Day 77- Buttons

Among the many items I have from my teaching days is a tin of buttons. Buttons were given out as rewards during the school day for following the rules, working hard, etc. and were used on Fridays to “purchase” items from our treasure chest. They were the perfect motivators for first graders.

It is a VERY rainy, dark Friday here, so I decided that bright colored buttons would be a good subject for a photograph. However, it is SO dark in the house today that I really had to bump up my ISO and search for the spot with the best lighting, which ended up being the hall bathroom. It is my Photoshop Friday, so this image was edited in Adobe Camera Raw.

f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 2000, 85mm

Melinda4 Comments

Day 76- Oink!

You may remember that I have a massive fairly large collection of pigs, given to me by students over the years.  My daughter’s (rather heartless!) idea is that I photograph each one for the project and then give it away!  She lives in terror of one day inheriting closets stuffed with pigs!  Well, I don’t think we are quite at that point yet, so I am actually getting the pigs ready for a very special visit- my daughter and my 3 year old and 3 month old grandbabies are coming to visit next week!!!  I am sure that the 3 year old will LOVE having pigs to play with!

These particular beanie baby pigs are golden pigs- I believe in honor of it being a golden pig year in Chinese astrology (extra lucky!).  I have many other non-golden ones, BTW.

f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 500, 35mm

Please rest assured that my house is not decorated in a pig motif. I’m not turning into a crazy old lady quite yet!

Melinda6 Comments

Day 73- Keeping those brain cells alive. . .

Today is Macro Monday, and it feels so good to be confident that I can participate, since I have my new macro lens!

Photography takes up a lot of my time, but there is something else in my life that manages to eat up almost an equal share- SCRABBLE! No, I don’t mean tense competitions with a board and tiles- I’m talking Facebook.

I justify my time playing Wordscraper (the Facebook app that is a Scrabble-like game) by claiming that it is keeping my brain cells healthy. I am preventing Alzheimers, people! I joined Facebook relatively early on for a person of my age (maybe three years ago?- oops, my brain cells are failing me again…) solely to play Wordscraper with some teacher friends. Of course, I discovered all the other diversions too- chat, Farmville, YoVille etc. , but they fell away eventually, leaving Wordscraper as my main Facebook activity.

I really wasn’t a Scrabble person before Wordscraper- and I was surprised to find out that I was a really lousy player! It took me about a year to learn all the handy 2 letter words and the basic strategies.  I am happy to report that I am now adequate. I can hold my own against everyone except my daughter and my friend, Julie.

And the best thing about Wordscraper? I am in daily contact with a large number of friends through this game. I play with teacher friends, friends from when I was a young mom, my college roommate, and even one childhood friend (who has recently given up Facebook for Lent!). Best of all, I always have a couple games going with my daughter (I love that, even though I rarely win).

And I guess I should mention the iPhone app, Words With Friends. I play that too!

I introduced my friend, Joan, to Wordscraper (and Words With Friends) – and she is as addicted as I am.  In fact, she now is actually part of a group that plays Scrabble with REAL tiles and a REAL board- yikes!

Last year, Joan gave me the coolest gift- a name plate for my desk that is made of Scrabble tiles! I love it, and it is the subject for today’s macro shot.

f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 2500, 85mm

Notice how slow my shutter speed was and how high my ISO had to be in order to get this shot. With my aperture more open, the depth of field was too shallow to get the letter M entirely in focus.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 71- Hatpins

My great-grandmother’s hatpins (she was born in 1859) made an interesting subject for my macro lens today. I am trying to do a quick post before I go out this morning, so I don’t have much time to play with the editing today.  I actually liked the out of focus results better than the in focus ones, but I chose an image where there is focus on one of the hatpins.  The cylindrical objects in the back are actually bokeh/reflections from surrounding pins.

f/4.5, 1/80, ISO 500, 85mm

UPDATE!

It is now almost midnight, and, while my husband watches some basketball recorded earlier, I am taking the time to look again at the hatpin photos from today.  I fiddled with one and applied a texture- and I really like it (even though it breaks a design rule and has FOUR objects, not 3 or 5)!

