Sky Shots

Missouri can have a lot to offer by way of beauty. All of these photos in this blog are taken in my local area of Springfield/Nixa/Ozark. I have mentioned before that I have used various cameras over the years. Some of these are taken with a basic point and click, and some of these are taken with DSLRs. Like many others have said, the equipment can only take you so far, the rest is up to you. I encourage anyone who is interested to start with a point and click camera and then work your way up. And learn your editing software. Another thing I've learned over the years is that the camera doesn't always take photos the exact way you see them. Colors won't be the exact same as you actually see them, and editing allows you to pull out the colors. It also allows you to make up for skill level sometimes. Only to a piont though. It also allows you to change your photos to make your own form of art. The greatest thing? YOU get to choose what you want to do!

This photo was taken out at Springfield Lake. This was actually taken during a sunrise. I did change it up just a bit to make it look more like a sunset, but I felt the overall effect of the photo was better like this. There was a few changes made, but the biggest change to make it look more like a suset was a change in the contrast and brightness.

This shot really was taken at sunset. I've had people seem so amazed that my sky shots are primarily from Missouri. They will tell me that they've only seen skies like these in other states. The two biggest ones I hear about are Arizona and New Mexico. I've never been to either state although I would love to go sometime!

Another sunset shot. Different day entirely. I personally think that the fall/winter sunsets in Missouri are the best. We have more clouds during those times and the colors of the sunset play well with them!

I have quite a few sunset shots because they are so colorful! On this one I enhanced the shot to bring out the colors that were already there, but I also added local tone mapping to show the clouds more. There were a few more adjustments made, including adjusting brightness/contrast, but those adjustments were minimal.

Most of these photos here were actually taken with a point and click camera. The one benefit to a point and click over a dslr, is being able to zoom without having to pay a ton of money on a telephoto lens that a person who is starting out can't usually afford.

This was a sunrise out at Springfield Lake again. This was just as the sun was rising and it was freezing cold! I was out trying different settings on my DSLR. I failed at the original attempts, but I got a few good shots from the morning. I got to learn two important things. First, just because someone in a video/book/magazine says that a particular setting is best for a particular shot, that doesn't actually mean that it will work out how you expected. Another lesson learned, you need great gloves if you're going to be out in 30 degree weather taking photos!!!

Mid day cloud shot. I saw the rays of the sun and really wanted to get a photo of it. I really like the overall effect from the photo.

This is a mid evening shot. No, there's not a lot of color, but I still liked this shot. And again, point and clicks can be really awesome!

Another mid day shot. I believe this is in spring based on the color of the light, but it was taken long enough ago that I actually don't remember!

I hope you enjoyed! Please upvote and ask questions/leave comments! Conversation and constructive criticism is welcome!