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

Don't Cry Over....

Cleaning Up the Fluids...

I woke up this morning to the sound of a toilet overflowing (True story! Sad... but true!) Later that morning, my son's diaper leaked on my lap, then he made a puddle on our carpet after his bath. I'm sad to say that I had a lot of experience with fluids this morning, just not any that I can take pictures of! : ) It got me thinking of how thankful I am for all the fluids I have around the house to clean up all our happy accidents, and keep my home clean! My dishwasher is leaking so I've been doing the dishes for our family of five by hand, and will be for another two weeks until my landlords can put in a new one! A small sacrifice, and a great photo-op!

-CC-

Fluid Motion

Everybody has done amazing water shots and I just couldn't figure out the buttons and doo-hickeys on my brand new camera (you read that right, folks, BRAND SPANKIN' NEW clicker!!! happy jigs all round!) anywhoo... I have yet to fine-tune my settings to make water look awesome-possum so I opted for another element.
FI-YAHHHH... (that's "fire" in a weird accent... don't tell me you don't know what I'm talking about). I used my Fireworks setting (sigh, I love that I have SETTINGS now) and holed myself in the bathroom all morning to get some crazy shots. Then I Boosted and Define/Sharpened it.

Fluid down the window

I know this isn't original in any way, but it was whatI could think of.
Rain has been abundant these past 2 days here. :)

Fluid...both definitions

I seriously took so many "idea" shots, it was hard to decide which one to post. If you want to see my other choices, please click HERE.



This was taken off of the rock waterfall we have in our backyard. It, to me anyway, shouts FLUID, both in the liquid form and movement. SOOC, just added border in Photoshop. CC welcome.

~Fluidity~

I could watch these things all day...everything about them is fluid.....I added a frame but other than that this pic is ~sooc~
~cc~

Fluid Beings

From fluid we came, fluid we are, fluid we need and fluid we return to! Kind of gross I guess. Mostly I thought of the last time I lived in Cali I was in 5th grade and we disected a pigs eye. My partner was grossed out so I got to do it all myself. Needless to say there is a lot of fluid in eyes. CC welcome.
ISO 800, f 4.9 still working on perfecting the balance. Though I cant change the fstop my camera makes that auto I can change the ISO.

Fluid in Slow Motion

 

I was out and about looking for something that had to do with fluid and I happened to come across this waterfall a little ways out of town, I reduced my shutter speed to about 1/30 and got this really neat affect. Very happy with the way it turned out.

Smooth Movement

The duck in this photo displays fluid movement.

I was actually taking photos of the Falls for water (water= fluid) but the duck took off
from the side and flew into my path. I decided that was a better use of
fluid.

I did a lot to this photo in PS- well more than I normally do. There were some ugly sticks in the water that distracted from the duck and I didn't like how brown the water was so I changed those things. {CC}

ETA the Original

Swinging

My sweet girl was fluidly swinging to and fro all evening long...

I got several shots of my family that I'm in love with this evening. Tony's leaving Monday to head back to Iraq and we won't be together again until December, so documenting every moment is very important right now. If you'd like to see more of the pictures from tonight, you can check them out on my family blog. :)

This picture: f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 200

Literally!

(f-5.6, ISO1600, Exposure 6 seconds)
So- as simple as this picture may seem, it was a real stretch for me. I actually pulled out all of my limited photography knowledge to pull it off and I realize it's still not perfect but I'm kinda proud none the less.

I used a tripod set up in my bathroom to take pictures of the droplets on the window. I needed to do it with with no flash so that I could still see the neat bokeh of the tree behind it. Then I had to use manual focus to get the droplets instead of the tree. Finally, I had to take the shot without shaking the camera since I couldn't find my remote. Wheew! Somehow I pulled it off, at least to some degree anyway. This was my original plan for the challenge- fluid motion of the swing. It was another tough one for me since I wanted to get the flowers of the tree and the lighting was terrible especially with a moving target. I still played around with it a bit on photoshop to give it a pinkish-purpleish hugh- just for fun. Sorry- I had to share!

