What I’m Thankful for (I’ll keep it simple)

Not only will I keep it simple, I’ll just base it on this photo:

 

First of all, I’m thankful for my husband.  He’s the one who rigged the bird feeders right out side of my office window.  Awesome no?

Second, to the birds that frequent my feeder all day while I’m working.  I just love that they stop by.

Third, for photography in black and white.  Also, color photography.  I also like mixing the two.  Fun, isn’t it?

Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving! (yeah, about a month or so ago say all my Canadian friends!)

A bit of color

We are working with color in my digital photography class.  Here is one picture that I turned in for that assignment:

ISO 400 50mm 0ev f/10 0.8s

I shot this in color.  I was out shooting that particular morning because it had been raining and I was looking to get some water drop photos.  It was a bit of a bust that way, so I thought I would try something different with the photos I did have and the result is what you see above.

I used a tripod, and not a super fast shutter speed.  There was not a whole lot of light out, but I set the white balance to shady, just to warm up the image a bit.

In Aperture I changed the image to black and white.  Then using one of the brushes, I brushed some of the color back in.

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Cheers!

 

Single Fall Leaf

This past week I was working on a color assignment for my digital photography class as well as a natural symmetry themed contest.  This photo fits in both of those categories:

ISO 100 50mm f/2.2 1/160

I tried a bracketed exposure for this shot of -1,0,1 for editing in Photomatix.  Once I had put the photos in Photomatix, I picked a version which I felt was pretty natural looking because part of what I was wanting viewers to see was the way the red was basically imitating the overall shape of the whole leaf.  When I was composing and editing the shot I was trying to blur the background as much as possible.  I liked the green color, but didn’t want any competing detail.

Any thoughts?  feel free to leave them in the comment section.

Cheers!

 

 

Pumpkin times two

This is a photo I took of the pumpkin that my youngest chose to adorn our front step:

ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/5 85s

A lot of personality, kind of like the kid in question.  Anyway, this is an 85 second exposure because it was early in the morning, and this is a bit of a dark corner.  I had the white balance set on cloudy because I was hoping to warm up the photo a bit.  Once it was on my Mac I edited it a bit in Aperture.  Here is the same photo in black and white:

I personally prefer the black and white version but what do you think?  Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Balloons

It has been awhile since I have posted a hot air balloon photo, but I was working on some this weekend:

ISO 640 50mm -0.33ev f/16 1/40

This was taken in the fall at the Forest Park Balloon Festival.  Here is the original photo:

Looks pretty different eh?  In Aperture I created two additional versions of the photo, I lowered the exposure on one, raised it on the other.  Then I took my three photos into Photomatix and put them back together.  I ended up liking one of the “painterly” settings best.

I also took out some stray ropes, boosted the color and sharpened the image.

Cheers!

Introducing Bubbles

Our latest member of the family, Bubbles, is a male beta fish:

ISO 1250 50mm 0ev f/5 1/200

Wow, is he hard to photograph.  There is the glass, the light, his color, movement….  I goggle searched photographing fish just to get a few ideas of how to get a good shot.  We have had Bubbles for a few weeks now and this is the first photo I managed to get that I feel is fairly clear and representative of what he looks like.  Fish photo tips? feel free to leave them in the comments!

Cheers!

Still Life in Odd Color

I took this photo as part of an assignment to create a still life image.

ISO 100 f/5.6 1/100 (-2,-1,0) 50mm

The rocks I used from a children’s game.  I used them because of their slightly odd pastel color.  I bracketed the photo and put it in Photomatix.  I wanted to really give this an odd feel.  It is different, but didn’t really turn out as I thought it would.  Maybe the background is too distracting?

Cheers!

 

Another Walk in the Garden

It is a busy time for bees that live near a pond that I walk by fairly frequently.  Last week I took photos with my iPhone, this time I had my point and shoot camera with me.  It was so bright out that I have done some post-editing with this photo:

ISO 100 f/8 1/320 4.3mm

I will tell you at this point that I had set the ISO to 100 and I underexposed the original image by a whole stop.  It is still a really bright picture.  So, I have applied a Sepia filter, but then toned that down to bring back just a hint of the original color.  Different than what I normally do.  What do you think of the outcome?

Cheers!

A parrot I know

One of these days this parrot is going to squawk, “get the picture right already!”:

ISO 160 f/1.8 1/15 50mm

So, what I have right here is the lens.  I was using a 50mm, and given that the bird is close and has so many lovely colored feathers, I am using that lens to capture those details.

Here is what went wrong.  I was taking a picture of something else with a lot less light, just a minute before, and I forgot to change the f-stop before taking the picture.  The light in this place is crazy, but for this shot, there is no way a 1.8 is necessary or even a good thing.  So, I am letting in light I don’t need and losing depth of field which I do need.

Also, my white balance was set to florescent, but I think I will try tungsten next time, just to see if I prefer it.  It is a bit odd, because usually in this room, florescent works best.  For this parrot, I have tweaked the settings in the post editing process.

So, because I was surprised by this bird, I also didn’t think enough about framing the shot, hence the huge blown out white behind its head, which in some cases might work, but not in this one.

In writing this all out, I am hoping to take the photo differently when I get the chance.  Anything else I should consider? Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

One scene, two photos, you decide

I took these shots the other week and have just put them through some editing:

ISO 100 9.1mm f/4.5 1/640

This shot sort of fits in with the “image” of this business which is a popular drive-up custard place that is going for a bit of the “Route 66” nostalgia.  It also reflects some of the blazing heat of that day.

ISO 100 7.0mm f/4 1/800

Perhaps because it was so hot out, I tried black and white, giving it a moodier and cooler feel.

Both shots were handheld with my point and shoot.

Do you have a preference?

Cheers!