Today's photography challenge is "clouds" and I really looked forward to it after yesterday's difficult challenge of taking a picture of my outfit. When everyone thinks of clouds they picture white, fluffy cumulous clouds or white,wispy cirrus clouds. I was hoping to wake up this morning to a blue sky with white, puffy clouds, but I woke up to a grey sky covered in one gigantic grey cloud.
This afternoon I grabbed my iPhone and Canon point and shoot camera, and took Nutmeg for a walk along the Rideau River and to the dog park. I found some dark clouds and took some pictures, but they still were I really wanted.
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| Cloud - Rideau River Pathway 1 |
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| Cloud - Rideau River Pathway 2 |
After my walk with Nutmeg, I dropped her off at home, grabbed my bike and went for a ride. My first stop was nearby at
Ola Cocina for lunch. I ordered the Taco Platter, which comes with red rice, black beans, and 3 tacos of your choice. I chose fish, duck confit, and tandoori chicken for my tacos. They were all delicious and the owner told me they were customers' favourites. After my meal, I hopped back on my bike and rode around in Vanier and looked at small houses and streets. For some reason my legs pedalled me to the
Byward Market and parked my bike. I stopped on the Minto Bridge to take more pictures of clouds. I walked around and went into the newly opened
Fluevog store and admired the footwear. Next, I went into the
Continental Delicatessen, the first Polish delicatessen in Ottawa, and ordered a chicken schnitzel sandwich, hot Hungarian sausage, and dessert. It started to rain as soon as I left the delicatessen and biked home.
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| Walk with Nutmeg and Bike Ride Adventures |
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| Cloud - Rideau River - Minto Bridge 1 |
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| Cloud - Rideau River - Minto Bridge 2 |
Once again, I looked up how to take pictures of clouds and some of the recommendations are to look up at the sky and various clouds because they are fun to photograph. Other recommendations are to use a polarizing filter to reduce glare, use a low shutter speed, and to use the
Rule of Thirds (breaking up the picture into a 9 square gridline). These photographers also recommend using Photoshop, Gimp or some other photo processing tool and to play with your photos by changing the saturation, adding things to them, and have fun. These recommendations are predominantly for people using DSLR cameras, which I do not have. Can point and shoot cameras take RAW pictures? Is there a way to change shutter speed and filters on point and shoot cameras? I took a 3 hour class for my camera 5-6 years ago and it was helpful, but it's the not same type of instruction you would receive in a regular photography class for DSLRs. One day I will own a DSLR and will take photography classes, but until then I will have to play with my regular camera.
Here are some professional tips and examples of how to photograph clouds:
After my bike trip, I thought one of the above the cloud pictures would be my final pictures because it was supposed to rain all evening. In the end, it didn't rain this evening and I took Nutmeg for another walk, but left my camera at home and what did I see clouds, various clouds that looked like tiny cotton balls, pinks and light shining through them. After our walk, I grabbed my camera and biked down to the Ottawa River along Sussex Drive and took more photos of clouds (please see them below).
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| Clouds - Ottawa River - Sunset 1 |
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| Clouds - Ottawa River - Sunset 2 |
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| Cloud - Ottawa River - Sunset (Final Picture) |
Do you have any suggestions or recommendations? I will gladly accept any photography advice.
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