man·i·fes·ta·tion of Self

2006-05-13T00:06:00.000-04:00

May12 2006

2006-05-09T22:22:00.000-04:00

May09 2006

2006-05-02T21:50:00.000-04:00

May02 2006

2006-04-22T16:59:00.000-04:00

Apr21 2006

2006-04-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

Apr18 2006

2006-04-04T23:52:00.000-04:00

Apr04 2006

2006-04-03T23:58:00.000-04:00

Apr03 2006

2006-04-02T22:15:00.000-04:00

Apr02 2006

2006-04-01T18:48:00.000-05:00

Apr01 2006

2006-03-28T19:25:00.000-05:00

Mar28 2006

2006-03-27T19:18:00.000-05:00

Mar27 2006

2006-03-25T23:01:00.000-05:00

Mar25 2006

2006-03-23T22:18:00.000-05:00

Mar23 2006

ISO 400 **f/5.0**1/60s

2006-03-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

Mar21 2006

ISO 400**f/4.0** 1/60s

2006-03-20T23:59:00.000-05:00

Mar20 2006
ISO 400** f/5.0**1/40s

2006-03-19T20:42:00.000-05:00

Mar19 2006

Tiger

2006-03-18T21:08:00.000-05:00

Mar18 2006

Did some gardening today, and potted some plants for my back porch. That's the one thing I love about having a house. In the apt. I never got around to having plants, but now I get to explore all the things I like about nature. I also planted some herbs, and tomato seeds. Hopefully those pan out well.

ISO 400**f/6.3**1/30s

Dry

2006-03-16T21:32:00.000-05:00

Mar16 2006

ISO 400**f/2.8**1/160s

untitled #2

2006-03-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

Mar15 2006

ISO 400**f/2.8**1/320s

Colour

2006-03-14T20:22:00.000-05:00

Mar14 2006

More flowers. I was out walking my daughter after work today and saw this tree overflowing with these flowers. So with a bit of plant vandalism I picked one and took it home to photograph. Today was the first time in a long time I really liked the results of the shots I took. For most of Febuary, and since the begining of March I've kinda just been taking shots for the sake of filling space, and doing the PAD thing. Like I used to surf photo- websites and such for tips and idea's and such and that totally disappeared in that time. I haven't even been to DPC in about three weeks when I used to surf it almost hourly for god's sake. I'm hitting my stride again though, so this evening was a good time for me.

ISO 400**f/4.5**1/400s

Big Star

2006-03-13T23:14:00.000-05:00

Mar13 2006

Playing with some things, that are not quite coming out how I want them to. But it's giving me some interesting results. A long ex. of the full moon tonight. I can't figure what the flare of purple/pink is on the tree though :-(.

ISO 400**f/16.0**33.0s

hmm.

2006-03-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

Mar12 2006

Playing around with the full moon, but have now discovered that cloud cover sucks. This is a cheat being posted on Monday, but it was taken last night. So yeah.

ISO 400**f/8.0**25s

Blue

2006-03-11T23:34:00.000-05:00

Mar11 2006

ISO 400**f/8.0**1/250s

Kids Today

2006-03-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

Mar10 2006

So as it may not be very apparent on this blog so far, I'm a pretty vulgar person. I swear a lot, I communicate I want to say 65% of the time through sarcasm (lowest form of wit or not it's still entertaining), and a lot of the time there's some innuendo thrown in for kicks. So my daughter doesn't watch a lot of Television. About 30minutes a day sometimes a bit more as I cook dinner or clean up around her, but I try to restrict her view-age to the absolute minimum. I put on some kids show today while getting breakfast ready for her and turned around to see this on the screen. I blinked. Paused. Rewound. Blinked some more. Then I took a picture. I didn't put a lot of thought into this as I was more like "holy shit, I have to photog. this!" So yeah. I have to add that I took it way out of context but the imagery stayed with me.

Also? I turned the TV off for the day.

ISO 400**f/8.0**1/15s

Geitas

2006-03-09T21:55:00.000-05:00

Mar09 2006

Yet another gift from Japan. My Geitas, which I've always had a secret fetish for. This is in fact my second pair of Geitas, as I used to have a pair from China that an -ex got for me when he was in Hong Kong four years ago that was sadly lost during the break-up of that relationship. There's a definite design difference between the Japanese and Chinese design, and I'm having a time getting used to wearing them again, but I love these shoes, and am happy to have another pair of them. As a bonus he also bought me Geisha socks(no clue what they're called), with the two toes, and they are -effing awesome and quite possible the most comfortable things I've ever put on.

ISO 400**f/4.5**1/10s

Headspace

2006-03-08T23:54:00.000-05:00

Mar08 2006

I have a houseguest from Japan, and he came bearing many gifts. Among them was this awesome toy for Chloe, that I just had to take a picture of. I'm feeling way better now. The hacking cough is gone, but I had to call out of work today as I had I guess a mini-relaspe or something. Whatever it was it sucked balls, I was hacking and puking for most of the day while home sick. In the end I went to sleep to avoid it all. Getting this pic posted just before the midnight hour.

ISO 400**f/8.0**1/4s

Play

2006-03-07T23:33:00.000-05:00

Mar07 2006

ISO 400**f/3.2**1/40s

New Toy

2006-03-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

Mar06 2006

I've been really quiet lately, but it's mostly getting over the sick, and preparing for my upcoming houseguest from Japan. Today though I picked up a wacom tablet that I am in love with. Totally in love. Spent like two hours drawing tonight and I haven't drawn anything in years. So I'm super duper happy with it. I love.

By The Way

2006-03-05T19:16:00.000-05:00

Mar05 2006

ISO 100**f/4.0**1/30s

Untiltle .01

2006-03-04T11:46:00.000-05:00

Mar04 2006

ISO 400**f/16.0**48s

Crawl

2006-03-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

Mar03 2006

ISO 100**f/4.5**1/200s

Matchstix

2006-03-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

Mar02 2006

Found flowers in my yard this morning. Had this bush that had never flowered in my time in my home, and all of a sudden this morning I had flowers. So I had to take a picture of course. Pink is hard to capture. It really is. It tends to blend and bleed into itself almost.

