Photo Info:
Camera: Canon Rebel XSi
Lens: Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 (El Cheapo strikes again.)
Aperture: f/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
Focal length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
No flash, no post processing.
The bowl is from Santorini, the Clementines (by way of my local grocery store) are from Spain. I like the way the fruit seems to be reaching towards the light and away from the shadow.
Neel drew our attention to the sunset last night, and I had to run right out with my camera. This shot is looking back, at the the light reflected in the living room windows of our house. It was an interesting evening, as far as the weather's concerned, in what's been an odd fall. Muggy and stormy last night. Bands of rain would move through, followed by clear starry skies. Sometime around two a.m. we had storms, heavy with lightening and thunder. And here it's nearly Halloween! As I write this morning, it's mostly clear, but wispy gray clouds are scutting across the sky, seeking an escape to somewhere. Should be warm today and downright hot tomorrow.
I'm ready for the real fall. I may have mentioned this before.
That little bug I mentioned last week has turned into a full-on sinus infection, so I'm glad to be working from home today.
Blogging may be light this week as I try to kick this thing, but I'll be back with more pictures of that gorgeous sky.
1. Woodpile, 2. Garden Gate, 3. Cocktail
I printed the champagne bottles, but didn't love it on paper, so out that went as a possibility. The show is on Thursday, so we'll see what happens. I'm not expecting much, but I'd love to raise a little money for the Art Center.
1. Cocktail, 2. Candle, 3. Celebration, 4. Garden Gate
Okay, so here's another batch. I'm leaning toward the woodpile from yesterday too. And maybe this gate. Again, feel free to weigh in. I'll let you know what I decide on Monday. This week has gone by so fast! I can't believe there are only two more until school starts.
So I thought I'd post some of the photos I'm considering for the clothesline art show. These first are nature based, and tomorrow maybe, I'll look at some still lifes.
Woodpile
Hydrangea, Part 1
Hydrangea, Part 2
Spring, Part 1
Spring, Part 2
So, any thoughts? They'll be 8X10, and sold individually, but I'm thinking in sets for some reason. Back later with more, but I need to decide by the end of the week!
Oh dear, so much editing to do. And so many stories to tell. I don't even know where to begin. And my photography teacher has asked for donations for photos to a clothesline art show to raise money for our local contemporary art center, and I'm feeling like none of my stuff is good enough to even consider printing. Sigh. I may throw a couple possibilities up here in the next day or so and see what you think.
I know I told you guys I was taking a Photoshop class. It's fun, but tricky too. It's taking awhile to assimilate all this information, and I don't have much time to practice. Maybe someday. On our second class we made this franken-person, and after that it got really quirky and fun.
In this photo, I leached out all of the color and added back in the green of the cans. I can't remember how.
Same cans, only this time I added a layer on top of them. See if you can guess what it is.
Remember those artichokes Callum and I had for dinner a couple of weeks back? They're there. Under the big blue sky. Yeah, I think this is going to be fun.
It's early yet, still winter, and the color we're seeing tends to be of the human-made variety, not natural in form. Some chairs.
The seat of a swing.
The collar of a good dog.
A faucet, ready for spring watering. Not that we'll need it, it's raining as I type.
And if you know where to look, which Neel did, there's other color there too. Proof that the earth is waking up. I took those pictures over two weeks ago. How much more awake are things now?
My last photography class feels like it was ages ago (don't worry, there's another one coming in April), and I never posted the photos. Our final assignment was to tell a story in pictures or to take a walk around someplace familiar and see it with new eyes. This was oddly difficult for me, especially given the fact that I tend to think in picture-stories for the blog all the time. So on one warm Sunday, our first warm Sunday, Neel, Callum, and I took a walk down to the water, and I took pictures like a madwoman!
It felt like the earth was waking up and the people in it were waking up too. When I came home and downloaded the photos, several themes emerged and I thought I'd take the next few blog posts to explore them. First, let's honor Callum again, how about? Our neighbors have a phenomenal rope swing, and he's on it a lot. We were no sooner out the door than we found people we hadn't seen in ages out in their front yards too. While the grown-ups got what Callum calls "talky," he got his swing on. He'd been planning to skateboard to the water, hence the helmet. This shot is my favorite. Nothing says ten year old boy like the shredded knees of his jeans and that intense look of concentration.
Off comes the helmet, and here's some context with a still-winter bare tree.
Then I got crafty and started to play with my depth of field! For those of you who are wondering how we've made this year difficult for him, it's not what you're thinking. No chaining to the bedpost, no locking in closets! No (gasp) withholding meals! But he has had a trying go of it, and he's handled his own adversity with grace. It's not something we can talk about just yet, but soon. I'll provide the details at a more salutary time.
I took my photography class with my friend Debbie, and she sent me a quick text Saturday night to go out and take some pictures of the moon. I'm so glad she did! We're still mastering those skills, but I don't think I would have attempted this picture before this class.
And now I have an image of this icy winter night.
Like father,
like son.
We worked on still life in class this week. I was really looking forward to it. I feel like I take still life photos all the time, and I really wanted to learn how to actually do it.
We built a light box, well, it was already built, but we learned how to do it. I so want one now. Neel, got any boxes floating around at work?
So we moved things to different places and took pictures of them. The hand up top was in the light box, but this jar was on a black piece of cloth.
This is one of my favorites.
And this too. Cluck, cluck little chicken.
Take something ordinary.
And make it extraordinary.
My friend Debbie, who's taking the class with me, told me I was overthinking it. She was right. It took me forever to figure out what to take a picture of, and I only did this on the day before class. Gulp.
This week we worked on portraiture and lighting. I was dreading the "take pictures of each other" part of class, but it actually turned out to be the most fun. Our homework for this week is to take a self portrait, a portrait of someone else that exhibits their personality, and a third portrait using a shallow depth of field. Excited and scared all at the same time.
Well, this photography class is kicking my butt. Switching my camera to "M" has made my brain go fuzzy and panicky. And I don't even care how ridiculous we all look out there, taking pictures of the grass.
This was the very first picture I took after making the switch. Not reassuring, huh?
But, oh so slowly, I might be figuring things out... just a little. This photo was on our first day too. When we focused (ha! get it?!) on shutter speed and aperture.
I feel a little like I'm back in algebra, where I need to master one skill before moving on to the next...and I still haven't mastered multiplication! For the next class, we worked on Depth of Field...and she made us break out the telephoto! Yikes. So here's an example of a deep (?) Depth of Field. The object up front is blurry, while the branches in back come into focus. Not a successful picture, necessarily, but a successful experiment.
And the way it should be...sharp in front, blurry in back. Now, I'm getting somewhere. Maybe.
(14/30) Friday: New Cookbook.
(15/30) Saturday: Boat drinks.
(16/30): Sunday: Sick kids need ginger ale.
(17/30): Monday: Hydrangeas are almost there.
