Sunday, February 28, 2010

day 171.

I sense a trend.

I may be taking my camera into the grocery store with me all the time from now on. Who knows what all I could get out of just one outing? Besides my groceries, of course.

And no, I didn't buy this Activia yogurt. I was only interested in getting a picture of it.

Digital Field Guide: page 79. Starting a chapter on lenses.

Images: browsed different blogs featuring only iPhone photos.


Saturday, February 27, 2010

day 170.

Part of an odd machine at a local coffee shop. I have no idea what it does.

Digital Field Guide: page 78

Friday, February 26, 2010

day 169.

Why it hadn't occurred to me before now to take my camera with me into the grocery store, I really can't say. Now, all I can say is, durr.

Digital Field Guide: page 78

Images: On the recommendation of a tweet, I checked out Joey Lawrence's blog, and I am so glad I did. Oh. My. Gawsh. His photos are stunning. His "Nikon Girl" video is pretty funny too. Aaaand he's only twenty years old, and apparently one of the youngest photographers ever to be teaching at this big-time conference in Dubai. Maybe the rest of us should just stop.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

day 168.

Today was so pretty, I was drawn to the sky again. Skies are about as mesmerizing as mesmerizing can get.

Digital Field Guide: actually read a couple of tutorial blog posts.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

day 167.

My husband looked at this and said, "This is so 'Forrest Gump.'" I agree.

Digital Field Guide: page 78

Images: LoveMissB on Flickr

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

day 166.

An ugly day, yet somehow a beautiful day.

Digital Field Guide: page 78

Images: Pictory

day 165: yum.

Snack time! Luckily I was able to snag one of these treats before they all disappeared.

Digital Field Guide: page 77

Images: browsed several images tagged #iphoneography on Twitter.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

day 164.


What a gloriously beautiful day. The ATL is back in its normal warm almost-Springly splendor. Don't get me wrong; the winter wonderland last week was gorgeous, but honestly, it felt a bit fish-outta-water-ish.

I took several shots of this pinecone, after "posing" it how I wanted it. I had a hard time deciding which finished shot I wanted to share.

I really like taking still life photos.

Digital Field Guide: page 77

Images: laurennicolelove on Flickr

Saturday, February 20, 2010

day 163.

Digital Field Guide: page 77

Images: several posts from some of my favorite photographer/artist-bloggers in my Google Reader.

Friday, February 19, 2010

day 162.

Back to the piano. Because it's such a lovely instrument.

Digital Field Guide: page 76

Images: browsed my Flickr favorites from way back.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

day 161.

Cucumbers! Yay!

They're really good with cream cheese in sandwiches.

Digital Field Guide: page 76

Images: browsed the new photos posted by my Flickr contacts.

day 160.

Why.

Why did I take a picture of this?

I mean, I do seem to like fire hydrants and all, but...I don't know.

This wasn't even one of those moments of "Ooh-I'm-gonna-turn-it-into-art-I'm-gonna-make-it-look-compelling-blah-blah-blah." As nice of a day it was, I could've photographed something else. But this...I just...well, there it is.

Digital Field Guide: getting back on the horse. The one called Page Seventy-Five.

Images: I found yet ANOTHER cd of old pictures from a few years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter. Loaded them onto the computer. That's one of the great things about unpacking after a move. One of the few great things.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

day 159.

Two trips. We made the move in two trips. That's decent, I think.

Here I am trying to snap random pictures along the way.

Now, if I can get my mind right, I'll be back on the full challenge/project grind tomorrow.

But for now, while I'm thinking about it, I'll randomly plug my other blog, which I am using as a portfolio. It's called Rosebud Photography. I'm gonna wait until this weekend to get back to updating that one, as I like to feel mentally settled when choosing photos to post there. I do not feel the least bit mentally settled at the moment.

But, praise God, I'm moved.

day 158.

This is one of those random things that doesn't get packed away in a box. You know, liquids. Potentially messy.

And how appropriate that the picture turned out to be a fuzzy mess. Because that's exactly what my mind is like right now.

Fail!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

day 157: a small token of love.


This is not a special photo. It's Valentine's Day, and I am sharing something I will love to get for my new home. It will make for years and years of comforting, warm cups of coffee, which I love. It will be my housewarming gift to myself, methinks.

Digital Field Guide: This did not happen today. We are packing up this afternoon in preparation for loading the U-Haul this afternoon.

Images: Did not happen. Same reason.

