Day 59- Macro Monday

It is Macro Monday in the photoblogging world.  I have resisted getting into this routine, because of my incompetence problems with the macro feature of my 70-300mm lens.  So- just for TODAY- I am in the swing of Macro Monday.

I still have the flower bouquet, so took some more photos of them- but from different angles.  I can’t decide what I like best, so made a collage- a macrollage!

f/5.6, ISO 400, varying shutter speeds

All the photos were taken at 300mm with the macro setting and manual focus.

 

Melinda5 Comments

Day 58- Flowers!

Flowers! I love taking photos of flowers. Even more than water drops.  Flowers with water drops are irresistible.

But my favorite way to take flower photos is REALLY CLOSE UP!

f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 1250, 300mm

Today my 70-300mm lens loved me! The focus is pretty sharp. It worked! Whew.

Thank you, Lonnie, for the flowers! And for a photo op.

Melinda4 Comments

Day 57- Choo Choo

Weather Report: Chilly, with blue skies and sunshine! The predicted snow?- alas not in Benicia.

We took a drive this morning around the industrial parts of Benicia- full of photo ops! Here is one of a train.  There were a couple disturbing warning signs about unmanned, remote-controlled trains- I think this was one.

f/22, 1/200, ISO 400, 70mm

Melinda2 Comments

Day 56- Staying In, Looking Out

There has been so much excitement on the weather scene this week- it might SNOW!  This is definitely BIG NEWS in the Bay Area.  We’ve heard it could snow at sea level or in the surrounding hills.  Anticipation is building!  There was a big (rain)storm last night, and there is possible snow early tomorrow. For now, it is sunny.

f/1.8, 1/250, ISO 400, 35mm

I am trying to learn Photoshop. I have watched training videos online through kelbytraining.com and feel like I have a beginning understanding.  I decided yesterday, after watching the last video of my subscription, that I would edit today’s photo of the day in Photoshop (specifically Adobe Camera Raw, which is so similar to Aperture 3, my Apple photo software). Aperture has a great feature, in which you can edit with an external editor and the changes will be reflected within Aperture. Sweet!  This would keep all my photos organized within Aperture, but I could also edit with Photoshop if I chose.

Problems!!!

The editing went fine- pretty basic- but no changes were reflected in Aperture! The magic dot appeared in the lower right corner indicating that it had been edited with an external editor- but no changes appeared.  I eventually saved the file from Photoshop onto my hard drive and reimported it into Aperture.

Guess I need some more one to one training at the Apple Store. . .

Melinda1 Comment

Day 55- Still Life

I snapped a few photos this morning, trying to get my 365 project out of the way, but nothing seemed to work.  Then I spotted a grouping of candles on my counter and knew that I had found my photo of the day. I hoped there would be a reflection, but I couldn’t see one until I snapped the shutter.  And then there was the added bonus of a little bokeh in the background!

f/1.8, 1/100, ISO 400, 35 mm

Melinda3 Comments

Day 54- ABC123

Guess what I did today!??!?

If you guessed substitute teaching, you are right!

I have taught for most of my adult life and am in my first year of retirement.  My comments after today?  Teachers aren’t paid enough for the work they do.

I love teaching. I miss my colleagues and the kids (their cuteness, sweetness, and innocence make everything worthwhile). But today I was reminded of what a challenging job it is.  Between the standards to follow, the constant testing, meetings, parent conferences,  increased number of children with behavioral and learning problems, correcting, planning, and -YIKES-the LONG hours (don’t let anyone kid you that you are done at three) when you often can’t even take a bathroom break- it is a very hard job.  Rewarding- yes, but very hard nonetheless.

I was greeted enthusiastically by many of my former students and some of my parents too- I love that! And I laughed at myself when I started to pick up the stack of papers to bring home at the end of the day to correct- nope, I don’t have to do that! I am just a (mostly retired. . .) sub now!

Don’t ever let me complain again about the pressure of coming up with something to photograph for Project 365 . . .

Melinda4 Comments

Day 53- Pink

We planted our plum tree over twenty years ago.  I’ve always loved seeing it bloom as the first sign of Spring, but it wasn’t until I started Project 365 that I noticed how pretty each blossom is.   I am amazed at how the discipline of looking for a photo each day compels me to intensely look at my surroundings! I have photographed the first buds, the first blossom, and now blossoms when the whole tree is in bloom.

f/4.8, 1/800, ISO 500, 195mm

I shot this looking up into the tree, zooming in to almost 200mm, and then cropping the image.  I am wondering about depth of field- so shallow when zoomed in.  I am already thinking of trying this again with a smaller aperture. . .

