random reflections

Banana Bread, the Internet, and Too Many Good Things

No photography projects today, but I've spent a lot of time on the internet the last couple of days. I was loaned a Silhouette (a digital die cutter) and because it didn't come with directions on how to use it, I've had to download the user manual. I ended up printing most of it out since it's impossible for me to work on the program and try to read the manual on a separate screen. It's one time when a separate monitor would be nice. I wrote an entry for  Me: the Abridged Version today on the wonders of Google. It's hard to imagine life without a search engine!

I've also been reading a lot of photography blogs found through The Sunday Creative links and from a Google search about neutral density filters. I'm learning a lot. Now the trick is to commit enough of it to memory to use it when I'm out with my camera. I got a shipping notice today that my new macro lens is on its way. I can't wait to give it a try. It's also supposed to be a great portrait lens. Maybe some of my friends will let me try it out this weekend.

It has rained steadily here for the last two days. I think we have another day of it before it starts to clear up a bit. We have a photo trip planned for Friday, dinner at friends' house on Saturday, and a hike in Watkin's Glen with friends planned for Sunday.  Monday, we're off again with friends to do some wine tasting in the Finger Lakes. In addition to that, Mary and I have our first Arts & Lectures presentation on Thursday night. Thrity Umrigar is the first author to appear. I finished reading her most recent novel, The Weight of Heaven,  a week or so ago. I liked it a lot, although it had a devastating ending that I just wasn't expecting. On Friday, Lynn, and I go to the first Rochester Pops Concert--the music of Ray Charles which I know I'll enjoy!  So there won't be much time for learning on the weekend! 

I did get one quick project done today. Tracy made a batch of banana bread and we wanted to take a loaf to friends of ours. It was a perfect excuse to get out my new Papertrey Ink set Everyday Treats and make a little tag for it. I know I'm going to get a lot of use out of this set.

If you look closely, you'll see a little loaf of bread behind the word BREAD. Just love how that worked out. I used three different Tim Holtz Distress Inks:  Antique Linen, Walnut Stain, and Peeled Paint. Quick and easy!

The Sunday Creative: Nostalgia

I've only played along with Sunday Creative once before, although I enjoy going through all the wonderful entries each week. This week's prompt was "nostalgia," and I had the perfect object to photograph. Just a week or so ago, I found a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera at an antique shop in Corning. This is the fourth vintage camera I've picked up, but this one is the first that has any meaning to me. My very first camera was a Kodak Brownie. How I wish I still had it! The first roll of film I ever remember taking was of Niagara Falls on a family trip. It was black & white film (of course) and even as a kid, I was dismayed when the film was developed to discover that nearly all the photographs looked exactly the same. It was many years before I learned to vary the composition of a subject. So here's a look at my cute "new" Brownie, although regular blog readers will recognize it from yesterday's post on ISO.

 

Once again I played around with some textures in PSE. I used Kim Klassen's Light Paper 4 at Soft Light, then Cinnamon at Soft Light, and finally decreased the saturation to -32.

Playing with ISO

Although I've read a good deal about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture (even whole books on one of the subjects), I've never read a better explanation of ISO than Darcy has on today's 31 Days to a Better Photo series. She asked us to take the same photo starting at our lowest ISO and then doubling it while we watched the shutter speed. It's a very rainy, cold day here, so I opted to take an indoor shot of the vintage Kodak Brownie I picked up a week ago. All the shots were taken at 2.0 aperture with my 50 mm lens. As expected with every increase in ISO there's a corresponding increase in shutter speed.

ISO 100, Shutter speed 1/10

ISO 200, Shutter speed 120

ISO 400, Shutter speed 1/40

ISO 800, Shutter speed 1/60 (Inside on a gray day, this is the ISO I typically have to use if I want to hand hold my camera, which I did today.)

ISO 1600, Shutter speed 1/100  (With this ISO you typically see a lot of noise, although I don't seem to be able to distinguish much on the computer. If I were to print this series, it might be much more noticeable.)

I'm enjoying these exercises even though I've done similar ones in the past for online courses. Every time I do a series of these, I understand the concepts better.

Playing with Shutter Speed & Studio Pics

Today's post for 31 Days to a Better Photo dealt with shutter speed. It seems to me from my reading that most people understand shutter speed before they understand aperture. I had the opposite experience. Before I started shooting in manual this year, I almost always shot in aperture priority. Occasionally I would play with shutter speed, usually while shooting water in a fountain or a waterfall, but I rarely got what I hoped for. After today's exercises I feel more comfortable with shutter speed, and know that one of the problems I've always had in the past is not using a tripod.

I've been planning a post about my new studio for a while, but have had trouble getting the shots I wanted, primarily because of the lights in the studio. Although this room has more light than my last one, our house is generally dark, and we need artificial light most of the time. Today I put the camera on the tripod, and practiced two techniques (in addition to changing shutter speed) that I picked up on Kent Weakley's blog:  depressing the shutter button with almost no movement with your index finger, and using the self-timer set at 2 seconds. Although I got good results with both, I much prefer the self-timer. So here are the photos from the shutter speed experiment.

