Week 3: Day 18

9 pictures taken total. Another day where I have spaced taking the picture. I keep forgetting, but I have a lot on my mind right now. I know that I am late by 15 minutes but I haven't gone to bed yet, so it still counts!

With this picture, you can see the reflection of the chair on the floor. I was wondering around the house looking for something that reflects that is not a mirror. I think I have gotten better reflection shots off this floor before, and it would have helped if we mopped, swept and sealed the floor. But since I have not planned ahead for this, oh well. Nikolai has been keeping me busy these last few days! :)

Week 3: Day 17

I am trying to get caught up, but I don't know if it is going to happen. I forget to take pictures and realize at 8 pm and at that point there is not many options....

So I took 19 pictures yesterday. All but three were of the hallway mirror next to our bathroom. I thought it might be cool to get a picture of the cat through it, or maybe a picture of Nikolai and I. But at 8pm it is too late, we have no lights in that hallway so it is also too dark. I can't use the flash, because then that is all the picture would be, a flash.

So I wound up taking a picture of me through the stove door... Weird... I took 3 pictures (one was deleted so 2 left over) and that was it of that. I gave up. But, after fixing one up I realized the pattern on the stove door kinda created this weird texture to the photo. Kind of like the antique-ing options available through PhotoScape, but different. so I colored it in sepia...  I will post both in color and sepia...

Week 3: Day 16

This is not a reflection in an item like a mirror. These are the spines of the scrapbooks I have in my bookcase in the office. I figure, we take pictures to reminisce, recall and reflect on our past, why not take a picture of what I use to store those images of the past? Not only that, but those pictures also reflect who we once were and how we saw the world around us.  What better item to use than the general scrapbooks of my life? The white one is the one my grandmother made for me and gave to me when I was 18.  The rest, well it tells you on the spine...

I had somewhere near 20 pictures, the end count after deleting the fuzzies: 15. Here is the one I decided on posting...

Week 3: Reflection - Day 15

I don't know what the original number was, but the end count was 16. I only edited 4 out of the 16. I deleted all the fuzzy ones and kept the clear ones. From this point it was a decision of what images I liked better...

Nikolai was playing under his play gym and I thought, "perfect!". There is this fish mirror attached to it, and he was playing with it. He was looking into the mirror,  but not directly. He was moving it with his hands. It was so cute to see! I wonder what it was he was looking at...

Week 2: Looking Back

I have managed to limit the number of photos I take on a subject. Though only a little bit. I have worked on deleting the ones that I know for sure I will not use to help limit the number. Perhaps I should go back and just delete all the ones that I have not posted? I don't know.

This week was a tiring week. I don't think I put forth as much effort as I wanted to because of that. I am still tired. Maybe it is because I don't have creamer and my body is so used to having caffeine first thing in the morning... I don't know.

I hope that this week I can put forth the effort I want to, so I can get better pictures. I need to remember, Ten different viewpoints, One picture. I don't want tons, and even if deleting I still don't want to have to delete a whole bunch. My LCD screen doesn't show the pictures very well so I can't delete after taking them (there was a few I was going to delete and decided not to. I was glad I did that because they were the best ones!).

This upcoming week: reflections. I have some ideas already. Hopefully I get to take them and they work out... I may still try to go for the "Nikolai in a Pot" though too...

Week 2: Day 14

I had an idea for growth, but it required a trip to Lowes or Home Depot. It was actually Brandon's idea. It was to put Nikolai in a pot, have him sitting up and take a picture. Well, we never made it to the store to do that and we don't have a pot big enough to do that here. So on Sunday night we were watching Prince of Persia on Bonnies Netflix and Nikolai was all bundled up on Ruth. It was so cute! And he even seemed into the movie. I think it is because he likes to watch the TV, but his little eyebrows would move up at certain moments that seemed like it was more than just the movement on the TV that was holding his attention. I don't think I like that... But it was still cute...

Week 2: Day 13

I am a little behind on posting. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to take pictures of. Yesterday (Easter Sunday) was a crazy day...

Well, here is Saturday's picture. Brandon and I were on the sofa after putting Nikolai to bed, and I thought this was kind of a cool angle, and snapped some pics. But then I decided to add my feet to it, and I think it made it all the better.

