C&C Assignment IV : Light and Abstract

Last assignment of the workshop.   I had great fun participating in this and it taught me a lot about me as a photographer and pushed me to experiment with my camera in ways that I hadn't before.  Hopefully some of the skills that I've learnt will carry through into the future.  A big thanks to Camilla and Carolyn who organised the workshop and to all the other participants for regularly stopping by and commenting on my assignments.

This week's challenge was light and abstract in nature.  With a limit of 6-7 photos we were to play with light, abstraction, reflection, close-ups and landscape.  I live in central Berlin where five story apartments line the streets and nature is more often bought at a florist than found outside.  Friedrichshain Volkspark is just around the corner and for this week I was interested in playing with the connection and contrast between man-made and nature at the park.  It was actually easier than I thought.  People and landscaped elements of the park kept popping up in all of my pictures, inspite of attempts to blur them out, or omit them from view.

A last word about things that I've learnt.  I've grown more confident moving away from automatic settings to playing regularly with the aperture and f/stop.  I still haven't quite learnt how much I can push it before I get terrible camera shake, but I'm quickly learning.  Next step - full manual mode.  Throughout the assignments I've really tried to concentrate on colour and white balance.  I still have a great deal to learn, but the beginning 'egg' assignment was good preparation.  I find people difficult to photograph and I think I need more practice with this to create portrait shots that are not just "happy snaps".