Falling Behind

For my birthday, Joe got me a book on photography. It's a pragmatic book with a guide to the automated settings on most cameras as well as more detailed explanations on how to play with settings and get creative. I've spent the better part of this week trying to figure some of this stuff out. I don't always love the results that I get from the automated settings, but it's certainly interesting reading. I am glad to understand more about what the settings are meant to do and then try to figure how to get the photo exactly as I want it.

I will be going away for the next five days and may not have an opportunity to visit or post, but I hope to do so soon after my return. All the best to all of you!

029:365: Daphne

030:365: The Rails

031:365: Dark Lit

032:365: Hurdles*

*Taken in colour, altered to black & white with Photoshop.

Birthday Lilies

028:365: Day For Night

Time Away

023:365: Vice or Fare is Foul

024:365: More Than Mints

025:365: The Castle Door

We were away at a wedding for the weekend. One of the best weddings I've ever attended. It was the marriage of a good friend of Joe's, a musician, and his partner, who is a dancer. I love this photo because it captures so much about this couple. The fabulous attire, designed especially for them, her incredibly strong calf muscle and the bandages on her ankles (I'm assuming they are new shoes), his trademark hat. It's blurry, but it is still the best photo of the day.

026:365: WOW*

027:365: Cabin Fever

I have to admit, I cheated. Photos 25 and 26 were taken on the same day. The drive home did not offer many opportunities for photography and after two sleepless nights (despite the apparent serenity of Photo 24, babies do not take well to hotel rooms), I have to admit it wasn't top of my mind.

Does Not Support Flash

I never use a flash. Which means I never get photos of all the bush parties I attend. Such a shame, really.

But seriously, every time I've tried to use a flash the photo sucks. People look washed out, or I've drawn attention to something in the foreground of the shot instead of what I focused on. So tonight I decided to do a little experimenting.

I took almost a 100 photos of this damn thing, trying to capture it the way that I was seeing it. The neighbours probably think we're having a dance party on our deck. It would be kind of a sad dance party, as it's a small deck. Sort of like most of the bush parties I have attended.

I wasn't entirely successful (there are some artifacts from the flash close to the edges of the toy), but it was an interesting learning experience. I feel like my camera and I have gotten to know each other a little better...(alright, enough with the party references, already, show the damn photo).

Here it is, in all it's glory (rather a boring photo, actually):

022:365: With Apologies to Buckminster Fuller

Escape

021:365: Escape

Out for beer with friends this evening. Just me, myself and I. This is the light fixture on the patio.

It's All for Naught

020:365: Naughty Naughty*

*Taken in colour and adjusted to black & white.

Fire in the Arcade!

018:365: Babies' First Rock Concert

019:365: Treasure Trove

Working It Out

So, I told myself that when it came down to two photos in a single day, I would choose the one that best represented what we were doing that day. Yesterday we were blueberry picking and I captured my eldest through the bushes. I love the photo, but I also really loved a photo I took on the farm of old metal parts that were rusting in an old cart. I want to post it, but I've cheated too many times already, posting photos that are not photos of the day...so, here posterity wins out over art.

016:365: Through the Looking Glass

*****************************

That said, here I am posting multiple versions of a single photo. As I said in my previous post, I'm really working on getting the shot right from the start, rather than using Photoshop to clear up my blunders. Here's an example, though, of the difference that is made. We were out walking today and it was a sunny day, so I and the stroller sought refuge in the shade while Joe picked up a coffee. Unfortunately, the shade also covered the subject of my photo. It's much nicer once it's fixed up. I couldn't stop there, so I made it black & white as well.

017:365: Someone's At the Gate

P.S. For those of you who asked about white balance: I have a digital SLR camera, a Canon Rebel. You can set white balance for different situations, for example, full sun, shade, cloudy days, fluorescent lighting, etc. My layman's understanding of it is that it "tells" the camera what to consider white. In my last post, I had accidentally set the WB to shade when I was actually in a room under fluorescent lights. That made everything in the photo appear much more blue. I'm thinking of getting a little pocket guide to this stuff to help me figure out the day to day stuff.

