Stephen Messner

(Shutter Speed 1/160, F/2.2, ISO 100 | 50mm Lens)

One thing a former Freestyle student taught me is that golden hour is the best time to take photos, do a filmed interview, be with your loved ones, the list goes on. Although I showed up a little early for golden hour, I was able to use some creative filters with my camera to make it seem more realistic. But despite the cloudy weather, and with enough patience, I waited for the right moment to get this photo of some palm trees by my house. Something about this photo brings me back to my childhood summers.

We were challenged to use our Speedlite Flash in various ways to take photos. One of our friends from Israel gave us an older guitar as a gift during the holidays, and I decided to admire its beauty for this post.

This first picture was taken with the flash pointing straight at the guitar. Nothing too special, but the light is quite harsh.

The second photo is nice because the lighting isn’t as harsh compared to the first photo because the flash is pointed up at the ceiling, spreading the light out more.

In the third photo, I used the white bounce card to make the guitar and the wall behind it a little more bright, but there isn’t too big of a difference.

The last photo on the bottom is my personal favorite, as I used the flash diffuser to get rid of some harsher shadows and glare on the guitar. This one is my favorite because it is the most accurate to the color of the guitar and the shade of wood it really is.

(Shutter Speed 1/60, F/3.5, ISO 400)

(Shutter Speed 1/60, F/11, ISO 1600)

I took this picture in my neighborhood, where my neighbor’s mailbox flag is in the shape of an older car. I looked down the street and saw how many cars there were at different distances, and thought it was a unique angle from where I was standing. A tiny red car that I can literally hide in one hand is bigger than the cars down the street that are 10 times my size!

(Shutter Speed 1/30, F2.5, ISO 1600)

Plenty of room for potential. Plenty of room for change. Plenty of room for something new. Empty, but content.