Day 33- Groundhog Day

I love Groundhog Day!  Groundhog Day was always one of my favorite days to celebrate with my first graders.  We talked about the seasons, did fun art projects, and followed the news of Punxsutawney Phil on the Internet. But actually, the reason I love Groundhog Day is that it means Spring is near! Even if he sees his shadow and predicts a longer Winter, just knowing that we are into February reassures me that Spring is to follow- at some point!  And today he did NOT see his shadow- Spring is on the way!

Today’s photo was taken during a stroll by the waterfront, where I spotted some tiny blossoms among the rocks- reminding me that yes, Spring will come.

f/5.3, 1/1000, ISO 250, 240mm

Melinda4 Comments

Day 32- Chasing Fog

It’s  February 1- Day 32!  I guess that means I am 1/12 of the way to my goal of taking a photo every day for one year!

I almost blew it this morning, though.  On my way to the gym, I saw a photo opportunity- wispy fog curling around trees, something I’ve wanted to photograph.  But alas . . . no camera in the car!  I had vowed when this project began that I would never leave home without a camera- and here I was, camera-less.  I decided exercise was more important than photography at the moment, so I continued on.

When I reached home, I grabbed my camera and headed back out in search of photo-worthy fog- not too easy to find!  I drove around our now sunny neighborhood hills looking for view shots and eventually found myself down by the water, where I snapped this image of a ship emerging from the fog.

I uploaded it first in color, but I really like it better in black and white. I chose the red filter option- it brings back the days when I used an actual (not virtual) red filter on my film camera.

f/7.1, 1/1000, ISO 250, 220 mm

Melinda7 Comments

Day 31- Through a Glass Wetly

My plans for today were canceled suddenly, because my friend Anne woke up sick. Oh no! My out of town photo ops had disappeared!  Rather than use the day for photography (and risk being labeled obsessive . . .), I decided to take a quick photo and be done for the day.  So here we are- water drops on the shower door!

In case the housecleaning police reads this blog- yes, I squeegeed the drops away afterward!

f/1.8, 1/250, ISO 1250, 35 mm

Melinda2 Comments

Day 30- Adventures in Macro

My 70-300mm lens and I have been having issues.  Just when I think it is HIS fault, he goes and shows off by focusing beautifully on a random fly that wanders into the frame (he has done this TWICE!).

This is just a small cropped corner of a larger group of flowers (this was from last weekend- how come we all want to photograph bees, but not flies?). So obviously, we have a SITUATION, and, since I focus MANUALLY in macro, there just might possibly be some user error going on here . . .

So today I tried again.  I hooked my gorillapod around a chair and then sat in the chair and lightly held on to the gorillapod (because I am always afraid the camera will tip over because of the long lens). I had to scoot the chair back and forth to find the perfect focus and managed to do BETTER this time.

There is such a narrow depth of field in macro.  The back of the yellow flower center is in focus, not the front.  I had to use a high ISO, because I was inside on a rainy day.  I think I can do better in the sunshine.  But I am encouraged- and no longer mad at my lens.

f/5.6, 1/80, ISO 2500 at 300mm

Melinda1 Comment

Day 29- Place of Honor

My great-grandmother’s Boston fern stand is the highest-status location in my house for my houseplants.  A ginger jar sat upon it in the house I grew up in, and I never knew it was my great-grandmother’s until my mother gave it to me many years ago.  For a long time, I did put Boston ferns on it, but since we moved here twenty-three years ago, it has mostly been the home for my most beautiful spider plant. Any plant that I acquired during my years as a first grade teacher had to understand that it would be watered every Saturday morning- no matter what.  If it didn’t adapt to my schedule and didn’t mind occasionally skipping a Saturday, well- the results weren’t pretty!  Spider plants and pothos have been the most cooperative!

Awhile ago (maybe ten years?) an ivy plant came to live at my house.  I think it is a grape ivy, and frankly I didn’t give it much chance of making it.  I have unpleasant memories of dusty, unhealthy ivy in my childhood dining room, and, anytime I’ve had ivy, it didn’t adapt well to my rules.  Well, the grape ivy has thrived!  And I was starting to love it more than as much as my most beautiful spider plant! It sat on a sofa table behind the couch and grew so huge it was hard to walk through without bending the vines back.  Last summer, I decided to move it to my front hallway where there was more room.  And less light.  I was also gone for six weeks, because of the birth of my second grandchild.

