D-363 Shoot like the Masters?

#ds410 The rule of thirds is a time-honored composition guideline. Put it to use today in a photo.

Ever wonder how the masters did their amazing photography before DSLR's? How they memorized their F-stops, ISO's and Shutter speeds without the convenience of checking their screens? I do, I've tried taking images with this camera and it's just so frustrating not knowing if I've nailed the exposure and focus. I'm grateful for DSLR's but I also wonder if I've lost the opportunity to "see" without the instant gratification of "seeing" right away.

David got this camera in the early 1980's. He learned about photography in those early years. He developed a knack for looking in an area and just knowing what numbers were going to work with the exposure he needed. I've tried to play with this camera, but film photography is a lot different than what I'm used to right now.
another boring High Key shot in the "home made" studio.

D-184 Theme Thursday

Today is "Theme Thursday at Tasra Mar"
the theme is Heat/Energy.
I don't think this is what she had in mind but I took a picture of Isabella today to represent my family. It's what gives me the energy to continue doing what I need to day. Especially on weeks like this one - which seem like I'm running on fumes only. All of todays images were taken at the hospital where my father is currently at.



The Daily Shoot:
"Make a photo with the number 4 in it one way or another. Maybe 4 items. Maybe a written number. Maybe more abstract."



This is a catch up from a "Daily Shoot" challenge.
"Find a sign in front of a vista that tells a story. (Don't walk on the grass.) Make a photograph and post it"

I found this set of signs, from a distance, confusing.



Read: Marketing Essentials by Digital ProTalk and Marekting Essentials
Nikon Manual 248-249
A Short Course in Photography

D-166 Happy Father's Day

What a busy but great weekend.
Spent some time with David, my dad and a little time with my father in law (very little), well have to make up for it later. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful men! Hope you guys had a wonderful Father's Day!

Today's challenge on the daily shoot was
"Make a photo that creates depth. Draw the viewer in by choosing an interesting foreground, middle-ground, and background."
for some reason I had a difficult time with this one. I spent a very long time trying to find something. The almost last picture of the day worked for me.



You have the foreground - bushes/leaves
the middle-ground - the dried trees with the birds on them
the background - the building. All in complete focus.
I added a texture and converted to black and white to add to the eeriness of this building. It's a new construction but the old dried trees around it, the swamp and the black birds that surround it sure give it an old feel. The building is still under construction.

Dave and I took a nice long walk in the woods at Lemon Lake and I found these wild berries in there.


Read both in the manual and in my book but I don't have them with me to document the numbers.
Images viewed: cruised on flickr for a bit today.

D-151 Self portrait

Daily shoot challenge #202 "Using contrast in your photography can give you very artistic shots. Make a color photo with high contrast today."

Self portrait with - with high key, contrast and textures all wrapped up in one.
Just playing with Photoshop and learning new techniques. Just for fun.
Would I offer this to a client? probably not but it's fun to play.



I found a tutorial on Twitter, Photoshop tutorials

My Reading corner:
Nikon D-300 User's Manual Pages 163-165
Now reading:
A Short Course in Photography by London & Stone pages 10-18
Images viewed: Mamie007

Interesting business concept/article: Logic+ emotion

D-149 Nostalgic/Time

Today's image ties in two challenges in one. The Daily Shoot challenge is "Think of a favorite childhood sport, game, or activity. Make a nostalgic photo today."
Tasra Mar's Theme Thursday is Time.

Time


It was one of my favorite childhood activities. It gave me freedom, I felt like I could fly and I'd swing so high my swing would jump. It was both liberating and exhilarating. Where has time gone? What can I find now that would give me that same feeling without the motion sickness?


My Reading corner:
Nikon D-300 User's Manual Pages 133-146
Now reading: A Short Course in Photography by London & Stone


Images viewed: One of the blogs I follow is AB, which by the way it totally amazing the photos he takes with his cell phone and he gives you a map of where the actual location is, he linked me to this blog, Photos From Haninge,Sweden. Basically he just takes street photos. Similar to the $2.00 portrait. Those are the images I viewed today. Thanks AB

D-131 Friendship

Friends are the siblings, God never gave us.
Unknown



This is for my friend Flora who is having surgery Monday, May 17, 2010, bright and early. I love you! My thoughts and prayers are with you and don't forget . . .
"Fight Like A Girl!"