Total taken was 12. With my feet, 5. This one was the least blurry of them all. I had the flash off, and didn't tell Brandon I was taking pictures until after I showed it to him. He thought it was kinda cool.

Week 2: Day 12

Yesterday I tried to take a picture of my cat. She has grown so tired of me with my camera, I'm surprised she even came up to me!

21 pictures, I use #18... I still haven't gotten over being tired...

Week 2: Day 11

Ok, With the growth theme, I took a picture of my tank. Yes, that is right... my fish tank. It has growth. It is gross. Algae is nasty, stinky, smelly and you cannot see into the tank well. There is reason for this! My sucker fish died. It is sad because I had the pleco for 4 years and then he was just dead. Well, I do not have the time I used to in order to maintain the tank cleanliness and without a sucker fish, it just gets dirtier so much faster!

I don't have the energy to put forth for this today. We had a late night Wednesday because we went to my grandmother's house (on my mom's side) to celebrate Easter and then had to clean the house a little bit because I worked today and will work tomorrow. I am exhausted. A room full of chatty 2nd graders when you are already tired is not good. It just tires you out way more.

Total # of pictures taken: 6. The one that I used was the 2nd one. The reflection kinda irritated me, but after looking at it a little longer it is different. I think it presents this kind of ominous foreboding

Week 2: Day 10

I only took 11 of this subject. Don't worry, I did do this yesterday, just didn't have time to post.

This is to show the growth of my family. I was hoping for a different pic, but my aunt and uncle didn't get into town until today. so for now this is it...

Week 2: Day 9

Sticking with the theme of growth, I took a picture of the tree we bought for this last Christmas. Before you say "What?!?" it was a live tree and a little one. The tree is a Norfolk Island Pine, Pretty cool looking since the needles don't look like pine needles. It kinda reminds me of the trees that we saw when driving the mopeds up to the North Shore on Oahu. We wanted a plant that we could keep and hope that it would grow as Nikolai grew. We purchased it only a few days before going into the hospital. I felt bad though because I wanted to decorate for Christmas but didn't, and Brandon put lights on it and I didn't even take a picture of it. Hopefully it will survive my black thumb until next year...

My end count was 38, I don't even remember what the initial number was, and it wasn't until the last 5 that I really felt satisfied with the outcome. My flash was creating a shadow from the lens and I didn't like the look it gave the pictures. I fussed that I wished there was some way to redirect the light so Brandon taped a piece of tin foil to the top of my camera to redirect light down. Well it worked in removing the shadow, but It definitely changed how I was used to taking pictures!

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Week 2: Growth - Day 8

64 pictures total. This is before deleting... After deleting, 25...

I had this one in mind for a while. Now it's just deciding which picture I like best. out of the 25 I kept, I only edited 10... Hmm...

The picture is of our shamrocks that we used for the table center pieces at our wedding. We kept 5, and I think Brandon's mom had kept a few as well. I've been slacking on caring for them, but they are still alive! The metal butterfly Brandon made and gave to me for my birthday one year. The antennae broke off while he was cutting it out. I wanted to emphasize the lines in the leaves of the shamrocks, but this one came out cool where it focused on the butterfly instead. You can see the lines in the butterfly from the grinding. Cool...

Since taking the pictures, I have watered them in hopes it will help them grow more and look better.



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Post - Production


Exif Data:
Camera FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom
Aperture f/2.8
Exposure 0.2 (1/5)
Focal Length 6mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias -1.2EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
White Balance Incandescent
Macro On

Week 1: Reflection

I went back over the files for the pictures of this week and I took 56 pictures! Forget a picture a day! I took well over that! I know some of the times were to adjust the settings on the camera. Auto is not always the best settings. But also it gets really blurry to, so I try to redo without the blur. But some of them seemed to be the same set up, just several different times. Except for 3 out of the 7 days (bookcase, cardboard bales, and the lake). Then I only took a couple of photos and they turned out pretty good.

For day seven I took 16 photos! That is ridiculous for a picture of chicken pieces! I think I will have to limit myself. Yes, I am trying to improve my photography so a little of play room is needed once I get more familiar with the settings. I think I should be able to figure it out in 3 if I play with it. That should give enough play room for monitor and adjusting. But then in the article 3 Workouts To Improve Your Photography it says to take 10 shots of the same subject, but to take it from 10 different angles/positions. But it seems 13 pictures is way too many! It makes it difficult because the screen is hard to see the pictures on, the lighting just works funny.