ISO 100**f/4.0**1/40s

Lights .02

2006-03-01T18:57:00.000-05:00

Mar01 2006

So on a technicality this is posted the morning of the second because I took the pictures and laid down for a nap last night and woke up at 6am this morning. The good news is that I feel awesome! I've still got a slight cough, but I don't feel like the waking dead anymore. Thank you god. And thanks to all of you who commented and wished the family luck in feeling better. It's much appreciated. Today is my day off so I've got a lot of catching up to do. And cleaning. There's lots of cleaning.

ISO 400**f/11.0**1.6s

Chloe .04

2006-02-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

Feb28 2006

So so tired of being sick. I have this hollow cough in my chest that's just killing me right now. I called my doctor today and have an apt. to see her tommorow afternoon.

Abstract

2006-02-27T22:24:00.000-05:00

Feb27 2006

Feeling somewhat better today, though I'm losing my voice. In the recovery stages I think, which is a super good thing. I'll be more energetic tomorrow.

Details and comments tomorrow. Also? Everyone should watch Shaun of the Dead as it is awesome fun. Especially when sick.

ISO 400**f/3.2**1/20s

The West .03

2006-02-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

Feb26 2006

Another quick and dirty shot today. My husband has caught whatever sickness Chloe and I had so we're just one big sick family right now. The good news is that Chloe seems to be clearing up, so I may be able to go to work tomorrow. Was going for something with this shot, but was pretty unssuccessful with it. My eyes are kinda watery and blurry so I'm acutally not sure how specific my perception is right now. This whole sick thing and me don't mix...I am so going to the doctor tomorrow and getting myself totally shitfaced on meds. Antibiotics and I will become best friends. Really.

ISO 400**f/5.0**1/2s

Flag

2006-02-25T21:49:00.000-05:00

Feb25 2006

Am still sick. So is Chloe, and wow it's horrible. We've both been sick at the same time before, but now that she's a lot more mobile and vocal it's just a never ending tantrum from her because she's miserable, and I have barely any patience for it because I'm just as miserable as she is. Thank god for my husband. Bestest in the world. Seriously. This is a quick and dirty night shot taken of one of my neighbors' yard. The wind was blowing and consequently there's a little blur toward the bottom of the shot, but well...I'm sick. It's all I can do to even walk around the block to get the shot. Nyquil is not your friend. Really.

ISO 400**f/5.6**1.6s

Flowers

2006-02-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

Feb24 2006

Am sick. So is the child. I guess this explains the lavish amount of sleep I've been getting lately as I slept a full six hours throughout the day, and had a four hour nap or something today. So beyond exhausted it's all I can do to post a pic for the day.

ISO 100**f/8.0**1/40s

Fire

2006-02-23T21:21:00.000-05:00

Feb23 2006

Not really, this is some smoke I messed around with to get the colour like this. I like it well enough.

ISO 100**f/5.6**1/3s

Paper

2006-02-22T23:09:00.000-05:00

Feb22 2006

I took today off work to sleep and clean, and the good news is that I pretty much slept all day. The bad news is that I pretty much slept all day. So basically I got nothing done for the entire day, which isn't all that bad 'cause I really needed the sleep. But then everyone came home and the days plans were pretty much shot. So the aim is to clean tommorow and try to get some commenting done tonight before once again going back to bed.

This shot was taken almost first thing this morning, and I like the look of it, and how it kinda looks like wrapping paper or something. The sky was a boring blue so I tinted it and upped the contrast.

Iso 400**f/8.0**1/1000s

Light Show

2006-02-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

Feb21 2006

So dead tired tonight it's not even funny. Took tomorrow off work to sleep and catch up with all the comments I'm behind on. So far behind. But tommrow I swear I'll be going through everything and commenting. Omg so tired.

Was attempting to take some long exposure night shots tonight and got bored with the scenes I was getting so I started to move the tripod around. Nothing super stunning but nice experiment. I likes.

Iso 400**f/16.0**10s

Nightengale

2006-02-20T22:03:00.000-05:00

Feb20 2006

I'm pretty sure that this isn't a nightengale. Also I think I've spelled that wrong, but I'm so dead exhausted right now I can't bring myself to care. I need like a weeks' worth of sleep.

Iso 100**f/4.5**1/8s

Pain

2006-02-19T22:34:00.000-05:00

Feb19 2006

ISO 100**f/5.6**1/13s

Burst

2006-02-18T23:12:00.000-05:00

Feb18 2006

My sister tells me she's tired of me posting flowers. But I really liked this shot so here it is.

Iso 100**f/5.6**1/30s

One Step

2006-02-17T18:39:00.000-05:00

Feb17 2006

My daughter currently has a fondness for The Foot Book which I swear I read to her at least 10 times a day. So inspired by said book, I took some shots of her feet today. I think I'll do some kinda scrap booky (oh when you were 1 you really loved that book) thing for her to have when she's older. I don't have a lot of pictures or momento like things of my childhood, and I want to make sure that's not the case for her.

Iso 100**f/5.6**1/4s

Lights!

2006-02-16T18:45:00.000-05:00

Feb16 2006

Today The West stayed home from work, and we went to the State Fair. It was good times, as I hadn't been in literally 10 years and had no real memories of my first visit. I ate incredibly unhealthy things for me and did a lot of walking, 'til my feet hurt. Since I only had my 512 CF card I had to make every shot count, and was editing and deleting like a mad person as I was taking all Shots in RAW. In the end I had about 57 (-ish) shots I was really happy with, and in fact had a hard time deciding which to post for today. In the end I chose these lights, because I had originally wanted to go at night to get that classic carnival night shot, but I was determined to have lights. So lights it is.

I've been playing around with my camera settings because I really love the velvia look, in case anyone's not noticed ;-), so I've been playing with what I can do in the camera to achieve the look as much as possible, and then maybe bumping the saturation and contrast up a level in ps/picassa. That was the case here. In camera had Sat and contrast maxxed out, and brightness down a notch, and then some additional Sat. work in PS.

