copycat

Here are a couple pictures using one of Zeb's techniques from our Creative Camera's class. Actually pretty cool!

Jewelry Photography is Hard

One of my friends is going to open an etsy shop for jewelry.  She had a shop before but stopped making/selling jewelry when she had kids.  Her kids are getting older and easier so she decided to take it up again.  She said the hardest part before, was getting good pictures of her jewelry with her basic point and shoot camera, so she asked if I could help this time around.

Enter, stage right: fearless hobbyist photographer (i.e. me!)

Well, jewelry photography is surprisingly hard.  Funny, because I love me some macro photography!  Namely, it's hard to style the jewelry in an attractive manner (are the beads spread out just so, is the light catching the facets correctly?).  Different tones and different materials (glass, stone, metal) did best under different exposure settings.  How much of the jewelry should be in focus?  Using a tripod with wireless remote, I sometimes couldn't get a good angle, so we had to prop up the jewelry at an incline to compensate.  I used my various macro filters; sometimes my lens was only 4"-6" away from the subject.

Of course, I do love a challenge and solving problems. And using the wireless remote is hella cool.  I felt all sophisticated and stuff. :)

On a side note, I used the "Live View" setting almost exclusively for this shoot -- it was just easier than cozying up to a tripod about 18" off the floor.  Using the Live View entirely drained my fully charged battery in about just two hours.

Here are my favorites from the session:

Toddler Clogs, Pre Felting

These are some slippers that I made for Elise. They are almost complete. All the stitching is done; just have to felt them and then use puffy paint on the soles for a nonslip grip.

I just used P(rogram) mode on the camera and swung the exposure to -2.0 to get the low contrast and softness. Usually I try to shoot in Manual for dailyshoot but I have been out of the loop for awhile.

I had a hard time arranging the slippers in a composition that I liked.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Low contrast in a scene can connote softness, calmness, or mellowness. Make a photo today that has low contrast. #ds369

New Lens

My new lens (35mm f/1.8) has arrived! I fired off a very few test shots yesterday and I like the lens a lot already. I realized, though, that the difference will not be obvious for anyone else. The significant improvement is that a much higher percentage of my indoor shots are now in focus; as such, I have more editorial capability.  Since I rarely post the blurry pictures, the average viewer won't realize that I now have SO many more pictures to choose from to document our memories and tell our stories. Instead of being limited to the one picture out of 10 that happened to be in focus, now I will have actual choices of reasonably crisp shots!

So, here are some samples. The first and third pictures, I would not normally post, but they are illustrative of the average indoor low light photography result with my old lens. The second and fourth pictures are likewise representative of the average indoor low light photography result with my new lens.

Slower zoom lens:

Faster fixed lens ("pop pop" is saving Nolan from a choking hazard here):

Slower zoom lens (this is the blur from normal-not-excessive toddler wiggles):

Faster fixed lens (Elise's cheeks are flushed because she's sick):

Unremarkable photos, for the most part, but trust me -- this is very exciting to me. :) The "slower zoom lens" is still a GREAT lens of course -- just not the best choice for my indoor lowlight photos.

Two Schools of Thought

Fairly soon after I bought my new camera, I started to really understand what it meant to have a "fast prime" lens.  My all-in-one-good-at-everything-great-at-nothing zooms lens covered just about every scenario that I needed, but... was fairly underwhelming at indoor low light photography.  It was acceptable, but not satisfying.  Given that I have a strong distaste for using flash, you might even say it was not acceptable.

I decided a month or two ago that I would get a fixed focal length lens (a fast prime lens excellent at basic low light indoor photography) for my next lens, realizing that once upon a time I thought I would "never" be the type to need/buy more than one lens.  The decision became which one -- the 35mm f/1.8 ($187) or the 50mm f/1.4 ($434)?  After taking my "creative techniques" class last month and chatting with the instructor about my options, and then seeking at least three friends' opinions, I settled on the 35mm lens.

Then the decision became when to order it.  As you can see, I do not do many things impulsively!  At this point there are two schools of thought:
1) order it now, because if you are definitely going to get it, why bother waiting and missing out on all those shots in the meantime?  (assuming you can actually afford it, of course... which is a large part of the leaning towards the 35mm lens)
2) order it later, because the more you can space out these types of purchases, it will eventually save you money.  When you buy something new, the newness/inspiration/fun can last for quite awhile, dampening or delaying your thirst for the next new fun thing.

