Day 8- Morning Salt and Late Afternoon Light

The challenge for my Flickr group today was salty. Being the literal-minded person that I am at times, I took a photo of some salt.

After being out all day, I came home, put my feet up for awhile and thought about whether I really wanted the salt photo to be my only photo for today.  I remembered the advice to look for the light, so got up and went downstairs to look for the light.  The most likely place to look would be my kitchen table, which gets the late afternoon light. The sun turned out to be lower than I thought, but I was able to capture the last rays hitting the frame of the window and shining through the leaves and deck cover outside. Is a photo that is almost a third bokeh still a good photo?  I think it IS!

 

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Day 7- (mis)adventures with water drops. . .

Ever since I got my external flash, I have been wanting to try macro water drops again.  The tutorials I have seen have demonstrated how the flash “freezes” the image, thus giving the photo better focus.

There must be more to it than that.

I used water coming from the faucet for awhile, with the speedlight off to the side, triggered by the camera.

Not perfect focus here- although I like the image (mostly because of the bokeh. . .).

I then focused on the ripples created by the drops, because the theme today is ripples.  I was surprised to see this heart shaped ripple!

I did a little post-processing to give it a bluish tint.

BTW, all the images were at f/4, 1/125- which I think is the problem.  I should have used my maximum flash sync speed (1/250) and maybe a smaller aperture- but live and learn!

All of these images were taken in preparation for the big set-up on the kitchen table, involving two crates with a yardstick suspended over them and a water bottle balanced on the yardstick (dripping water into a pie plate).  You have probably seen the tutorials.  I got it all set up and then was terrified it would come crashing down, soaking the camera and speedlight. I put the speedlight back on the camera, figuring I could jump back with the camera if things went south.

I couldn’t get the timing right.  I would click the shutter at the wrong time- or it took longer because of the flash- I don’t really know.  At the end, I took the flash off the camera and took a few shots in burst mode- and called it a day.

Here is one of the last series- with no flash.

The whole experience was FUN! I like some of the photos, even though they are technically no better than my previous water drop images. So, I will read more, practice more with my flash- and try again one day during this year of Project 365 plus 1!

 

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Day 6- Light Seeker

Since Christmas I’ve been in a bit of a photography slump, exacerbated by my joining a new Flickr group with weekly themes, high standards, constructive criticism, and some very talented and highly skilled members.  I’m not sure it is for me.

Last night I was browsing the forums on Clickin’ Moms, when I came across a post asking for help in taking her photography to the next level, becoming more creative etc.  One of the responses was from a CM photographer whose work I admire very much; I’ve tried to find the thread to quote exactly, but can’t find it just now.  She basically said to stop trying to take pictures OF things- just go find the light.

So today I took my 85mm macro and looked for the light.

And I found it.

When I pulled into my parking slot at physical therapy this morning, the light was shining on the tree bark in front of me, and I took this shot.

The red in the background is the car in front of me.

Then when I came home and was eating lunch at the kitchen table, I looked out the window and saw light hitting the geraniums on the deck (still blooming in January. . .). These geraniums have been photographed by me many times, but perhaps not with the light hitting them this exact way or from this angle or composed just this way.

Anyway, I felt like I got my groove back!

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Day 5- Enmeshed

Having to post daily photos does strange things to one’s sense of perception!  An uninspiring visit to the waterfront this morning left me with nothing I wanted to use for my blog, but, as I was unpacking my groceries later, I became entranced by the curves and changing patterns of my oranges in their mesh bag. Seriously.

f/25, 13 sec., ISO 200, 85mm

I decided that this year I wouldn’t post my camera settings unless they were interesting or unusual.  They were unusual for me today.  The oranges and mesh were so reflective that I had an issue with getting enough detail.  I finally turned the kitchen light off and shot away from any window light- thus needing a 13 second exposure.  In post-processing, I decreased luminance even more.

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Day 4- Cribbage

Today’s photo is a macro of my father’s cribbage board, which is engraved with his name and rank and the name of the ship(USS Ajax) he served on in WWII.  I believe he got the crib board, along with a souvenir plank, at a reunion of the Ajax crew.  I keep these items, as well as his other WWII memorabilia, in his old dental cabinet which stands in our entry hall- all future photo subjects, I’m sure!

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Day 3- People!

I am keeping to my 2012 goal of photographing more people.  My friend Renata volunteered her whole family as guinea pigs for my attempts at fill flash! Taking the photos was fun. Deciding what and how to edit, less so- too many decisions!  Anyway, it was a learning experience, and there are a few photos that they actually like- so woo hoo!

They are a pretty good-looking bunch, aren’t they?

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Day 1 of 365+1 !

Today marks the beginning of my second Project 365- only this time it’s a Project 365 plus 1, since it’s a leap year.  My photo of the day is a paper white bulb just planted today, using the theme of in with the new.