Iso 100**/f/11.0**1/100s

Blush

2006-02-15T22:37:00.000-05:00

Feb15 2006

Iso 400**f/3.2**1/4s

Lazy

2006-02-15T02:19:00.000-05:00

Feb14 2006

So this pic wasn't taken today. But really today's been such a horrible day that I literally came home from work at 6pm and went to bed. Woke up just a little ago at 2am, posted. I creatively altered my timezone so it would show the right date, but you and I know the dirty little secret.

Flower Power

2006-02-13T22:12:00.000-05:00

Feb13 2006

Playing around with different angles and such today. The edges are a little softer than I wanted them to be but I like it. I'm behind on commenting, and am trying to catch up. Went through a few PAD's today, and found I missed some great shots, so I'm slowing making my way through and commenting.

Iso 400**f/4.5**1/8s

Voltage

2006-02-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

Feb12 2006

Not a very stimulating shot, but today was another take the picture and post day. I hope this slump is over soon.

Iso 400**f/2.5**1/25s

Who's got the power?

2006-02-11T20:34:00.000-05:00

Feb11 2006

This picture has been in my head for some time, and it was only tonight that I remembered to take it. It's the inside cover of one of my books and every time Chloe opens that book I see these patterns and think to myself that I should take a picture of it. Tonight I did. I'm happy enough with this, but I may retake the picture tomorow with a different apeture to get the whole thing in sharp focus..

Iso 400**f/8.0**1/4s
Convert from RAW- Sharpened to show the paper texture, and changed the AWB setting.

Chloe .3

2006-02-10T12:10:00.000-05:00

Feb10 2006

Was watching Chloe play around the house this morning and had the sudden realization that with all the photo taking I've been doing lately I actually haven't taken one of my daughter in like 3 weeks. That's almost abnormal for me. Like all first time parents I feel like I've done nothing but take pictures of her. Especially at this stage where it feels like every day is a new change and she's becoming less and less of a baby and more of a toddler. So I picked up the camera and snapped off about 30 shots, of which a good 80% came out excellent. This shot is one of my faves as this was pretty much the shot I was aiming for when I started to take this picture, and her movements didn't do anything to discourage from it. I like the almost glamour fashion look of it, and the almost smirk on her face. This was all about filling the frame with her, and I think I was pretty successful here.

Iso 400**f/4.5**1/20s
Edits- Added a glow in picassa (I love this effect!), lots of saturation (I think +3). Taken in RAW, and converted to .jpg. Not a lot of raw editing though, bumped the sharpness a couple of notches.

It's a fire

2006-02-09T22:21:00.000-05:00

Feb09 2006

One of the have a picture and post kind of things tonight. Couldn't get anything I was happy with tonight, which has been happening a lot to me lately, and I'm wondering if I'm just having some kind of weird creative block. Was playing around with candle light tonight.

Iso 100**f/8.0**5.0s

Strange Fruit

2006-02-08T20:14:00.000-05:00

Feb08 2006

I had difficulty with getting a shot I liked tonight. You ever go take some shots and think that you nailed some pretty good shots, and then when you upload them, it all pretty much sucks balls and you're left scrambling to preserve something creatively good out of it? That was tonight to me. This is a pretty tight crop, but really this is the only piece of the shot that I liked so...yeah. Not very happy with the big picture, but this little piece of it called out to me.

Iso 400**f/18.0**20s
Taken with the 18-55mm kit lens.

Standard edits for me- +1 Sat, USM, & Crop.

Broken

2006-02-07T20:38:00.000-05:00

Feb07 2006

Went out tonight with the intent to take a picture for the broken challenge. That didn't quite work out, it was too dark out for me to get focus on this fence, so I had to use the flash which made things way too bright and distorted the sky. Looking at it on the LCD I was pretty sure I didn't like it, but in the end I like it a lot. I like how the red of the sky kinda pumps up the red paint on the fence. Plus I wasn't sure about the editing rules for basic, and I did do a few things like darken the picture in RAW, and pump the sat. up a couple of notches. That's actually about it so I guess it wasn't that much editing, but I guess I'm not ready to take the challenge plunge yet.

Iso 400**f/6.3**10.0s
Edits: See above.

A Heartbreaker

2006-02-06T20:18:00.000-05:00

Feb06 2006

I'm in a really bad mood right now. The strange thing is I don't know why. I'm just really agitated.

Iso 400**f/4.5**1/25s
Taken with Canon 50mm 2.5 compact macro.
Edits:
Picassa- Convert to B&W, +1 shadows
PS- S-curve, USM

Look at Me

2006-02-05T20:37:00.000-05:00

Feb05 2006

Not saying anything that some of you didn't know, but blogger sucked yesterday. Had issues posting, and commenting. Not fun. Was walking along in the kitchen and looked at some beads on the counter, noticed my reflection in the beads, and decided I had to take the shot. A bit of a distorted self-portrait really. Since I'm super camera shy this is probably about as close as I will be getting to self-portraits. My reflection in myriad of surfaces.

Iso 400**f/2.5**1/30s
Taken with Canon 50mm 2.5 compact macro.
Edits- RAW +2 Sat, +2 Sharp, -1 hue
PS- USM
Picassa- crop

The Sunlight Goes On

2006-02-04T20:42:00.000-05:00

Feb04 2006

Tomorow I will comment and catch up on all I've missed in the last couple of days or so. I've been super busy with work, and home and things will be slowing down tomorow. Here is a lemon. Which is backlit, by my trusty desk lamp. I am happy with it, though I wish the bubbles were just a tad bit sharper. Hmm, a different apeture perhaps? I'll have to play with it some more I guess. Fun times.

Iso 400**f/11.0:**1/50s
Edits: Raw +2 Sat, +2 Sharpness
Picassa- Cropped and added slight glow.
Taken with Canon 50mm 2.5 compact macro.

