Pioneer Women's 'Bring On The Eyes' Photoshop Action!

I am so pleased with this action, even in elements, it works like a charm. I recently discovered The Pioneer Woman blog, and am quickly becoming a big fan. Thank you PW for your amazing blog and generous offering of photoshop actions, as well as your easy to follow tutorials.

Today

Today, I will take out my camera and shoot something! I don't know what yet, but, I will find it. You see, I was supposed to do some band portraits for my husbands friend, but they have decided to have another photographer (not really a photographer, more like girl with camera, if I understand correctly) there doing a shoot at the same time I would be. That makes me uncomfortable for a couple reasons. First, I am new at this, and the stress of doing the shoot for someone, even if its practice, is immense. Even though they know I am a photography student, I imagine they have some expectations and that is fine. I need time and the ability to feel comfortable in this environment of photographer and client. Second, In my limited experience, to many photographers in the studio is a lot like too many chefs in the kitchen. Neither of us would get the clients full attention, there would be additional and unnecessary distractions, contradictory direction. Which one of us do they take that direction from? One of us would be rushed, our creativity stifled, with the sense that the other is waiting on us~watching over our shoulders. I don't know if this situation is normal? And perhaps it is something I should get accustomed to. I am conflicted, should I just make the best of it and do the session, or wait and see if they want to re-schedule for another day. Either way, I will be putting my Canon to use.

Just Because

A pic of the little monster, errr, I mean girl. Why? Well, because, its my blog and I do what I want! And, I haven't posted in a few days, (I really need to get in the habit of getting my camera out every day), and I feel like I should post something..

Flash-less Water Drop Capture: Success!

Here it it, my submission for unit one~Motion

And a Pic of the set up that made this image without a flash possible

Water Drop

I have seen peoples very cool water drop photos and wanted to give it a try. Last night I placed a hand towel in my sink and a pyrex pan on top of that. Turned the faucet on to drip and used a lamp for lighting as well as my flash. I used a zoom lens set to 200mm @ f/32 and 1/200 sec. I am not exactly happy with the outcome.

So, frustrated and concerned about my cameras ability to focus, I vowed to set up again this morning. I filled a ziplock bag half way with water, pricked one corner, tied a ribbon around the top and looped the other end around the little know on my piano. With the bag suspended I placed the pyrex pan under it, with a green piece of construction paper behind the dish, and a blue piece underneath. Set a reflector on camera right and window light camera left. I still had to use my flash, its cloudy today, and my 18-55mm lens. Here is the result. f/22 @ 1/100 sec and 55mm focal length.

The quality is greatly improved, much clearer image. I am still waiting for the sun to come out so I can avoid the flash, and capture a image I can use for my Unit One Assignment, keep your fingers crossed x

Fooling Around with Magnifying Filters

Just for fun, these are my Daughters 'Mini LaLaLoopsy' dolls, they fit in the palm of your hand. I am having a problem with focus, not sure if its my eyes or my camera, so I figured I would get in really close.

Found: Lost Pictures of New York Blizzard

Some People are pretty amazing. Its things like this that touch my heart and give me hope that this world is not doomed to a breed of jerks who don't seem to care about anyone but themselves..This effort to find the owners of the film may seem minuscule in the great scheme of things, but add all these 'small' kind acts together and see what we get.

New NYIP Student

My sister, my friend and once again, my study partner. Welcome to NYIP Robbie <3 Just think, no papers to write, no speeches to give, no math exams, no biology labs, no freezing classrooms, no falling asleep during super awesome slide shows, no trekking through three levels of outside parking up hill to the Modoc or Ochoco building with 50 lbs of text and 30 seconds till class. Yeah, it feels good to be done and moving forward.. This should be fun.

This Weeks P52 Theme

Bokeh, yeah, I had to Google it too. So, what is Bokeh? Well, according to SLR Photography Guide, Bokeh "refers to how your camera lens renders the light that is seen within the blurred parts of the image. Sometimes this can be soft or harsh circular shapes, or look like hexagons, depending on your lens design and aperture settings." But what I have learned is that you can make the shape of the reflected lights into stars, hearts, crosses and more, by creating a paper cover for your lens. More research is needed for me to figure out exactly how to achieve this. I am off and will be back with results, whether good or bad...

Already Off Track

Well, here it is, my first post and already I'm off track. No project 52 image here....yet. But it feels funny to have this blog set up and nothing on it. So my first pic will not be for P52, it will be a recent portrait I took of my daughter. Using a white reflector, a sheet, and a flash.