To what extreme's would you go for an image?

Do your families think your strange? Do you lose sleep hunched over your computer post processing and learning/reading photography related things?
Are you aware of the light around you at all times? You may be a little bit obsessed. Not to worry your not alone. There are a bunch of support groups around. This is one of them, Facebook Project 365, project 365 there is alot of support out there, but not to help you quit, only to make you better.

This one was a bit eerie. Night shot - hand held because my tripod broke. It's 15 degrees F out. I almost froze!
This was a little strange. Found it behind a church. We pulled up to take a picture of a window and this was behind the church. No fence, no signs. It felt weird so we left right away.



Lonely & cold - here's another park bench.


I haven't been able to warm up so I'm getting some hot tea! Enjoy your weekend.

D-344 More moody lighting

The daily shoot today: What can make a photograph feel moody to you? Illustrate your answer today.
I believe it's all about the lighting.

Another one lit only by a flashlight. This time I threw a white towel over the flash light.
Never Stray Far away
"..a thousand memories will play
and the sun will rise to greet another day,
somehow this emptiness won't stay,
somehow there's hope not far away"
song by Moya Brennan


Just a couple extras:


Used a flash light to light this one plus available light with with poster board surrounding the shoes.

Used a available light with with poster board surrounding the shoes.

Images viewed: John*Edgar Photographer

D-332 Halo

I'm calling it quits early tonight. I'll catch up on blogs tomorrow.
. . .night zzzzzz

Halo





Images viewed: Sid Black's Flickr

D-330 Point of View

The daily shoot:
#ds377 Go for an unusual point of view and make a photograph that can only be made from that viewpoint.
It really does matter where you are looking from. Sometimes you just have to change your point of view.



Not an unusual POV but her mom is on leave because of the holiday and we celebrated her 4th birthday party today - the look on Isabella's face says it all. She's happy to have her mom home reading her bedtime story.
Had I not changed my POV I would have missed this expression.

D-329 Box with Bokeh in Black & Whtie

The daily shoot -
DS#376 Containers, boxes, and packages. Make a photo with one or more as a subject and illustrate what they mean to you.

Jewelry box with Christmas Tree Bokeh in the background.


I'm glad I had a day off today so that I can spend 12 plus hours cleaning and decorating the house for Christmas :) What a mess.
Everything we tried to do just went wacky. LOL

High ISO (6400) because it's very late at night and I used the Christmas Tree as the background. Converted to Black and white so the the colors won't compete for attention. Too tired to use the off camera flash and the on board flash looked, well, just "flashy."

Images Viewed: David duChemin's portfolio

D-322 TGIF - low key image

The daily shoot and project 365 facebook challenge today are "curves" and low key.
Yesterdays image would have been perfect for today's challenge but oh well . . .

Wikipedia: Low-key lighting (or ambient lighting) is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It attempts to create a chiaroscuro effect. In traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light, and a back light for even illumination. Low-key lighting requires only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.

Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. The relative strength of key-to-fill, known as the lighting ratio, can be measured using a light meter. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio, e.g. 8:1, than high key lighting, which can approach 1:1.

So although most images low key are black and white - they don't have to be.



I got these in the mail today, a gift from Alexis, thank you so much!

That little dino came with it too.
and I used it too

the Nikon is mine.
I was doing the laundry from vacation and Twix wanted to make sure we didn't leave her again - so she jumped in the suit case. This is where I found her this morning.



I'm trying to catch up and go over to my friends blogs. I'll get these soon.
Still reading my camera manual

Have a great weekend.

Viewed images on google low key

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.

Day 200-202

Day 202! I have a feeling it will be down hill from here.

We painted the computer room this weekend so I had no internet access all weekend. Here is my catch up post.

Saturday's daily shoot assignment: Make a photo that uses negative space to good effect. Give your subject room to breathe, and balance it within the frame.


Sunday - Macro Details


The daily shoot "Today’s daily shoot challenge: Today’s theme is the color pink. Find something that’s pink and make a creative photo."


Images Viewed: Breath taking black and white landscape by Dave Hill

Read: Nikon D300 Manual pages 309-321
I've been catching up reading my Rangefinders Magazines

D-167 Mysterious

Today is my 7th wedding anniversary. I want to say "Hi Babe, happy anniversary"
David has been my best friend and my partner in life for the past 11 years. He has stepped up to the plate and has been the most amazing step father, to my kids, anyone can ever wish for. I cannot imagine life without him. He loves to cook and supports my hobbies, habits, career and dreams. I feel complete because of him. Thank you babe.
Oh and thanks for the Anniversary dinner, it was delicious.

This one's for you babe.
THE DAILY SHOOT - #ds218 Leave something out today. Be visually brief. Shoot tight. Make a photo that's direct and to the point.



Nikon D-300, 50 mm, studio
My reading corner:
Nikon D-300 User's Manual Pages 173-177
A short Course in Photography by London/Stone Read perspective and Lens attachments
pgs 44-50

Images Viewed: Yervant