365 / 12 & 13

The weekend was busy and that meant that Monday was an even busier catch up day, but I did take my photos!   For Saturday, I used the Sunday theme, "a stranger's smile" since we were going into New York on the train.  I was thinking I would snap a quick picture on the train or on the street.  And then I realized that I did not have the nerve for it.  This photo project is teaching me all kinds of things about what I need to work on.  Apparently I need a bit more chutzpa. 

We spent the day watching Tricia Messeroux work her magic and transform little girls into fashion models.

 It was really fun and I guess it gave me a bit of a push in the right direction, because after we were done, I did manage to get a few strangers to smile for the camera.  This guy was my favorite, he was obviously the owner of the shop and working hard to keep things in order.  I wish I had caught him a second sooner, before his hand covered his face, but you can see, he is smiling.

And then we had dinner and met this charming fellow - yes, I took this shot on auto because I had my old D50 with me and it has hardly any low light capabilities, but have to share our new friend Wesley Diamond, who is apparently a famous rapper in Jamaica.  You never know who you are going to meet in NYC, right?  And he was officially a stranger when we met him tonight, so I say this counts as a stranger's smile.

All in all, not the most successful exercise, but it definitely taught me that I need to work on stepping outside of myself.  Not always easy to do when I am herding one or all of my kids through the world, but definitely something to work on.

Then on Sunday I went with the Saturday theme of self portrait.  Again, I will say that I am not thrilled with what I got from this exercise as far as finished product goes, but I definitely learned a few things that I needed to work on!

I had the idea of a nice sillhouette in a window.  But my house was so crazy on Sunday, I knew that would not happen.  Then I thought I would find a spot by the lake and sit for a quiet, reflective shot.  My son said he would come to help me set up the shot.  And then my daughter heard and wanted to come.  And then she let the dog out.  Quiet, reflective portrait by the lake turned into dog chasing ducks into the water.  I don't think you can feel the mayhem in these pictures, but I tried to capture it.  

And that last photo I put in just because I thought that duck was cute with the little fluff on his head.

So OK, back to the business at hand - how to get a self portrait?  I was afraid to set my camera down and use the timer because the dog was so crazy.  So I tried the good 'ole long arm pose:

I look very serious, don't I?  I was trying to figure out if I had my settings right.

Then I told the kids to take the dog AWAY and forget about helping me set up the shot, I would just do it myself.  Hmmmm.  I put the camera on a chair, set the focus on the tree I planned to stand near, set the camera on timer, pressed the shutter and RAN for it.  I learned a lot from this:

1.  The self timer goes by PRETTY quickly when you have a distance to cover

2.  Focusing on the tree is NOT going to be the same as focusing on yourself. 

3.  If you run too fast and try to stand too close to the water, you *might* fall in, just a little.

Here's what I got, once again using a bunch of those Matt Kloskowski presets.  Nothing cleans up a slightly out of focus self portrait like the Wedding Fairytale preset.  And if you notice that I am standing with one leg up, like a stork, well, please refer to number three above.  Hey, isn't that tree PERFECTLY in focus? 

If you think that one is bad, check out this one.  Oops.

So, that was my learning experience.  I now know that I have to work on approaching strangers.  And work on self portraits again when it is NOT the weekend.  Monday's photo challenge is "In Low Light" and I will be posting that one shortly.  Hope you all had as much fun as I did this weekend!