Low Key

and so I'm back, unable to change my hosting domain or blog accounts yet. Hmmm, grrr
today's challenge is Low Key


I was enjoying the sunshine today so I took a walk in my yard.

and the sun does shine in N.W. Indiana, sometimes

Thorns


Reaching

Landscape photography . . .

One of my goals for 2011 was to join a photography group. I've accomplished that already. Actually I signed up for two photography groups. One of them is informal. Just getting together for meetups and such. The other is a bit more structured and is based on learning, sharing, participating and showing your work, as in contest(sigh). This is all part of the plan of continuing my photography education and growth.
Yesterday was our first meet-up. We got together in the state of Michigan. It was really cold! We had 9 (total) dedicated photographers who withstood the elements. We spent in excess of 4 hours walking and taking pictures. We walked in town and then went into a restaurant to warm up. Then we went to the lake/beach, then we went to a carousel house. It was so much fun meeting new photographer and making some new friends. I look forward to our next outing.



Pier Workers
please note that they are walking on ice. The Pier was completely frozen over with the waves still splashing over. I was walking on ice but it was not that narrow.








I haven't found a niche in landscape photography yet. I haven't studied it enough to figure out how to make them interesting, now give me a person and I've got that!
The Copper man. Is he real or not?


Read: 11 Surefire Landscapte Photography Tips

Images Viewed: AutoMatt

Helga Kvam

D-365 The end of a 2 year project

I am relieved and yet I have so many unanswered issues. I had planned on presenting my new blog and website today. That hasn't happened. I don't like change and although I've been unhappy, on a business stand point, with my website and my blog I've dragged my feet. Dreading making the wrong choice. I have switched over to Smugmug for my Photography Website but it won't be operational until the end of the month. Since I don't have that up and running I have a little more time on deciding what blog to use. It's between Wordpress and Typepad. I've heard positives and negatives about both. So, for the rest of this month, I'll be on this blog. I'll keep you posted.

I am not committing to doing another 365 day project, but I will probably post frequently. Scott Bourne says we should shoot every day, maybe even several times a day. It's the only way to be a better photographer. I intend on continuing the tradition.

Although this is my second year posting an image a day, the last year I've seen the largest learning curve. I've improved immensely and I attribute that to Tasra Mars Blog/Challenge.This was my article in September 2010

It all started about 3 years ago when I wanted a nice camera to take “better” pictures for my scrapbooking hobby, so my husband gave me a Nikon D-80 for Christmas. I shot in Auto Mode for the first year. One year later, I purchased a used Nikon D-300. I started a picture a day project/blog about a year and a half ago, with a group of photographers of all skill levels.
For the first year, I literally just took pictures. I had no direction, no guide and no plan. Pictures of everything and anything would make an appearance in my blog, once I even included my laundry. Most of these images were not very creative, just point and shoot, but I worked on learning something about photography every day.

On February 14, 2010 I came across Tasra Mar’s Blog in which she says that our photography will improve by 300% if we:

1.Take at least one picture a day.
2.Read at least 1 page in the camera manual
3.View other professional images every day.
That day I signed on – I took the challenge. Six and a half months later I have completely read the users manual for the D-300 and I have followed her recommendation to become a better photographer. I have also taken on a daily challenge (The Daily Shoot) in which they give you a guide line for your picture of the day. My learning curve has tripled in the last six months.

These are a few of the things I’ve learned in my photographic journey:

■We all need a little help along the way and it’s o.k. to ask when you are stuck, there are people willing to help.
■Challenges are good for growth, it makes you think outside of the box.
■I can study other people’s work, outside of a classroom setting, and find out what it is I like about it, then “lift” my own style and include what I have learned from it in my own work.
■The camera is only as good as the person holding it.
■It helps me grow faster when I share what I’ve learned.
■I have to have tough skin, if I want to continue on this journey.
■It will all pay off in the end…
I’m reading the book Vision Mongers by David duChemin and he puts into words what it feels like in my life every day.

