Kindness of My Lord

I have to jump on here quickly to say, that God gave me the sweetest gift today.  This afternoon I met a woman out at the school who shares a love of photography.  She was taking pictures during the event and I asked her on a break what she was shooting with (it looked like a full-frame) and what settings she was using to not have to use flash, etc, etc... We chatted afterward and exchanged contact info.  She seemed very down-to-earth, simple, and balanced with photography pursuit and motherhood.. yet she is down the road several years in experience.  I'm not expecting the stranger-lady to be my best friend :) but for today, it was just what I needed.  I think God gave it to me, that little gift...I had been talking to the Lord recently about wishing I could talk to someone about the photography stuff who seems to really LOVE it with me-- my family members are sweet and supportive but in the end, "oh, cool" is about all they can muster! :) And, I can't blame them! This is my passion and it doesn't stir everyone the way it does me.  Often I am okay with that..but sometimes I wish I could share it with someone who saw it the way I do.  A silly wish, I think-- in the scheme of life on earth vs life in heaven, my purpose, etc-- Nonetheless, I felt the sweet, tender, care of the Lord as He provided this connection today--that He cares, He hears, He sees, and He is near to me.
My cup runneth over.....

Project 52: Week 3: Soothing Repetition

I was really trying hard to capture the steam with a low shutter speed, adjusting ISO to balance the slow speed.. I didn't quite get it, but you can see the white right on the surface if you look hard. 

Here, my watermark is distracting.. but it's not too simple to resize.  I will prob re-post without watermark later.

another one from Shades of Grey

My mom asked me to edit this one and send-- it was her favorite from the Shades of Grey shoot. I still prefer the pipes but figured I might as well post it here.

Weekly challenge possibilities

I am having a harder time with this week's challenge "Soothing Repitition."  I really only have one idea.  There are things that are soothing to me and things that I think fit the category but.. I'm struggling with it.  I have 2 ideas that I will try, I think.. lighting will be the challenge.

On some of the other topics, I am hopeful the 60% chance of rain on Thursday combined with no teaching responsibilities that day will help me out.  I was contemplating a long drive, but I don't think that's going to work out with my time frame, and with the rain.

Miss You Card Order

If it's on sale, I'm going to place this order.  I wasn't sure if I liked it, after all.. but then, I straightened the horizon out and added text and I ended up liking it well enough. But, I don't love it.  I ordered matte paper and just rounded corners, the bottom interior color will show through to the front by the rounded corners-- if that makes sense. ( I color matched from the top of the sky.)  Here's the front, middle, back.

Pipe Dream Addendum

I can't believe I forgot to mention....I had a usual clumsy moment during the Shades of Grey shoot.  I was trying to get that shot of the pipes, actually, and needed a tight angle..before I knew it I was on my knees out in the middle of the construction yard.  My mind was nagging, 'ouch' but I kept on shooting.  Finally, I stood up and looked at my hands and knees that were hurting-GOATHEADS! haha! no wonder it hurt! I had to pull out at least 10 of them!

Miss you card

I've been wanting to make a "Miss You" card-- and thought I had just the picture to do it with from long ago.  I wanted to try it, though, with experimenting with duo-tones or split-toning which is when you assign one color to highlights, and another color to shadows.  I did that on this, an added some other versions with different adjustments.  My least fav is the high contrasty look.  I don't like it for the card I am after, but it kind of reminds me of a book cover. Here's the 3 so far- I would probably add small text in right, lower corner "Miss you.."

My lab is having a huge sale on printed cards right now and that is unusual so I am trying to hurry up and get this done despite it having been on my list for a couple of months now!

actually, seeing this on here..I don't like this version :) I tried to highlight the building doing some technique I was learning but it looks terrible! REALLY messy! I like the moody style but not the sloppy editing.