So…I am updating my blog and adding another photo- which is now my REAL photo of the day!

Melinda3 Comments

Day 69- Not inspired. . .

My goal for today’s photo assignment was to find something as quickly as possible and be done with it!  I had a camera in my hand all day yesterday; today maybe fifteen minutes.  I looked around for something I had not photographed before, and there it was on the coffee table in front of me- a bowl of willow balls.

f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 800, 300mm

Yes, I used my troublesome challenging lens- we are still on speaking terms.

Melinda4 Comments

Day 67- Making Peace With My Lens

If you have read a few of my posts about my issues with my 70-300mm lens, you know that I have had a LOT of trouble with it. I am embarrassed to say that I was blaming the lens. But now, its problems seem to have mysteriously gone away.

I think I just needed to learn how to work with it. It took me awhile in the beginning to realize that I HAD to focus manually at 300mm.  Now, I just do that without thinking. The other thing is I have to have plenty of light. Its largest lens opening is 5.6. If I even THINK of shooting with it inside, I need a high ISO. And often the shutter speed has to be so slow as to require a tripod. The gorillapod doesn’t work too well with this lens; it just can’t balance it. So good lighting is key.

Today, I managed to take this shot inside, handheld – while talking on the phone with my daughter. Wow. I am pretty proud of myself.

f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 1250, 300mm

So I have made peace with my lens, and am making progress toward becoming a competent photographer!

BTW, this photo is a closeup of part of a candle grouping in my bathroom.

Melinda3 Comments

Day 65- Quoth the crow. . .

It’s raining. And it’s about 52 degrees. That’s what I learned from the crow thermometer that sits in a planter outside our door to the deck.

It’s such a dreary day- I sat in the doorway, trying to capture something photoworthy outside in the drizzle. Finally, I focused on the crow right outside the door. If you look closely, you can see a reflection of tree branches and our deck cover in the crow’s eye.

f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 1600, 300mm

Melinda1 Comment

Day 64- Not in a Rut!

I had the most wonderful day! This morning I met with a group of amazing women to watch a webinar on Helping Children Manage Stress (from The Institute of HeartMath). I went with the intention of picking up some tips on teaching the HeartMath tools (which I use in my own life) to my grandchildren. I came home so inspired with the work these women are doing and even more mindful of how important it is to nourish the spirits of the young ones in our lives.

I came home and was so surprised to find that my husband had gone to the nursery, bought flowers, and planted them in the containers on our deck!  Life is good!

Of course, my photo (collage) of the day MUST focus on our new Gerbera Daisies!

So I am NOT in a flower photography rut- I am celebrating our new daisies (and a great day!).

 

 

Melinda2 Comments

Day 63- Photoshop Friday NOT!

Today is supposed to be my Photoshop Friday- the day I edit in Photoshop instead of Aperture 3.  We’re talking basic editing here- no fancy textures, effects, or actions (I do have a few from The Pioneer Woman, but want to learn the basic stuff first).  I exported this image to Photoshop from Aperture 3.  It went straight to Adobe Camera Raw, which told me that I had accidentally kept my Aperture preferences set to TIFF for Photoshop export.  I had been playing around with this last week and had discovered that I needed to change my preferences to PSD for the changes to be synced with Aperture. Oh well- I could always save the changes and just reimport.

So I worked on the image for awhile in Camera Raw, doing the kind of things I do in Aperture 3. Then I opened it in Photoshop and played with blend modes (overlay, multiply, and soft light ). Truthfully, I could not see any differences with these blend modes. I turned them off and on and adjusted opacity in each- and was not impressed. Maybe it was just this weird image..

Then I hit SAVE and closed the file.

Oooops.

It saved it in some weird temporary file place, and I couldn’t find it to reimport it into Aperture.  I had forgotten that it wouldn’t sync automatically because it was a TIFF. Darn.

So I just re-edited the original photo in Aperture- and called it done.  And I didn’t realize until afterward that I could have reopened it in Photoshop (it shows recent files) and just saved it to a different file on my hard drive.