PLEASE CC

Fluid: From Heaven

(f5.6, 1/30, iso1600)

We had fun listening to fluid falling from heaven on to our umbrellas today.

Fluid: A Necessity

Fluid is good.
...Especially for a fish...

Don't have any photo editing software yet, so I just used the Windows photo thing I had on my computer to change the color settings a bit. Tried to really make that fish pop.

Hello All You Talented People You!

Hello! My name is Nicia. Pronounced knee-see-uh, and I believe I am the newest member of this awesome blog! I am very excited to get into this whole photography thing. I know I have an awesome camera...I just don't know how to use it!

I reside in beautiful Cheyenne, WY with my Air Force hubby, Joe, and my beautiful daughter, Alyssa (2).

Rachel told me I had to put a self portrait of myself on here. I went on to tell her that if I did that, that meant I would have to actually do my hair and makeup. Things I avoid at all costs these days! (just kidding....kind of.) So, here you are. This is more of a last minute, 10:42pm shot, focusing more on my camera than myself. Not that that is a bad thing. :)

Challenge : FLUID

Today's challenge word is Fluid!

I can't wait to see what this word means to you.

Be creative, let loose, see where this takes you, but most of all....HAVE FUN!

Happy snapping.

Be sure to post your entry by Thursday at midnight!

WINNERS: Change

Good morning everyone, and welcome to today's edition of challenge winners!

Candace had the best angle this challenge with her front door wreath.

Best overall goes to Jen, with her desert sunset.

Jen also received the most combined votes.

Congratulations, ladies!

(Please scroll down to see M24 business and today's tutorial.)

Shooting Portraits Like a Pro

Two of my very favorite Digital Photography books are called just that... The Digital Photography Book and The Digital Photography Book Volume Two. They are both written by Scott Kelby and I consider him a virtual genius... at least in the photography world. He is a dedicated Nikon and Photoshop user, so if you're a fellow Nikonian of mine, you may very well have heard of him. He teaches workshops for Nikon and for Photoshop. He's the president of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and also the editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine and Layers Magazine. I'm sure lots of you already know this, but for those of you who haven't discovered him, you should totally check him out!

Some of the places you can find him are...

kelbytraining.com and scottkelby.com

I decided to focus this tutorial on learning to shoot portraits like a pro. He devotes an entire chapter in volume two to this subject. Here goes...

1) Don't Leave Too Much Headroom.

Personally, this is what drives me NUTS when a random friend or family member takes a snapshot of me or anyone else for that matter, which is why I'm almost never in pictures, because it makes me crazy when I look at the screen and half the picture is air. Okay, now that I've vented about that... This is fastest way to ruin a portrait. Just don't do it. Don't leave too much space above the subject's head. :)

Kelby details the rule of thirds in a different chapter of this book and as far as headroom goes, it basically states that your subject's eyes should be in the top one-third of the frame. If you do this, you'll avoid too much headroom.

I chose to demonstrate this with the cutest little boy I know.

Too Much Headroom...

Taken Using the Rule of Thirds...

2) The "Sun Over Your Shoulder" Rule is Bogus.

You might have heard of this rule which says that you should always have the sun over your shoulder, or behind you so that the subjects faces are always lit. This, however, is pretty much the worst thing you can do. It pretty much guarantees that they'll be squinting and this is the last thing we want. Right? Right. It also causes them to have harsh, direct light bolting right down onto them. Instead, he says to try to keep the sun behind them, so that there's a flattering rim of light around them. Then you can use a tiny amount of flash to put just enough light on their faces to help compliment the natural light that's around them.

Also (this is totally me, NOT Scott Kelby), if you shoot with the sun behind your subject, you can catch one of my very favorite things.. sunflare!!!

3)Shoot Profile Shots in Horizontal

The reason you never want to shoot a profile shot in vertical is because they look boxed in and this tends to be uncomfortable to the viewer.

Here's that adorable little boy again. I don't know who he belongs to, but he should totally be a model for Gerber... ;)

See how this just looks wrong, but still... incredibly cute? ;) You just don't know who or what he's looking at. It looks like he's looking at the walls of a box.