Project 52: Week 2--Shades of Grey

I had several ideas for this project--this one, more industrial with repeating pipes.  I also had envisioned melting some grey wax on top of an overturned wine glass, expecting it to look all swirly and shiny with a black background--but I would have needed some more training on inside photography.  There was a recent free training on CreativeLIVE that was titled "Tabletop Photography." It would have been perfect.  It is free if you view it live but you have to pay for the archives.  I would have had to not do school for Jacob 3 mornings in a row to get it for free :)  Anyway, one last idea that I wish I could have done is a cool, old truck..fender with some nice, fat, chrome exhaust pipe early in the morning with smoke rising and condensation dripping.  This is what I have for now, though-- I learned how to do some more black and white editing and how to export with my watermark.  I can feel growth in getting the shots in camera, learning to use the histogram on a regular basis and points of composition coming to mind more readily and naturally.  Here it is:

"Pipe Dreams"

Logo/Watermark

Today I learned how to make a logo and how to download and load free "brushes" into Photoshop.  Pretty cool.  For viewing purposes here on the blog, I made a copy on a black background, but in real life, I have this on a transparent background so it can go on top of my images as a watermark.  Photoshop and Lightroom can be set up to batch process photos with a watermark.  This is something I have been wanting to do for a while-- I just didn't know how to get a graphic type addition to the text.  I wanted something elegant and simple.  I am pretty pleased with this one and happy that I made it myself without paying someone to do it!

Project 52 Challenge: Illustrate a Song Title

Leather and Lace

For work

I was trying to emulate a technique that makes it look like the photo is matted, in addition to being framed, but my program will not respond even though I am following all the steps.  Sometimes, when you pay $80 for a program instead of the $400 full version--you can tell. :)

Ramblings

I have got to get some of this stuff down before I forget.. so hard to find the time.  For one thing, I got an off-camera flash unit for Christmas from my mother-in-law!  It is awesome and I wondered if I would ever be able to get one- they are pretty expensive..I don't think I have ever had a Christmas present that nearly cost $400! What a spoiled brat I am! :)  Funniest thing though- I am scared to try it! Can't believe it is Jan 15th and I still haven't put that thing on my camera!  I am intimidated I guess.  I need to read and learn how to use it.  Having the flash will allow me to bounce flash off a wall or ceiling instead of the straight at a face.  It can also be used in conjunction with other flash units as you set up a studio and use softboxes, etc to diffuse light.  Nikon has the Creative Lighting System- they all work together and communicate with the CPU of the lens to calculate distance and focal length, aperature, etc.  Very cool.  I hope I get brave soon and try it out.


I decided a few weeks ago? month ago? to try to find out the learning path of some other photographers.  There is one in particular that I have been noticing.  She is from GA and I met her parents years ago.  She has been taking photos of some of my close friends in GA.  I have been seeing these images on FB and they really stand out as nice work.  Additionally, she is the photographer of an upstarting online magazine.  So anyway, I thought I would ask her how she learned and grew.  I got connected with her via FB and mutual friends.  I ended up talking to her on the phone and discovered that she really didn't have a "path"-- she just taught herself and practices a lot.  Lots of trial and error.  Well, that tells me she has a lot of raw talent.  I was feeling a little discouraged because she is so young, and I thought she was newly married with a baby and also doing all this stuff, learning on her own, etc etc... then I realized, SHE IS REALLLY young! :) I was confusing her with her sister.  So-- she is young, and talented but also living at home with parents and can devote her time almost exclusively to photography.  It made me start thinking about how much time I actually do NOT spend on photography yet I am so frustrated at my slow progress.  Really, especially lately, I don't take pictures.  There are many facets to this learning journey- some parts are on the computer and in books and it's all necessary- but I also need to keep working on the photos.  Keep taking pictures and learning the mechanics.  Practice.   That makes me especially glad about the photo challenge I am going to do.

Another thing I did a couple of weeks ago was go to Barnes and Noble by myself for about 3 hours.  I got a coffee and about 6-7 books and holed up in the kids section.  I perused photography books about portraits, lighting, posing, etc and took notes in my photography notebook.  It was nice and I learned some things.
I learned about lens distortion.  I knew one day I would know more about buying lenses and possibly regret my choices so far! :) But, I did the best I could with the info that I have.  Anyway, that cool, low aperature lens my dad got me is great for many things.  I had wanted a 50mm but they were out of stock and about $100 more.  The sales person said I would be equally happy with a 35mm.  That's what I got but guess what? 35mm means a wider-angle lens and when used in portraits, can distort things in an unflattering way.  Like a big nose can look even bigger.  Big cheeks bigger. A longer lens (like an 85mm that is now on my wishlist) compressed things so is often more flattering for portraits.  Live and learn.  Again, there's science behind this..and math.  There's a formula for figuring so much of this out-- like what size sensor your camera has, times the focal length, divided by something else etc etc :) Someday I hope to know it- then you can see a problem and know what to do to fix it.  That is mastery.