Shutter speed 1/125

Shutter speed 1/30

Shutter speed 1/8

Shutter speed 0.4

The best of the lot is #3, and I would never be able to get a sharp picuture hand holding the camera at that speed. Although the last photo is very washed out, it has an artsy feel to it that I don't mind. These photos show the main work space in my new studio. The corner desk actually divides the room into two area. The TV in the corner in on a wooden stand Tracy made years ago to hold my wooden stamps. The shelves hold paper, supplies, notebooks, embellishments, alphas, and paper pads. Using lots of baskets maximizes the space there.

This room also has a built-in desk. I gathered all my books from around the house and brought them all into the studio so I have a shelf of books about scrapbooking/cardmaking, a shelf for photography, writing, computer manuals, and a few favorites. I also have room to display some photos and special treasures I've picked up in our travels. My sewing machine has been set up in this room for over a year. The drawers now house all of my sewing supplies as well as some office supplies.

 

At the same end of the room is a reading and die cutting station. I've had my Cuttlebug and dies in this room for nearly a year as well, but I purchased a lateral file that matches my desk to create a die cutting table. My Slice sits on top, and the Cuttlebug, dies, impression plates, and embossing folders are on the open shelves. In the file drawers are all my paper scraps filed by color, alpha stickers, and some patterned papers. In the corner is my wonderful red chair from LL Bean that folds out to create a single bed if needed.

Behind my desk and between the door to the room and the closed door is my fold-up table from IKEA. It was one of the best $19 I ever spent. It's mounted to be counter height so if I want to stand to put together a layout I can, but it doesn't take up much room when collapsed against the wall. Above it is a printer's drawer I refinished a year or so ago where I house most of my wooden sentiment stamps. The table isn't centered under it because I wanted to be able to open the closet door when it's up. I now have an Ott clamp light for the table, and keep it up most of the time.

Really, I can't believe I fought this move for so long. I absolutely love everything about it. It's so easy to find everything, and very quick to put away the terrible mess I always make when creating. The best part is that both Tracy and Matt come in here to visit much more frequently now. It really is a very inviting place.

World Card Making Day & Caardvarks C&S Challenge

It's been the second day where everything I do seems to take twice as long as I allotted. I needed a wedding card, so I did get one card made during World Card Making Day. This fits the Caardvarks Clean & Simple Challenge as well.

 

Supplies: Cardstock: from stash; Dies: Diamond Impression Plate (PTI); Scrap-Mart Exclusive Square/Oval Nestability; Pearls: Zva Creative; ribbon: Midori; Stamp: Delightful Dahlias (PTI)

Today for my photography project, I set up my new tripod and ball head. I think I'll enjoy using it. I ended up getting the lighter of two tripods I considered, giving up some stability. I know myself well enough to know I'm not going to want to haul a heavy tripod out in the field. I also got out the neutral density filter and figured out how to get it on the camera. Friday we're planning a little photography road trip so I can put some of this into practice.

I also spent too much time this morning reading photography tips and watching videos on Kent Weakley's Blog. It is definitely worth checking out. His explanations are clear and his photography is wonderful. I particularly liked a series of five videos on getting sharper focus. I'll be trying all of them soon, and the tips are good for any camera. Another great post was the Top 5 Reasons for Getting the Shot Now. Great practical advice here.

Green Leaves

I know it's fall, and there are lots of places where leaves have really turned color, but not yet on our street. I was sitting at the kitchen table after dinner tonight when, all of a sudden, the sun came out, striking the leaves on our red bud tree. I ran up and got my camera and took some shots. Looking at the LCD display, I didn't think I had anything worth saving, but once I uploaded them to the computer there were a few I liked. I had my 50mm 1.4 lens on  the camera, set between 1.6 and 2.8 for all of these shots.

 

   

Right under the tree is a hydrangea bush, so while I was there . . .

Here's a very similar shot, but on this one I use the Pioneer Woman's Boost action.

 

Although I decided not to take Picture Fall, I have decided that October will be Improve My Photography month. I just bought a new tripod and have ordered the Tamron 60mm macro lens since there is a huge rebate offer now until October 10th. This is the last of the lenses I've been wanting, and I almost ordered it this summer when the rebate was half what it is now. So glad I waited. I got an extra discount at Beach Camera as well, so I'm very pleased.

Through Lee's blog, I found Darcy's blog. Darcy is doing a 31 Days to a Better Photo series, which started today. Kim Klassen is also offering a free e-class on Photoshop Elements. You can find out about it and sign up here.  I'm going to do both, as well as finish watching the instructional videos on Lynda.com.  I also have a list of things I want to learn or relearn or practice this month. I'm going to post it as a way to hold myself  more accountable.

• learn to set up and focus the camera quickly on the tripod
• review and practice using Auto Exposure Bracketing
• learn how to use back button focusing
• try out Photomerge and Recompose on Photoshop Elements
• learn how to use Gradient Maps on Photoshop Elements
• practice using my neutral density filter which Tracy gave me over a year ago, but is still in the original packaging
• practice using the circular polarizer
• read Bryan Peterson's book Understanding Close-up Photography and get out a try some of the techniques

I've also signed up for a "Day of Fall Photography" with two local professional photographers on the 31st. It was very affordable and includes a day of photography at Conesus Lake and Stony Brook State Park as well as  pre-trip and post-trip gatherings. I figure that will be the icing on the cake. I've really felt like I've been treading water (so to speak) with my photography and this all seems to have come together to encourage me to step it up for awhile.