Author: Melinda

Every once in awhile I look at all the photos taken these days with bokeh and wonder if, ten years from now, people will say “That would be a good photo if only the background were in focus!”  Right now there are lots of effects you can do in photography- making it look vintage, adding textures, adding sunflare, making it look hazy- not to mention tilt shift or HDR.  I just wonder if my grandchildren are going to look at their childhood photos in years to come and wonder why they are often the only thing in focus- and what are all those little circles in the background!!??!!

However, I still love soft focus in the background and bokeh! That was one of the main reasons I got my camera, and I’m not tired of it yet!

f/2.2, 1/40 (handheld!), ISO 400, 35mm

Can it really be only 20 more days of Project 365???

I went with the theme again today, which is Corner– and I took it pretty literally. I wanted it to be a high contrast black and white, but couldn’t seem to get the look I wanted.  I ended up using a preset I had downloaded from Gavin Seim’s presets called Mono X. Whoa! Pretty gritty (my light yellow walls and white trim look much nicer than this in person!)- but I like the effect in the photo.  It did some extreme contrast with the curves adjustment- and increased and decreased the luminance of some of the colors.  Interesting.

Well, yes, I’m back but still pretty limited as to where I can shoot with my camera on the tripod (without adjusting, lifting etc.). I haven’t left the house yet, and I think it will be a few days before I can handle the camera on its own. So here is one of perhaps a series of Christmas ornament shots.

I’m back! I am able to use the camera on the tripod now- so no excuses!

I am going with yesterday’s topic- Childhood Memories– because it is easier for me than today’s Balance.

So, this was my diary for age eleven! Its title is pretty optimistic, unlike the contents.  It looks like whoever picked it out for me expected me to start having boyfriends during the coming year. But in this diary, I mostly recorded what were the hit songs on American Bandstand, what I was wearing, and how nobody liked me.  I was evidently pretty miserable in those awkward years; I wish I could go back and tell myself that I would end up having a really happy life!

My surgery went very well, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to do the tripod thing yet  Thanks to my new iPhone with Siri, I was able to dictate an email, which I then cut and pasted into my blog.  I took the photo with my left hand and pressed the volume up button on the iPhone to activate the shutter- that’s a new feature which was very helpful for this photo. I will say the whole left-handed process was exhausting- back to bed!

Tomorrow maybe I’ll use my camera on the tripod.

The topic for today is light.  I avoided my Christmas tree, because it will be my constant subject over the next couple weeks. Looking at the early morning rays hitting the window in my still dark kitchen, I decided on a simple still life for today.

Later today I am having my carpal tunnel surgery. I am setting my camera up on the tripod in preparation for not being able to fully use my right hand- and am still deciding on a lens.  I am thinking macro shots might be easiest (every ornament on my tree?)- and then use the iPhone for anything else.  There are only 25 days left- I’m not quitting now!

f/7.1, 1/5, ISO 1000, 85mm

Free is the topic of the day. The first thing that leaped into my minds was rubber bands. I rejected it, but kept coming back to the idea, as I couldn’t think of anything else.

Rubber bands always came free with the three newspapers we subscribed to.  I guess they weren’t really free; we paid for the newspapers. Over the years, one by one, we cancelled subscriptions, and now we get NO newspapers.  I really miss my Sunday San Francisco Chronicle, but I guess it isn’t what it used to be.  So now, we are down to just a few free rubber bands.  We used to be drowning in them-  whatever did we do with them all?

Yesterday’s photo of Waggy Ann was “Explored”- chosen by some secret algorithm as one of the “most interesting” of the last 7 days on Flickr.  I suspected something was up, because I could hear my phone vibrating in the wee morning hours, a sign that lots of emails were coming through. Explore is an interesting feature- many of the photos on there are breathtakingly beautiful or  wildly creative- some are just really good or interesting or pretty mundane- and then there is the doll phenomenon.  I would estimate one out of every 30-50 photos in Explore is of a doll or several dolls posed as if interacting.  I don’t know much about trends in dolls, but these remind me of anime- big eyes, oversize heads.  I think they are usually posted from outside the U.S.

Is Waggy Ann being favorited as part of this doll phenomenon? Perhaps we will see some little big-eyed, big-headed Raggedy Anns posed interacting with each other! Maybe she is a trend setter!

OK, on to my photo of the day. . .

The Christmas tree is up, and the rest of the decorations are sitting around in piles. Today’s topic is reflection, which I was keeping in mind as I started looking around my living room, trying to decide which decorations to put out this year. As I started to clear off my hutch, I noticed the morning sunlight streaming through the beautiful hand-blown glass vase, which was a gift the staff at my school when I retired last year.  I quickly grabbed my camera and captured this fleeting moment, which is now gone.

f/1.8, 1/80, ISO 640, 35mm

I had fun with this one! My topic for today was “a child’s view.” I chose Caitlin’s old Waggy (Raggedy, for those who don’t speak Toddler) Anns and Andy  and placed them in my mother’s childhood rocker. I tried to take the photo from my grandson Henry’s perspective (not that he’s crawling anymore. . .) with sharp focus on the desired object to grab. I accentuated the out of focus areas with some added blur in post processing and tried to make it look like it was taken with a tilt shift lens.

Nothing to frame- but it was fun!

f/1.8, 1/160, ISO 250, 35mm

I’m following the theme again; having a topic has really saved me the last few months of my Project 365.  It is hard to believe there are only 30 more days left. I’m not exactly sure what I will do in 2012, but I do know I will still be posting photos.

So, the topic is radiating lines, and I pretty much went for an obvious choice. The challenge for me was to get the photo to look like what my eyes were seeing.  I had a difficult time getting the reflection (which was very clear in real life) to show up without blowing out the highlights in the actual starfish.  I ended up going with an exposure somewhere in between, and increasing contrast in the top starfish in Aperture and Photoshop. Still, the shoot and processing took only about fifteen minutes.

f/7.1, 1/10, ISO 400, 35mm

Today marks the end of an era; our circa 1980’s washer and dryer were replaced with appliances from the 21st century! I intended to get photos of them being hauled away, but the door to the truck had already been locked by the time I got out there.

So here are my brand new washer and dryer! I’ve been studying all afternoon how to use their many features and am pretty much in awe of them. If you look closely, you can see a reflection of me lying on the floor in front of them, demonstrating my reverence.

f/7.0, 1/3, ISO 400, 18mm

Proudly edited in Photoshop with a black and white gradient map, following Scott Kelby’s instructions, rather than using my normal presets and actions!