Rain

2006-02-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

Feb03 2006

It's raining today, and that had some intersting opportunities for shots. I got a few interesting ones of some birds on my fence, but the rain makes it look kinda grainy. This is a shot that intrigued me when I saw it. Closed the door on my back porch and the rain had gotten on it and distorted the outside view. I like the abstract distortion so I worked on it some more.

Iso400**f/10.0**1/30s
Taken with canon compact 50mm 2.5 macro

Edits: Little bit more ps work than I've done in a long time to any one shot, but it was fun going over this.
-Smudge on saturate to bring out all the bits of colour that was dull
-USM/USM
-Dogdging to lighten up some of the highlights
-Distort diffuse glow

Epiphany

2006-02-02T22:08:00.000-05:00

To understand this epiphany and what it means to me some bit of personal history must be shared. All my life I've been an artist. All my curriculum in school covered mainly art related themes, Art history, painting, figure drawing, sculpting, etc. I've done or experimented with everthing at least once in my life. Did glass blowing for a year for christs sake! Never did photography. It's always escaped me somehow, like my manifesto states, it's been a cock tease affair for years, barring one circumstance or another. Hell when I was in college I had six hour film (practical/history) class on Saturdays of all thing that I went to at 7am, every Saturday. And with my hard party schedule (and it was bad) I never missed it. It's occured to me today, tonight about ten minutes ago actually that I know this stuff. Oh maybe I'm not an expert with all the technicalities of my camera yet, and I may not have intuitive camera understanding going for me, but I know this stuff. My whole life has been about it. Colour, design, composition, lines, light even. This should all be second nature to me. Sure I've been a non-practicing artist for years now (haven't drawn anything 4-6 years maybe), but this is a lifetime of knowlege I'm let wasting away.

So the epiphany is this... I've always had a spiel about how I've done every aspect of art except photography. Well there is no except now. There is only this! The now, the me living and letting a little bit more me come through.. More who I was before I got lost in coorperate america and let so much of myself go.

I’m a classically trained artist for gods’ sake, time to get off my ass and stop simpering about “oh I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m just learning” I know better than that. Photography is art and I know art. People can quibble semantics and the little do’s photoshop tarnish the integrity of the picture for all it’s worth, but the bottom line is that it is an art form, no matter how you express it, ps work or not. may not be the best photographer right now, but I damn well intend to be! Watch me.

Night Moves

2006-02-02T19:36:00.000-05:00

Feb02 2006

More night work today. I'm playing around with camera settings and learning my limitations (or lack there-off) creatively and would be happy with any constructive critisism anyone would like to through my way to help me improve. I'm invariably shy about my work, and really most things, but I figure it's time to break that mold. Not that I don't appreciate the comments I get currently a lot of them have been helpful, and inspiring and would like to thank all of you who have left a comment here on what I'm doing.

Thanks

Iso 400**f/16.0**8.0s

Edits: None

Round Here

2006-02-01T20:24:00.000-05:00

Feb01 2006

Tonight I played with long exposures. I was out in my back yard taking out the trash, and looked up and realized I had a pretty nice view with the water tower behind my house, so I grabbed the tripod and my remote and learned the patience involved with long exposure. Or not long per se, more like a minute but it seemed to take forever. Again I continue my love affair with RAW. I don't think I'll ever go back to .jpg, unless I'm at a family function or something and need the excess of shot. I only took four shots of this particular scene, and they all came out really well, but this is my favorite. I'm probably going to play with car trails or something tomorrow, 'cause really it seems like a photographic right of passage or something.

Iso 400**f/22.0**124.0s
Taken with kit lens 18-55mm
Edits:
Digital Photo professional- +1 Sat::+1 sharpness
PS- Curves

Screw Baby

2006-01-31T22:10:00.000-05:00

Jan31 2006

Installed CS2 today. Got the complete suite, and boy is there a learnign curve. I feel like I'm back at step one with PS all over again. Not that I was super proficient to begin with, but I got the job done. I didn't actually play with photoshop today, I played more with adobe bridge, which is it's own little headache. I learned quite a bit of things today. I learned that any changes I make to the RAW files in Canon digital photo professional won't show up in Bridge or PS (or if they do I haven't quite figured out how to make that happen). Todays shot was more about experimentation than anything else for me. Mostly I just wanted somethign to play with my new software with. I didn't get much playing done because I'm seriously tired, and to be frank it's all a little daunting. Looks like I"m going to actually have to read the help files for this. Hopefully they'll be comprehensive, and I'm sure somewhere out there, a million and one different tutorials are just waiting to be discovered.

I'm thinking of doing the abstract challenge at DPC so now it's a hunt to find something compelling and non-recognizable to photograph.

Iso 400**f/2.5**1/30s

Edits: So many different combination of things I don't even remember at this point.

Sunshine

2006-01-30T21:12:00.000-05:00

Jan30 2006

Playing around some more with RAW, and yup. Still in love with it. This is the remnants of one of my flowers from yesterday. It's death was purely artificial and at my own hands. It died for a good cause. Or at least I'd like to think so.

Iso 400**f/5.6**1/6s

Edits:
Raw- +1 Saturation:: -1 hue
PS- USM:: S-curve
Picassa- Crop

A lot more editing than I've had to do for a while but I"m happy with the results and my sense of photo purity isn't too overly offended. So there you go.

Wake up slow

2006-01-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

Jan29 2006

Today I discovered the joy of RAW. I can never go back to jpg. after this. I get CS2 tomorow and I understand that it supports Canon RAW so I can't wait to play a bit with that.

Iso400**f/11.0**1/30s

Edits: Upped the saturation a bit in RAW, and cropped out a piece of the background in picassa.

Love's me

2006-01-28T22:53:00.000-05:00

Jan28 2006

So after the depression of trying to take a picture of a food item yesterday and thinking about it quite a bit today, I opted to just take a picture of something I liked and post it. The great thing about springtime (or almost spring) in FL is the cheap flowers. I got a great bouquet for about $2.50 today while I was at the store picking up milk. The odd thing is though I don't like any of the pictures I took of the whole bouquet. I love the isolation shots I have, and I ended up with a surprising amount of really good shots from the session. I don't know if it's that I'm getting better at seeing things, or that this was just a lucky night for me. I like to think it's the former and not the latter. Going to post some more of the shots at my site when I get a chance because I'm really happy with how a majority of the shots came out. Some of them require no editing at all.