It’s the calling, the passion, the vision. It makes me pick up my camera every single day, sometimes several times a day. It makes me look at objects/people and wonder how I can shoot it creatively. I do it because I cannot “not” do it. It may not always be my best but it’s my best for that day.

So I will continue to pick up the camera every single day, I will continue to take pictures because I cannot “not” do it. I no longer shoot in Auto mode and I see the world in a “different” light. I see colors, shapes, light and shadows. I see details. I have a greater appreciation for the world around me. I have found my passion and my drive.

I don't think I know how "not to take a picture" everyday.
My grandiose idea for my 365th post (2010) was a sunrise. What can be better than that on 1/01/11? We went to the freezing beach at 6:00 am, on our day off, and there was not sunrises to be had.



above the moon - it could be Venus. I thought it was a star but further research said that it was Venus. Who am I to argue.

I've been long winded today - so obviously not a goodbye - at least not yet.

D-361 Just keep shooting

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown


Yesterday's post were not exactly up to par so today, still working on something different, I have a winter path.

#ds408 Illustrate coldness in a photograph today

D-360 Just don't give up . . .

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

5 Day count down. What will I do? It's always hard committing to do something. My fear? That I will run out of steam by the time winter rolls around again. I am, however working out a plan and once I commit it to the cyber world, I'll have to stick it out.

I am so proud of all of my 365 project friends who have stuck this project out. It has not been an easy road, at least not for me. Today is one of those days where I could just say forget it, but no, I'm committed.

I thought today's challenge was food photography so that's what I did. Here's lunch
Curried beef chow fun. We took a little trip to China Town. Food photography is not my "thing." I'm not even sure how to make food look good, but I gave it a try.






After Nikhil's suggestion I went back and tried this image in black and white. I still don't care for it but it was worth a try.

Yeah I still don't think food photography is my thing.

Article read: How to Use Your Camera Flash at Night

Images Viewed: Dainel J. Pesta

D-359 Where to find inspiration

Here are a few tips to re-ignite your creativity, these tips always help me.
Take a vacation, LOL, o.k. if you can't do that then maybe you can . . .

-take a walk with camera in tow
- try something different, try shooting at a different angle,definitely try a new technique,something different to you.
- join a challenge
- take a picture then say to yourself, "how can I take it different" walk around your subject and try different angles.
- duplicate an image you love
- look at one of your images that didn't work and redo it.
- look at fashion magazines, travel magazines. Whatever genre you are interested in has magazines.
- take pictures of the details and the details only (get close and personal)
- take a picture of someone/something you love.
- try it in black and white
- take a photography class, if that not feasible try a photography book.
- let your friends inspire you . . .

I've been inspired to try some night time photography by Jo Garret at "Sometime between Dusk and Dawn " her whole 365photography project has been night photography
and Terry at "It's a GreytDay for a Photo" who has been cranking out beautiful night time images. I asked David if we could take a drive to the city, which is about a 30 minute drive for us and he was willing. So here is Chicago's (Illinois) famous skyline. Chicago is a beautiful city. I shot this from the planetarium across Lake Michigan. The sky had a strange color tint, like more snow is heading our way!
dailyshoot Daily Shoot
#ds406 What fuels your creative process? Illustrate it in a photo today.

Chicago, Illinois - Skyline on 12/26/10 15 degrees Fahrenheit, partly cloudy. Definitely a winter night at the Windy City.
Just amazing - the city never sleeps!


These were edited in Topaz.

There are a few more from this outing if you are interested in my Flickr Account.

I was asked how I set up yesterdays image. The Christmas tree. I initially wanted to try taking a pictue of the whole tree, like Elli did here, A Scrivnerburg 365
but I did not like the cluttered look of our CD Case behind the tree, so I had to find a different angle. Since I had to use a tri-pod, and since my poor tripod is like 50 years old, it won't hold my heavy lenses so I picked the 50mm which is nice and small/light. Put my camera on a tripod and focused on a closeup of the tree. I allowed some of the lights from the background to flow in.
settings were ISO 200, F/11.0, shutter speed of 2.5 seconds.
I had lights on the mantel, about 10 feet from the tree.
I just had to move around until I found a spot I liked.

