update

I felt an update was in order. I keep avoiding new postings because I haven't had any pictures to attach. For a few weeks, I just wasn't motivated toward photography or anything creative-- different priorities surfaced. Over the course of the past week I have felt inspiration creeping in but I am a little stuck. I feel disabled by photoshop. I took those maternity shots of my sister. Each of them needs a little editing but I am just not skilled in the photoshop tequniques yet. I have been reading a lot and experimenting. One in particular, I did a lot of editing to, in multiple layers-- smoothed skin tones, patched a blemish, darkened the edges of the frame to highlight the subject, etc. I printed it on paper and saved but apparently saved in a format that doesn't remember photo shop "layers." So, basically, the editing is gone.  Also, those layers are costly in terms of space/memory. I know I need to figure out a way to save the images I take but pretty soon, my computer will be so bogged down. Do I get an external hard drive? Do I put them on a jump drive? Do I upload to a "cloud" type resource??? I just don't know! 

I feel like I need to research to the point of a decision

• storage
• photoshop basic editing
• saving format for my photos
• ** light, lense, focal length

The whole light thing....it's nuts. There is a mathematical equation regarding aperture and shutter speed. It makes sense in the simplest terms-- smaller opening needs longer length of time open to let in appropriate lighting. But, there are degrees of opening and shutter speeds.   

So, to just say, "I want to bring that background out of focus to highlight the subject's face in front of me, therefore I will use a lower aperture" means that all of a sudden your picture is overexposed (too light) if your shutter doesn't close faster. So, you need to adjust the shutter speed. And there are varying degrees of adjustment that come into play based upon an exposure wheel.  So far, I have read over this a couple of times when I have been tired. I am not making progress so far. Same thing for getting your subject in focus and calculating the focal length. Something about the image sensor, something about a conversion factor with Nikon... like, your lense says 200m but with conversion factor (no idea why at this point) with Nikon there's a 1.5 increase so really you are looking at 350m and this is important when determining how far from your subject you can get with a certain shutter speed and maintain focus without having to bump up the ISO which can create "noise" in the photo. Is that a run-on sentence?? ;)

So, I really want to take a photo shop class. I think it would be a concise way to cover the ground I need to cover.  My trial by error, teach myself approach is taking a lot of time and is frustrating. 

I HAVE to get a handle on the measuring light issues and get comfortable with making quick, effective decisions for exposure based upon those readings.

I LOOOVE to think about composition and just the fun part of capturing those things that stir my heart, but I have to say, in a large part right now, I feel like my inspiration toward that angle is stilted because I know I have these other barriers that prevent me from getting those images to print or even saved in a way that is going to work. 

Good News!!!

So, I don't have much time to spend on blogging-- but I have been wanting to share some good news. Well, it's kind of good news- I felt like it was, anyway.  How many times have you seen something beautiful, grabbed your camera, snapped a shot, and then didn't like what you saw in the viewfinder? It happens to me all of the time, and was partly my motivation to take the photography class. I am reading a great book that I am loving about digital photography. I love the tone, pace, style of the author and I am learning a lot. So, what I have recently learned is... if you think of a scene, say a sunrise/horizon, and you think of that in terms of highlight and shadows- the human eye can take in 11 stops of variance. (stops is just the unit of measurement used in photography- remember me mentioning "f-stops?") Slide film in a camera can take in 5 stops. A digital SLR- can only take in 3-4 stops!! So no wonder you aren't seeing in the viewfinder what you can see with your eye!!  First of all, consider how amazingly we are created! Second, photographers must manipulate the input in order to  produce a photo that correctly imitates the original and that is where all the learning, skill, and talent come together.  And on the same note, I am about 90% sure now that because of these facts, my Knight's Ferry bridge attempt was impossible. I think I needed a flash unit with adjustable light for the interior of the bridge-- or.... a fun project would be to merge 2 shots together in photoshop. One perfectly exposed of the road/fence and one perfectly exposed of the interior of the covered bridge and then overlay the two using "Layers." I would love to try it, but I am fairly sure most of those pictures were ruined by R..... 's photo processor. :(  So now, take a deep breath... and exhale sweet relief. The bad pictures-- not your fault. It's your really expensive camera's limited ability. :) 

Maternity

I had the honor of doing a maternity "photoshoot" with my little sister yesterday. It was a fun learning experience. I am very thankful she was a guinea pig for me. Here's a couple of shots that I like, but I am learning so much about PhotoShop and want to try some of what I am learning on touching up these shots-- but I have more reading to do! These are not in their final stage yet! :)

Birch

I have always loved Birch trees. I think they look especially amazing in the midst of an evergreen grouping or in a dense grouping of White Birch trees.  I was trying to figure out a way to capture the beauty of this tree the other morning. I tried several test shots, sort of looking for a focal point or point of interest and couldn't find anything remarkable. Over and over I have read in the photography books-- "change your angle." So I did. I laid down on my back and took a shot straight up.  I love the blues and greens and the peaceful blur of it outside of the focal point.

