Day 137- A Night at the Opera

No, I’m not going to the opera- but I photographed my great-grandmother’s opera-going gear for this week’s vintage theme for Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday.  I know the opera glasses are hers (they have her initials) and I’m pretty certain about the fan.  I am not sure about the money holder in the foreground.  It has spots for coins, as well as a money clip inside.  The initial on the case is B (for Bean, I believe)- and it could have belonged to her husband, Charles H. Bean- or even his father.

I used two layers of Kim’s luminous texture for this image.

kimklassencafe

Melinda8 Comments

Day 136- Lucky Macro

Hello- it’s Macro Monday! Today I photographed my little Lucky Bamboo plant with my macro lens. I had an image in my mind of how I wanted the shot to look, but ended up liking this very simple composition of just the stem better than what I originally envisioned.

f/5, 1/60, ISO 1600, 85mm

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Day 134- White on White

I’ve always noticed and admired the little statues that are placed near the entrance to our church- they remind me of the Willow Tree figures so many people collect.  It has been my intention for awhile to photograph them, but until today I never had a camera with me when conditions were right (too sunny- or pouring rain).  Today’s cloudy weather gave me the opportunity to take a few photos without glare or raindrops.

f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 250, 82mm

I went with aperture priority again AND. . .

my white balance was set to cloudy (yay me!).

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Day 133- Shorn

As I post this, a crew of arborists and tree trimmers are shearing our overgrown trees of unnecessary branches, making them healthier and eventually more beautiful.  Right now, my garden is looking a little bare. . .

f/20, 1/15, ISO 500, 65mm

Please notice the shutter speed.

No, I was not using a tripod. What I WAS using was aperture priority, which I am trying for quick shots. I wanted to get the sunburst in there, so had selected a very small aperture- and because I wasn’t using manual, I didn’t think to look at the shutter speed.  You would think an alarm would go off or something!

Guess my hands were unusually steady today- no coffee yet!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 132- Backyard Visitor

Since taking up photography and especially Project 365, I’ve spent a lot more time on my deck enjoying the flowers and watching the birds- hoping for a photo op.  This morning I was greeted by this cute fellow, who can often be heard making a racket on the roof over our kitchen.  I wonder what he will think when the arborist comes tomorrow to trim our trees . . .

f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO400, 150mm

Melinda2 Comments

Day 131- Shades of Gray

I got out well before the fog lifted this morning, so that I could get some shots that weren’t in direct sunlight.  It was cold and windy, and I only got a few photos because I was freezing without a jacket. However, I did remember to set my white balance to cloudy (which turned out to be insignificant, because I processed the image as a black and white).

The old city cemetery sits on a hill overlooking the Carquinez Strait, and there you will find the gravesites of the city’s early settlers.  I visited the cemetery for the first time about fifteen years ago while doing genealogy research and was interested to see that the graves bore names familiar to me from streets and buildings around town named after these pioneers. This gravestone belongs to the wife of Captain Von Pfister, who opened his store a few years before the Gold Rush.

f/11, 1/200, ISO 1600, 60mm

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Day 130- Tungsten Schmungsten

Water drops trapped in a spider web- perfect photo op! I actually tried this yesterday, but wasn’t happy with my results, so I tried again today.  I tried different exposure settings and liked how it looked best when slightly underexposed. This is a crop of a larger image.

f/13, 1/60, ISO 3200, 85mm

And the white balance, you ask?

Tungsten.

OMG- when will I ever learn?

Melinda3 Comments

Day 129- Steady there…

Focus! Such a huge deal with macro shots! I tripod-ed all over my yard today shooting everything I could find that I hadn’t macro-ed before.  It was a good exercise in using the tripod and time exposure to steady my camera, but for today’s photo I ended up using this shot of a blossom on one of our two tomato plants- which I took WITHOUT the tripod.

f/6.3, 1/200, ISO 1250, 85mm

Not even sure if this qualifies as a macro shot, because you can see the whole blossom. . .

Melinda3 Comments

Day 127- Photo Play

No ideas of what to photograph today- aaarrgghh! Trying not to keep shooting flowers, no grandchildren around, not going on an outing- what to do, what to do?  My creative consultant, Lonnie, suggested the downtown gazebo. OK- why not?

My photos came out fine, but not too inspired- a little postcard-y looking.  I decided to play with them a little and give them a more vintage look with a little sepia processing- and retouching magic to get rid of an electrical box. I ended up uploading the photos to picnik.com and making a triptych (love that word) of sorts.

Melinda2 Comments

Day 126- My Precious!

Yes, dreams really do come true! I have been holding on to this news for a week- allowing time for my D5000 to arrive at my daughter’s house (as a semi-surprise- she knew I really, really, really wanted this camera for my birthday and that I would give her my old one). My husband surprised me by giving it to me early- I am still in shock! By the way- I did not get the kit lens- he had it bundled with a Nikon 18-200 3.5 zoom- awesome!

I have been playing and playing with it, learning all the fantastic features.  It has so many choices for settings. Today I played with setting up the custom user settings. One I set up for sudden action (like a rabbit runs by…) with shutter priority, AF-continuous, dynamic area mode, burst mode, and a custom auto ISO (you can set the minimum and maximum ISO the camera uses in this setting). I am changing and saving new settings as I learn about them.  I will say that, although I started with a custom aperture priority setting to take this photo, I ended up switching to manual, my comfort zone (manual could be part of a custom setting too).

And yes, I forgot to change white balance AGAIN when I took this photo!

Melinda2 Comments

Day 125- Back to Basics. . .

Aperture priority- hmmmm….

When I first got my DSLR (last July), I alternated between the Aperture Priority setting and AUTO.  I learned manual fairly soon and, by November, was using it 90% of the time.  I am back to trying to improve my camera skills again (hello, white balance!) and have been rereading some of my photography books.  It certainly seems that a lot of pros primarily use settings other than manual- at least they advise us learners to use them.  Aperture priority is definitely the biggie, because it directly affects depth of field.

So today I took this photo (actually a series of photos) using aperture priority. It certainly was quicker!

But my real problem continues to be not checking all my settings when I first pick up my camera.

Here I am reading a photography book.  The first thing I read about was white balance- and soon after- ISO. So what do I do when I start my shoot with aperture priority? Ignore all the other settings!

So that is why this photo was taken with the white balance set to “tungsten”- from taking a photo inside earlier in the day.  I was so proud when I changed it to that setting. . .

And the first few photos I took of my lavender? Well, the ISO was 1600! OMG!

I think I may need to go to photography boot camp!

f/4.5, 1/100, ISO 200, 35mm

Melinda1 Comment

Day 124- Brunch

My Rapunzel group was scheduled to meet for coffee today.  A day or two ago, Georgia offered her house (instead of the usual coffee shop), and a quick potluck brunch was organized. With our group, impromptu events like these always end up with more food than you could imagine, and it is always delicious. Georgia’s garden is glorious- packed with dozens of types of flowers, all in bloom. We sat outside and talked and laughed and talked and laughed.  A wonderful time with dear friends!

I chose a photo of Jan’s scrumptious scones for my photo of the day.

Melinda1 Comment

Day 123- Tea Party

My grandmother had a collection of unmatched teacups of various patterns- mostly Shelley English bone china.  Setting the table with some cups from my grandmother’s collection was fun this morning- and I photographed them for Kim Klassen’s Texture Tuesday challenge.  The textures I used were love and sweet treat.

f/2, 1/400, ISO 500, 35mm

kimklassencafe

Melinda12 Comments