Well, 6 more days to go for me on this project. I hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as I have.

A great big thanks to Elli for featuring me on her blog and for her continued friendship for the past couple of years. Thank you my friend.

Reading Typepad Vs Wordpress
Jeff Korhan

D-352 Falls of Ohio (Kentucky) State Park

Yes it's called Falls of Ohio State Park and it's located in the Indiana/Kentucky borders. I don't know why, just is. LOL
We stopped there, even in the frigid cold, to see the falls.



We had a nice relaxing weekend with my daughters (yes 2 of them) and granddaughter. Now we are back in the comfort of our home.

Images viewed: Craig Wetherby

D350 -351 Ice Magical lights

We took a quick trip to Kentucky to visit my daughter for the weekend. We also took Isabella down there to visit with her mom.
Yesterdays Project 365 Facebook was "weather" we took a late night walk and I was amazed that everything was covered in ice and with the little available light, it lit the ice up magically.
The branches look like they have lights and the grass looks like diamonds.

D-340 & 341 Good enough

This week has been hard to keep up with my daily posting. I continue taking pictures every day it's just the computer time I'm having a hard time fitting in. My son moved back to the area and he's been coming by to spend time with us. There is also the Holiday thing going on added to my job. So I'm a little crunched for time. These are not my best work by they are good enough and that's just going to have to do for now.




Macro shot:


Images viewed:Hard to believe this kid is only 20! What an amazing photographer and person. Joey L

338-339 Depth of Field and Shadows

Internet issues have kept me away.

Yesterday's picture: The daily shoot #ds385 Illustrate or show depth of one kind or another in a photograph today.

Target Practice


Todays challenge: #ds386 Make a photograph today with strong direct light that casts crisp dark shadows.

It's my daughters snowman
light/shadow created by a flash light.
Punk Snowman


a couple extra from yesterday

D-337 Abandoned

City Methodist Church was shut down in the 70's due to a lack of attendance. There have been several fires in this structure but the building still stands. This structure stands 9 stories tall, The Church made unique use of commercial and office space, classrooms, meeting rooms, an auditorium and a large sanctuary. Storefronts were incorporated into the building. The main goal of this church was to help people in the community.

The church was built at a cost of more than $1 million by the Rev. William G. Seaman in 1926, built in English Gothic Style.
This information came from this site: Historic Buildings of Northwest Indiana

I will be uploading more images from this outing tomorrow.

This is my daughters best friend Alexis, she's an aspiring photographer/graphic designer. She is currently in college in Ohio. She has a great eye, I would say she's already a very good photographer. She's visiting for the holiday and we took her with us.

Yes it is snowing and yes it did get cold

there are more on my Flickr

Thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts on the 365 Day project. I appreciate your comments.

D-331 Meet Capone

My oldest son who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 4 years after high school then moved to California for a couple of years, has recently moved back to the area. With him he brought his small pony, I mean large Dog. LOL

Meet Capone . . . what a sweet dog!





because of his brindle markings/color he blended in with the fallen leaves and fall ground, it was a little difficult at first. He's a pit mix with boxer, we believe. He was adopted from the humane society. My son loves him so much and the feeling is mutual.

Images viewed: Should have read this before the shoot Weekly Photography Tips

D-324 Water & Oil equal art

The daily shoot:
Daily Shoot 371
Find or make a reflection in a window today and shoot through it to create a layered composition.

I guess I didn't really follow the rules because it's not shot through a window but it is shot through a glass. I got the idea from Alison M Photography.




and during the experiment this abstract came to life




You can read the how to here E-zine

Images Viewed: Alison M

D-313 Back to Reality

Got in really late last night, layovers and such, and on my way to work,
just wanted to share a quick "Hello, I've missed you all!"
and this image was taken from the plane as we were departing, 50mm, Nikon D-700. I will update the blog more later. It was a great vacation but as always, it's nice to be home.

