#5: Iris in the Dark | Favorite Shots of ‘09

This series of shots really transformed the way I think about light and dark shooting. It took me a long way in understanding how to capture an image by keying in on the lighting and using the proper shutter speed and aperture for the best effect.

This out of all of these is my favorite, and that is why it makes the list. The coloring against the black worked perfectly. For this shot I set the flower in a glass and framed it so that the glass did not show. I took a small light and flashed it on the flower after I opened the camera shutter with my wireless remote. For this particular photo I flashed the light from the left, from bottom left, and then finally from the top briefly, all while the camera shutter was open. The result is this very unique lighting effect on the flower.

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#6: Big Red | Favorite Shots of ‘09

This was taken at the SunBelt basketball Tournament in Hot Springs. This is the Western Kentucky mascot taken during a timeout of their game against North Texas.

This makes the list because it is overall the most viewed photo in my flickr stream, and it was just an overall fun shot. Western Kentucky had by far the most active and fun mascot of all the teams, and I got several great shots along with this one. The shots were all a little hard to take since we had close seats to the floor and the press row in front of us cut into the pictures. I had to crop these a little more than I wanted to in order to make it come out good.