Tiny

Hurray, I finally posted for a challenge! Anyway, I took this of my little girl and was struck by how incredibly tiny she still is in the big ol' world. Now, if only I could get her to realize that ;).

CC

Hey, Batter Batter

What luck. While lounging in my chair at the lake I spotted this little scene, where the leading character was none other then a green bat.

The thing I love about these challenges is they really stretch me to take pictures of things I normally wouldn't. I was so focused on snapping pics of my wee ones that, if not for the challenge, I would have missed the cool lighting and fun set-up of the bat and balls. Anywho, CC welcome.

Sorry, I switched my picture out. I started noticing the last version was rather on the cool side.

The Backpack

When I think of school the giant, tacky, brightly colored, plastic backpack (like the one my daughter picked out this year) always comes to mind. Maybe it's because when I was little, picking out my backpack was the highlight of back to school shopping. Yup, the larger and tackier the bag, the happier I was ;).

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Heartbreak

Need I say more? ;)

Bad Vision

Sad to say, glasses and contacts have been my constant companion for 15 years now.

Classic Blue

While perusing my favorite antique store/boutique (with camera in hand) I came across these babies. The Hardy boys?! Oh the memories! Took me back to my lazy, youthful summer days when I lounged about in the sun and devoured all the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew books I could find. All of a sudden I feel old...and slightly nerdy ;).

Express Wonder

One thing I love about babies are their sweet, little, expressive faces. They never mask how they feel, from wonder to frustration...it's all there for you to see.

CC welcome

Can't live without it...

This was one of those challenges where as soon as I read the challenge I knew what I wanted to take a picture of. My purse. Can't live without it.

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Bowling

When I read the challenge word the first thing I wanted to do was go hunt me down a cadaver...get it...no circulation. Ah-ha :). But sadly, I couldn't find a cadaver anywhere (go figure) so I went with bowling. You throw/roll the ball, it hits the pins (or in my case, it doesn't) and then the nifty little machine spits the ball back out...circulation, baby.

f2.5, 1/50 sec, ISO 200

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U-Pick Strawberries

I decided to go literal for this challenge. Because....I LOVE SIGNS!!! I was in heaven driving/biking around today snapping away at old signs, funny signs and ones that I love for no reason at all. I ended up going with my favorite sign of all, the one at my favorite local farm announcing strawberry picking season. I take my wee ones every year and we pick until our fingers bleed...ok, ok, that may be a slight exaggeration ;)

50mm, f4, 1/500 sec, ISO 100, center weighted metering, WB cloudy

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ABCs

Yup, my wee one is hard at work learning those ABCs. Good ol' Dr. Suess!

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f/2, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

oh and I appologize for my ENORMOUS picture. I'll downsize it when I get a sec. Promise. ;)

Emotion: Fear/Excitement

I really tried to "think outside of the box" for this challenge and took quite a few different pictures, anything from my guitar (expressing emotion) to some fresh-baked cookies (emotional eater) but, this one of my daughter on the skateboard ended up being my fav. I wish I had an unbiased judge to review my pictures before I post because I think I am naturally drawn to the pictures with my sweet little ones in them. Ya know how that goes?! ;)

50mm, f/2, 1/2500, iso100

CC welcome

Baby Cakes

Meet Ella. She is my best friend's little one. I adore her. I snapped this picture of her last night at a weenie roast. My only peeve with the pictures is all the noise in it. It was getting dark when I shot this so I had to bump up the ISOs to 400 (I usually shoot at 100).

CC welcome.

50mm, f/2.5, 1/50 sec, ISO 400

The Sweet Smell of Roses

The rose bushes in my yard are beginning to bloom and man oh man do they smell, you guessed it, sweet. This was a fun picture to take. I was taking a picture of some of my other roses and looked over to see the setting sun shining right on this little beauty. I couldn't resist. I set my camera to spot metering to give it the dark background and shot away. 50mm, f/2, 1/2500 sec, iso100.

CC welcome.

More Popcorn, Please

50mm, f/4.5, 1/60, ISO100

4 kids with only 2 popcorn holders results in a hearing a chorus of "Mo-Mo" with an occasional "Peeese"

Simple Leaves

I had a buggar of a time picking a challenge word, that is, until I saw "simple". I love simplicity. I CRAVE simplicity. Plus, it's one of the challenges I didn't do. I found these leaves on a walk with my wee ones today. I fell in love with the colors, texture and the detail in them. I don't often stop to admire some of the simpler things in life, like leaves. I really need to start. There is such beauty to be found.

I wanted to try something different to display the leaves and stuck them in one of my glass cylinders with some water in it.

292mm macro mode, f/5, 1/160, iso200

Almost forgot, CC welcome

Playing with Shutter Speed

First of all, I apologize if this tutorial is a bit scattered. Every time I sat down to work on it I would get called away for one reason or another. Sigh. Anyway, Mindy did an AWESOME tutorial on exposure a couple of weeks ago. If you didn’t read it, hurry and go have a look because I’m just going to branch off of her tutorial. I’m going to go into a little bit more depth on the glory of shutter speed and show you a few fun things you can do by playing around with it.

Freezing Motion

To freeze motion you need to use a moderate to high shutter speed. In Understanding Shutter Speed, Bryan Peterson recommends using a shutter speed of at least 1/250 sec. for subjects moving towards or away from you. For subjects moving up and down or left to right use a shutter speed of at least 1/500 sec, 1/1000 sec. is best but you can usually pull it off with 1/500 sec. That is just a general “rule” I like to keep in mind. I took this picture using a shutter speed of 1/320 sec. and didn’t get any blur so you can vary a bit.