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

D-307 Letting go of perfectionism

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. ~Harriet Braiker

Nikhil suggested I read Cheryl Jacob Nicolai's blog, and although the readers of this blog are probably tired of me mentioning Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai, she has brought a breathe of fresh air into my creative photographic life. If my sole purpose was to read her blog and get it out of the way and look at her pictures I could have had that done in 2 days. I have taken the activity of reading her blog like an assignment. I want to read and reread them until I not only understand them in my head but also with my heart.

The messages are not earth shattering or "breaking the atom" in photographic terms. The messages are good old fashioned, down to earth basics, we, as creatives tend to forget about while learning all the technical stuff and the rules of photography. I mean messages like "In your quest to create the best images you can, don't forget that sometimes it's the snapshots that mean the most" and one of my favorites "Don't worry that you aren't creative enough. Express yourself deeply and allow your work to be what it is."

There are so many many more . . .

She made me step back and consider why I started this photographic journey. Remember why you started?
I started because I wanted to take better pictures of my family and for my family - better pictures for my scrapbooks. That's all I wanted. I wanted to capture my family, interacting, loving, playing and living our not so perfect life.

So, what happens now? I take pictures of my family and if they are not "technically correct" I discard them. I dare not share them with anyone.

Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai made me remember a photo shoot I did of my oldest daughter with her daughter Isabella in September 9, 2010. After the photo shoot I picked my 4 favorite images and I was done with the rest of the images. I was actually disappointed that Isabella was not cooperating with us and I decided not to edit these images. Last night I wanted to revisit that set of images and behold - the magic of what is the relationship that my daughter has with her child. (for those of you who do not know, my daughter is in the army and was activated several states away - these visits are precious). I stayed up until 3 AM playing with these pictures and time just stood still.

The ones that almost got away - I am absolutely in love with these pictures now
I converted to black and white and added some noise to a few of them.

These almost got deleted







You can visit my Flickr account for the whole set

So no new pictures taken today just edited today.
Thank you all for visiting and commenting on my blog, I look forward to your comments, suggestions and friendship.

D-300 wooohooo day 300!

69 days more to go . . .

Even though we've had severe "wind storms" I want to celebrate this wonderful fall weather. I love all of the colors of fall on the trees and I was afraid after today all of the leaves would fall because of the wind and the dropping temperatures.


Who says you cannot take pictures in full sun or in the direction of the sun?

I don't usually use extreme actions on my images (especially portraits)but sometimes, just sometimes it works.
This is another freebie from Coffeeshop called Orton


Today’s Daily Shoot assignment is:
Make a photograph today where vertical elements or lines dominate the scene.
Get out there, take a photograph, upload it, and tweet a link to @dailyshoot with the hashtag: #ds345

I ran Coffeeshops Moody pop and Orton on this one. It seems to fit the Halloween Theme.

D 297 - 299 It's another catch up day

My back pain had me laying down for almost 3 days. It's still sore but much much better. I'm moving around a lot better too. The things we take for granted - like standing upright without pain. I'm doing so much better though. Thanks for your thoughts.

Took a quick picture of David as he cleaned the gutters this weekend. Yes, I managed to go outside for a quick shot.


Moody Pumpkin
The weather has been unseasonable warm around here. The carved pumpkins didn't last too long but this one seems to have more personality. LOL
I used CoffeeShop Moody Pop. I think it's appropriate.



Today’s Daily Shoot assignment is:
Make a high-contrast photograph today. Keep in mind that color contrast can be as effective as black and white.
Get out there, take a photograph, upload it, and tweet a link to @dailyshoot with the hashtag: #ds344


These are sitting on the window sill for halloween. I needed a quick shot.
I used CoffeeShop moody pop - I think it worked well.
Still reading Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai

D 293 Indie & Trumpet flowers

Sometimes it's a good idea to carry your camera with you because you never know when an improptu photoshoot will inspire you.

My friend invited my to her house at lunch time today so that I can see her "blooming tree" She doesn't know what it's called. I say Trumpet Flower Tree - LOL
A weird time for a tree to bloom - but they are beautiful.


and my friends baby, Indie, who is normally very shy, came out to visit.

I'm not normally a cat person but Indie was cute.

Also sitting in her garden was this fellow.