CM Monthly Challenge – melinda anderson photography

CM Monthly Challenge- Creating Drama with Light

Our travel day back from Yellowstone has just ended, the laundry is going, and I am at the computer with over 500 photos to go through (and a computer that does not want to connect to our home WiFi network). Saturday night I remembered that I would have to post a photo today showing “drama” with light- so I took several shots of Miles in a relatively dark room. Then later I looked over and saw my daughter on the iPad with the kids showing her what they would like Santa to bring. Ahhhh- dramatic light!

Please follow the link to see how Stacy has interpreted this challenge! Click through all the blog posts to complete the circle!

December 2, 2013December 1, 2013

Melinda8 Comments

CM Monthly Blog Circle- Spookiness!

The theme for our Clickin Mom’s Monthly Blog Circle is spookiness. I had so much fun with this one! Last week, I took some photos in a beautiful area of town that goes all out for Halloween. Well, actually I did this TWICE, because the first time I had no SD card in my camera- DOH! I edited the images to emphasize their scariness, and even added some ghosts to one (can you tell?).

Now that you have looked at my photos, head on over to Jennifer Bantle’s site and then follow the links to complete the circle. Have fun!!!

November 2, 2013November 2, 2013

Melinda4 Comments

CM Monthly Challenge- Shooting Through Glass

This month’s Clickin Moms blog link up challenges us to shoot through glass. Off and on during the month, I would think of the topic, but never seemed to be anywhere where an idea just jumped out at me. I did a few lame attempts at home, and finally settled for some shots at my church this week. But I do offer up these photos from LAST month’s trip to San Diego where I took a few shots of the spectacular view of downtown San Diego from my son’s apartment. I did not use a tripod (tsk, tsk) and shot at a very high ISO (6400!) so yes, there is digital noise! And what did I learn from taking these photos? Use a tripod! Check for reflections (they are almost impossible to edit out). Do it right the first time- our son has since moved to a new apartment, and I will never have the opportunity to retake these photos.

To keep myself honest, here are a few photos I did take this week. They are through glass, but not quite with the dramatic view. . .

Flowers as shot through the sliding glass door of the sanctuary at church:

This is almost the same view- but with the focus on the door. Hmmm, the glass isn’t quite clean!

And here is the stained glass over the door, shot from inside:

There are some wonderful creative photographers in our blog circle. If you click on each link in each photographer’s blog, you will be able to make the complete circle and end up back here. Start with Jennifer Bantle’s blog!

May 2, 2013May 1, 2013

Melinda7 Comments

CM Monthly Challenge- Interesting Perspectives

This month the challenge is interesting perspectives– which range anywhere from wide angle shots with leading lines and vanishing points to creative illusions such as someone appearing to hold the moon or a child’s hand with a toy in the foreground (making the rest of him smaller in the background). I’m going with the wide angle shots, because it is something I love to do (and because I have a few in my archives. . .). I shot all of these (except the last) at 18mm on my crop sensor camera and converted them to black and white in Lightroom. The lighthouse photo also has a bit of processing in Silver Efex , which I then tweaked in Photoshop.

After you have looked at my photos, head on over to Lisa’s blog to start going around the complete circle!

Here is a beach shot in San Diego from this month.

This is a wide angle shot vertically (tall angle? 😉 ) of the USS Midway, also from our San Diego trip.

This is one from the archives- the Point Arena lighthouse (from our trip to the coast last October). I posted a shot or two of the lighthouse before, but this one is from further back with a wider angle.

And here’s another oldie but goodie that seems to fit the challenge (oldie referring to the photo, not the hubs, who is younger than me and thus not an oldie):

April 2, 2013April 1, 2013

Melinda13 Comments

CM Monthly Challenge- Food Photography

February was Month 2 of our Clickin Moms Monthly Challenge blog circle. Food photography (and cooking)- not my area of expertise, although I love to look at food blogs and collect recipes from online. Soooooo. . . I chose an easy subject- a scone from Heavenly Cafe and coffee from our new coffeemaker. And yes, that scone was indeed heavenly!

To see some yummy food photos, visit Misty’s blog and then follow the links from there to see the whole circle!

March 1, 2013March 2, 2013

Melinda11 Comments

Close-Up Portraiture

In a moment of bravery, I signed up for a monthly challenge group with Clickin Moms. The talent, skill, and creativity of the CM photographers inspires, but also intimidates me. I am stepping waaaaaay outside my comfort zone to participate in this- but that’s how we grow, right?

We have been divided into blog circles of 15 that will be linked up each month for 2013, so if you click on the link in each photographer’s post, you should eventually end up back here!

The theme for this month is close-up portraiture, which I really enjoy- especially with babies. I was so tempted to post macro shots of Henry when he was a baby, but, since my daughter took most of them (using my camera)- I think that might be cheating! 🙂

So, I called on my friend Barbara’s daughter, the beautiful Victoria! I took photos of her a couple weeks ago and posted some of them here. Today’s photos are from the same shoot. I took these photos with my 50mm 1.4 at f/4.5 and f/5 and used bounced flash (speedlight, TTL) to enhance the ambient light. Both are edited in Lightroom 4 only.

After you look at my photos, head on over to Misty Colvard’s site to see what Misty has done with this month’s challenge!