At the bookstore, I used a gift card that I was given for taking pics of my sister's friend and son-- I got an awesome book on sale: Scott Kelby's Lightroom 5 book.  I like Scott Kelby, his writing, and his teaching style.  It's a huge, colorful book with all kinds of instruction about how to be better at using Lightroom.  I really wish I could dive in for about 12 hours straight! I just haven't had the time.  But, when I do, I am looking forward to trying a new technique with dual tones to improve an image I took over a year ago and I hope to make into another type of card.

Last for now- I still have to finish editing my niece's photos.  I want to be done with that! And a couple other photo sessions that need quick adjustments so I can be finished with lingering projects.

I am really thankful for the creative spark the photo challenge is giving me already.  I am anticipating a break down between my mind's eye and my capabilities :) but the challenge is the point and i am reminding myself to just have fun, not worry about the nitty gritty.  It's just practice and hopefully I will learn more and more and I practice each week.  I think I need a deadline for each week's challenge.  Whew, that's a scary thought. deadline.

Weekly Challenge

Well, I emailed that photographer about the weekly challenge.  I know I posted the daily challenge on here-- but I was pretty bummed.  Weekly seemed just right and I didn't want to pick and choose off the daily list because I think I would gravitate toward things that I like or are comfortable? I don't know.  It just seemed like it would be too much and then I wouldn't do it at all.  The hard part about the old, weekly challenge is that it isn't just typed up somewhere.  I have to painstakingly sort through each week's blog post and get the theme for the following week.  If you do it with the group- they all post on facebook or flicker and selections are made to be shared, etc-- oh well.  I am glad I can be challenged and post on here.  It's exciting- I hope it brings new life to this boring blog!

Oh, and guess what? I found out that Pioneer Woman- my favorite cook at the moment, also has a photography section and guess what! She started her blog just as a learning record of what she was learning along the way! I feel like a copier-- but I had no idea! :) Plus, she's hilarious on her blog and I am..well, I'm not! :)

First section of challenges: (all I had time to get for now)

• Illustrate a Song
• Shades of Gray
• Soothing Repitition
• Muse
• Words
• Open Your Heart
• The View From Here
• Express Yourself
• Childhood Toys
• Darks and Lights
• From the Jewellery Box ( that still seems like a spelling error!) isn't it "jewelry"????

frame

For our new website for work, I am trying to get some pictures together from our recent Christmas party.  My director asked me to put the photos into a frame for the web page.  There are templates for frames in photoshop-- but so far, I have had a hard time with them and think they look cheesy.  I watched a tutorial on how to make one.  I made a black rectangle, then another rectangle inside to provide a border.  It made a nice black frame but was very flat.  Then use the gradient tool on selected areas around the corners to make it look like light is shining on it to give dimension.  I am SOOOOO not an artist so I don't think it looks quite right- but still better than it did.  Fun- a little frustrating at times when my program doesn't do it exactly the same way as the demo.  I now have to figure out how to shrink the canvas size to the size of the frame.  Here it is:

seems like the bottom left corner is off with light making it look extroverted instead of inverted.  wait, is extroverted the right word?? I have a very social and gregarious bottom left corner?;)

Challenge

I wanted a weekly challenge but couldn't find one-- I guess I will go with this for now but I don't really expect to be able to devote time each day.   