I have been blessed in my life with so many wonderful friends. I even have a few cyber friends that I consider true, good friends.
Flora has become more like the sister I never had. In as much as we are the same we are very different. She is my kindred soul. I want her to know how much I admire and respect her. She is one of the most courageous woman I know.

Please keep her in your prayers as today is a big step in her fight with Breast Cancer.

Images viewed: Leah Macdonald

D-127 Dreams . . .

A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep . . . . Walt Disney

What's the burning desire inside of you. What is it that consumes your free time, that gnaws at you. What is it that comes to mind when you are deep asleep? Your dreams. Are you living your dream life? Are you at least working on your dream life? What is your burning desire and what are you doing to nourish that?



Images viewed: Digital Photography by Tom Ang

My reading corner:
Nikon D-300 User's Manual Pages 29-36
Getting Things Done by David Allen Pages 80-85
The Nikon Creative Lighting System by Mike Hagen Pages (none)

. . . and I'm back Days 104 thru Days 112

My surgery went well - I'm still in pain so I can't tell if it was worth it or not yet. Today was my first day of physical therapy. Yeah I'm sore again.

First of all I want to thank you all for your cards, flowers, food and wishes of a quick recovery. Your thoughts mean a lot to me and thank you {hugs}
My friend Elli sent me the most Beautiful bouquet of flowers with a balloon. What a nice surprise and my Friend Flora brought over the most colorful bouquet of flowers I've ever seen and my Mother in law made me the best batch of Perogies ever along with a home made upside down cake plus I got cards and calls too many to mention. Thank you thank you thank you!

The first 2 days I was so out of it I was lucky to take a picture
so I give you Textures: (one of which I already used)
D-104
removed for space reasons
D-105
removed
The bouquet that Elli sent me. Natural light
D-106


D-107
From Elli's bouquet with texture added, natural light

D-108
Flowers from Flora :)

Love this one

D-109


D-110
I used the texture from the first day on this one.

D-111
David set up a hair light for my low light shoots. It gives a nice separation from background when I want it.

and last but not Least:
D-112

I love this one because I was sitting in a lawn chair pretty far from her I used the 70-200mm and I love the bokeh!

D-99 Friday Fun Photo Challenge "Shadow"

Here is Friday's Fun Photo Challenge. I had several ideas but this was the easiest to set up. The Challenge was "Shadows" The only restriction was to be creative and have fun.



Reading: The Nikon Creative Lighting System pages 1-19

Images Viewed: Loren Zimlicka's

D-96 Disappointment & Hope

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” MLK

I have had to really slow down on my marathon training because of pain in my knee. I finally went to the doctor because it was not getting better and we found out today it was due to a "Meniscus Tear" it's nothing major but I need to tend to it immediately other wise it will continue to get worse. So I'm having out patient surgery next Wednesday. That puts my marathon training on the back burner for a while. Thank God it was nothing worse.

Today's image is from the yard again. The weather has been amazing.
This one I call "The Gathering" it reminds me of us and our friends - LOL
"Friendship is one mind in two bodies"


This one I call "Fight Like a Girl"


These were shot with my Macro lens.


Inspiration: Flickr
Pages Read in The Hot Shoe Diaries: 215-218

D-94 Happy Easter to All

We had a great day today, celebrated Easter at my In-Laws house (I love them so much). Most of the family was there and it was really nice. Great food, great company. I'm not feeling my best today but it was nice sharing the day with everyone there.

These are on my In-Laws dinning room table and this one Lily only has petals on the top half not the bottom half. That's just the way it opened.
Layers for fun window light, 50mm


These were given to my Mother in law from my Sister in law. They are beautiful.
Window light, 50mm

added 2 layers of texture for fun.

Here's a picture David took of Isabella while she was egg hunting.