The above shot is naked of edits. Not even a crop was necessary, and I really like it. So yay me.

Iso 400**f/5.0**1/25s

Carrots

2006-01-27T21:12:00.000-05:00

Jan 27 2006

Not a particularly scintillating title I know. But the apt for the picture. Simple.

I'm divided as to whether or not I really like this shot. I feel like I'm caught in this inspirational rut, and I've decided that themes are the mind killer when it comes to this blog. This is the second one I've attempted, and it's been somewhat less successful than I thought it would be. I assumed (yes, I know...ass/u/me) that having a theme would add some discipline and added dimension to not only the PAD but also my general learning curve for photography. So far it's just made me frustrated and feel constrained which leads to incredible amounts of unwillingness to do a shot. So really at this point I would quit and cut the theme short, but I have this crazy urge to not break the cycle that I've created. I do think that this will be my last theme week for some time though, as it's definitely not something I'm fond of.

On another note, I wanted to enter the blue challenge at DPC, but oddly enough I've got nothing. It's like every time I get a thought in my head about something that would be a great entry, it just slips away at the edge of my mind. This has just been a strange week for me I guess.

Iso 400**f/7.1**1/50s

Edits: sharpened a notch in picassa and added a slight glow.

Oh, I've decided I like the glow effect so much in picassa that it will now be my goal to achieve it with lighting so as to reduce edits out of the camera.

Grimbergen

2006-01-26T21:46:00.000-05:00

Jan26 2006

Went to my favorite bar/restaurant tonight with my usual crew, and had some awesome times. Drank some beer (10.5% alcohol content), talked about video games (the new DS redesign is beyond hot), movies (Superman 3, and meet the feebles), and just generally had an all around good times. I love Thursdays. The above is a picture of the bottle for my drink of choice for the night. I'd recommend it.

Edits: Sharpened a bit in picassa, not so many edits anymore. Getting better at the out of the camera shots being what I want them to be.

Iso 400**f/4.0**1/2s

Bananas

2006-01-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

Jan25 2006

So yeah I feel really blah this week from an inspirational standpoint. I know forcing the picture is not always a good thing or ok, but let me tell you how much this wasn't what I was going to originally post. But I like it. So there you go. Another day and these will be in my banana bread. Yum.
Thinking of entering the blueII challenge on DPC, but now that I've had the thought that I should I'm coming up blank with ideas. Hopefully one will just smack me over the head.

Iso 400**f/8.0**1.8s

ETA: I forgot to mention the edits which are minor. Added a slight glow in picassa, and cloned out a speck of white (something) that was showing on the black background. Fairly minor and took about two minutes. Took me longer to decide what to post.

Garlic

2006-01-24T22:15:00.000-05:00

Jan24 2006

So apparently this week is about food. I was so uninspired to take a picture today, that I just started taking pictures of random things in my kitchen. I made chilli for dinner tonight and these are part of the ingredients. Tommorow, another food item. No photoshop work on this, just a crop in picassa, and a bit of sharpening.

Iso 100**f 7.1**1/8s

P.S. Haven't gotten around much to commenting in the last two days but I plan to do catch up tommorow. Thanks for everyone who's been commenting here.

Drink

2006-01-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

Jan23 2006

Today was my friend Jeff's birthday and The West and I went out tonight to celebrate with him and some friends. This is a picture of my one drink (I have to work tomorow). No edits.

Iso 100**f2.5**.08s

Smoke .3

2006-01-22T19:19:00.000-05:00

Jan22 2006

So tonight's smoke shoot was so much more successful than before. Took me 20 shots to get this and in the 20 there's about 7 other what I would term hot shots. However this is the one that was basically spot on with no outside distractions. The only edit I did was to sharpen it a notch and crop out a piece negative space for a stronger composition. Upped the shadows a notch in picassa as well.

I learned that this is really all about lighting to make it truly successful, and right now the lighting I have is insufficient. Like seriously folks I'm using a desk lamp to do all this, which don't get me wrong, necessity is the mother of invention and all that and I've managed to get some shots I really like, but I've sorta had to think about lighting more and getting something setup on the cheap that will hold me over until I can afford somewhat more decent actual photography lights. So suggestions guys, I'm sure there's some stuff at DPC as well and I'll be searching the forum archives, but if you guys can suggest it here or even link to the forum thread about it I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance. Also to everyone that wished me belated happy birthday, thank you.

iso 100** f4.0**1/15s
18-55mm kit lens.

P.S. I haven't gotten to comment in the last couple of days and will rectify that in the upcoming days.

Fun drunk night

2006-01-21T12:08:00.000-05:00

Jan 21 2006

So I was hesitant about posting this picture, because as you can plainly see it's definitely not in focus. But it is a remnant of last night, along with being a picture I took at some ungodly time this morning while still feeling the effects of the night. So to preserve the integrity of the night and what it means to me I'm posting it. It's a keeper shot for me, more for the memories associated with it than anything else.
I feel I must make a disclaimer about the coaster though, it's not the beer I was drinking last night. In fact I took part of a little known (to me at least) brew from Canada named La Fin Du Monde which was excellent and packed an awesome punch. So all you Canadians that visit this PAD, on behalf of my fine and drunken appreciation of your homebrew, I say thanks.

Taken with 18-55mm kit lens:
Iso 100**f5.6**1/2s

The only edit was to crop out my counter from the the shot as it was pretty wide.

P.S. To everyone who wished me a happy birthday! THANK YOU! Chuck, MK, & Laurie. I appreciate it.

Primary

2006-01-20T19:30:00.000-05:00

Jan20 2006

More DOF play. Was going to do smoke again tonight to try and achieve perfection with it, but alas I'm about to go out and get super drunk for my b-day with one of my best friends so this is a bit rushed, and I didn't want to risk my camera on drunken fun night. So yeah. Enjoy folks.

