Home Strech

Last week of school for me, I'm beyond ready to be done.  But so is everyone in my family.  On Saturday my mom and I went to a cute little tourist town before proceeding to see my art teacher's show.  Both were a lot of fun, and yes I did take pictures.

A shop window there was no Photoshopping involved here

I just thought it was funny that a brick on a walk-way would say savage

See this cute little old house, well it's not quite so old it was just built and more were going, by the end of construction they plan to have 20 of them.  Honestly I don't like it it's like they're trying to make cute little houses with character and none of them have any history to them.

See that's a real old house

Oh... and that's a vulture that was guarding the bridge we were walking on.

 Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures at the art show.  But my teacher had fun and so did I.
P.S sorry for the lateness in posting blogger would not let me on for days.

I'm on a mission

Recently I was watching "The Grid" which is a webcast provided by Kelby TV.com.  It's basically a talk show about anything Photoshop and or Photography related.  One of the topics they talked about yesterday, was cell phone cameras.  Stuff like, whether or not they were useful, what do you do with the pictures, and why are they so popular.  Since the show is mostly photographers, this is not the average response.  They said that cell phone camera were useful for scouting a location and stuff like that when they don't have a camera with them.  They said they rarely did anything with the pictures and they also said they were probably popular because you can share them quickly.  Many of the comments the show got during it's live broadcast said they would use it if the didn't have their DSLR camera with them.  Then it hit me that I'm blessed with a redonkulous DLSR camera that many aspiring photographers don't have.  So I'm going on a mission to bring my camera everywhere with me to take the most advantage of it.  Granted I've already taken over 30,000 photos on it but I want to use it more.  So that's my mission.  Hopefully this blog will be filled with many more pictures in the time to come.  But in the meantime, here's a picture while you wait.

If I ever get a new Camera

Well I've had my camera for seven years now and it's like my baby.  However seven years in techno-time is a lifetime.  Now by no means would I just kick my old camera to the curb (too much like Toy Story) but I would like a newer model.  So what camera do I want? (cue dramatic music...)
a Nikon D3s




(not my picture)
this camera is used by people like Scott Kelby, Moose Peterson, and Joe Mcnally
This camera has 2 memory card slots so that you can hold twice as many pictures.  It also allows you to be able to turn the camera to portrait view and still be able to take a picture because it has a nifty little button right where your hand goes when you turn the camera vertically.  Those are two of the many reasons I want this camera but until I come up with 5,199.95 I'll stick with my old one.

The Stolen Scream

About ten minutes ago I finished watching this video.  It's about ten minutes long so you don't have to watch the whole thing, but it's basically about this 26 year old guy named Naom Galai who has become a model without really trying... Let me explain.  In 2006 he posted a set of pictures he had taken of himself to flickr.  They got great comments so he decided to upload some more from that photoshoot.  He uploaded this one,  and a few months later one of his co-workers told him that she had seen someone wear a tee-shirt with his face on it, she also asked why he hadn't told her she was selling his work.  He had no idea what she was talking about but later he saw what she meant.  He started to see t-shirts with his face on them.  Then he started to see his face everywhere, on murals, on posters, on book covers.  Only one person told him they had used his picture of his face and that was after they had used it.  He only got on paying gig from all the publicity this picture was getting, on Glimpse magazine (Glimpse is a political magazine put out by National Geographic.)  They did ask and pay him for use of his picture on the cover of one of their issues.  On the book cover, no credit was given to him, it was given to some other person who claimed the picture as their own.  Naom's face was the face of political protest in Iran, modern art in the Netherlands, and press conferences in Spain.  Throughout all this he said "Artist like their work to be published as to be seen by as many people as possible, I'm not a big fan of people stealing my pictures, but it's better than not having all those people see my pictures at all, it's another way to publish your work it's not me publishing it but other people do it for me."   Now he has a blog where he posts pictures of "his scream"  that's he's seen.
What I really like about this guy though, is that he cares about his art so much that he doesn't care if he doesn't make money off it or if people don't know it's his, he thinks it's better for people to see it than for himself to get credit.

Wow long post.

