Day 17- Frustration vs. Patience

Today I tried all different ways to photograph water dripping out of my kitchen faucet. I’ve been inspired by all the beautiful macro work showcased on Clickin Moms- and have carefully read directions on how to achieve this with a macro lens and speedlight (don’t have either…)- and then how to do it with the 70-300mm zoom- YAY! I have that!  What I don’t have, I discovered, is a working tripod other than my gorillapod (I’ve been carefully storing my father’s ancient tripod since 1982 and then discovered today that it is broken). There is a lot of camera shake with the zoom, so a tripod helps.  I discovered that  I could wrap the gorilla pod around a kitchen chair, manually focus, and then click- many, many  clicks!  I still think that I never achieved proper focus- but I got better as the day wore on (and the light waned, alas).  I tried to get cool color effects by placing a pillowcase behind the faucet; I need to find something brighter next time.  I also tried using my kit lens at 55mm (handheld, with no pillowcase)- and I like that one better!  I’m not thrilled with either photo- but- BIG SIGH- it is all a process . . .

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Day 16- YUM!

Almost every Sunday, we head to the Sunrise Bistro in Walnut Creek- home of the best breakfasts!  Today I ordered my usual- Nana’s Omelet (how appropriate!), with fruit and whole grain toast.  Delicious!

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January Collage

Hmmm . . . these photos look familiar!  That’s because I’m using photos from this blog in a storyboard (collage).  I just learned how to do this in Photoshop (you can do this in PS Elements too), and am feeling very proud of myself!  No, I didn’t do this from scratch- I used a template.  You can download a free storyboard from MCP actions, and yes, you can buy them too.  And if you are REALLY clever, you can make them (that would not be me…).

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Clickin Moms

Clickin Moms is having a 20% off sale this month! You can join by clicking on their logo on the side of this page (use coupon code FRIEND when you join).   It’s a community of mostly women photographers, many of whom are professional or aspiring to be professional.  And then there are a few people like me who just want to learn how to take better photos.

It’s the best investment I’ve made in photography- other than my camera! And… you don’t have to be a mom to join!

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Day 14- Knitting

I have a huge stash of yarn and a smaller stash of Works in Progress.  I was going through some of them in preparation for starting a baby sweater, when I came upon my unfinished sweater.  I took a class and learned how to “make your own pattern”- and enthusiastically started this basic cardigan for ME.  Well, that was a couple years ago, and I’m only halfway through the body.  I’m not sure I can finish that AND do my Project 365.  Back in the drawer it goes, alas….

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Day 13- After the Rain

We had some rain today, so I went outside to try to get some raindrop shots with my Sigma 70-300 mm lens.  I have a love/hate relationship with this lens- love its zoom and macro capabilities, but have such trouble with focus, especially at 300 mm. The thing is- there is tons of camera shake! I don’t know how typical this is when you are WAY zoomed in; I would guess that the zoom magnifies every bit of quiver and vibration.   And…it is not a VR (vibration reduction) lens.  So…I think I need to try my 40 year old tripod (or my gorillapod) and get a remote shutter release.I really love and want to try more macro shots, and I am getting frustrated!

Despite it not being ultra sharp, I do like the colors and composition of this crop of one of my images.

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Day 11- Cut Glass

My idea for today was to photograph bubbles.  I filled a cut glass bowl with bubble bath and water and tried to focus on the bubbles with my 70-300mm lens- NO LUCK!  The big bubbles didn’t last, and I couldn’t get the lens to focus on the small ones. So… here is a photo of the cut glass reflecting the muted reds and yellow dishcloth underneath.

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Day 10- Jewelry

Time to step away from the flowers!

Today I was cleaning off the top of my dresser and decided my jewelry stand might be a good subject for a photo.  I think I may need to try some new techniques, because I think I have shallow depth of field COVERED (but I still love it!) . . .

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Day 9- Even in a parking lot . . .

Busy, busy day-  but, even in a parking lot, I was able to find something to quickly snap for this project.  The composition and creativity weren’t there, but, with a little tweaking here and there, it’s OK.

I’ve been experimenting with a watermark, which I can get to appear here, but I can’t seem to get it to automate on export to Flickr (I use Aperture 3).  Baby steps…

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Day 7- Light Scoop

Another foggy day, alas!  I’ve been out all day and got home to find that the Light Scoop I ordered had arrived in the mail!  I don’t have an external flash, and, although I don’t use flash much, I have used the built-in flash inside at night with not very good results.  I don’t know too much about flash yet, but have often wished I could bounce or diffuse my flash to avoid the harsh light and shadows often produced.  Since speedlights are very expensive, I am postponing purchasing one for now (and maybe forever…). I read about the Light Scoop on Clickin Moms and elsewhere, and decided that for $30.00 I couldn’t go wrong!  It fits over the built-in flash and slides into the hotshoe.  It has a mirror that bounces the light from the flash onto the ceiling when the camera is held horizontally or from a wall if the camera is held vertically. They recommend a setting of ISO 800, a flash exposure compensation of +1, and a wide aperture.  I had little time to play with it today, so took two photos of my very patient husband, one with regular flash, f 1.8, 1/125 at ISO 800.  The second had the same settings, except I added the Light Scoop and adjusted the flash exposure to +1.  I am sure I need to experiment a lot more in actual shooting situations, but I think the results are interesting.

BTW, he is wearing sunglasses and not looking into the camera, because he had an eye procedure done today (told you he was patient!).

Left photo is regular flash; right photo is with the Light Scoop.  Both photos are SOOC.

Regular Flash Light Scoop

Melinda4 Comments

Day 6- Fog

It is so (insert your own expletive…) cold and foggy here today! After going to the gym, I drove down to the water hoping to catch a view of the bridge shrouded mysteriously in fog- you couldn’t even SEE the bridge! When I got home, I opened the fridge to get milk for my cereal and discovered the milk’s date had passed- YUCK! So I went to the grocery store and drove BACK down to the water just on the off chance a great photo op was waiting for me.  Well, there were seagulls, so I got some pretty ordinary seagull shots. I have been experimenting with back button focus (at least I THINK that’s what I’m doing…), so I took a few shots of the railing near the water.  I like this one.

I had no coat, and it was freezing- my hands were shaking and contributing to my focusing problems.  So I got in the car and made the loop to turn around when I saw a tugboat! That means a ship- another photo opportunity!  So, shivering,  I got out and snapped a few of the ship through the fog.  Interesting results- all shots today are straight out of camera.

 

BONUS PHOTO:

The clickin’ moms Project 52 theme for the week is NEW- which I interpreted as BEGINNINGS.  Here is how my husband likes to begin his day!

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Day 5- Snowy Branches

I barely had to venture out the door of the hotel this morning to find these snowy branches- Tahoe is a winter wonderland right now!  And 5 degrees- BRRRRR!

They are both at 300mm- my zoom lens- at f5.6, ISO 250. The top one had a shutter speed of 1/250, the bottom one at 1/400.

Melinda11 Comments