Harvest

I was able to grab a few shots of this magical time of year-- right before sunset. I had some vision for other shots that I wasn't able to get.  In particular, I was hoping for a "work in progress" type of shot that involved a pile of almonds (close up) with just some work boots at the edge of the frame...maybe even part of the rake for some linear detail. Maybe next year! 

Can't think of a title :)

Yesterday morning I was waiting for the library downtown to open and was able to get a couple of shots that I liked.

On my way to my walk in the evening, I took my camera along and played with the light again over a pasture. I always notice the light at this place and have to force myself to keep my eyes on the road as I drive past in the early mornings and in the evenings. I think I am getting closer to finding what I want with those surreal images in the sun. The hard part is not having a subject to focus on- it did occur to me though, that I would probably also need a reflector of some sort to fight the shadows that would surely be on the subject's face as they faced me, and I faced the sun.  I don't have much time to write...but here's a few shots.

This is my favorite. Why??  I don't know! :) Who knew I could like barbed wire that much?!

Knight's Ferry Frustration :)

I went to Knight's Ferry to play with my camera last week. I enjoyed the quiet. I enjoyed the drive. The photography portion, however, was frustrating. I know this frustration is inevitable in the learning process-- at it seems the learning is at hand even now! I cannot get these pics to post at the XLarge size without being blurry, which is crazy because they are saved in the highest resolution possible. I wanted room on my memory card so Friday afternoon I had my pictures put on a photo CD at RiteAid. I was initially excited  that the cost was the same as Costco ($2.99). I learned that the RiteAid CDs hold much less information so they wanted to use six CDs to empty my card!!! My camera was set to save each picture in RAW format and JPEG. I decided to only burn the RAW format, knowing that my Photoshop could convert the RAW file. I got home, tried the CD, saw the picture, and then deleted the images off of my camera. Now, I can't get thumbnails of the pics and something isn't right as I cannot blow these images up on the blog! Grrr......

So anyway, part of my frustration with Knight's Ferry was this bridge. In the top photo you can see the interior of the covered bridge. In the bottom photo you can see the exterior. Something about that arched exit with the sharpness of the white fence against the trees is what was drawing me to this scene. I could totally see this as a cover of a book about a journey- fiction or nonfiction. What I was after, though, was a combination of both-- slightly able to see the awesome wood interior of the bridge but still have the sharpness in the exit with the fence and road. I couldn't get it! The inside was either underexposed, or the outside overexposed. I wish I could find out if it is possible to do both.  I am going to play with it a bit on Photoshop to see if that gives me what I want. 

Additionally, I tried experimenting with my exposure compensation button. I think I am getting the idea of how and when to use that. I found some more wheat stuff and tried shooting into the sun to practice that effect I am after. I couldn't get the individual pieces to come into focus like I want-- the puzzle is what frustrates me. My mind is trying to solve all these puzzles with limited information, all the while, not knowing if it is able to be solved with the equipment I have. For example, did I need a macro lens to be able to get close enough to that wheat without blur? I just wanted it to fill the screen.

I saw a lot that I liked at Knight's Ferry. I was interested in how the rocks looked beneath the water in the river but couldn't get close enough.  Being responsible seemed to be forefront (thankfully) in my mind. It would be dumb to be up there, alone, and fall in the water for a picture learning experience! I thought it would be fun to sit still long enough right along the river to try to capture a jumping fish. 

My goals for the day were to try to complete my "Travel Photography" assignment and to practice the exposure compensation. I was tempted to try to get some good shots of the rafting group that was gathering but they took FOREVER to get assembled. It would be fun to get some good shots for the rafting company. Doubts held me back though-- I figured I would probably do something illegal and get sued.

Still trying to salvage my trip, I drove through Historic Knight's Ferry thinking I would document the place with photos as outlined in my assignment. However, it was odd.. usually I would love the quaint, old-fashioned buildings on the main street but I just wasn't feeling it!  Isn't that funny?? It sounds so dumb to me as I type it- But, as I drove through town it just seemed so touristy and staged rather than authentic. I wasn't inspired to photograph it! I am seriously wondering if it was just my mood at that point?? Who knows?!