Simplicity

Have you ever looked at a bunch of tubes of paints?  like really looked, I was just recently painting a picture and decided to take a picture of my paints.  It was just a quick shot I'll admit I didn't take much care.  But when I uploaded it to my computer I was shocked, it actually looked decent... and not only decent but good.  So I did some selective coloring to give it more impact.  Then I got a little crazy... I changed the color of the selective color with the hue saturation adjustment in Photoshop.  And this is what I got.

Then I changed the hue to a cobalt blue

Then I tried red

I like the simplicity of the black and white with selective coloring, I might print these out to go on my wall.
Simple shot, simple editing, simple result.  So here are two quotes about simplicity.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  ~Leonardo DaVinci


Anything simple always interests me.  ~David Hockney

This Time of Year

Hhhhh...  Around this time every year I crave the beach, or any vacation in general, but mostly the beach.  I haven't been in about five years and I really miss it.  A few days ago, we bought some stuffed clam shells, which were very yummy.  What does this have to do with the beach?  Well being as desperate as I am to go to the beach I took five of the clam shells washed them out (aka ate them) and took pictures of them to help curb my beach craving. So here in one picture that i thought was quite pretty and beachy.  I post processed it to give it a dreamier feel.

Another thing about this time of year is Valentines Day.  Personally I think Valentines Day is overrated, unless you have a boyfriend or husband who is willing to spend money on you.  However it does provide a lot of photo ideas because it has a basic color scheme: red, pink, purple.  A general feeling: love, happiness.  and a general shape or symbol: hearts.  Looking for these things is really easy around this time of year, and if you look for things of these colors, shapes, and feelings, taking photos becomes really easy.  So here is a picture I took of a box that covered with newspaper and painted... (you can't really tell it's a box in the picture though)

TA-DA!! well hope you enjoyed this post.

P.S if you want you can link to your blog so I can see some of your Valentine-y photos.

The Last Installment

We have arrived at the last installment of my three part series regarding the 3 camera settings you need to know. The final setting that you need to know is ISO.  ISO stands for International Standards Organization
1) ISO: 
In simple terms: How sensitive your camera is to light
In the camera: when you look at your ISO speed in your camera (i can't tell you where to find it because it's different with all cameras.)  You will see numbers like 200, 450, 1600 etc...  the lower numbers should be used on brighter days and the higher numbers should be used on darker days.  Why? look below 
How to use it: Since the ISO determines how sensitive your camera, or more like the "film" in your camera is to light, it's a setting that can vary a lot.  low ISO gives you crisp clear images when you have enough light.  You see a low ISO setting means that you need more light to get a good picture. Why? well the lower your ISO the faster the shutter speed is in bright light.  But if you have a dark room and need a fast shutter speed, then what do you do? crank up the ISO doing this makes the shutter speed faster enabling you to take better pictures in the dark.  However when you raise the ISO is also adds noise to your photos.  Noise is that colored grainy stuff you'll see in some pictures.  SO if you have lots of light use and ISO of 100-200 (you can sill use this setting in the dark but the shutter speed will be slower.)  If you need a fast shutter speed in the dark turn up the ISO to 800-1600 but be careful of noise

this first picture is taken with an ISO of 200

and this one was taken with an ISO of 1600 see the noise?

   Now do you see it?

Well now you should know the 3 basic camera settings.  Knowing these settings will help you be able to look at a picture and figure out how to take one like it.  It also makes you seem smart around your friends when you start talking about changing the aperture size you focus only on that one flower.  Well thanks for tuning in.

Bye

Shutter Speed

So this is part 2 of my 3 part series on the three things you should know about your camera. It makes taking pictures easier and you'll be able to achieve a certain look very easily.


