Wednesday, March 31, 2010

day 202: it's got me thinking.

Got some lovely little bowls at Target. Yay. They make me happy.

And this weather makes me happy.

And yesterday made me happy! I went to the meet-up group, and got to meet Tasra, and she was awesome and fabulous just as I suspected she would be. But I also got to meet Dane Sanders! He was the speaker for the meeting! And it was aMAYzing. I am going to share some of the notes from the meeting. I have been running over and over these points in my head and just letting them sink in.

-You are NOT what you do.
-You are NOT what you have.
-You are NOT what people say about you.

-If you want to stand out in a crowd, you need to be who YOU are. YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU THINK.

-Perfectionism demands perfection. Excellence demands failure after failure, on the road to something new.

-If you don't stand out, why be in the picture??

These are just some of the points that Dane was making, and it was all really hitting home for me. I feel like I've been lit on fire or something. In a good way.

Digital Field Guide: I know this wasn't technical stuff, but I seriously re-read my notes from the meeting and just reflected on what was said, changing my mindset on some things.

Images: looked through some images on my Nikon School app.

day 201.

It's a lovely afternoon and I'm excited. Dropping my son off with some of his friends so he can go bowling and watch War and Peace later. I am going to a meet-up group in town this evening. I can't wait! I don't know what to expect but I know I'll get to finally meet Tasra Dawson so I'm psyched about that.

Digital Field Guide: haven't read anything yet today, and I'm not sure I'll get to it.

Images: in my car most of the day, so I'm wading through Flickr on my iPhone when I get a chance.

Monday, March 29, 2010

day 200.

Day 200! I cannot believe just how much I have done. It really is amazing what transpires when one resolves to just pull out a camera and snap every day.

Despite my better judgment, I decided to do a self-portrait, because it is how I began this project, and it was the subject of Day 100. I'm guessing you can see where this is going.

It's a beautiful morning, and I am loving this weather and this feeling of just, "Yay Spring."

Digital Field Guide: went to my Nikon School app on my phone.

Images: browsed some of my students' freshly uploaded photos.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

i forgot!


I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, and didn't! Yikes!

One of my photos was featured on another blog! The blog is called Shhh... and it is so pretty.

Check it out here.

day 199: composition practice.


So, I've been trying to practice composing shots. I mean, really concentrating on the composition of a picture, as opposed to just snapping. This did not come out the way I wanted, but I needed to run out right away and the other ones were worse than this one. So, yeah.

Digital Field Guide: page 87

Images: looked at some photos on Facebook of some of the photographers that I have fan-ned.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

day 198: a little birdie.

The awesome thing about my backyard is that birds congregate there. They're these birds with red breasts and they're very sweet.

Are those robin red-breasts?

Clearly, I know so much about birds.

Digital Field Guide: page 87

Images: Spy-glass on Flickr

day 197: motion.

This was super blurry. And I like it. Motion is good.

So is purple.

Digital Field Guide: page 86, Assessing lens capability

Images: I've been getting more comments and favorites on my Flickr stream now. I went and looked at the photo streams of those who have commented/favorited.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

day 196: cows yay!


Caught this going down the road this evening, and it made me soooo happy.

Digital Field Guide: I read an article on DIY Photography today.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

day 195: blehhh...

Today was another one of those days.

After Saturday, having such trouble getting shots with which I could be pleased, I've been having some ups and downs with my shooting. I wasn't pleased with the shots I got today either, but what's done is done. Tomorrow is a new day.

Digital Field Guide: hanging out at DPS again today.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

day 194: a new hope.

No, this post does not have anything to do with Star Wars. Although we are a bunch of Star Wars freaks over at my house.

It's about the fact that I feel a renewed sense of hope welling up in me. There is no concrete reason; I just feel more hopeful than I have in the past couple of months, about several things. This year has gotten off to a very rough start, but I sense that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. New life is springing up in some dreams and goals that I have, and it is encouraging.

Speaking of new life, there is this plant.

