13 September 2009

Last day of vacation!


My boyfriend and I were playing around this river on our last hike and he challenged me to practice slow shutter speed with my camera. I love him. <3




I've never successfully done this before... I want to practice more, but I like how this one turned out! There were others where the water looked slower, but they were way too bright because of the long shutter time.

12 August 2009

(Click for full view)



Lisa's (my boyfriend's mom) 50th birthday was today! And her awesome "AARP" cake fits perfectly into my four-day theme.



This was also my first time testing my new camera in less than ideal lighting.


I'll have to try it again... I don't like the results that I got, and I couldn't remember where in the menu I can change what lighting I'm in.




You can ignore the rest of this if you don't want to hear me whine :)


I have the rest of my pictures taken up to today's, but I literally have no time to upload any more than what I've done today. Wednesday is my last day of class and we have a presentation. I just got the data from the last person today, and it was supposed to be handed to me on Wednesday. I had Wednesday off, and most of the day Thursday to finish everything. Now I work 8.5 hour days for the next three days and don't have time to work on the project.

Ugh. Don't ya love people?

05 August 2009

I'm really happy with this shot... With my other camera, the shots were usually too dark and lacked the pop of good coloring. I didn't have to edit at all for brightness/contrast or color :D Just for sharpness!


And a bonus? The top right-hand corner has pretty bokeh :D

01 August 2009

I made salmon for the first time tonight... I am a salmon goddess!


It helps that this recipe is truly AMAZING and stupidly simple to make. I'm 90% sure you already have everything but the salmon sitting around your house. I only wish I had the time to make some steamed broccoli and white rice to go with it!


They recommend using foil for easy clean up... It probably is easier, but please be green and build some muscles by scrubbing the pan :)

On the photo: I was using a low ISO setting on this, and my manual mode. Unfortunately, my manual mode does not utilize my image stabilization mode. So most of my shots turned out either blurred, or too soft. Oh well, I'm learning still!

Thoughts...

I was going through Mandy's project, and came up with a few thoughts...


I have always had a mental "list" of pictures I know I want to take. Most of these are reserved for when I get a more advanced SLR camera in a few years. The thought never occurred to me that I should write these down until I was commenting on one of Mandy's photos...


I'm thinking that I will write up a list of my "photo goals," similar to people's lists of "100 Things I Want to do Before I Die." Maybe "100 Pictures I WILL Take Before I Die?" We'll see. :)


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Any other Project365-ers want to join in for a group week theme? An easy one that Mandy's blog made me think of was a week of hearts, smileys, or peace signs, but if anyone has any ideas feel free to comment!


I'm friends with all four of you on Facebook, so we can discuss a possible group theme either on here or on there.


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When I was at the local library for school, I took a look in their photography section. There were more books that I wanted than I felt I could read, so I grabbed two. They both have a lot of good little tips from experienced photographers. In case anyone is interested:


This is a great overview, with little tips on a little bit of everything. A little irrelevant for me, since it goes over a lot of travel and people photos, but still very good:


Rick Sammon's Field Guide to Digital Photography
(Quick Lessons on Making Great Pictures)
Amazon Link



This is a detailed book on a specific topic. It goes over each section, and post-picture editing as well as essentials for a home studio. I particularly love this because he has a love for macro :D


Light and Exposure for Digital Photographers
Harold Davis
Amazon Link (Some tips are on this page. Take a look!)

I know I take too many outside pictures. It's just too pretty, sunny, warm, colorful, and bright outside to be taking indoor pictures! :D



Here, I was playing with my ISO levels (50) and using backlighting.

Some thoughts...

The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer. ~Author Unknown





A few weeks ago, I was really excited to learn all about bokeh in photos. I love, love, love that effect and I couldn't wait to figure out how to do it!


And then I realized that my aperture settings aren't advanced enough to do it on automatic settings, and that manual would make it easier. But my camera has no manual setting options. I did discover a little trick on how to do it, but more or less gave up besides that.


I picked up a ShutterBug magazine from work yesterday simply to expand my knowledge on DSLR cameras... And their first large article was all about bokeh, complete with a few pages of beautiful photos of flowers with bokeh texture.


I have decided that instead of taking this as the universe slapping me in the face and laughing, I'm going to take it as a sign that I need to try it again. And read more. And practice. I still have some optimism in me somewhere :)



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If anyone is interested, a good friend and coworker of mine Darlene gave me a copy of National Geographic from November of 1997, in which a NatGeo photographer challenged himself to take one picture every day for 90 days (article title: "North Woods Journal"). The photos are gorgeous and definitely worth a trip to the library to take a look at. He also wrote a book based on the experience, titled "Chased by the Light," but I haven't seen it yet. I do plan on trying to find the book; the article in NatGeo is beautifully written and he learned so much from his experience in only 90 days!



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There are two photography competitions for different magazines that I am going to enter into. I don't expect to do extremely well in one (I'll be up against well-practiced photographers armed with SLRs and more knowledge than myself), but I have high hopes for the other. The end dates for submitting are both within the next month. I'll let you guys know if anything comes of it!

17 June 2009

I picked up posterboard today, and did my first shoot in the new lightbox.



I took pictures with the fruit directly on the paper, and in a few different glass bowls. The ones in bowls had better lighting... That is really what has me thinking that I need more reflection within the box.



To see this photo with the white balance unedited, click here.

16 June 2009

The college student's lightbox.


I worked for about an hour and a half on this yesterday (after I found everything). It was inspired by Strobist. Everything you see there I found around my house. The sides are made of tissue paper, and I have taped velcro strips to the inside so that I can use cloth pieces after I get everything set up.



As of today (6/17) I have purchased some posterboard which works MUCH better than the sheet I was testing with yesterday. I also grabbed some white poster paint while I was at the craft store and I plan on painting the inside of the flaps, at the very least. Eventually I also want to replace the lamp on the right with one similar to the one on the left.



You'll see in today's picture that I've tested it already. Beyond painting the flaps, I am considering trying brighter bulbs (if my lamps will take them). Someone on Strobist's post mentioned that they put white foam/poster board on the top on the inside to better reflect the light. I am stuck between whether I should do this, or purchase a cheap taller lamp to add some lighting from the top window. Any ideas?



If you're interested: here's another view of the box from today, with the posterboard. I did not edit the white balance on purpose, to keep the same colors that I see there.

06-07-09

Our cherry tree :) I even managed a tiny hint of bokeh in there!

6-02-09

When I took this picture I was actually waiting for my boyfriend to finish cooking dinner. I was playing with settings on my camera and clinging to a desperate hope that I could trick my camera into producing a bokeh effect.



It didn't work.



But this picture came out pretty cool. :)

5-30-09

Before I post my picture for today:


Happy 23rd birthday boyfriend!



Okay, we can continue now. :)





Playing with the pre-set night setting on my camera. That is one little light off of our dryer. It was actually really hard for me to get a good picture, because I had to cover the other lights with my left hand and try to hold my right hand steady.


I could have covered them with tape, but alas I am too lazy for that.


Also, I was actually trying to write "hi" with the light, but failed spectacularly.


Last night I was trying to get my camera to produce a good bokeh effect (I just learned that look that I love has a name!), but I think that my aperture is too low (f/3.0). I also cannot manually set it with my camera. Sooo I may need to wait a few years until I get my second love (an SLR) before I can practice that. I'm glad I'm learning these things before it's time to chose which SLR I want to purchase!