Analysis

Hard to decide where to begin--I have had time to analyze my photography pursuits.  I have processed through my desire to take a class yet not being able to, my desire to improve but feeling stuck, wondering if it is God's will for me to continue, is it ok to want this, to go after it, or should my energy be spent elsewhere.. etc, etc.  Helpful in a lot of this thinking was that I read a book about desiring after God's kingdom and not my own.  There were MANY helpful learning points and reminders in the book but toward the end the author portrays a scenario of a woman who is very happy about her life.  Very content.  She is thankful to God for all he is given her and all her dreams are fulfilled: home in the suburbs, kids, kids doing well in school, husband is kind and hardworking, nice church family, health...as I read it, I thought-- this is a picture of victory, right? She has what she desired, and is thankful to God for it.  She isn't discontent and constantly in pursuit of more. Contentment- it's good. It's right. Right?  Well, yes- but the author was saying she is MISSING the point! This life is not about our life- we were created to be a part of a bigger plan.  In a nutshell, we are to pursue God's kingdom and not our own.  Being content with her life, this woman was fine just as she was but she had no heart aching for the lost or seeking God for how she would be used each day for His purposes in the world.  It was a little shocking to me as I read it- it sounded so good in the scenario.  How easily we settle for less than God has for us.  How easily we think contentment comes in our miniscule little kingdom.  For one thing, what happens when one little thing in that perfect world gets tipped over? But, how challenging it was to consider myself, my finite mind, my selfish pursuits.  What bogs me down? What are my hopes? It's the small stuff- in the little kingdom of Dawn.  Do I think happiness is going to be found in obedient children?  In easily achieved academic success of my children? In an organized home? In physical beauty? In relationships and affection? Or as in the case of this topic-- creative pursuits, creative expression, success in learning and pursuing a goal?

It's crazy to think about how many ways I live in the Dawn-kingdom mindset every day.  It is revolutionary to try to replace the many thoughts and emotions of one day with a Heavenly kingdom mindset.  It is part of the way I feel when I see my dad's number on my caller ID :), and how I respond to yet another sibling rivalry conflict before 7am, and who I decide to invite over for dinner, how I spend my money, how I use my "free time", etc, etc.  So- I was convicted and I was challenged and I was SO motivated walking around some mountain roads in the quiet.  I was ashamed for feeling disappointment in not getting to take a photography class.  Who cares, right?! What is photography in the scheme of things.  Why was I even spending time on it? Should I be?  Maybe I need to stop....

But, as with all things in life-- BALANCE. :) The pendulum began to swing the other direction and I began to ask the Lord if I really had to give it up.  Is it ok to have this pleasurable pursuit?  As motivated as I felt, the sadness weighed pretty heavily at the thought of stopping.  So, (I really didn't mean to go into this so much--but I guess it's part of the journey) I have come to the conclusion that it's ok for me to pursue this.  It's ok to enjoy it just for the sake of enjoyment.  But, I need to guard against wanting more than God provides in His timing for my growth, my ability.  I need to continually keep it with an open hand lifted up.  I hope to also use it at times for His Kingdom purposes as He shows me.

With that perspective a new thought line commenced---I can't take a class.  But, what else can I do to grow, then.  There has to be more than one way to ....to... what's the phrase? rope a cow? train a monkey? seriously, can't think of the phrase- but I started digging a little in finding another way or ways to grow.  What I have found so far- will be in the next post. Yes, boring, windy post with no images. :)  For now.. I have a FaceTime date with someone across the world! Bye!

Belated blogging

I actually have quite a few things to get down on here but it all seems sort of fragmented. I have been thinking about how to organize the different tangents! Hopefully soon I will get it down here. Also, I haven't taken any photos in so long. It is pretty boring to not have new images. I briefly saw this challenge on a photography site that was called 52 something. I think it was from 2012 but the challenge gave a genre or suggested goal each week. I would like to do that. Been meaning to check if the weekly topics are still available or not.

journals

Here are the pictures I "pushed" onto my children. :)  I had intended them to be a Christmas gift but they came late.  I was going to save them for Valentine's Day but then thought I would make it a New Years tradition-- to give them each a new journal for that year with a picture I took for them.  The roots picture is one that my middle son loves and always comments on when he sees it on my computer.  My daughter loves flowers- especially pink one.  I feel a little bad about my picture choice for my oldest-- he doesn't love barbed wire.  :) but-- he was in the car yelling, "Moooommmmm hurry up" when I was pulled over taking that picture one morning on the way to school! :) At the time, it was all I could think of but now I have thought of a few that I think he would resonate with better.  They were on my other hard drive but I wish I would have taken the time to get it.  I think he would have like the sand patterns I took in Hilton Head or the lone seagull on the shore.  Anyway, I like this idea and plan to continue it.  Kate's is lined inside and the boys have blank pages so they can draw or write.