And, just as a warning, I think I'll only be posting shots I have gotten, at least until Tuesday. Same reason.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

day 156: the winter wonderland, revisited.

And the snow was still on the ground and on the trees the next day.

I like to look up at the tops of trees. A lot. Maybe I'll do a series on trees.

Digital Field Guide: page 75

Images: I did a delightful engagement shoot today. We were in the lovely snow and bitter cold. They were troopers though, and we had fun. I got over 300 shots, which I thumbed through tonight.

Friday, February 12, 2010

day 155: a veritable winter wonderland.


It was a winter wonderland, unlike anything I've seen in Atlanta in a very very long time.

So, of course, I'm gonna post a picture of the winter wonderland. Predictable, right?

Digital Field Guide: Was on the road most of the day, because of said winter wonderland and my fellow ATLiens freaking out in the snow. A one-hour trip turned into four. Yay. That being said, I went to my Nikon School app again to read an article, as I could do that while I was sitting in the parking lot at McDonald's on a quick pit stop.

Images: I have gobs of great blogs that I subscribe to in my Google Reader, so I read several of those posts and saw tons of great and inspiring images.

day 154: i'll get it. soon.

No, this is not one of those days where I felt uninspired and didn't know what to shoot.

This is another attempt to find those things that are nondescript and forgettable and try to present them as... art.

I am no good at this. Yet. But I have a hunger to get this right. To make the non-compelling compelling.

Digital Field Guide: read an article on my Nikon School app.

Images: I am trying to get packed up to move (I emphasize the word TRYING) and found some old photos today, from when my middle son (four years old) was just a baby, around a year old. Adorable.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

day 153.

Some days at Master's Academy are pretty wild, with the kids bouncing off the walls. Today was one of those days. I still have a small handful of students that don't participate in all of the tomfoolery, but would rather sit and observe.

Digital Field Guide: page 76, Exposure value compensation

Images: Reading all of today's posts from the first day of "Blog it Forward," in which I am participating. (More on that soon.)

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

day 152.

Horses!

Digital Field Guide: page 75

Images: Helene Smith on Flickr

day 151.

One of the signs at school.

Digital Field Guide: page 75

Images: Carl Zoch on Flickr

Sunday, February 07, 2010

day 150.

It's a bridge.

Digital Field Guide: page 74

Images: browsed the Facebook photo albums of some of my students.


day 149: belmont.

Taken with my iPhone; processed using TiltShift Generator.

My son's rockin' his recording session today.

We head home tonight.

That's right. Up, then back, in twenty-four hours. That's how we do.

Friday, February 05, 2010

day 148: cashville.

Taken with my iPhone; processed using Camera Kit.

We got on the road headed to Nashville yesterday morning. I say yesterday because after driving up here and spending the day touring places then doing a recording session last night, when I finally got back to the hotel I was toast and crashed without even starting a draft to post.

It was cold and rainy in the Atl.

And, unfortunately, there was more of the same in Nashville.

It was the same all the way up the road.

Cold, drizzly, rainy, dreary.

But beautiful nonetheless.

We've got a packed weekend ahead of us, which has already started and it isn't slowing down today, so I think it will be best if I put the Field Guide reading and image hunting on hold until tomorrow (Sunday).


Thursday, February 04, 2010

day 147: light.

The bad thing about days like this is the weather.

The good thing about days like this is that even when the weather is poor, opportunities for great pictures abound.

It is Theme Thursday over on Tasra Dawson's blog, and the theme for today is "light." So, yeah.

No sunlight for me today. Because there was none.

No light bulbs or light fixtures either, because let's face it, I've done a few of those already and am thinking I'll just give them a break.

Ironically, I posted a sunlight shot for yesterday's post, so I guess the weather is a day late.

So,... light. Light. Light?

Not really sure what to do, for most of the day.

Then, when I was editing some photos tonight, I put one of them through some of my Holga filters (since I don't actually have a Holga camera, this is the next best thing). One of them produces a "light leak" effect. Now, I know light leaks are undesirable, but to me they can be pretty cool at the right times. Again, it goes back to that "memory" vibe that I want to accomplish sometimes. Memory meaning, I remember sometimes looking at some of my dad's photos that would come back from the Fotomat booth (this was before he turned our den into a darkroom) and some of them would be "ruined," or they would have those light leak spots around their edges. The picture itself was still visible though.

I even remember later on in the 80's, when I would occasionally get light leaks on some of my polaroid pictures. It wasn't always a terrible thing.