1) Shutter Speed: 
In simple terms: how fast the camera takes the picture
In the camera: Yes shutter speed is the technical term, on your camera where you find your settings it will just be a number like 60, 1500, or 3" the (") next to the 3 means that the shutter speed is set to three seconds, the others are fractions of a second.
what it does specifically: Lots of things affects how long it takes to take a picture, light, aperture, ISO. and the shutter speed basically tells you how fast the picture will be taken based on the other settings. 
How to use it: The larger the shutter speed the faster the picture can be taken, making it easy to get sharp images.  Fast shutter speeds are ideal for; sports photography, little kid and pet photography, and things that move around a lot.  Slow shutter speeds are used when there is less light because it takes time for the light that is there to reach the "film"  so you'll most likely need a tripod or something to stabilize the camera when using a slow shutter speed so you get crisp photos.  Slow shutter speed is great for; night photography, still life photography etc...  Now you can also do tons of fun things with slow shutter speed, like light trails, zooming and light painting.
Example: 
this first picture is taken with a shutter speed of 1/500 meaning i 500th of a second

and this one was taken with a shutter speed of 1/6 meaning one sixth of a second

So that's it for shutter speed next i'll cover ISO.
bye!

the 3 basics of a camera

Okay so as you probably know from one of my other posts, I like to take pictures.  This is not unusual for girls who blog, they take pictures and post them to there blogs, it's a popular topic.  However when I post my pictures I don't want you to just see them I want you to be able to recreate them so I will, like in the last post, tell you my camera settings for most of the pictures I post.  Now this won't really help you all that much unless you know what these settings mean.  So in the next 3 posts I will tell you about the 3 main things you need to focus on when you take a picture.
1) Aperture:
In simple terms: the thingy in the camera that determines what is in focus and what is blurry
In the camera: when reading camera books sometimes to aperture will be called the f/stop but it's the same thing
what it does specifically: It determines how much light can reach the "film" inside that camera,  it also determines how much of the picture is focused and how much is blurry.
How to use it: the lower the f/stop number the less that is in focus and vice versa.  So if you want a picture where only one small part of the picture is in focus use and f/stop of 4.5.  If you want a picture that has a lot in focus then use and f/stop of 16.  Now if you want a lot in focus the shutter speed (covered below) will go down making the picture blurry if it's too dark.
Example: 
this first picture is taken with an f/stop of f16

see everything is in focus?

and this one was taken with and f/stop of f4.5

















see the blurry parts?

Some of My Favorite Photography Quotes

Hey guys,  I just thought that today I would share with you some quotes about photography (and a few other things) that I like.  P.S, I'm a quote person so this might a long list.

You don't take a photograph.  You ask, quietly, to borrow it.  ~Author Unknown          


No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.  ~Robert Adams, Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques, May 1995


It's weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don't even amount to a couple of hours.  ~James Lalropui Keivom


The camera can photograph thought.  ~Dirk Bogarde


There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.  ~Ansel Adams


When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.  ~Ansel Adams


Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer.  It makes you a Nikon owner.  ~Author Unknown


Everyone has a photographic memory, but not everyone has film.  ~Author Unknown


One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photo out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photo out of focus are a style.  ~Author Unknown


Here are just some general quotes that I like:


Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss 


You can't make footprints in the sands of time by sitting on your butt, and who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time. ~ Bob Moawad 


Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.  ~Pablo Picasso


Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.  ~Pablo Picasso


Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.  ~André Gide






All quotes are copied from here, I liked them all before but that's where they are if you want to find more like them. 

The photo

Okay so in my first post i said I'd tell you how I edited that photo in the first post.  Now before I start I want you to know that I am not an expert on photography or Photoshop (i just like it a lot.)
So here's what i did:
1. I took the picture at night in a dark room
2. I lit it with the light from my Ipod
3. Using a remote shutter release (to avoid camera shake)
4. Then I took the picture and as the picture was being taken I moved my Ipod up and down to evenly light to vase
5. I then loaded it to my computer and in "camera raw" i changed to white balance setting to fix some of that blueish color you get from lighting things with an ipod
And that's it it's super easy and depending on what the shutter speed on the camera is and how bright your Ipod is you can get some nifty results.
here is my before picture

















and the edited one



Camera Settings
Aperture: 4.5
ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 3 seconds

Camera Raw Editing numbers
White balance temperature: 13500
White balance tint: +5
Exposure: +2.20
everything else, can vary depending on the photo

Have fun and i'd love to see some of your results!