When you shoot a profile shot in horizontal, it gives the subject more breathing room and they just look more comfortable within the frame...And... just in case you're curious about what that little bundle of sweetness is looking at... it's my dad.

4) Trendy Composition Tip

Turning your camera at an angle is a very popular technique right now. I love to do it. I was hesitant to post the picture below, because I was thinking.. hmm.. I may be breaking the number one rule in this one (too much headroom), but I think I just did pass with getting her eyes into the top third. ;)

Since most portraits are taken in either horizontal or vertical, doing something different like angling is always fun and... different!! :)

5) Cropping off the Top of Their Head

This is going a step farther than not leaving too much room above your subject's head. This is a very popular pro technique that fills your frame with your subject's head. Kelby says that although it's perfectly fine to cut off the top of the subject's head, side of the arms, shoulders, hair, etc., you should never cut off their chin. People are used to seeing shots where the top is cut off, but the chin being cut off is a very uncomfortable composition.

And I had to squeeze in a picture of my sweet girl... her brother's been featured five times already. Gotta give a girl some exposure...

And here's my best friend and fellow photog, Amy, again... isn't she so beautiful?

6) Tip for Posing Group Portraits

The next time you go to pose a group of people for a portrait, instead of lining them up, try having them gather around and object or on a couch or chair. You'll find that they'll naturally arrange themselves around it or on it.

Also, for a more compelling group shot, put your subjects in a tight pyramid shape. Try to make sure they're all touching... arms around each other... heads really close together. It gives the shot a more fun-loving, casual look, and also provides a sense of energy and fun to the shot.

7) When Using Window Light

Positioning the Subject: The most beautiful light for portraits is the window light from a north facing window. The window acts as a diffuser and the larger the window, the more soft and diffuse the light is. You should position your subject with their shoulder facing the window... so that the light comes across them and creates soft shadows on the far side of their face.

Where You Should Shoot From: You want to be pretty much up against the window, shooting at a slight angle back towards your subject. Your subject should be about 6 feet or so away from the window.

Okay, this is where I'm going to end this tutorial. I feel like it's already gotten a bit long and drawn out. Sorry if I've bored you to death. Scott Kelby offers up many more suggestions in the book on how to shoot portraits like a pro, but these are the ones that really stuck out as being the most important to me.

And for the sake of not plagiarizing...

The Digital Photography Book Volume 2, Kelby, Scott, Peachpit Press, December 2007. Chapter Three. Pages 71-100.

All Images were taken by me. :)

Mission 24 business

Hey everyone!

Bet you thought I wasn't going to be showing up again today! It certainly took me long enough to get back on here. :)

Just a few things to note:

This week we are going to try to switch up the voting again. I would like to see how it goes just having people pick their ONE TOP PICTURE overall. Then we will have a second place winner.

We will try this out for a week or two and see how it fits. :)

We have also kind of drifted towards a change with the challenges, in regard to who posts them and what their role is. SO, PAY ATTENTION HERE! :) When you are asked to post the word, please go ahead and do so. But I also ask that for consistency, you also put up the voting post the day after the deadline. Janelle will continue to tally the votes and post the winners, so that's covered. :)

Now in regards to posting a word: If you didn't know before, now you will! You can PREPOST your word.

It's simple. Start your post like normal. When you have added what you want, you simply click on the button POST OPTIONS in the bottom left hand right below this box. That will give you several options for comments and backlinks...don't even worry about that. Just move your eyeballs over to the right side where it says POST DATE AND TIME. Put in the DATE you want it posted and the time. DON'T FORGET THE AM/PM FACTOR. AND, when you post, if you could have it post pretty early in the morning, so the East coast folks can see it early their time, that would be great! :)

NOW, also along the lines of PREPOSTING, I am going to have you each do me a HUGE favor! After I started getting all the submissions for the featured photographer, I realized how totally overwhelmed I would be if I were trying to save everyone's pictures and add them myself. SOOOO, If you each will go into blogger, add your pictures (DON'T FORGET YOUR SELF PORTRAIT!) and your questionaire, and then PREPOST IT. MAKE SURE TO Put a later date and time so it doesn't post right away!!!

