San Fran Series

These are the 5 pieces that will make up my San Fran series for the courthouse show in Aug. The photos will be printed 11x14.

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Just a peek at a happy time...

I was browsing through photos this evening and ran across a set from our summer San Francisco trip. This photo was snagged while exploring the countryside north of San Fran in a mini cooper with two amazing people. Happy summer times. I didn't grab too many photos on that trip despite the plethora of amazing opportunities in that city, but there are a few I've posted up on my flickr site.

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Photo Challenge: Composition

Last week I chose to work on improving my photos by focusing on specific compositional elements. The two elements I focused on most were light and point of interest. I tried to emphasize the point of interest by using depth of field mostly, but lighting played a big role as well. Lens flares, sun spots, and rim lighting, are all things I played with to highlight my point of interest. As I looked through my camera, it was a fun to force myself to think of what I could do compositionally to push my point of interest. My shots became more thoughtful. An obvious point of interest, I realized lately, is something that is missing from many of my compositions. There's still work to be done, but it's a start to get my mind thinking that way.

(Time of day: noon)


(Time of day: just before sunset)


(Time of day: late morning)


(Time of day: just before sunset)


(Time of day: early morning)


In addition to these photos, the photo of the forgotten painting, the flower in the abandoned lot, and the wind chimes were also taken. You can see the complete set on my flickr site.


This week I was joined by Steph and my dad. They both took some awesome photos. Thanks for joining in you two!

Steph chose to focus on mostly lines and negative space.
My dad chose to focus on contrast.

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Photo Week Challenge

I am in the mood for another photo week challenge, and I'd like to invite anyone out there to join me. Over lunch today I was reading over a few principles of photographic composition and I thought I would pick one to focus on this week. This challenge is WIDE open to interpretation. Pick ONE area to focus on this week, keep your camera with you wherever you go, and post your top 3 shots by next Monday.

Comment to this post with a link to your flickr page, blog, picassa account, or wherever you've posted your images online along with the principle you focused on and I'll compile the list of participants with my post next monday. Choose from any of the principles of photographic composition from the list below and have fun!

balance, of elements & color (symmetrical/asymmetrical)
light
point of interest
perspective
harmony
contrast
movement
rhythm
line and curve
positive/negative shapes
patterns


PS: this isn't an official list of photographic composition, it's just a collection of things I found interesting as I searched around for information. If someone has a nice comprehensive list, I'd love to see the link!)

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Train Graveyard

So Saturday night I went with Steph to this train graveyard. I have no idea how long it's been there, but the tracks were overgrown, it was covered in rust, and the interior was rotting and stinky. I wasn't creeped out at first, not until I climbed inside.

(Photo courtesy of Stephanie)

Once inside I saw that I definitely wasn't the first person to venture inside the train, nor was I alone. I stepped carefully, making sure that the floor could support me and as I moved I stirred the smell of rotting wood, urine, and birds.

I kept hearing muffled rustling sounds inside the train, then I noticed that the overhead luggage compartments were lined with bird nests. I didn't go past the first car. We were pretty far away from any civilization, and I figured if all I encountered were birds in the train, that was enough. I had a feeling they weren't the only ones living there.

Before we left we managed to snap a few shots in the evening sun. You can see the entire set here.

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Sue's Series Photo Weekend Challenge

I know that sledding is total copycat of Steph and Scott, but this series was too fun not to share. :D Thanks for heading up the photo challenge this weekend Sue!

(Click the 'All Sizes' button above the photo on my Flickr page to see it big)

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Shutter Sisters Inspiration

I enjoy the daily bits of inspiration from Shutter Sisters. Today's bit revolved around the clean slate of the new year.

Sometimes it's tough for me to follow through with various creative assignments depending on what's going on in my life and whatnot but I just really liked this one so I thought I'd give it a shot. With all the chilly gray brown and white around us these days I felt like this would be a great opportunity to look a little closer for the colorful, the cheery, and the cozy. Here's the assignment:
January Homework Assignment (Starting Monday):

1) Take one photo everyday until Jan. 31st that is colorful, cozy, cheerful or just makes yousmile.

2) Do something creative with your hands 5 days a week. It could be drawing, painting, origami, scribbling, doodling, writing, or anything else. But it may not involve a camera or a computer.

I've decided that I'm going to count culinary exploits as 'something creative with my hands' as well. I'll be keeping a log of my photos, and photos of the things I make by hand up on my flickr page. Let me know if you decide to join. I'd love to see your photos.