Images Viewed: Sherrie St. Hilaire
Pages Read in The Hot Shoe Diaries, Joe McNally pages 169-189

D-82 The end of the winter Garden

It was a long day and for the first time in a long time I went to bed at 10:30pm That's early for me.
I took the picture yesterday but posted it today.



Images viewed: Pareeerica on flickr

Pages read in the The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes by Joe McNally 64-67

D-54 Architechtual Element - More Textures

Another white sky day and this old church revisited. I think I can go back to this place many, many times and still find something different. To me, white skies equals lots of textures. Especially if the subject is still life.



The textures used today are by the ever talented and ever generous Jerry Jones AKA "Shadowhouse Creations" AKA SkeletalMess" Drop by his blog and leave him some blog love. We could all use a little more of that.

Today's Photographer is Barry Rosenthal. Of Particular interest is the "Lost in Nature" series which I just found today, but it really goes with the photo series I started yesterday.

Book: Pages 13-32 "Exploring the Nikon D300" Just gave a little more detail than the quick tour did. I did learn that I have some control over the on camera flash. I can control some of the brightness. I also learned a different way of formatting the card without having to go into the main menu.

D49 - Happy Chinese New Year

Isabella Made this "Dragon Mask" at Pre-school and she is proud of it. So in honor of the Chinese New Year


Nikon D-300, 50mm lens, F-1.6, aperture mode, window light.
Post processing: Started out with a pre-made storyboard from Coffee Shop
I added the Text and changed the color to grey.
I scanned an old Chinese news paper I've been holding on to for texture.
I overlaid the text over the whole image and erased back off of the images.

I them outlined and feathered in red.

Today's theme is "About Me"

Yes, it's a celery heart - My daughter made me some chicken noodle soup because I'm sick. When she was cleaning up she said "do you want this?" for the compost of coarse. I said yes I want it, for todays picture.

I feel lucky to have come across this lens a couple of years ago. Even though I couldn't appreciate it then, I sure do now.
I used my Nikon's AF Zoom Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5~4.5D IF MACRO wideangle-telephoto zoom lens. Yes Wideangle, Macro and telephoto. More on this lens here
Manual Mode 4.5.

It was rather plain see flicker
So I added a texture by Pareeerica

41 - 42 - 43/365 Update

Yes I have been taking pictures I just hadn't had a chance to post them but here they are:
Wednesday is my Winter Star. Another boring white/grey winter image so again I added some of my favorite textures. I like it.


Thursday I went to a basketball game. I stayed until half time trying to capture a good image of this kid but the lighting was bad and I have not practiced sports photography enough. His mom told me that right after I left he got elbowed in the face and he blacked out with his mouth pouring out blood! They also thought that he fractured his hands from the fall. The good news is that even though he had a huge gaping hole inside of his mouth they were able to stitch him up and his hand were just badly bruised. Back to school the next day.


and Friday's Fun Photo Challenge is "A loved One" even though I have many loved ones in my life - who else would I put here but David.
I mean he drove us to downtown Gary and even took off his jacket in 20 degree weather so that I could complete my challenge. Thanks Babe. He could tell you stories of the places we go and the things that we do just so I can take a picture.
He supports my passion whole hearted.


Rumor has it that this used to be a park with a huge circular fountain. I Have yet to find actual documentation of this place in the archives but it looks like it could have been a great place once upon a time.

33/365 Architechtual Element

All Saints Church is a Cathedral Style. I don't have any of the data that goes with this church but it is the second time I take pictures of it. I love it's Gothic Cathedral Style and I'm pretty sure it's part of the historical society's listing. I'll get back to you on that. What do I do when I get nothing but grey skies? I add texture and color. I'm still learning to blend so they are not perfect but they are pretty dramatic.


This one is also in Hammond but this one is for sale.


This one is just for laughs: Ghetto Hood Prop. Seriously?


After work I ran 4 miles today.

Angel of Mercy

Today's theme is Architecture and while this is not a building it is a monument that I drive by everyday. The skies are still grey around here. I added lots and lots of textures and colors compliments of Shadowhouse Creations




Original image - oh yeah and that is snow.