Tomorrow's challenge: I am not allowed to take my SLR camera to the concert I'm attending. Point-and-shoot cameras only. We'll see how I can apply what I've learned so far with my old point-and-shoot.

Witches' Brew

I decided that one of my goals for this project is to understand my camera and its functions well enough to take a good photo right off. I often rely on Photoshop to fix the light and colour in my photographs, and I'd like to rely on it less. Today's photo of the day was taken on the wrong white balance setting, but I like the way the photo turned out, nonetheless. I'm hoping you'll also feel it fits the prompt for this week: BOLD.

015:365: Witches' Brew

Musing

So, Sue asked whether or not we choose the best photos of the day or the photos that best represent our day. Yesterday I definitely opted for the photo that represented our day. I was sitting on the living room floor, watching the endless, jerking dance of my two month-old twins, and musing about the litany of questions our twins inspire. It always starts with, "Oh my god! Are they twins?" The next question is usually about their sexes and whether they are identical or not. It amazes me the number of people who don't realise that boy-girl twins cannot be identical. And then I was struck by their belly-buttons. They were made in exactly the same way, but are totally different. I wanted to capture that moment of realisation for me...

But, I digress. In truth, I barely looked at the other photos of the day because, frankly, it wasn't a day I'm particularly proud of. The best photo of the day is the one below, taken at the mall. Hardly a moment worthy of preservation. Still, I offer it to you today, to keep myself honest...and because I nearly cheated and posted it as today's photo when I saw it today.


Both yesterday and today I took some shots of a morning glory which is part of our little garden on our deck. Yesterday's shot comes first, and today's shot is my photo of the day. What surprised me (I'm not much of a gardener) was how different the flower looked on the different days. I would love to know what determines how the flower closes on any given day.

014:365: Morning Glory's Gone to Bed

Really?

013:365: Twins?

Scrub

012:365: Self-Portrait 02

Tinkering

After a busy few days, we've decided to spend a day at home. Our eldest is setting up for a dance party in the living room, and had stacked these Tinkertoy "suns" in preparation for decorating the dance hall. Not even children's toys are safe from Project 365.

011:365: Tinkering

Three Days' Grace

008:365: Fun with Projectors

009:365: Day Trip

010:365: Friday Morning Brunch

Decisions, Decisions

A long walk today took us past many of the hidden treasures of the concrete jungle. I've never had a great eye for shooting architecture or the urban landscape in general. I find it easy to see beauty in the natural, but am less quick to recognise the beauty of man-made objects. So I decided to challenge myself. The results were less than inspiring.


I like the colours, but not the composition or the lighting of this photo. I have a feeling that a better photographer than I could have made something magical with this subject.


This is Joe's pick for my photo of the day. I like the lines in the photo and the way the focal point is in the centre of the photo; both the foreground and the background are out of focus. I especially like that the table legs are in focus underneath the out-of-focus rail in the foreground, but I feel like it's lacking some...oomph.


I like it better in black and white, though.

007:365: Round The Clock

So I settled on this one as my photo of the day. I like the heft of the Diebold lock, and the rust in the words at the top of the photo. I like the angle at which I took the photo but I do wish that I had a lens that enabled me to take that particular shot with all of the words in focus. Does that mean it needs a longer focal length? It's been a long time since first year Physics...

Red Hot

006:365: Homegrown

This was the second ripe tomato from the tomato plant which is part of the deck-level garden that my eldest daughter and her grandmother started in the week after our twins were born. Grandma rightly thought that my daughter might need something for which she felt particularly responsible.

This photo is my photo of the day, but it also serves as part of a series of photos that said daughter has requested for her room: a series that includes a close-up of a half a red cabbage and rhubarb slices.

Post-Party Play

005:365: Piñata Undone