New Toy in the Park

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. – Mary Engelbreit

The best day to take photos outside are typically unplanned. It feels like the days I plan to go the weather doesn’t cooperate like I would want it to. It is usually cloudy with very little sunlight. Then days were I just head out and see what happens tends to be the best days to go. Last Saturday, I decided to ride for a little bit on my bicycle, and the weather was perfect. It was cool and sunny.

For my birthday my wife bought me this crystal photography ball. I had seen several cool post with them, but I had never used one before. I took it with me when I went out a few weekends ago, and it took some pretty cool shots. Since the weather was perfect that day I took full advantage of the great views.

I never thought I would enjoy using a crystal photography ball. When I first saw people using them on Instagram, I thought it was unusual to use one. I really didn’t think I would enjoy using it. When my wife bought it for me for my birthday, I was surprised. I really wasn’t expecting anything like this from her. When I tried it out at Marshall Park in Charlotte, I was surprised at the results. It was already a beautiful day outside, and I had already taken some amazing landscape shots of the part. The lighting was perfect, the leaves had changed into a rainbow of orange, brown and red, the reflection on the water was a perfect mirror of the scene, and the temperature was perfect. I put the crystal ball down at a few different spots to see what I could capture. I took the photos at several different angles, and I used my regular lens and my macro lens to get the best effect possible. I took some great shots, but it does take some time to the post work for these in order to bring out the best of these photos. It took some time, but it was totally worth it. I can’t wait until I find another great spot to take some shots using this crystal ball.

Using the crystal ball really gave me an opportunity to expand my photography skills. You really don’t know how something will turn out until you try it.