If you all will use the same post date for the featured photographer stuff, that would be great. That way I can go in and change them to the right scheduled dates and it will be a surprise when your name comes up! :)

PLEASE USE THE DATE 9/09/09
Pretty easy to remember, right???

Don't care what time you put. Just please make sure the date is in the future--and preferably the 9/9/09 date! :)

Whew...what else?

Just a little note of encouragement to those of you who may be feeling discouraged. I am so disheartened at how often I hear feedback from people saying that they feel like they aren't good enough or that they are trying but feeling like they aren't being noticed. Heck, I have felt discouraged too--there is some seriously tough competition around here lately, isn't there?? :) It's easy to look at how wonderful some people are doing and feel down about where we might be individually. But please, please know that others share your same thoughts. And please know that we are each on our own individual journey...and ultimately, you are most likely to be successful with not only photography, but LIFE, if you are living and doing for what makes you happy and what you feel pride in. Feedback is great, and it helps us to improve--if we choose to take the things people are saying and actually do something with that.

So, let's all step it up this week and maybe take note of some of those who seem to be lacking in comments who are consistant commenters on YOUR posts...maybe we can validate each other a little more, and give some more honest feedback so we can improve.

And honestly, if there is anything I can ever do to help make this a better group, I am all ears.

OH, AND ONE MORE THING!
WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT A DAY FOR OUR M24 GET TOGETHER IN UTAH! We picked the 20th of May for the Eastern Idaho one, (still need to figure out where!) but I WOULD LOVE to get the Utah one planned so we can mark our calendars.

What are your thoughts?? And who is going to come? And where should we have it?? Something hopefully pretty central...

Okay...I am off. Have a great night...

VOTING: Change

Okay everyone, let's vote! Some fun pictures were submitted for this challenge!

Let's see who you thought should win

BEST OVERALL:

Best angle:

Get your votes in, and I will be back a little bit later today with some Mission 24 business!

Happy Monday!

Waiting for a change

Here in Alaska we are waiting for Spring/Summer. If you notice the tree, it still has no leaves. It has some buds on it though so maybe by next week we will have greeness!

I didnt write down the camera's settings. Next time.

CC

Change

This one was a little harder, how do you capture change??

So for mothers day my family went to a Iris Garden for a change of scenery. Well that didn't really satisfy me for the topic and knew someone had already gotten that idea.
So as my daughter and I were taking pictures of what few flowers were in bloom, only a few iris, and Rhody's she made note that the bees could sure use a change in bloomed flowers.

TA DA, light bulb went on and the chase was on. I went from one bee to another and got two shots i wanted to post but here is one of them.

cc always

Here is the other one that i had to share!!!

Some Things Never Change

(50 mm, f/1.4, 1 sec, ISO400)

Taken in the dark at 9:30 pm with no flash. I love my lens.

I've mentioned my home town of Mantua Ut before. I remember as a little boy my Dad would give me and my sisters 25 cents every Saturday and we would walk to the one store in Mantua and buy penny candies. The other day while taking my girls fishing in Mantua I was able to do the same thing for them. the shelves still held the same selection of penny candies. Some things never change.

A Change of Scenery (and a little off balance)

20mm, F 16, 1/60s

Instead of taking Rumba on a walk down the same old street today, we hiked Rattlesnake Gulch in Millcreek Canyon. It has a great view of the city especially at sunset (or on a night with a full moon).

20 mm, F 8, 1/500 s

Rod playing on the monkey bars.

18 mm, 160 sec, F 13

This one is a bit blurry (which I'm okay with since Rod is in motion). But it is so fun I had to include it. :)

CC

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 :)

A Day in the Life...

Happy Mother's Day! Along those lines, I started to think about all the things I change... I change the sheets, I change the loads of laundry, I change children's clothing (and my clothing), not to mention I change LOTS of diapers!