PS: The diptych above is of some awesome eggnog cupcakes. I got the recipe from Annie's Eats. The cupcakes had a great flavor, were super moist and the icing was REALLY sweet. I don't prefer the sugar icings as much as cream cheese variety, so I think next time I'll experiment with a different icing.

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New Lights and Some Color

Here is my new and improved light box photo. I found that my little desk lights weren't quite bright enough to show off my subject matter, so I got some clip lights and put in a daylight bulb so that all the colors were as true as could be. I also made sure to white balance my camera before shooting my subject and I added a nice patterned fabric beneath to make it pop.

The angle wasn't quite right when I clipped my lights to the sides of the box, but I didn't have any special light stands to fasten my lights to. To serve as stands, I tried clipping the lights to a couple bookends and it worked perfectly. They were easy to maneuver to get the lighting just right.

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Photo Week: 'Tis the season

Steph, had the lovely idea to invite us to join her on a photo 'weekend' to boost her holiday spirit. Saturday was 'Sparkle and Spirit' and Sunday was 'Traditional Red and Green'. This was an easy photo weekend for me to participate in because I was taking SO many photos as it was! This weekend was PACKED with holiday fun. Saturday I joined my grandma, mom, and sister to make our Christmas chocolates then Sunday we went up to Dull's Tree Farm to get our tree! I'll be sure to throw up a big post soon about the candymaking and possibly a quick post about a couple holiday decorations I put together.

Without further ado, here are my contributions to the holly jolly photo weekend! Thanks for hosting a great photo week, Steph!

Saturday: Sparkle and Spirit

Sunday: Traditional Red and Green

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Photo Week: Song Titles

This week's brilliant theme courtesy of Sue! Send her a comment and a link if you'd like to join in on photo week. :)

Monday (10/27) - Of Angels and Angles, The Decemberists
coming soon...

Tuesday (10/28) - Torn and Frayed, The Rolling Stones
coming soon...

Wednesday (10/29) - Slippery People, Talking Heads
coming soon...

Thursday (10/30) - Too Much of Nothing, Bob Dylan
coming soon...

Friday (10/31) - Photographers choice. What song title comes to mind?
coming soon...

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Photo Week: The Five Senses

This Photo Week is hosted by miss Jen who had the fabulous idea to explore our five senses through photography. I love this challenge.

Be sure to let her know if you're participating so that we can check out your shots!

Monday (10/6) - Sight
(see the rest of my photos on my 'sight' flickr set)

I thought a lot about how to explore sight through photography in a way that might separate it from any other photo I took. The goal was to take a photo that made me consider my own sight when I viewed it. I played a bit with various shutter speeds and little shakes of the camera to see if I could get anything with a feel similar to an impressionist painting. This photo was taken as the sun was getting low and red. The sharp orange rays that peaked through the cracks between houses gave me nice little pockets of light to play with. I liked the movement and the colors that resulted from this little experiment.

Tuesday (10/7) - Taste
(see the rest of my photos on my 'taste' flickr set)

Today was one of those days. You know the days when you want nothing more than to be home, to split a bottle of wine, and and to make something delicious with someone you love to be around. Today Alex and I split a bottle of Chilean wine and cooked up way too much food for a Tuesday. The menu consisted of:

Chicken Salad with Piquillo Peppers
Linguine Carbonara
Toms Crab Cakes

I would totally recommend all of these recipes. The over-abundance of food was delicious, and just the pep that this gray and rainy day needed.

Wednesday (10/8) - Sound
coming soon...

Thursday (10/9) - Smell
(see the rest of my photos on my 'smell' flickr set)

I took a nice walk around Lawton's Loop here at the fort over lunch. The sky is incredibly blue today. It smells like fall.

Friday (10/10) - Touch
coming soon...

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Photo Week: Auto-Settings

This week Photo Week is inspired by our camera's Auto-Settings

Share your work with Steph as she hosts this week's challenge.

Monday - LandscapeIt's a secret little landscape.

Tuesday - Macro

Alex was driving me around Lebanon to shoot some photos of our small TtV style and when I got back in the car this little guy was sitting on my door. He flew off onto a fence where I shot the rest of the photos.

Wednesday - Portrait

My sweet niece Sylvia Q.