 

So, here are my top photography goals for 2012:

  1. continue to develop my camera and editing skills
  2. master my speedlight
  3. improve landscape photography- especially in taking advantage of best light
  4. do more with the photographs I take- print, frame, make books etc.
  5. take more photographs of people

I think the fifth goal is my most important.  I got my camera in order to take better photos of my grandchildren.  I had an AHA moment recently when I realized that I see my sweet boys only a few times a year and that I don’t practice with people in between. I practice on THEM, my grandsons.  I need to photograph people consistently to develop my skills.  Having an external flash now will encourage me to get out there and shoot my friends, so to speak!

 

 

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Day 365- Happy New Year!

It’s Day 365- I made it! Happy New Year!

I celebrated 365 days of photography today by spending the day taking photos at the Cosumnes River Preserve.  I saw more different species of birds in one place than I ever have- except for a zoo.  We will definitely be going back. Bless my husband for carrying that tripod around! I won’t be posting any of those photos today, because there are too many to go through and not enough time. I took photo # 365 this morning before I left, as a sort of tribute to Photo #1.  But this time, I used Christmas tree light bokeh instead of candles.  Tonight we celebrate the New Year by drinking the champagne!

Photography highlights of the year (in no particular order):

  • Mastering manual settings- they are now my comfort zone
  • Discovering that I really can find something to photograph every day
  • Getting a macro lens and taking all those flower photos!
  • Taking some great photos of my grandsons
  • Getting my beloved Nikon D7000 , my zoom lens, and now- my speedlight (Thanks, Lonnie!!!)
  • Learning Photoshop
  • Learning to add textures to photos
  • Getting my tripod and learning to feel comfortable with it out in the world
  • Yellowstone photography- elk, bison, big horn sheep, great horned owl
  • Playing with HDR
  • Making photo friends all over the world- a constant source of inspiration!
  • Having people read and comment on my blog and on Flickr
  • Learning to see the world with new eyes!

I’ll post my photography goals for the new year tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what 2012 will bring!

 

 

 

 

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Day 364- One more day!

Only one more day of my Project 365 for 2011!  I am going to do this again next year with some new goals- more about that tomorrow. . .

So here is a shot of our neighbors’ fishing boat all decorated for Christmas. Perhaps my last Christmas photo- but we’ll see. . .

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Day 363- Goats with a Job

Just about everyone in town loves these goats! This is a small part of a herd grazing on a hillside in Benicia.  The town hires them to clear the hillsides of grass, thus preventing grass fires.  They are a big hit with the children; many times my first graders would start their day at school reporting on where they had last seen the goats, with special status given to those who had them near their house that day.

I won’t go into the headache I had deciding which processing option to go with today. Let’s just say I tried them all and settled on a black and white conversion, emphasizing the seriousness of their mission. . .

 

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Day 362- Clock Bokeh

For the last month or so, checking the topic for the next day has been my bedtime routine. If I forget, my husband reminds me. If I’m tired, I do it on my iPhone from bed- checking the photo of one of my Flickr contacts in the group (being in Australia or somewhere far away, she’s often first to post).  That’s what I did last night. Her photo was called Time, and it was a lovely textured image of a clock.

I planned to go downtown to shoot one of the clocks down there.  I ended up doing laundry and watching videos on using my new flash, and I realized that the time had past to get good light downtown.  While practicing with my speedlight, I took some photos of my grandfather clock.  These are the kind of shots where I raise the ISO or use a tripod and long exposure- but today I used flash bounced on the white shutters.  It was like I was cheating- it was so easy!

However, I felt like a dork when I uploaded it to Flickr and realized that the topic was Money can’t buy– and my Flickr friend had creatively interpreted it to be Time.

Oh.

But I like the picture, and it will be my photo of the day.  If I think of something else for the topic, I’ll take another photo!

Only 3 more days. . .

f/2, 1/80, ISO 200, 35mm, with flash

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Day 361- Blue Jeans

Resolving to not be seduced by the Christmas light bokeh again, I went for a macro shot of my husband’s blue jeans to meet the challenge of BLUE for my Flickr group. No, I didn’t use my new flash- I set up the tripod so I could get a 3 second exposure. I am studying flash, practicing flash with my husband and son as subjects (and now my son has left 😦 ), but it might be awhile before my flash photos appear on the blog!

f/10, 3.0 sec, 200 ISO,  85mm

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Day 360- New challenge!

 

Thank you, Lonnie!!!

Look at my new toy!!! It is easy to attach to the camera and use right out of the box- but if you want your photos to look natural and not “flashy”, well then, there is a LOT to learn!!! Here’s some synchronicity- there is a Clickin-Mom’s breakout session with Neil van Niekerk on Off Camera Flash going on right now! I have started the class, even though I will be using my flash ON camera.  In the videos, he goes over the principles off both on and off camera flash, so I can learn both.

So far, I’ve taken fairly natural looking photos inside with the flash bounced off our (yellow!) walls. At nighttime, however, the flash had to work harder- and my photos look flashier.  The good thing is that a lot of wrinkles disappeared!- but the photographs themselves just look too bright and “lit.” I tried fill flash outside today- not great so far. I’m excited to master these skills, so I will have something to fall back on when I can’t get good exposure inside with the grandkids.

Learning flash is going to be one of main photographic challenges for 2012!

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