Friday, November 6, 2009

M24 News

As per suggestions I am attempting to reach out beyond google reader and facebook in an attempt to remind people of challenges in an effort to increase participation for posts. I dont want to guilt trip anyone just a friendly suggestion. So i created a mailing list of all the people who are set to contribute. Check your emails and if you dont want to be on the list follow the insturctions there and I will promptly resolve it and send 1 additional email to confirm it.

Scroll down for the challenge!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Challenge: Bright

I was out of ideas so I asked my wonderful wife and she came up with something I dont find synonymous to fall at all. Bright seems like an interesting word to choose with photography and I hope it can push us all in what we think of or how we take pictures! Nothing better than to Bright-en things up a bit!

Lets post by Monday November 9th at 11:59 PST!

Autumn: Wind and leaves

I liked a lot of the photos I took for this challenge, and had a hard time choosing just one. My kind and loving husband didn't like any of them. He actually said this was his least favorite, but it was my most favorite. I was sitting on the couch inside my warm house, watching the wind blow the leaves outside. I grabbed a sweater, some shoes, and my camera, and ventured outside. I took some pictures, but the wind had died down. It was blowing the leaves around, but only close to the ground, which was not obvious enough for a photo. So I scooped some up, threw them into the air above me, and took this picture. I like it because it shows the colors of Autumn, but it also demonstrates wind (even if I faked it). My husband's comment was just that the leaves looked like they were falling vertically, not blowing aimlessly.

You can see the rest of my photos here, though my husband said "they're not [my] best crop of photos." (Wow, he's getting kind-of a bad rap here, huh? I'm just making fun of him.)

CC

Buried

One of my most favorite memories as a child was getting to jump into a big pile of leaves every autumn and I was so excited to capture my son's first experience.
He Loved it!

f/5.3
1/125 sec
ISO 280
no flash

CC always welcome!

Autumn

I'm back :) and so glad to be!
My son "raking" leaves with daddy, his rake didn't do much good but he felt "big"
f5.6
1/3200
ISO 2000
CC welcome!

Leaves of Change

I love, love, love this time of year!
I love the colors, the weather, the sights, the smells of comfort foods.
I, most of all, love my backyard during the Fall. It's nothing but a blanket of beautiful leaves, and acorns -- and those crazy little squirrels.

And it means Christmas is around the corner :)

Challenge Reminder: Autumn

Havent had any posts for the autumn yet. The deadline is midnight to night if you would like to post. Try and get something in the remainder of the day if you can! Thanks everyone sure hope you had a good halloween!!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Bloggers Unite!

Photoshop users- I need your help! I've been so excited about starting my own photography business and I've been working really hard on trying to edit my pictures just right and after hours and hours I noticed a strange trend. All of my RAW (actually they're NEF) are being automatically desaturated when I open them in photoshop. I took them in NEF because it allowed me to adjust the lighting (a skill I'm still working on SOOC) so I need to convert them to JPEG so that my client can view them on her computer. What do I do?!? I've already done about 150 pictures this way and so I also worry about switching. Will the client notice if she doesn't see the originals? Is the change a negative change or is it actually working to my benefit or is it bad enough I should RE-edit all of the past pictures. Here's an example for ya, not my favorite picture but just one that really shows what's happening.

Here's the one that was opened in photoshop - I didn't really do anything to it. I just opened it and then converted it to a JPG.
This is the original SOOC (my camera takes a smaller quality jpeg image with the RAW image)

Has anyone experienced this before? Does anyone know what to do about it or know where to go for answers? Help!!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Challenge: Autumn

It is one of my favorite times of the year. Lets see what "Autumn" holds in store for us for this challenge. What does it look, sound, smell or taste like? How does it make you feel? What is something that is autumn to you.
Lets post by Thursday November 5th at 11:59PM PST!
*another great word chosen by Melinda - Thanks!!!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Pumpkin girl



My daughter was very interested in the pumpkin the other morning. I took this with auto settings and with flash (thus the harshness of the shadows).

Halloween: Edibles


I didn't get a very good picture of my daughter in her Halloween costume, so I'm opting for edibles for this photo. At our church Halloween party, she wouldn't stop. She was on the move the entire night. I made these brownie pops for a book group meeting, where we discussed -- wait for it -- Frankenstein. If you want more on that, click here.

CC

Happy Halloweenie!

I took a ton of pictures of my kids dressed up. One of things I love most about photography is sorting through the photos -- and seeing what you managed to capture.
This picture just some up a lot of things for me right now. I'm sentimental about my big girl being in kindergarten -- and all the changes that come with that. And I love the symbolism in the trees changing - it's a constant reminder to me that things change for a reason. And that change can be beautiful.
There was a little time in Photoshop with this one - just to desaturate everything other than the leaves & my oldest daughter's costume. These are the true colors, very vibrant and gorgeous!