Photography Practice: Playing With Light

I've been learning almost too much, too quickly, to keep up with my posts, but here's a day of practice that I did last week. I've never really taken any "studio" or still life kind of photos because I don't like putting too much thought into things...or something. Sorry, I'm kind of loopy...probably should leave this post until I'm more awake and can make more sense, but I've put it off long enough. :)

I pushed myself to set up some shots in different types of light so that I could see the differences in how my camera handled the situations and also how the mood changed from place to place. Lavender became my subject once more (I'm just going to dub this summer "The Summer of Lavender" because I have been playing with it SO much lately and it is all over my house!) as I experimented.

    Part 1.1: First set up was outdoors against a sheet under cover on our patio. I love the cool hues of         the lavender.

Part 1.2: Same set up but in direct sunlight in the afternoon. Boo. I don't like the harsh light and shadows.

Part 2.1: Indoor setting against a white sheet with ambient light coming from a window. I love the soft feeling of the lavender.

Part 2.2: Same location but slightly different set up. 

Part 2.3: I'm really beginning to love ambient light! It's so calming, which coincides with the peaceful scent of lavender.

Part 3.1: Taken outside on the grass in the same location as 1.2 but in the late evening. There's such a huge difference in the light quality from early afternoon to just before sunset. This one is much softer and warmer.

Part 3.2: Outdoor setup in direct evening sunlight against a white backdrop. The colors are very warm and inviting and the white backdrop vs natural backdrop brings more of a focus on the lavender itself, rather than the scene as a whole.

Overall, it was a lot of fun to push myself to see beauty in situations that I am not usually comfortable with. I used to only take photos with direct light on the subject, but funnily enough, those were my least favorite photos in this set! I now love ambient light and having practiced with it, I feel more comfortable taking photos on cloudy days and indoors (in the right situations). I need to work on adjusting my white balance correctly, among everything else, but I am having so much fun eating up as must info as I can and practicing like crazy. Yay for leaving comfort zones!