Change the Way You Gamble

You can now change the way you gamble. Take a quick flight out to San Jose Airport, drive a few exits down the road and head southeast to a park right in downtown. If you book ahead you to can play this...
ISO 400, f2.8, CC is welcome. But if you want to play this you can be the players piece with a hat or you can roll the huge dice. This is a once in a lifetime chance and all you have to come up with is the change from your life savings $1500. No monopoly money accepted, sorry no COD's.

Spare Change

Okay, clearly not an original idea. I DID take this earlier--but so far several had already taken my ideas and after changing several times I just couldn't keep taking new pictures. :)

Taken using only lamp lighting.
ISO 320, 62 mm, f7.1, 1/20 second

Habits Change

I had so many different ideas for this one. Then they either just didn't work out or someone posted similar shots just as I was pulling out my camera (like the coins- dag nabbit) and I was just determined to be original. This is what I have really been working on changing. My exercise habits! I really want to lose my baby weight before I get pregnant again and my son really needs a sibling. So my bad habit of sitting in front of the TV with my bucket of ice cream has got to CHANGE!

Please CC

Spring brings change

This is one of the many seedlings currently waiting to be transplanted into my garden. It is always amazing to me how much a seedling changes as it grows.

50mm, iso 400, f/5.6, 1/80 sec. sooc. cc

~Love Change~

My littlest sister turned 15this weekend, and with the trip, we have been busy. I did take this of her though, and represents such a change. In my life,in hers, and all of us as a family. ~love change~



Oh! I ran a cross-process cofee shop action on it....... :)

Change

Loose change.(looks like Janelle and I had the same idea.) I was taking some pictures of a pile of change when my 4 year old wanted to play with it. I got this shot, and thought it added a bit more interest.

Shot in manual, natural lighting, f5.6, 1/25, iso 200. I added a vignette, and adjusted the lighting.

Change: Loose Change

This was my initial solidly formed "change" idea. I took several shots, but wasn't thrilled with it. I got an idea that maybe I could take a picture of my husband changing a tire. I asked him if he'd be willing to pose for a picture shoot for me changing a tire. He said, "So, you want me to pose naked?" I was a little confused, and told him that I was certain that no one on here would want to see pictures of him naked. His ego was slightly bruised. A few hours later, he left to go help a friend whose car battery was dead, and I told him that if he was willing to do the picture for me, to leave the car in the driveway instead of pulling into the garage. Later, after he got home, I asked if the car was in the driveway. He looked at me like I was crazy and asked why. I said "So we can do the photo shoot. I'll have you get the spare tire out, the tire iron and the jack..." He laughed and it all made sense now. He had thought I asked him to pose for a photo shoot "changing attire." Whoops!

CC

The Changing Front Door

I love wreaths. My front door always reflects the changing of seasons with a new one. When I saw this one out shopping a few weeks ago, I knew it was just made for me. I love how the main circle part is just brown stick-like branches (isn't that a sophisticated term?) and the front is little white blossoms. I love it. :)

Oil Change

With all of the silly car problems that we have had this year, we are on a first name basis with the folks at Midas. I went and got my oil changed the other day. After the car was done, I looked at my sticker and noticed they put a personal thank you on it! I died laughing.
I guess that is what happens when half your salary goes to one place....

Changing Shape

In honor of Mother's Day, here a picture of my changing shape as a once-again mother-to-be. This is me today, ten weeks pregnant, excited about the changes going on in my body - on the inside and the outside. As a third time mom, my shape is definitely changing a lot faster than it did the first time around!

CC

A Different View

My scenery has definitely changed as we've started our vacation in Idaho.

I used to visit family in Idaho when we lived in Arizona and always commented about how green Idaho was, I realized after moving to New Jersey that Idaho is indeed a desert.

I was going for moody black and white with this conversion - but I think I may have made it a little too moody ;)

{CC}

Color Change

It's amazing how much a little paint can change the beauty of an old horseshoe. I'm making a home-made horshoe game to play when we're at the beach. I got a box of 25 clean used horseshoes off of ebay for $4. Sadly, they were kind of boring...and a little discolored, so I decided to spray paint them, and WHOA! What a CHANGE! Much more fun and exciting!

socc, added border in photoshop.