

 

Below, is a video from youtube that gives a little insight in the field of depth in photography.

 

 

               A common mistake that people make is that they let the camera shake. Obviously, when your hands shake when you press the shutter, you ris the chance of blurring that image or reducing the sharpness and quality of it. You must keep your hand steady...

 

 

"A basic rule of compostion is known as the rule of thirds, or the tic-tac-toe rule. Imagine your viewfinder or LCD monitor divided into nine equal-size squares, like a tic-tac-toe grid. Compose your picture with your subject center-positioned at one of the four intersecting points. This should help you compose more aesthetic portraits."

 - -Photography Field Guide: Digital Media and Ultimate Field Guide to Photography

 

 

 AS A PHOTOGRAPHER, YOU WILL KNOW YOUR PHOTOS AND WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO.

 

 

In this picture, I wanted to bring out the feeling of seeing beauty in a sad spectacle;

 this plant's last moments.

 

Coming back from school last week, I had to wait by an apartment building for a car. Outside this building, were some plants and flowers and some bougainvilleas. The sun was scorching, so I moved closer inwards to the building where these plants lay. After waiting a while, I turned my head, and there in front my eyes was this tiny plant with a minature flower. It was dying, and about to fall off it's root. I was very surprised to see that this flower was see-through! I never witnessed a plant like this before and was mesmerized by it. I was lucky enough to have my camera on me that day, though everyone knows the number one rule that a photographer abides by is to

NEVER LEAVE YOUR CAMERA HOME!

 

 

 

 

I set the camera to "supermacro" and then placed the edge of the camera on the ledge of a step for steadiness. I was looking to obtain a shallow D.O.F. Aperature. This is when the focus is on the subject closest to the screen and the background is blurred and barely gives away distraction to the photo, other than the desired subject.

It took a while for the camera to focus correctly on the flower. I had to refocus it a good couple of times until I got the flower in the center of the picture and fully in focus.

 The result, is as seen above.

 

 

 

 

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder....

      Icacos Point is the southwesternmost point in our country (Trinidad and Tobago), situated at the tip of the long peninsula that forms St. Patrick County and is only 11 kilometers away from neighbouring Venezuela.

       Icacos has largely abandoned its agricultural roots and villagers engage mainly in fishing for their sustenance.

       On this particular weekend, roads just led to this part of Trinidad with some friends. When it was time to leave, I attempted to walk on the beach, but I was stopped short as the beach was filled with fallen coconut trees and some even in the water. They were some huge obstacles and were as a matter of fact, pretty dangerous as some of the trees were totally underwater, you can hit them when you enter the water; which was my mistake.

       To avoid any more further physical pain, of hitting my legs on coconut trees underwater, I kept more to the shoreline. I sat n contemplated on the rare exquisite beauty of the spectacle I was witnessing. Though most people would see the area as deserted, poluted and an eyesore, I saw some beauty through it all.

      I hit up the camera and as some clouds were passing above, slightly hindering the sun. Rain clouds were coming in, and right before some of the rain arrived, I got a sweet still. Not much thought was put into the settings that I used this time. I just let autofocus and the autosettings take over. They did the job pretty well, as that is their purpose.

So, never underestimate the power of a smart auto setting. It can be just what you need at the right time and right environment.