I have a bad track record with plants. I manage to unwittingly kill them despite my best efforts to nourish them. I even manage to kill plants that thrive on neglect. It really is a sad state of affairs.

So when I received this plant as a gift a couple of weeks ago, I looked at it with a sense of melancholy. It's such a pretty plant. It's a real shame that it won't survive long in my care. Those were the thoughts that crossed my mind.

And yet, here it is, still alive. Pretty, even. There is hope yet.

Digital Field Guide: I guess I am spending this week reading stuff from Digital Photography School.

Images: Liz Steketee Photography . I was quite taken with her work. I especially love her "Reconstructed Memories" series.

Monday, March 22, 2010

day 193: worship revisited.

My son playing in chapel today.

Digital Field Guide: read another article on Digital Photography School.

Images: Geninne's Art Blog. I so love Geninne's work. She has the absolutely FABULOUS photo thrown in here and there.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

day 192: worship.


I shot some photos of the worship leader at church today. They all came out pretty cool.

Digital Field Guide: Read another article on Digital Photography School.

Images: Hello

Saturday, March 20, 2010

day 191: springly spring.


Ah, the first day of Spring. And what a beautiful first day of Spring it was.

The family and I took a trip down to Stone Mountain, and we had a lot of fun. It was such lovely weather, and I, of course, took lots of pictures.

It seemed like no matter what or how I shot, all of my pictures came out looking like isht. A real shame, since there were so many beautiful dogwood blossoms (I guess they were dogwood?). I shot them anyway, even though I seemed to be shooting with all the skill of a preschooler.

I didn't let frustration get the best of me, but decided that I would wait until I got home and look at the images on my computer. Maybe they would look better on a bigger screen.

I put them through Lightroom, hoping that I would be able to clarify the details and salvage the shots. Ho hum. While I'm still not completely pleased, they did finish a little bit better.

Digital Field Guide: Read an article on Digital Photography School.

Images: FILE Magazine

Friday, March 19, 2010

day 190.

I happened to be sitting in my car beside this building, and thought the light through the other window looked cool.

Digital Field Guide: page 87

Images: One of the many food blogs that I read, Chocolate & Zucchini.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

day 189.

This is what you get when you're beginning the day and you take your camera with you in the morning in the hopes of starting the day off right with some beautiful, moody shots.

You get...whatev's.

Digital Field Guide: page 86

Images: Wandered through Flickr.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

day 188.

Ho hum. Off to search for new inspiration.

Digital Field Guide: page 86

Images: FILE Magazine

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

negative space.

The last few days I have been getting caught up organizing photos and categorizing them into different folders.

As I have been doing this, I have noticed several of my photos catch my eye for a specific reason. They seem to have more negative space (or as much negative space) in them as they do an image. And, I kinda like it.

Okay. I like it a lot.

Now, I'm not saying that this is my style or anything, because honestly, I still don't really know what my style is. Maybe I'll pose that question to you. All I do know right now is, I take a lot of pictures, with Niki or my iPhone, that have a lot of negative space. I'm sure that's probably breaking some sort of composition rule. I don't care.

I've decided to share a handful of these photos with you. Just Niki shots; no iphonearoids.














day 187: at the laundromat, day seven.



Okay. I think I'll conclude the series now. I am seeing so many things in this place that would make great shots. Maybe I'll do a "Laundromat Redux" series at a later date. A week seems like a good amount of time to do a series.

The cool thing was taking several different pictures of just one thing. That's something that I haven't done very often.

Digital Field Guide: page 87

Images: combed through some images to add to some photo albums on Facebook. I have a Facebook fan page for my photography, so go check it out! Click here.

And check out some of the other photographers who are participating in Tasra Dawson's 365 Challenge.


Monday, March 15, 2010

day 186: at the laundromat, day six.


I really like how this one came out.

Digital Field Guide: page 87

Images: I did a quick headshot photo shoot Sunday afternoon, and I spent today looking through the finished shots, and showed them to the client.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Saturday, March 13, 2010

day 184: at the laundromat, day four.