Smoke .2

2006-01-19T23:16:00.000-05:00

Jan19 2006

So another smoke shot. Again with almost 200 shots taken to try and achieve the right look. Still only somewhat successful. I did get some great shots out of it, but I'm having difficulties lighting the shot to get the shadows out (which sometimes come out cool, but not always), but I keep playing with it. It's actually starting to be less on the frustrating end of things and more on the fun piece. It's kinda cool to see what different settings/lighting/ etc., will produce. My home now smells quite lovely though from all the incense. Maybe tommorow I'll take it up a bit more, or maybe I'll move onto something else. That remains to be seen.
This particular shot however has seen a lot of PS work, though it was only a couple of steps. I guess it just looks like extreme PS work to me.

ISO 100: f5.0: 1/100s
Taken with 18-55mm Kit lens:
-filled in the background to a darker colour in PS
-S curve in PS
-auto contrast in PS
-dodged highlights in PS
-added light glow in picassa

P.S. inspired by this blog and everyone else associated with the project I spent today creating another photoblog non-PAD related (though some pad shots will show up there) to post other pieces of my photography that won't for whatever reason make it into this blog. Though theoretically there's no rule about posting more than one pic per day for the PAD I like the discipline associated with having to do one. So if anyone likes please check out the other blog and let me know what you think.

Smoke

2006-01-18T20:29:00.000-05:00

Jan18 2006

So inspired by MK's post from a couple of days ago I decided to play with smoke today. Lots of lessons learned with this one folks, the foremost of which is that it is definitely not an easy shot to accomplish. I must have snapped off two hundred shots to get even a halfway decent shot. In the end after a quick trip to wally-world for some foam board, I kinda started to get it. My CF card got full and I had just burned about three sticks of incense, so I'm tabling further experimentation for the rest of the night. Tommorow there will most likely be another smoke shot though. I'm aiming for perfection on this one, or at least as close to it as I can get.

Since I'm detailing most of my photo related happenings here, I ordered this book which should be here on friday. If anyone has it, or has read it feel free to give me heads up on wether or not I'll be sending it back when it gets here.

Taken with 18-55mm kit lens:
Iso 100 f 5.6 1/125s
-upped the saturation a bit in ps
-dodged the highlights on the smoke
-deepened the shadows a notch in picassa

Branches

2006-01-17T11:48:00.000-05:00

Jan17 2006

Was outside under the tree looked up and caught this image in my head. It's one of those combination drab/sunny days we get here in FL. and the dark blue pushing in on the gray against the branches just caught me.

ISo 100 f11.0 1/250s

-upped saturation
-deepened the shadows
-burned the out edges of blue to darken them slightly

p.s. I haven't gotten around to commenting much for the last couple of days but I've been a bit busy outside capturing my photos. I'll go through and comment on everyone I missed later.

Camouflage

2006-01-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

Jan16 2006

Stumbled on this lizard sunning himself in my backyard, and just had to take a picture. He almost nearly blends in perfectly with the branch he was sitting on. I had a hard time deciding on posting this picture because I wasn't sure if the orange leaf/branch/whatever in the background detracted from the lizard being the focal point, but in the end thought the splash of colour in the background vs. The gray blandness of the lizard was pleasing to my eye.

I've also decided to post what I do in post processing if any on my pictures, mostly as a record of what I've been playing with in p.s. and if I ever go back to the original image I'll be able to track what I did to achieve this look.

Edits:

Bumped the saturation up +2 in ps
Burned the branch a little to distinguish the lizard's parts from it
Cropped vertical to remove some negative space
Auto contrast

Iso 400 f5.0 1/125s

Aunt Gert

2006-01-15T21:44:00.000-05:00

Jan15 2006

Went to a family gathering tonight and had good times. Took a lot of shots, and got some real treasures from the bunch. I'm going to order a bunch of prints from Ritz, so I can get some copies out to the rest of the family. Chloe was being a bit of a handful and I wasn't able to take as many shots with the tripod as I wanted to, but it was fun good times and I mined a pretty good amount of good shots. I was in default basic mode most of the night though as I didn't have much time to set anything really pseudo-formal up for shots, but I love the candids and I was torn between this and another of a triptych, of my aunt, cousin, and my cousin's daughter but in the end I liked the simple calm of this moment, as it seems to have been the only peace of calm in what was a pretty hectic evening. Lots of fun though.

Not much editing done to this shot. Upped the saturation a bump, and cropped my cousin's arm out of the shot.

Chloe 2

2006-01-14T19:07:00.000-05:00

Jan14 2006

Extreme close-up of my daughter. I wish I could say I planned this shot, but it would be a lie. She doesn't really stay still on command as of yet, so I see something she's doing that I think is cute and I kinda snap away. Sometimes I capture what I'm looking for, and sometimes it's 50 or so shots of utter crap. Surprisingly I really like this shot. It's like an emphasis of every part of her that's a part of me. Or at least the parts people always say she gets from me, my nose, mouth and the shape of her eyes. The rest of it is her dad, the forehead, chin, and attitude.
I found it really hard to work up the motivation to take a picture today, but I keep on chugging because I really want this to be a success. I am excited for the end of this week though, because even though there's a type of discipline in setting a theme and going through with it there were so many things I wanted to post that didn't fit my thematic mold. Next week, free-for-all.

Ash 1

2006-01-13T21:59:00.000-05:00

Jan13 2006

She just told me I should name it "Ash only" as I won't be taking any more pictures of her. She doesn't like this shot, but I like the natural gradient of the light. A stunt I achieved by placing my hand a little over my flash because I didn't like how stark the flash was making everything. She doesn't quite understand that this is all a learning experience for me and it's all about trying things and seeing what works and what doesn't. I like this shot enough to post it, but I feel there was more I could have done to it. Today was just a lazy shoot day for me. I hate to fall back on laziness as an excuse but for some reason I just could get myself creatively challenged today.