One of my friends told me recently that I am cheap.  I said no, as my Grandma used to say, there is a big difference between being cheap and being thrifty, and I hope I am thrifty.  If you are cheap, you just don't like to spend your money, period.  If you are thrifty, then you are entirely willing to part with your money, but you have higher standards about when, what, where, etc.  You make your dollar go farther.

So, given I am "thrifty," I decided to wait until the new year to buy my new lens.  I mean really, poor me, with my lovely new DSLR camera, suffering, having to wait a whole 3-4 months to get a new lens.  Cry me a river.

But then.

The days are getting darker.  We're spending more time indoors.  As Nolan is getting older, the kids are more interactive with each other.  Suddenly I feel like I am missing memorable shots.  Not just a shot here and there, but lots and lots of photos.  Elise rolling chocolate chip cookies into balls for the cookie sheet.  Nolan making pancakes.  Both kids trying to build a tower together.  Nolan and Elise waving around their chicken drumsticks... their hands and the food are mere blurs in the pictures.

So:

It arrives on Thursday and even came with a free UV filter!  (Thanks to Amazon Prime shipping, free for two months if you sign up for an amazon.com/mom membership!)

Apple Picking, filtered for photography nuts

In our apple picking adventures last weekend, I was able to get some photography practice in (thanks to Jay for minding both kids while I snapped many a picture!). I couldn't decide if the resulting photoset should go on flickr, picasa, or facebook. I did post a couple individual photos on facebook, but then decided to split the set of 37 final photos between flickr and picasa... with the more family-story-outing oriented shots going to picasa and eventually my personal blog, and the additional gratuitous photography practice shots going to flickr.

As a side note, I used my DSLR for about half the photos -- the half where I was able to stand under a tarp. Once we got outside truly in the rain, then I switched to my point and shoot (Canon SD770) to protect the more expensive dslr.

Here is the flickr album:



Splitting my photos to two sites is not really a good method, as it's not a sustainable approach. I am obviously conflicted as to whether I should upload photos to facebook, flickr, or Picasa. I posed this question as my status on facebook and one of my friends pointed out that it would depend on the usage habits of my intended audience. There's no good answer of how to reconcile these three sites, for me, but that answer at least made some sense. If nothing else, it does add validity to my feeling of being torn between sites.

I get so much feedback on photos that I post to facebook, and after all, a lot of why I like to take photos is because I like to tell stories with them. The comments and response please me, and that comes in spades on facebook.

That said, I want to be respectful of other's newstreams and I don't want to post every piddly photo on facebook. I don't want to spam everyone. So, when I have a real surplus of photos to tell the story of an occasion, I have been turning to Picasa. I get some comments on photos posted to picasa and I like how it integrates so well with google in general.

Flickr is the best site by far in terms of organizing photos and maintaining metadata -- way better than Picasa and facebook. It, however, requires users to login to leave a comment on a photo, and I am so not a fan of that.

Also posted: Apple picking post on my personal blog. Sorry for the redundancy to Christie, Amber, Penny, and anyone else who reads both blogs. :)

Composition and Focal Point (updated)

Some of the simple things I am working on in my pictures, since I have been inspired by my new DSLR, are composition and focal points. I remember Christie and Amber (my amateur-photog-mentors) telling me that I would develop a more refined and pickier eye for this with my new camera, and I inwardly doubted-perhaps-scoffed (sorry, but true). After all, composition and focal point are both things that you can work on with a Point and Shoot camera.  Of course, C&A were ultimately right.  I am much pickier than I used to be, and I can easily foresee that as time marches on, I will be only pickier.

Recently my family went apple picking (more photos to come) and I inadvertently had a very practical, realistic lesson in both composition and focal points. I have always liked to take pictures of signs, so I decided to take a picture of the orchard sign. Point-and-Shoot Rachele woud have swung her camera up, snapped the picture, and that would have been the end of it.