So, yeah. That effect invokes pleasant memories. The photo looks like a dusty memory from way back when. A throwback even, if you will.

Aaand the phrase "light leak" has the word "light" in it. So there.

Digital Field Guide: page 74

Images: Kentucky photographer Shelby Lee Adams

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

day 146: sunlight is good.

Maybe I should do a series of sunlight pictures.

Digital Field Guide: page 74, Getting the right exposure

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

day 145: perfect or happy?


Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be a photographer that takes pictures that are technically perfect in every way. I mean, I look at my pictures and am constantly picking them apart, thinking about how this or that could have been better technically. There are some that are unusable of course, then others that I look at and think, "Okay. That wasn't too bad." Then there are photos, increasingly more as time passes, that I look at and think, "Yay. Looking at this makes me happy. I'm glad I took this."

Mind you, those photos in the latter category are rarely (if ever) what one would call "technically perfect," which is why I wonder if I am ever going to be that kind of photographer.

If I don't make it to Strobist or Scott Bourne-levels as a photographer, I won't die of depression or anything like that. I just wonder.

And then I think back to the photos in the latter category, the ones that make me think "Yay. Looking at this makes me happy. I'm glad I took this."

And it brings me to this conclusion: if it turns out that I cannot have it both ways, I would rather be the type of photographer that takes pictures that people will see and think, "Yay. Looking at this makes me happy. I'm glad the photographer took this."

I think it's because of how I think as a musician and a singer. I never want to be the type of singer that always sings with technically-perfect execution if all the audience is going to take away from my performance is, "Well, it was technically perfect."

I want people to be moved by my singing, even if I fudge a note or run every now and then. I want to sing with such emotion and feeling that the audience BELIEVES what I am saying, even if I am singing in a different language.

Yesterday I read these tweets by songwriter John Mark McMillan:

"The definition of music is 'sound and silence organized.' There is no such thing as 'perfect' in music, just the way it makes you feel."

"People don't really want music, they want you. It doesn't matter how good your music is if you're not in it. You need to bleed a little."

"Cause if your music doesn't make me feel, if it doesn't move me, then it might as well be shoes in the dryer."

"And if your [songs] don't move you then don't expect them to move anyone else."

My sentiments exactly. That is what I want when I am listening to singers and musicians.

But what about photography? Is it... I don't know... vision and silence organized? Can the above quotes apply to photography too? I think they can. Many of the images I have shared over this challenge as inspiration are images that moved me somehow, making me think "Yay. Looking at this makes me happy. I am so glad the photographer took this." And many of those same images do not look like the technically perfect images I have also seen.

In short, I will always work toward making my images more and more technically sound, but my hope is to always be the kind of photographer that provides art that moves people.

Digital field guide: page 73. Why? Because I am indeed, apparently, a slacker. Sheesh.

Images: Rebecca Lily on Flickr

Monday, February 01, 2010

day 144.

Squeeee! It's amazing what a beautiful day can do for one's mood.

Digital Field Guide: page 73. Darn this exposure chapter.

Images: browsed the Etsy shop of Gabrielle Kai Photography. I've got my eye on quite a few prints!

still fearless.


After reading Ali Edwards' post today about reflecting on her one little word every month, I decided to do the same thing. It is February first, and I am going to review the things I did the past month to kick fear in the teeth.

I started a Facebook Fan Page for my business.

I added a listing to Google. (It will be a few more weeks before it shows up.)

I approached two friends about being business mentors, and started getting advice from them.

I ordered business cards.

I made the concrete decision to expand my business in a particular way, and started working toward that expansion.


This may not seem like much, but to me, it's gigantic. All of it. Thinking of all of this stuff in my head and keeping it there keeps it safe. I stay safe. I don't have to worry about falling flat on my face and failing royally at this whole thing, because it's all in my head! I didn't actually do anything.

Now that it's all in the open, and I've done things I cannot go and undo, I am stuck with it. And I am going to see it through no matter what. That is what being fearless means for me. It means pushing aside all of those stray thoughts that want to give me reasons A-Z why I am not good enough or cannot do this. I choose to stay positive and always do the thing that I would normally fear, every day. If I do that, the possibilities are endless, I think.

In her post, Ali gives the encouragement to do three things during the month of February: learn/read about one's word, create the word by photographing its letters, and writing a letter to one's self about where one hopes to be in one year and what role that one little word will play in 2010. I'll have to remember to do those things this month.