Just know if there is blurring in your picture (and you don’t want it there) you need to up your shutter speed.

Panning

Panning is fun. It also requires a bit of luck and usually, a lot of takes. The “trick” to panning is to set your shutter speed low, usually somewhere between 1/8 and 1/60 sec and move your camera parallel to, and at the same speed as the moving object you wish to capture. As the object enters your frame, focus on it and follow it (smoothly) with your camera snapping away. This will keep the moving object in focus and give the background a really cool blur. Dave took this picture of me using a shutter speed of 1/40 sec.

Another cool way to get the panning effect is to actually be moving AT the same speed as what you are taking a picture of and snap away. For example, I took this picture of my feet while on a swing.

I set my shutter speed to 1/60 sec., got going fast, focused on my feet and took the picture. I used the same technique to take this picture of my daughter for the motion challenge.

I set my shutter speed to 1/40 sec and hopped on the moving merry-go-round with her.

Implying Motion

If you ever want to add Pizzazz to something boring (in my case this sign) try this technique. To imply motion select a low shutter speed. In this picture I used a SS of 1/50 sec but it usually works better if you go lower.

Next, press your shutter release button WHILE zooming in on object. It’s kind of tricky and like panning can take quite a few tries.

Flowing Water

If you want to give flowing water an ethereal, cotton candy effect then, you guessed it, choose a sloooow shutter speed on your camera before snapping away. To capture this waterfall I set my SS to 1/4 sec.

You can usually get away with 1/30 sec or lower; it just depends on how much “flow” you want in your picture, for more flow, go with a lower SS.

Capturing rain/snow

There are two options when trying to capture rain or snow in a picture. If you want to capture a few, defined flurries then a faster shutter speed is required. In this picture I used a shutter speed of 1/200 sec.

If you want to capture more motion in your rain/snow, you need a slower shutter speed. In this picture I used 1/5 sec.

In his book, Understanding Shutter Speed, Bryan Peterson recommends using 1/60 sec. when capturing rain. Which really seems like it would be about perfect and result in something in between my two shots.

Shooting at Night

Now, this is where it really gets fun, at least for me. When shooting at night you can get some REALLY cool shots (I searched through my archives and couldn’t find the one I wanted so you will just have to use your imagination on this one ;)). Slowing the shutter speed down allows you to shoot without a flash in low light or no light situations. This, if you’re like me and avoid using the flash at ALL costs, is simply fabulous. The possibilities are endless…the stars and moon, city lights, freeway lights…you can definitely have some fun. You will have to play around but a shutter speed of 1/2 sec to 4 sec usually works pretty well. In these cases not only is a tripod essential but you will probably need a remote because when you touch the shutter release button it moves the camera which will blur your picture in long exposures like this. No remote? No problem, just use the self-timer.

When playing around with your shutter speed always keep in mind the tripod rule. If your shutter speed is equal to or slower than the reciprocal of your effective focal length, you need to use a tripod. For example if my focal length is 200mm and I’m shooting with a shutter speed of 1/30 sec. I should probably be using a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod handy don’t despair! Simply brace yourself against something sturdy, hold your breath and click. If possible look for something stable to rest your camera on, I’ve used guard rails, the hood of my car, a rock and a sturdy tree branch before.

Most point and shoot cameras have modes that set the shutter speed a certain way to achieve a desired effect. I know Dave’s camera has an action mode (high shutter speed), a night mode (slow shutter speed) and a flowing water mode (slow to moderate shutter speed). These are AWESOME because if the camera doesn’t allow you to manually change the shutter speed these modes give you quite a few cool options.

Now, grab your camera and go play ;)

Rough to The Touch

I was having a pickle of a time coming up with something for this challenge. I was actually thinking about it while making dinner and in walked my handsome husband with a week's worth of facial hair. Inspiration struck and I grabbed him (against his will) and started snapping away. It reminded me of all the times, as a little girl, that my dad would grab me and rub his prickly chin against my cheek as hard as he could. I would laugh hysterically, cry and then laugh some more. My girls do the same when Dave does it to them. Man whiskers...definitely rough to the touch.

Taken in front of a window, 50mm, f/4.5, 1/125, ISO400

CC always welcome.

Fluid Breakfast

A cup of soy milk, a handful of blackberries and a handful of frozen cranberries, throw it in the blender and what do you get? A delicious, nutritious FLUID breakfast! If ya can't tell, we are big smoothie fans at my house.

I had a hard time deciding on which picture to post but decided on this one because it was a little bit more creative, I guess. I'll post the second picture just for kicks though.

What do you think...which one would you have posted for the challenge? How would you have made the pictures more visually interesting? I took these this morning and wasn't going to post them because I've seen the ROCKIN' pictures coming in and was a bit intimidated, BUT, I figured that's no way to learn ;). So, let me have it. CC PLEASE. Thanks you guys!

Oh forgot to mention, I was really experimenting with lighting in these pics. Just a side note :).

50 mm, f/3.5, 1/50, ISO400, spot metering

Changing the way I cook

Lately I have been foregoing the stove and oven and busting out the dutch ovens and briquettes. Baked beans have never tasted so good.

The specs: 50mm, f/4, 1/160, Iso200

CC welcome :)