In other news I had a couple of prints ordered through Ritz online just to see the quality of work they would produce and I'm glad to say I was very impressed with the print quality. Outside the testing of their qualtity though I really ordered an 8x10 print of -Love's me not- so that I could mat and frame it for my cousin. It came out wonderful. I'm actually a little giddy at how good it came out in print and how good it looks in the frame. I love it, and am almost sad to see it go. But I think I'm going to get a print of one of the shots of my husband that I did this week. And I'm done for the day.

Susanne 1

2006-01-12T18:18:00.000-05:00

Jan12 2006

This is my friend Micah's girlfriend. She takes great pictures, and has beautiful hair and great skin. They came over to hang with me today, and I got a bunch of really great shots of them. I hope to take many more as the year goes by, as they're both really photogenic.

Chris 1

2006-01-11T19:04:00.000-05:00

Jan11 2006

I optimistically title this with the number one as I hope that throughout the year my friend Chris will allow me to photo him again sometime. Today was a 'take your camera to work day' and it came with some interesting photos. As this week is my portrait week, I was taking as many pictures as I could that people would let me get away with. This one is one of the true candids out of today, as Chris was definitely more focused on his work than he was on what I was doing. I like the look of intense concentration on his face and I think the soft focus works for this shot.
The lights in the office are crap for photos though. Like seriously we have the crappiest lighting known to man. Or maybe it was just me. One day I'll get Chris in a mock studio of some sort with some different lighting and do a round of shots again. His face has a lot of dramatic potential.

The West 2

2006-01-10T20:45:00.000-05:00

Jan10 2006

Yet another picture of my husband, in my continued attempt to do decent portraits. Today I've managed to (con)vince some folks at work to let me do some headshots of them, so no worries that this will be a week long shrine to my husband. Though that's not necessarily a bad thing, I would like some variety. I really like this shot though. Anyone who knows him, knows that a coffee cup is never very far from his hands.

Reading through this I realized that I was supposed to post a picture of an axe because I promised my friend Chad. That was of course before I embarked on this mini-theme week. Next week though there will be an axe. That is all.

The West 1

2006-01-09T21:22:00.000-05:00

Jan09 2006

So this week I'm going to do a sub-theme in portraits. Which basically means that there'll be a lot of pictures of my husband here as he's the only real willing victim to my photography growing pains. The title is an on going family thing with us, as when we first started dating my sister dubbed him The West and my entire family heard about him through her, and now, years later, my family only knows him as "West" or "The West," and whenever I say his actual name in conversation they all give me this blank look and look at me as if I'm speaking crazy talk.

There are some things I want to experiment with this week, lighting and the such, to get a handle on portraiture that's not just snapshots. I don't expect to master it, but definitely some improvement. So yeah. This week. Portraits. Maybe even a self-one.

Love's me not

2006-01-08T18:27:00.000-05:00

Jan08 2006

I took the camera to work and took about two hundred pictures today, from the most mundane thing on my desk (a post it note reminding me to talk to HR for one of my SP's), to what I thought were some pretty cool things (a painted vase-like thing at the restaurant I went to lunch at), and in the end it was something that I took a picture of at home that I decided to post. There were various things wrong with the picts I took today at work, but mostly it's just none of them really looked good to me. Don't get me wrong, there were some decent pictures there, but in the end I liked this one the best. Go figure.

tomorrow...I post a picture of an axe, because I promised Chad.

Year 2010

2006-01-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

Jan07 2006

So a guy walks into a bar;

"Bartender get me a drink, something that looks furturistic..."
"What is that you're drinking?"
"You'll know in the year 2010.."

I meant to take my camera to work with me today. But that didn't happen, and I found myself throughout the day, going "damn! I should have brought my camera" tons of photo ops, and me with no camera to snap. So starting tomorrow it's going everywhere with me, well as much as is reasonable. Today's shot inspired by some comedy my sister was watching yesterday, wherein the above conversation took place, which I want to say inspired this shot.

Loose Screw

2006-01-06T12:53:00.000-05:00

Jan06 2006

Once again taken with my 50mm f/2.5. It's a nifty little lens and I'm having a lot of fun playing with it and learning it and my limitations. I go back to work tomorrow, and since it's the weekend I'm going to take the camera with me so I can take some shots for this on my lunch. Will be the first time I've really left the house since holidays not counting yesterday's lunch with my friend Simon. I think I'm developing a severe case of agoraphobia again, or I should say that it never really went away, I just got better at handling the more seedy aspects of it. I've got this huge anxiety of going out of the door and going to work tomorrow though.
There's a pasture across from the office and on the weekends there's almost always some cows and horses out. Hopefully that's the case this weekend and I can get a couple of good shots in. More DOF playtime with this shot. Thanks everyone who commented on yesterday's shot. I appreciate it.

Surreal

2006-01-05T11:07:00.000-05:00

Jan05 2006

Title inspired by the Black Eyed Peas song I was listening to as I titled this. Though I think the title is apt for this shot. I've realized that right now I'm really weak with DOF so I'm going out and taking shots that are examples of this and abusing the DOF preview button on the Rebel. This shot taken with my new lens which I am completely in love with. Processing on this shot was minimal, upped the highlights a bit and burned some of the background out to take away from it distracting the focal.

Comments: Thank You

2006-01-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has been commenting so far on my pictures. I really appreciate each of you taking the time to not ony look but to give me some feedback. All of you are a group of people that I feel I can learn something from and I have just by looking at what you post, and any back story associated with your proccesses. As someone new to the art of photography it means a great deal to me to be participating in this PAD project with such good company.

So saying, if anyone of you would ever like to strike up a conversation with me, my e-mail is available through my DPC profile, and I am also on hello (android9), and I would welcome conversation with any one of you.

Here's hoping for a very good year for all of us.