So, I think I need to limit myself. No more than 5 - 8 pictures of something, and I cannot take more than one picture from the same vantage point. That is going to be difficult! I need to spend my time looking through the viewfinder before snapping that button. At least with objects I don't have to worry about time and irritation with people by taking my time. I think that will be my goal this week is trying to get the shot in one click rather than several. I can do it! I will post the number of shots I took too, to keep myslef honest...

This upcoming week's theme: growth...

Week 1: Day 7

Today I completely forgot about taking a picture until around 7 when we finally got in gear to cook dinner. Yeah, it was a late dinner. Today has been a stressful day, we went to St. Joe's to see my Grandmother in ICU. Apparently she was extremely dehydrated and was having kidney problems as a result...

Anyway, So we decided to make stir fry for dinner because it's easy, we had veges for it in the fridge, and we had chicken we needed to use. Turns out the veges were bad and we had to adjust. Glad I bought the green peppers that were on sale this last week, and we had carrots and onion from tacos not to long ago. It was so good! I decided to take a picture of the chicken as I was cutting them up. The ones of me actually cutting the chicken didn't turn out to well, but the one of the scissors, the plate and the chicken did...

Don't worry, I washed my hands before handling the camera and before handling the chicken. :)

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Exif Data

Camera: FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom

Aperture: f/2.8

Exposure: 0.2 (1/5)

Focal Length: 6mm

ISO Speed: 100

Exposure Bias: 0EV

Flash: Off, did not fire

Week 1: Day 6

Yesterday I took a picture of our gloves that we use to fish, well, remove the fish from the hooks. It is to protect our hands from the slimeyness of the fish (and not loose the fish!). We have used them to protect our hands from catfish because they can get pointy and sharp. Anyway, the gloves had smelled really bad and Brandon washed them in bleach and dawn, they were drying on his truck.

We went to Rose Canyon Lake on Mt. Lemmon...

So today we went fishing and I took a picture of Brandon's co-worker and his family on the wall. We couldn't go back that way, not with Nikolai, so we went to the deck. We brought his stroller to put him in when he was sleepy, and could let him sit up and watch us without having to hold him. Well, the stroller didn't go back to where they were. We had even moved later in the day to a different spot, but hard to get the stroller where we were. Only about half the lake has a paved path, the rest is a pretty good hike.

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Exif Data

Camera: Fujifilm Finepix 2800Zoom

Aperture: f/8.2

Exposure: 0.006 (1/158)

focal length: 6mm

ISO speed: 100

Exposure Bias: +0.3 EV

Flash: off, did not fire

Week 1: Day 5

I want to post this before tomorrow. We are going fishing and these are our gloves after Brandon washed them.
Taken with Macro...




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Post-Production

 Exif Info:
Camera: FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom
Aperture: f/4.8
Exposure: 0.007 sec (1/147)
Focal Length: 6mm
ISO speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0EV
Flash: off, did not fire
Macro: On

Week 1: Day 4

Ok, so day 4... Weekly Theme: Work.

I am probably going to kick myself for this later because it isn't exactly work, but my Iced Tea Maker works for me! I love the thing! I am so glad I got it when I did. We were at an auction at Brandon's parent's church (a glider was up and since we were looking for one, why not try?) and there was this maker in the 'store' part of the event. It was donation only, no set prices and I wanted it so I gave them a couple bucks. Best sale price ever! The maker is awesome! I cannot stress that enough! Since the fridge isn't hooked up to water, just brewing tea and adding ice doesn't work for us, and sun tea (as much as I love sun tea) just takes forever! Now, I still have to refrigerate it for a while, but still...

It's an Arnold Palmer version using Celestial Seasonings Green Tea and Kool Aide Lemonade. Hopefully I got the tea part right this time, last time it wasn't strong enough and just tasted kinda wierd...