When I came back, I noticed it looking a little leggy, but didn’t really examine it closely until today.  It’s not doing well! My grape ivy! I felt so bad that, after I trimmed it back, I removed my big spider plant from its place of honor on the Boston fern stand and replaced it with my poor ivy!  My spider plant is now in the greenhouse window, which is not as ideal a location as it sounds- over the kitchen sink- not very prestigious….

Things have changed since the ivy left its first location in the family room.  The fern stand is now located beside the new TV and has the job of making the room look less TV-focused.  The ivy will have to adjust to life a slight bit further away from the window than it liked and beside a speaker.  I’ll keep you posted…

By the way- in case you wondered about my problem with over-exposed photos yesterday- make a guess! It is such a common beginner’s mistake that I am embarrassed to report it.

If you guessed Exposure Compensation Button, you are right.  OMG.

I have been practicing with Back Button Focus, which has my whole hand-positioning thing off.  The Nikon D5000 has dials that do multiple jobs, because it is a small entry level DSLR.  At some point I accidentally turned the mode dial thing- whatever its called- out of Manual to Aperture Priority- and then back again, because I kept rotating that instead of the command dial.  At that point if I hit the Exposure Compensation button it would, well, adjust exposure COMPENSATION and not the exposure for that particular photo!  If this makes no sense, don’t worry about it.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 28- Looking for Spring

It’s another foggy, dreary day here- not really a surprise for January, but I decided to look around our yard for signs of Spring.  I found 3 azalea blooms AND some tiny red buds on our plum tree.  I fought with used my 70-300mm lens in macro at 300mm and ended up with a very shallow depth of field and very over-exposed images.  I adjusted exposure and anything else I could adjust in Aperture 3 and these are the results.

Azalea- f/5.6, 1/200/, ISO 2500

Plum branch- f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 2500

 

 

Melinda5 Comments

Day 27- Huh?

Abstract Portrait?  That is this week’s theme of Clickin Moms’ Project 52, and trying to get an idea of what that means and what to shoot has been challenging.  Frankly, I’m sick of thinking about it!  I actually think that the photo I took of my husband reaching for his Starbucks mug (Day 6) would probably qualify as an abstract portrait, but that was Week One.  I am not particularly satisfied with any of my efforts today in terms of the assignment, but I’m hoping that giving each photo a cool title will make it more of an Abstract Portrait.

Since I made Lonnie stand on the dock in the cold, I am including this one: Man in the Fog

And here is iPhones and Coffee: Portrait of a Marriage (subtitled Mocha and Bokeh). . .

And, lastly: Self-Portrait


There- I’m done!  Round of applause…

Melinda6 Comments

Day 26- The Best Camera . . .

There is a website that proclaims “The best camera is the one that’s with you.”  I am having to test that out today, because the only camera I had with me to record tonight’s waterfront sunset was the rather lame one I have on my iPhone 2.  I wonder how it would look if taken with my Nikon . . .

Melinda2 Comments

Day 25- Ding, ding, ding . . .

I stayed home most of today- so here is a still life featuring my grandmother’s school bell and some of my mother’s books (sitting on my father’s antique dental cabinet). I do love old things!

I worked on various focusing techniques today- my usual half-pressed shutter-focusing and recomposing, back-button focus, and toggling the focus points.  The focus point toggling seems very awkward to me, perhaps because I don’t have enough points to always hit the spot in my composition that I want to be in focus.  I did not find the back-button focusing any crisper than my regular method, but I did find that sometimes the toggling could produce a more focused image (but it takes me longer). I think that this particular shot was my usual focus and recompose technique.

Melinda4 Comments

Day 24- Berkeley

While waiting to meet my friend, Joan, in Berkeley for lunch, I snapped a few photos on the street.  I didn’t get anything too earthshaking, but I think this one best captures the atmosphere.

Melinda5 Comments

Day 22- Sunny Day at the Coast

The sun shone on the Bay Area today, so we headed over to Stinson Beach.  The waves were huge- this photo doesn’t do them justice.

There were birds of course . . .

But I took my favorite photo of the day at Samuel P. Taylor State Park,where we stopped on our way back.  I had always wanted to try a slow-shutter, moving water photo, so I hooked the gorillapod to a fence, set the timer, and got a shot of the creek.

Melinda5 Comments

Day 20- A Happy Man

Our Christmas present to ourselves arrived today- Hello, flat screen HD and 3D!   My husband is one happy man!

Those are 3D glasses, by the way-  Shrek may look a little wonky in this photo, because my camera does not shoot 3D!

Lighting helped out by my light scoop!

Melinda2 Comments