Come On - Chalk It Up

Ah nothing beats the fun of youth. Not only is being young fun but all the cool toys and stuff you get to play with is hard to beat (well maybe photo equipments beats childhood toys - who knows). My son loves to color with chalk on the driveway - just about every afternoon he goes out there and draws to his heart's content - even in 95 degree temperatures. I decided to follow him out there one day with my camera and 100mm Canon lens just to see what I could capture.

I love the look of chalk - it's colors, textures and shape really lends itself to some good captures. As he was busy with something else I quickly grabbed a few pieces and laid them down on the concrete to see what I could come up with. I was only out there a few minutes but there is so much you can do with this stuff. All I did for that shot is converted the RAW image into a JPG using Lightroom - just a few levels adjustments to darken the concrete. You can also pump up the color saturation (which I also did) to bring out the texture of the chalk.

Don't be afraid to try different angles too. I set these back up differently and got down on the concrete - ouch - that 95 degrees tends to warm things up. My wife and neighbor were across the street. They both were looking at me as if I was some kind of nut (which I am, btw). They asked me what in the world I was taking a picture of (since they could not really see the chalk). All they saw was some guy laying on his stomach on 100 degree concrete with a camera in his hands - I guess I would have asked too....LOL.

Here is shot I was after (top photo below). I don't like this one as much - I guess the composition could have been a bit better - but hey - there's always tomorrow. I plan on doing a few more with chalk and taking a bit more time. As I do I will have a follow-up article with some shots and some explanation. I may bring it inside and try some on a seamless white / black background.