Because the topic was gnarly, I ventured out back this morning, knowing there were all sorts of gnarly things out there. To be clear, I was thinking of gnarly as in gnarled or nasty or hairy- not in the sense of extreme coolness. When I came upon this spider busily completing her web, I couldn’t resist going back inside for my macro lens. I think she is extremely cool, but kind of nasty and hairy as well.
Yesterday I watched an episode of The Grid with Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski. It was one of their blind critique episodes, which I always find a bit irritating (even though I have learned SO MUCH from those two- and this week I get to see Scott in person!). They totally dismissed flower photography, because flowers are naturally pretty and all have been photographed before. And you should never photograph a flower with spotty irregularities on it. I get their point, but there are some wonderful flower photos out there.
My intention was to go down to the waterfront at sunset tonight, but I’m losing steam. In desperation, I took some shots in our yard of an oleander just budding. I know, I know- it not only has flowers, but the most mundane of flowers! But I liked how the late afternoon sun was lighting it. It was windy, which made my attempt to do a macro shot of a moving target a kind of comedy of errors !
Since the oleander is white and the background turned black when I shot it, I decided to turn these into black and whites. Feeling rebellious, I chose to not use the spot healing brush on these flowers, which I normally would have done. There are specks of dirt on the blossom!!!
I like the lighting on this one. . .
and the shape (of the same bud) in this shot.
I only ventured as far as my front yard today for photography. Here’s a shot of some oleander against the fence. I played with some black and white presets, but ended up creating a warmed up monochrome, using split- toning in Lightroom- and saving that as a preset.
CDB!
D B S A B-Z B! (with apologies to William Steig)
The topic today is SIZE. So today it was me outside with my macro lens.
The topic today is MYSTERY! I had a great idea, which I couldn’t quite execute. We’ve had a group of crows hanging out in our backyard, and they leave whenever we go outside. I almost got a shot today, but they are smarter than I am. So this is all I can offer- not quite a MURDER of CROWS, as I had planned.
OK, bird rescuers (and you know who you are!), I wasn’t planning to MURDER the crows! A group of crows is called a MURDER, but if you are a bird rescuer, you probably know that. . .
So here’s the real mystery. What are these plants/things (Carol, you can’t guess the last one)???
I sat outside and waited for some critters to show up (today’s theme). The birds seemed to be avoiding the yard today, so I went in search of spiders, which were not hard to find. I first tried using my zoom lens, but had to go back and get the macro in order to get a more detailed shot. This is MUCH bigger than life size- it was a very tiny spider.
f/8, 1/100, ISO 720, 85mm (using Aperture Priority with Auto ISO- still feels like cheating!) -1 2/3 EV
I had a chance to use Lightroom’s famous noise reduction, and I think it worked fine.
I know- kind of boring! I need to get out more. . .
I’m using this for the Flickr group topic across the water, because I’m not sure I’m getting down to the waterfront today.
This was edited in Lightroom 4, which I finally bought last night- so Good-bye, Aperture 3!
I took a bunch of photos to go with ground, today’s theme. My emphasis was really on editing, because I have been feeling so uncomfortable with the “develop module” in Lightroom 4. Today, I felt more like I knew what I was doing. I did some basic exposure, clarity, tone curve, vibrance edits and quickly was able to apply them to all the photos at once. I did a little work with the adjustment brush to add a bit more clarity and sharpness to the itty bitty flowers (AKA weeds in 2 photos. . .)- and it felt more like my usual editing process. I think there is hope for me!
The theme today is entropy– and boy do we have entropy! Actually, we have less entropy than we did last week, thanks to the work going on out back.
Here is a shot of some entropy that has not yet been removed:
The garden shed has been cleaned out and will be gone soon!
Our deck re-construction is almost finished, and, serendipitously, the topic today is stairs. So here is a shot of our deck stairs, complete with new boards added here and there to replace the wood that was in less than stellar condition.
I wish I had a cute grandchild or at least a golden retriever to place on the stairs for the photo, but, alas, we are all alone right now.
Photo info: taken in manual, f/3.5, 1/100, ISO 500.
Edited very tentatively in Lightroom. I realized this morning that what is missing for me in Lightroom is Levels! I do or DID a lot of my adjusting with the Levels sliders. I always adjusted with Levels and Curves- and then went into definition (clarity), contrast, and the highlights slider if necessary. Levels is missing- and I miss it! Obviously, the same adjustments are applied in different ways- with the exposure slider and curves, as well as sliders for the different tones in the image- and MUCH MORE! This is the editing program of choice by most photographers (as well as Photoshop), so I know it will work out for me eventually. I do love the export and import features- but the editing? Well, it will be awhile!
No action- just some shots before the workers arrive.
The ladder. . .
I took this one lying on my stomach- yuck!
The deck work caused some plants in pots to be moved around, which gave me some new composition opportunities.
The topic today was starts with C, and I intended to photograph the construction (or rather, de-construction) that is going on in our backyard right now. We are having some deck and retaining wall repair and maintenance done. I was in and out today- and was also preoccupied with finally selecting and editing photos from our trip to Wyoming. By the time I got out back to take a photo, the deck was being power-washed. So I snapped a couple shots through the window on our way out to dinner. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get an interesting photo of actual construction.
I walked around the backyard with my 35mm1.8 looking for something pretty. Here are my Gerbera daisies again; I took 4 shots and this was the best, I think.
Paths and pavements is the Flickr theme for today- whew! an easy one! We are leaving for the airport in a few hours- please keep good thoughts for me to get some good shots for my photography class!
melinda anderson photography 