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Exif Data:

Camera: FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom

Aperture f/2.8

Exposure: 0.043 sec (1/23)

Focal Length: 9.8mm

ISO Speed: 100

Exposure Bias: +0.3EV

Flash: Off, did not fire

White Balance: Coudy

Week 1: Day 3

So, today I went to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market and wanted to take a picture of the guy putting the produce on the shelves, but I forgot my camera. I thought maybe I could use my phone, but by the time I got my phone out and was going to ask, the guy walked away and I was blocked by customers. As I was walking outside, I saw some employees getting carts, and was going to ask them, but I wanted to go home and Nikolai was getting hungry...

Instead I took a picture of the cardboard bales outside. I don't know why. Maybe because I understand how hard it is to tie the wires around those things (I have hurt my fingers on a number of occasions when I worked at the grocery store), or how dangerous it is when the bale is pushed out of the compactor (it could easily crush your foot or break you leg, it is extremely heavy!). But I do know that we should thank the grocery store employees for stocking the food on the shelves, working all hours of the day and holidays so that way we can buy and put the food on our own tables.

In the 'work' theme for this week, I am honoring the grocery store employees for one of the dangerous aspects of the job... The Cardboard Bale...

Pre-Production

Post-Production

Exif Data

Camera: FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom

Aperture: f/8.2

Exposure: 0.004 (1/274)

Focal Length: 8.2 mm

ISO Speed: 100

Exposure Bias: 0 EV

Flash: Off, Did not fire

Week 1: Day 2

So, following the "work" theme, I have taken a picture of my bookcase in the office. Well, one of my bookcases anyway. This is the one with all my textbooks from my teaching classes, the classes I found interesting at Pima (or couldn't sell), my assignments/lesson plans and papers, and the workbooks I used when I tutored at the schools that failed AYP.

I actually used our mini tripod to get this picture. Otherwise the blur was horrendous!

Pre-Production



Post-Production



Exif Data:

FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom

Aperture: f/2.8

Exposure: 0.5

Focal Length: 6mm

ISO Speed:100

Exposure Bias: +0.6EV

Flash: Off, did not fire

White Balance: Day White Fluorescent

Week 1: Work - Day 1

This week's ideas from digital-photography-school.com is work. So I am going to take this as any kind of work, from my own to other people's.

Today, I decided to do my laundry room. My work entails household stuff since I stay at home with my little boy. My laundry area really needs work, maybe it would make laundry easier and fun if it were in a nicer/cleaner area?

  
Taken from the ceiling. I was unable to look through the viewfinder, so this was entirely guesswork. You can see my toes in the bottom of the picture.

Pre-Production



Post-Production

Exif Info; Keep in mind all I can play with is White Balance and EV...

FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom

Aperture: f/2.8

Exposure: 0.4

Focal Length: 6mm

ISO Speed: 100

Exposure Bias: 0 EV

Flash: Off, Did not Fire

White Balance: White Fluorescent

My Decision...

I have decided, after much deliberation, to begin a picture a day project. I first heard of it from my friend Brenda and thought it would be fun, but time consuming. At that time, I was in school and assignments for then was overwhelming.

Now I am out of school and actually have the time to play with my camera. I find this sad because I have always loved photography, just haven't actually taken the time out to work on my skill, or even just take pictures. At least not before Nikolai was born. Now that Nikolai is here, I LOVE taking pictures. And I am not saying that because I love taking pictures of him, I love taking pictures of anything and everything. The other day I took a picture of our trash bin out on the curb!

I have always wanted a DSLR camera, I even had one picked out years ago on Amazon. It was a Minolta (I don't remember the model anymore), but I feel that my ability is not good enough to warrant a camera like a DSLR. Even the newer model of my current camera, a FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom, has the ability to play with aperture. I am not sure what else, I just saw it at Walmart. I just think it would be nice. The only things I can change on my camera is the Exposure Bias (EV) and the White Balance. It's not much, and sometimes I will just use the auto settings, but at least it is something!

So now that I have more time I am setting out to getting better. Thanks to Brenda for introducing this idea to me a few years ago. Thanks to Yvette for introducing me to digital-photography-school.com. I have been reading that website almost everyday. To help with my mission, I have even begun doing their weekly assignments. Some readings I have done there have reinforced my interest in doing this project.

So I will start this later today, as right now it is only 1 hour after midnight and I need to go to bed.

I will be using 53 Weekly Themes For Your 2011 Project 365 to help give me ideas. If you can suggest any, feel free to comment on the posts. Trust me, I am welcome to any ideas! :)