365 / 14 In Low Light

Monday's assignment was "in low light."  Since I am learning all the fun new things my D600 can do, and since the low light capabilities are just light years ahead of my old D50, this was fun.

Mondays are always hectic because there are activities after school, but then we had a moment of quiet computer time and I was able to get a few quick shots of my daughter, entranced by her game.  I liked this in black and white.

So today (Tuesday) I am supposed to be working on "nut."  Should be fun.

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!

365/11 Climbing?

Today's photo was supposed to be about "climbing" ~ but it was another busy day and really rainy and gross outside so I didn't feel a deep need to explore the whole idea.  But I did take some photos today.   I had the camera on full auto for the first time in a while and just snapped some shots because I needed to see how some clothes worked on my girl.  So that's what you get instead of "climbing."

And even if the camera was on auto, I still love this shot.  I think it's the eyelashes.

Tomorrow - New York City, here we come.  I expect I will post all photos from the weekend on Sunday night or maybe Monday. 

365/10 ~ Real Life

Yesterday's photo theme was "real life."  Pretty true to the theme, I was so busy with my real life that I did not have time to blog that day, but I did manage a quick photo that sums up my real life pretty well.  And I kind of cracked myself up with it too.

So, here's the photo, and then a fun edited version:

So, do you get it?  Huh?  No? 

I know, not really all that funny, but the thing that made me chuckle was the preset I used.  Matt Kloskowski has a great site with free presets for Lightroom.  Since I am just beginning to learn photo editing, I have been playing around with some of his presets when I have the time.  This one was called "wedding fairytale."  So, that is what cracked me up, the monstrous pile of laundry (which, by the way, is only one of many) and the wedding fairytale theme of the preset. Looks like a dream come true, doesn't it?

Today's theme is climb.  We'll see what happens with that.  And then this weekend will be "Self Portrait" and "A Stranger's Smile."  I may flip flop them and do the self portrait on Sunday since we will be heading into NYC for Toddlewood on Saturday!  Sounds like a perfect chance to get a stranger's smile, right?

365/9 Peaceful

I had some ideas for today, but my favorite shot had nothing to do with what I planned out.   Mr. O. Surprised me by sitting quietly at the table with his head down, and then just popped his head up and gave me this perfect stare.  So he wins for today's "peaceful" post.

 

 

Here are a few more from today.  I had a vision of my girl and the dog sitting sweetly by the lake, looking out at the water, very peaceful, right?  But the girl wanted to run, the dog wanted to go IN the water (in January?) and as it turned out, pictures of the boys sitting at the table were the most peaceful  ones I could get.  Go figure.

 

365/8 Discouraged

Today's theme ~ discouraged.  I didn't like it.  Having a negative theme like this one started me thinking of all the things in my life that I am discouraged about and ways to photograph them.  And let's be honest, it is January - does anyone really need to spend a day thinking about discouraging things?  It is bad enough to look out the window and see the cold, brown landscape, wake up in the morning feeling like an icicle, and see the sun setting at 5:00. 

 Yuck.

I still could not stop thinking about this theme.  So I slept badly.  I thought about my never ending laundry.  The bus driver who doesn't really understand that kids with autism can't help making lots of noise.  The new stim of squeezing the life out of 3-7 water bottles every day.  The clutter.  The garage.  Bills.  Ewwww.  Who came up with this theme???   Did I really want to take pictures of these things?

I woke up after a fitful night of sleep, determined to take a picture of ANYTHING else, because all of this discouragement was getting me, well,  discouraged.  But it turned out that dwelling on all the negatives just made everything go wrong this morning.  As I leaned over to pick up the girl for a hug, creaaak, there went my back.  All the negative thinking went straight to my back and I was hunched over like a 90 year old man, frozen.  My poor kid, she was right about to start her usual fit before school morning routine and when she saw me crash down on the bed, she had to take a pause.  I lay there for a few minutes, hoping it would work itself out.  Nope.  Dragged myself up and eased my body down the stairs.  Girly had to get her snacks for lunch while I painstakingly put together her sandwich.  Painstakingly brushed her hair (sort of).  And then headed out for the bus and looked at my watch.  Drat.  We probably missed the bus.  Fantastic.

And then it happened.  I actually got a picture of "discouraged."  I had to go back inside for my car keys and grabbed the camera while I was there, because my girl was the picture of discouragement.   Poor kid felt so bad about my back, and then the thought of having to drive into school with my cranky self just put her over the edge. 

The good news is, the bus was late today so we did make it.  I had a chat with the girl and she did get on that bus in a much better mood.  And I came home and heated up my back and it seems to not be getting worse.  Maybe tomorrow it will be better. 

And the lesson I learned for myself today?  I am not doing any of the daily themes that are negative.  I am going to cross them off the list and not even think about them.   No thank you.

Tomorrow is Peaceful.  That will work.

365/7 Movement

Day 7 ~ Movement ~ I had big dreams of spending time working on shutter speed and getting some good action shots with just the right amount of "movement blur" in all the right places.  Instead, I overexposed a bunch, nailed the focus on a few (so no blur) and then caught a few that were ok, but not really what I wanted.  And then the battery died.  And then it was time for gymnastics, so this is what we have for today:

That's my super gymnast doing a cartwheel, in case you couldn't tell.  And just for fun, here are a few other shots from today:

Speediest dog ever!  And whoah, was I drunk when I took this?

And no blur here, but I love this one.