Melinda2 Comments

Day 52- Hello, Dr. Oz

We are in recovery mode from the German Chocolate cake, so this week’s grocery trip involved a lot of produce- fresh fruit, GREENS (for smoothies as well as to eat with dinner), and the ingredients for soups and salads.  Antioxidants, omega-3’s, phytochemicals, lycopene, whatever- we’ve got it covered!

f/1.8, 1/100, ISO 1000, @35mm

Melinda5 Comments

Day 51- A Whole New Day

It’s a whole new day in the Bay Area-  blue sky and white puffy clouds!  I snapped this photo of Mt. Diablo from the top of a parking garage when we went out for brunch this morning. This photo was taken (using the Sunny 16 rule) with the 35mm 1.8 lens that was on the camera. I switched to my 70-300mm lens for the rest of the photos, but this one is sharper.  Interesting. . .

f/16, 1/250, ISO 250 @35mm

Yes, that’s another parking garage in the photo.  We were in downtown Walnut Creek after all!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 49- I Heart Cake!

The theme for this week’s Project 52 is LOVE, and, in our house, nothing says love more than German Chocolate cake!

f/1.8, 1/250, ISO 1600

Today is my husband’s birthday- number 62! He has always loved German Chocolate cake, first his Grammie’s recipe, and then mine (doctored with LOTS of chocolate chips). It is baking now- and ohhhh I’m starting to smell the chocolatiness- YUM!  Happy Birthday, Lonnie! ❤

Photography note: I must confess that I played with photographing the batter dripping off the beater first- with no spectacular results. That is why I used such a high shutter speed and thus had a wide open aperture, causing shallow depth of field.  Too shallow for this photo, in my opinion- my punishment for my obsession with drops!

Melinda6 Comments

Day 48- I gave up . . .

I have spent much more time than I should have today battling with my 70-300 lens.  We have had heavy rain for much of the day, and I thought it would be cool to capture the action of the raindrops either dripping from something or hitting something.  I should have known better.

After many, many, MANY attempts, I had the choice of either abandoning the project or uploading images with soft focus.  I think the problem was compounded by low light- it was a rainstorm, after all.  So, a few minutes ago I snapped this photo with very little effort.

f/5.6, 1/160, ISO 1000 at 300mm

When I made the same shot at 200mm, the focus was sharper, but the bokeh wasn’t as nice.  I went with the bokeh. . .

Melinda6 Comments

Day 47- Blurry Boot (made for walking . . .)

We arrived home today from our all too short trip to Arizona, and making certain that I kept my Project 365 commitment of a photo a day was on my mind while we waited for our flight to Oakland.  Inspiration came from the blog of my good friend and photography buddy, Carol, who had recently posted an excellent photo of her friends at the gym walking on the treadmill. There was fantastic motion blur as her friends walked in unison- hmmm, how could I do this in an airport?  I quickly and discreetly placed my camera on my knee, picked a random slow shutter speed, and clicked away in burst mode as people walked by. I was a little concerned that I might be violating some security procedure, so I quickly put the camera away and didn’t examine the photos until I came home.

Well . . . mixed results.  The one I am posting is probably the most successful attempt. After this first shot, I, for some reason, lowered my shutter speed, and the results were interesting and a little bizarre.  Let’s just say that it looked like I was photographing a planeload of amputees disembarking.  The leg in motion in each case was SO blurry that it disappeared!  Eeewwww . . .

So- here we are, Day 47- Blurry Boot:

f/1.8, 1/30, ISO 250, 35mm

I suggest that if you want to try this at home (or in an airport) you should check your results (chimp!) and adjust your shutter speed accordingly!

Melinda1 Comment

Day 46- Buddha of the Rocks

Outside of Prescott lies an area of magnificent rock formations called the Granite Dells.  We had driven by on previous trips, but this was the first time we took some sideroads and drove among them.

f/20, 1/160, ISO 250, 100mm

 

I think this particular formation looks very Buddha-like.

f/22, 1/160/ISO 250, 78mm

 

 

 

Melinda1 Comment