I faced the sign and took this picture:

Of course, my brain had focused on the sign and conveniently filtered out that ugly tarp-tent and the building behind it. Luckily, I reviewed the shot on my camera and was horrified at this outcome. It was such a poor representation of the setting (although the tarp does look a bit like a snow-topped mountain through the cutout). We had spent the last two hours winding our way through gorgeous Columbia Gorge scenery, full of green, yellow, orange, and red colors, and this had not even a brief hint of that.

So, I scampered around in position (it is, by the way, quite overcast and raining at a solid pace during all these photos) to get some foliage in the background, with which to frame the sign. I took this shot:

The power lines are in the frame, but not enough to bother me. Obviously, however, the focus was through the sign cutout and on the trees in the distance. A worthy shot on its own, perhaps with a wider angle, but not what I wanted here.  So, I selected a different focal point on my camera and got this final shot:

Nothing hugely spectacular, but a couple lessons further cemented, and definitely a better result than I would have gotten with my casual nature and and the limited capability of the point-and-shoot.  It's really interesting how your brains filters out backgrounds or fills in cutouts, and then the camera shows you the stark reality of the scene in front of you.  It can take quite a bit of tweaking to present the scene the way you see it in your mind.

Updated:

Amber, who is taking a Photoshop Elements class, sent me a version of my final photo with the power lines removed.  Thanks Amber!

Pink Pearl Apple Pie

I have noticed a predominantly pink theme in my latest photos: the "gleam" of Salmon skin, the overt pink assignment (using the pink lemonade bottle), and then Elise's pink raincoat for the "motion" assignment.  Undeterred, I decided to photograph a pie that I made with "Pink Pearl Apples" from Kiyokawa Orchards, the southernmost farm on the Hood River Fruit Loop.  I made this pie for my Dad's 70th birthday, which was earlier this week.  Food photography is hard.  I'm nowhere near the level of pictures that I see on blogs like smitten kitchen.  One day!  I liked how my photo of the Gravenstein apple pie turned out from a week ago, so I thought I'd try to photograph this pie with its unique red flesh apples

I guess if there is a month to overdose on pink, October -- being breast cancer awareness month -- is probably the best choice.

Raindrops

My two kids found a thin stream of water pouring off the roof on a rainy day at an apple farm. They took turns standing under the stream, and laughing at each other as the water bounced off their heads in crazy directions.

It's rare that my kids are a still photography subject, so there is personal irony for me in this picture (the assignment is to communicate motion, and my kids who are usually always in motion, were actually taking turns standing still... hunh???).

Daily Shoot Assignment: Communicate motion in a still photograph. Blur is one way, but maybe there are others you can find. #ds343

Pink Lemonade

Daily Shoot Assignment: October is breast cancer awareness month. Make a photo of something pink to support the cause. #ds340

Gravenstein Apple Pie Sprinkled with Raw Sugar

Daily Shoot Assignment: Double your art today. Make a photo of something you've created or crafted. #ds339

Salmon Skin

I'm not too happy with this photo, but I figure some practice is better than none.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of an object or surface that has a glint or a sparkle in it today. #ds338

Yellow Peanut Shell Pail

In post processing, I actually decreased the saturation of this photo. I have never done that before but per my "Creative Camera Techniques" class, tried to do something to the opposite of what I usually do. I liked decreasing the saturation because it made the pail feel a little grittier. In this case, taking down the saturation takes a little emphasis off the color and adds a little emphasis to texture and composition.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of a curved line or spherical surface today. #ds337

Second camera class

I took a class with Amber and Christie at Newspace again, this one called "Creative Camera Techniques."  The teacher, Zeb Andrews, has some really freakin' incredible photos, and we got to go through a small number of his pictures to understand his experimental approach.  For the analytical among us (me), he shared some of the settings he used to take various photos, as well.

All of the class material was really interesting but if I am honest with myself, I walked away feeling like only a small part of it was relevant to my ultimate goal of taking better personal photos.  When I thought we'd learn how to photograph in low light, I wasn't really thinking star fields; I was more so thinking of learning tips and tricks for, say, taking pictures inside the low light of my house.