I am very sick of this photo.

f/5.6, 1/500, ISO 1250, 300mm (why did I set my shutter speed so high?- no clue. . .)

What is this image anyway? I took a zillion photos of branches of a dry arrangement reflecting in my hall mirror. I had the front door open so that I could 1) have enough light and 2) stand back far enough to zoom in at 300mm with my temperamental long lens.  The bokeh is light reflecting off a bench on the porch.

BTW I was in my bathrobe. But it was OK because I am retired. . .

 

 

Melinda4 Comments

Day 61- Granny Smith

On this dreary, drizzly day, I decided to stay inside and take photos of something in the house.  Like most teachers, I have a collection of all things APPLE. One of the glass apples by my desk caught my eye.  I couldn’t decide which photo to use- so here are two.

Both are at f/4, 1/160, ISO 1000, 35 mm

Melinda3 Comments

Day 60- Dishing. . .

When I started this blog, I knew that I would photograph some of my Blue Ridge dishes eventually.  Ten or fifteen years ago, I was introduced to Blue Ridge pottery through my friend, Nevin, who has a BIGTIME Blue Ridge collection. I fell in love with these gorgeous plates immediately and agonized if I was being a copycat by buying some for myself. There is no logical reason for me to collect dishes. I have my mother’s china as well as my own- and really have no room for these.   I rationalized that I would be hanging them on the walls (I did) and that they perfectly matched my navy and red color scheme in the living room (they do. . .). I just love them!

Blue Ridge was made in the late 1930’s to 1950’s in Erwin, Tennessee by Southern Pottery.  It’s hand-painted  with a distinctive look and a ZILLION patterns.  I started buying them in antique stores but quickly moved on to eBay. I have several favorite patterns- this beautiful one is called Spring Glory and is relatively difficult to find.

f1.8, 1/500, ISO 1250, 35 mm

It is Day 60- MARCH!- and I am still doing this! Yay me!

Stay tuned for more Blue Ridge throughout the year. . .

Melinda9 Comments

Day 58- Flowers!

Flowers! I love taking photos of flowers. Even more than water drops.  Flowers with water drops are irresistible.

But my favorite way to take flower photos is REALLY CLOSE UP!

f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 1250, 300mm

Today my 70-300mm lens loved me! The focus is pretty sharp. It worked! Whew.

Thank you, Lonnie, for the flowers! And for a photo op.

Melinda4 Comments

Day 56- Staying In, Looking Out

There has been so much excitement on the weather scene this week- it might SNOW!  This is definitely BIG NEWS in the Bay Area.  We’ve heard it could snow at sea level or in the surrounding hills.  Anticipation is building!  There was a big (rain)storm last night, and there is possible snow early tomorrow. For now, it is sunny.

f/1.8, 1/250, ISO 400, 35mm

I am trying to learn Photoshop. I have watched training videos online through kelbytraining.com and feel like I have a beginning understanding.  I decided yesterday, after watching the last video of my subscription, that I would edit today’s photo of the day in Photoshop (specifically Adobe Camera Raw, which is so similar to Aperture 3, my Apple photo software). Aperture has a great feature, in which you can edit with an external editor and the changes will be reflected within Aperture. Sweet!  This would keep all my photos organized within Aperture, but I could also edit with Photoshop if I chose.

Problems!!!

The editing went fine- pretty basic- but no changes were reflected in Aperture! The magic dot appeared in the lower right corner indicating that it had been edited with an external editor- but no changes appeared.  I eventually saved the file from Photoshop onto my hard drive and reimported it into Aperture.

Guess I need some more one to one training at the Apple Store. . .

Melinda1 Comment

Day 55- Still Life

I snapped a few photos this morning, trying to get my 365 project out of the way, but nothing seemed to work.  Then I spotted a grouping of candles on my counter and knew that I had found my photo of the day. I hoped there would be a reflection, but I couldn’t see one until I snapped the shutter.  And then there was the added bonus of a little bokeh in the background!

f/1.8, 1/100, ISO 400, 35 mm

Melinda3 Comments