Digital Field Guide: page 86, Assessing lens compatability

Friday, March 12, 2010

day 183: at the laundromat, day three.

Okay... so, I guess this is becoming a series? Haha.
The laundromat is too much fun.

Digital Field Guide: page 85, Choosing between zoom and fixed focal length

Images: Cassia Beck

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

day 181: at the laundromat.


I got lots of awesome shots at the laundromat when I did the shoot with the girls last week, so I knew that place was good for at least a couple more visits.

Digital Field Guide: page 84 again. Because I've been a bad student and skimming more than reading.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

day 180.




Another lovely day. Spring is about to be sprung in the A, and it makes me happy.

Except the weather forecast tomorrow is for a whole buttload of rain, rain, and more rain. Grrr.

Digital Field Guide: page 84

inspiration.

I'm participating in a blog mashup!

You're probably wondering what that is.

It's a little confusing to explain, but I'll give it a try. Basically, a bunch of bloggers (about 300) are going to write posts about what inspires them daily and link to each other.

It's called "Blog it Forward," and it is being hosted by Victoria of sfgirlbybay.

What has been inspiring me lately is the lovely group of students that I teach. I have a huge group of young men and women that I teach, but I have taken it upon myself (I don't know when or how, but it seems that I have) to be a mentor of sorts to the girls and do everything I can to be a strong and positive influence in their lives. Some of them I have taught at one time or another since they were eight or nine years old; others are brand new to me this year. All of them are special, talented, vibrant, beautiful, zany, gifted, and fabulous.

I have shared before how I decided to include them in some of my photowalking excursions, and that is honestly one of the better ideas I've had, I think, ever. (See this post that explains more about that.) Well, now they've even asked me to teach a photography class next year, and I am considering speaking with my directors about it, because I would love to do that. Mind you, I am these girls' music teacher.

I was going to go a different route with this inspiration post and do what many of the incredible bloggers that I have read this month have been doing, by sharing my little corners of the web where I go and am constantly inspired, and show you images of those places and those things.

I have decided instead to do something that hits even closer to home for me, and share images of these young girls who inspire me even more than my aforementioned corners of the web.

I won't share their names, but I will tell you a little something about each of them. These girls are going to rule the world.

This one is the sweetest little honeybee.

She is very quiet and reserved, but loves to have fun and try new things and is always up for an adventure.

She is always co-operative, and a very conscientious student. And she has the warmest, gentlest heart. She's just a beautiful girl.

This is her big sister.

She is a delightful soul with a disposition made of sunshine. She has a lot of friends because she is a good friend. Trustworthy, caring, and generous.

And of course, gorgeous.

And then there's this cutie. And my, what a cutie she is. Inside and out.

She IS the life of the party.

And with a style that really is all her own, not some carbon copy of some other would-be individual. She is the trendsetter. And quite talented. She took these photos of me with my camera.



Yep, that's me and some of my girls. Just hangin.'


They're so creative, they rarely need any direction from me as to what to do to get an interesting shot. Most of the time I just nudge them in a certain direction. Like, towards the laundromat.

Oh, the laundromat.
And they ate it up, and what we ended up with are shots that look like they were ripped out of an Urban Outfitters catalog. My girls are that fierce.

And that's them, doing their "Mrs. Bradshaw Pose," which they informed me they want to do every time we get together for a shoot.

These ladies are photographers, musicians, singers, artists, and actors. Not to mention style mavens. They always talk about how I inspire them, but if they only knew what it does for ME to be around THEM.

These young women are an immense inspiration to me. I thought I was pretty inspired as a teen, but looking at these girls and the lives they lead shows me that while I was inspired, I could have gone so much farther. Because these girls have gone farther. And are going farther still.

Thanks for indulging me and reading this. I don't brag on just my biological kids!

The Hipster Home passed the Blog It Forward torch to me, and now I am passing it on to The Fairly Constant Reader. Enjoy!

(All photos were taken with my camera and post-processed by me.)