Nonetheless, I think I will use most of the techniques I learned in the class, just perhaps sparingly.  The techniques will make a small percentage of my photos a lot better, whereas I went into the class with the hope that it would make a large percentage of my photos a little better.  The technique that really appealed to me the most was shooting into the sun for some cool flare effects, and I definitely walked away with a better understanding of aperture and overall camera mechanics.  That said, I felt like the section on perspectives was fairly obvious, and the discussion on using light meters was (for me) redundant from a previous class.  It turns out that I don't particularly like intentionally blurred photos (I will still work hard to try to get one as he taught us in class, as I can see it coming in handy in occasional situations - kid sports, probably).  I actually really like the long exposures of night sky for star fields, but only see myself doing that when I happen to pack a tripod on vacations (though I have to say I am churning at the bit to have a vacation so that I can experiment with some cool star trail pictures).

I know I'm forgetting a lot of stuff in the class.  The best part, imho, was just hearing the teacher speak passionately about his photography, which I found infectious.  My top takeaways, I think, are (1) how to make the sun a strong element of the photo, as well as the instructor's perspective of (2) any element that does not strengthen an image actually just makes it weaker.

We went out to take pictures twice during this class, for about 2h of time.  That was fabulous, as we got very little hands-on time for the first class that I took at Newspace.  I carried my water bottle with me for much of our shooting time in this class, however, and that was a bit cumbersome in combination with my 5" zoom lens mounted on my camera.  I got a few shots that I am happy with, however, which you can view on my Flickr account.

three berries

I actually paid some attention to aperture here instead of just swinging it all the way wide to get DoF

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of three items arranged in a composition that pleases you. #ds336

Cathedral Park

I was invited to a photography practice session with Christie and friends today.  We went to Cathedral Park which is at the eastern base of St. John's Bridge, in North Portland.  I gave myself the luxury of putting Nolan in drop-in daycare for the morning (given, Elise was simultaneously in school) so that I could shoot my pictures free and clear.

I'm still learning so much about my camera, but I feel like I'm really starting to get somewhere. I haven't been in the rhythm of routine to do the "Daily Shoot" assignments in awhile, having been on vacation, so it was good to squeeze in some photography practice.

sock monkey boots

Daily Shoot Assignment: Illustrate your local weather today with a photo. Rain or shine. Cloudy or clear. Communicate what it's like to the world #ds289

fence post cap

Daily Shoot Assignment: Illustrate your local weather today with a photo. Rain or shine. Cloudy or clear. Communicate what it's like to the world #ds289

farmer's market salmon

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a photograph of something cold today. Ice cubes, frosty beverages, or the freezer aisle at the grocery store. ds287

plum ginger jam

Daily Shoot Assignment: Use repetition to create an interesting photograph today. Grids, patterns, or a series of lines will all do the trick. ds286

wedges of honey orange melon

In my kitchen, approx 8:30a light. I love the way that the glass bowl looks here.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Make a low key photo today with lots of dark areas. You might need to use exposure compensation to make it work. ds282

veiny flower petals

This flower has (obviously) five petals, and upon closer scrutiny, each petal has five primary veins of color. Nested fives!

This flower was in the shade and with auto wb (which I had set), the white was very blue. I manually tweaked the color quite a bit to make the flower look as I remembered it.

Daily Shoot Assignment: Today's number is 5. Make a photo that illustrates the number in some way, either literally or abstractly. ds281

mirrored reflection, redux

Myself and a crepe customer are reflected in the curve of the pear soda bottle, and our reflection is mirrored on the top half of the same curve. Sky in the background. All of this also appears on the boysenberry soda bottle too, with some blur.

One reason I like this picture is because the glass is a dark brown, unlike many of the other dailyshoot submissions for this assignment.

Make a photograph of something made out of glass. Be sure to go for interesting reflections or highlights. ds280

penguin statue

Bronze? statue of penguin at the Oregon Zoo.

Make a photograph from a high point of view. Get on top of a building, use a ladder, or just look down at a small object. ds279

penguin backpack

cute and creepy at the same time?

"Make a photograph with a shallow depth of field today. Get in close if you need to force it with the lens you have. ds278"

Spider Web

Make a photograph with a shallow depth of field today. Get in close if you need to force it with the lens you have. ds278

Knit Hat

Make a photograph with a shallow depth of field today. Get in close if you need to force it with the lens you have. ds278

Daily Cafe Logo

logo on glass door at the daily cafe

"Make a photograph that features a sign of some sort today. Maybe a stop sign. Maybe an information sign. Or an advert."  ds275