Chloe

2006-01-04T14:10:00.000-05:00

Jan04 2006

I got my rebel back last night. It felt so good to have it back. I've been taking pictures non-stop since. My new lens comes today, and I was going to wait until I got it to take my shot for today, but unfortunately (or not) Brown (UPS for you non-US) doesn't deliver to my neighborhood until around 4pm-ish, and I was out in the yard with my daughter snapping some shots. Since she's constantly in motion there's a lot of blurry or not quite right pictures in the batch of about 40 or so pics. This is one of the better ones, and I just really like this shot of her. It's a send to the grandparents kind of pic.
So this is me, waiting until Brown gets here, and just snapping shots. Enjoy folks.

Shadowed

2006-01-03T12:44:00.000-05:00

Jan03 2006

So another abstract today. On a self critique level I think this shot is almost too busy, there's great texure, but there's also some shadow work going on. It's a bit overexposed, but again taken with my friends p&S that honestly I haven't learned the settings on so I really don't know if there was some way for me to control the exposure on it. Much as I think it's a pretty nifty little p&S every time I use it I just want to go back and re-take my shots with the rebel to see what I can do with it if I were to get just a little bit more control over my settings. That's not to say that the camera is everything...I guess I could have worked harder to block out some of the natural light her but at the same time let's face it, pressing a button in on the camera's sometimes a better option. Overall though I am pleased enough with it...I'll probably be coming back and fiddling with it some more just to see if I can tweak it just a little bit more. I'll most likely retake this shot with the rebel sometime later this week/month/year, just to see what else can come of it. See you all tommorow.

Red v.2

2006-01-02T16:01:00.000-05:00

Jan02 2006: V.2

So after reviewing some feedback and talking it over with a couple of folks I recropped this and am posting it again. Since there's no real protocol for this and I view it as a learning experience on how to better see things I shoot. Minimal though the changes were I do think it makes a better picture without some of the background distractions that were apparent in the first version of this. Thank you Faye Pekas for the feedback I really appreciate all feedback that will help me grow.

Red

2006-01-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

Jan02 2006

For some reason I thought it would be easier today to go out and do the shot, but it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. I did learn a lesson from today however. See I thought that since I had a shot planned in my head on the 31st, and stayed my hand in taking it until the 1st and it turned out just as well as I thought it would, that I could pre-plan my shots. Or at least if I saw something that was worth taking I should stay my hand until I could take it for a purpose as opposed because it was a good shot. I learned that way leads to disappointment. Not all the time mind you. But today the shot I had planned originally just didn't take, and I had to get over it and move on. Once more from my backyard, and once more taken with my friends Canon Powershot s400. It's a nifty little p & s. I'm excited to get my Rebel back today though. She's back from Cali/Washington and we're doing the camera trade off later today. Yes!

Parasite

2006-01-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

Jan01 2006

So I had this moment of complete anxiety today as I went to find something to take a picture of. My brain just went "what if it sucks?" and I all of a sudden didn't want to do this anymore. If there's one thing I can't take it's failure and I think the worst thing would be if I never did this after spending the last few days super pyched for it. So this is literally the first picture I took this year. Lucky draw it came out in focus, and kinda what I envisioned it to be. Truth be told I've had this shot in my head since I was outside around dusk last night and saw this leaf backlit in my backyard. I'm glad I held out in taking this shot 'til today. I'm very happy with it. And wow where was it when I was contemplating entering the Pattern challenge for DPC? Oh well.

Day one: Mission Complete

Old Man

2005-12-31T18:27:00.000-05:00

Taken the day after thanksgiving at a flea market in St. Pete. Thanks Konador for the edit, as you've definitely enhanced this picture.

Well it's about six hours from kick-off for 2006. The good news is that I've got no apprehension so far that I won't be able to make it through the year. The bad news is that that's about it for now. There are themes and specific things that I'd like to explore and try as the year goes by, and I thought about follwoing a set theme for the year, but in the end I've decided to wing it. That's not to say I won't have thematic weeks/months/days whatever strikes me. It's just saying that right now there's no structure. Which is ok.

Next up? 2006. Hope everyone has a happy and safe new years.

Pix

The West

2005-12-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

One of the first pictures taken of my husband when I purchased my Rebel XT. Caught him off guard and he was trying to duck away from me. Lit with my bedside lamp.

I'm dead excited. I just puchaged this lens from B&H. I can now tick off the macro lens off my list of things to purchase this year for my camera. I wanted to add a high end printer to the list of things I want to get, but since I'm aiming for the end of the year next year for that purchase I guess it really shouldn't matter.

I miss my camera. I'm never loaning it out again. It's odd that for something I've had in my possession for so little time, I'm incredibly attached to it.

Pix

Year Goals

2005-12-26T20:20:00.000-05:00

So since I find myself very excited for the upcoming year, photographically speaking, I'm going to post my photo goals for the year, and hopefully I'll be able to achieve even the most minor one, whichever that is.

Take 12 great shots- since I'm doing the PAD I hope that at some point in the updates there will be at least one shot a month I can be justifiably proud of. In the sense that not only do I think it's a great shot but others as well. Doesn't have to be one a month but 12 is my magic number.
Become more proficient with my camera, 'cause you know I've only had it for a month, and there's a learning curve, considering my extreme novice ability right now. There are shots I've taken that I like, but I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing, and of course as I've never done it before that's to be expected...I guess this is what comes from being an overachiever for most your life.
Get a macro lens, and a tele-photo lens for my camera.
Set-up a mini-studio somewhere in my house.
Participate in some DPC challenges, and improve each time.

That's it for now. I'm sure there'll be more, and I'll try to update appropiately as the urge strikes but right now this time next year I want to look back on this post and say "yeah...I made my goals." Here's to 2006 being a very good year. At least photographically speaking.

2006

Test Run from Hello

2005-12-26T15:13:00.000-05:00

Taken in Jan 05. Not fully in focus, and taken with my very crappy P&S but I like the atmosphere and the mood.

Pix

Introduction 2006 Photo-a-day setup.

2005-12-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

Test post for now... this will be the site of my 2006 Photo-a-day blog. I hope to have great success with this, and to build my skill as the year goes by. First photo will be taken with my point and shoot camera though, as my rebel is on loan to a good friend for the time being.