Thursday - Action

My other sweet niece Margot being pushed on the swing by Uncle Alex.

Friday - Nighttime

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Viva la Photo Week!!!

As many of you know, I'm a girl who LOVES a good project. I generally need one to inspire me to get up off the couch and force me do something creative. Otherwise, I feel like like there's always something more productive I could be doing, like laundry, or one of the billion home improvement projects we need to complete. Or I feel like I'm sick of doing productive things and I just sit around and watch Hulu. Then of course when I look back at my week and think about what I've done I always feel a little sad if I didn't manage to slip in anything creative (outside of work stuff). I mean, there are soooo many creative things that I want to do and try and learn about, and it's just sad when I look back at my week and see that I've done nothing to work towards those creative goals and interests. And it's sad when I would like to think of myself as a photography hobbiest, yet I only take snapshots every now and again during a vacation or a get together. I've got so much to learn and so many experiments to try which is why I LOVE a good project.

So, I say, "VIVA LA PHOTO WEEK!!!"

I am so excited to continue with the week long photo projects as next week, Sept. 15th, Photo Week is hosted by Steph Wagner. She hasn't announced her theme yet, she's keeping us all waiting with baited breath.

But once she posts her theme, anyone is welcome to join in and flex your creative muscles. Just comment on her Sept. 15th post with a link to the site where you've posted your photos and she'll list it with the others.

I look forward to being inspired by the great photos that will come out of the project that is Photo Week.

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Blue Friday

Happy Blue Friday Everyone!!! I decided to play with my idea of Friday in addition to the color blue for this post. The long weekend is here which means time to put my feet up, enjoy a cold one, and spend some time in the lovely outdoors! Hooray for Fridays!

I had so much fun sharing photos with everyone during color week. I loved seeing all of the daily photo posts and reading all of the comments. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the project as well. I think that the color topic was a fun, easy way to get us back in the habit of carrying our cameras around with us. Nice work everyone, I was most impressed.

For our next task, I had an idea. What if we use the entire week to complete our exercise. This way, you can post photos as you take them throughout the week, but if you would like to spend more time on a photograph, there's not the investment of spending that kind of time every day. By the end of the week we should have a set of photos that reflect the theme, but whether you decide to take them each day or all in one day doesn't matter.

I'm going to 'tag' Steph as our next Photo Project host. See her blog for info on the next project and the list of participants.

Check out Steph's Blog for the next Photo Project

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Eric
Greg
Jen
Justin
Mindy
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

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Thursday - Green

The rest of my greens are up here on my flickr site.

Well, I only got a few greens before our battery died! booo! I was so excited, Alex and I were gonna go on a bike ride and capture some of the green country around us. Oh well, the ride was still nice, even if we don't have any photos from it. Luckily we got a few in the back yard.

Tomorrow is our last exercise for color week!

Blue will be a nice color to end on. I'm super impressed with how everyone has kept with this challenge this week. It's kind of a lot to do every day! Kudos to all who've participated. I really have enjoyed seeing everyone's awesome photos and reading all of the comments.

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Greg
Jen
Justin
Mindy
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

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Wednesday - Yellow

The rest of my yellow photos are posted here on my flickr site.

I loved seeing the honey bee's legs up close once I looked through my photos. It was such a brief moment that he was buzzing around the sunflower that I hardly noticed it at first. As you can see, my day involved a bit of laundry out to dry and some pretty yellow flowers. Photo project proves to be the most relaxing part of my day yet again. :)

Again, lovely photos everyone! I just adore the insight into the individual personal lives of everyone participating. The different perspectives, the various subject matter, wonderful all around! Tomorrow Greeeeeeeeeeeen!

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Greg
Jen
Justin
Mindy
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

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Color Week Continues! Tuesday - Orange

You can see the complete set here at my flickr site.

I totally ignored my better judgment to wait until the sun was at a more agreeable angle today and went out over my lunch break to grab some orange photos. (I know the truck is more 'rust' than orange, but I just had to share. What a strange little town!)

Nice job with the orange photos everyone! Tomorrow, Yellow Wednesday!

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Greg
Jen
Justin
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

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Color Week Begins! Monday - Red/Pink

A quick glimpse into my Red Monday. For more check out my 'Red' flikr set.

Great job everyone else who got their camera out today! I was most impressed by all of you tapping into your photographic creativity!

Alex
Ashley
Cambrie
Greg
Eric
Jen
Justin
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

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