Final project ideas

For my photo class we have to start thinking about our final projects. All of the images have to be within a cohesive theme. Here are some of my ideas so far. 

• I <3 Boston - this was actually what I wanted to for my final project for the beginner class I was enrolled in last year, but since I became a photo school dropout 3 weeks in this didn't come to fruition. However, this isn't really the season for Fenway Park, Duck Tours, lobster rolls, flowers in the Commons, etc. So I may have to save this one. However, it is the season for chowda, which goes into my next idea...

Red Line T stop entrance

                   

• Food - this may seem like an easy way out but the great thing about shooting food is you have a controlled subject to work with and it'll give me a good opportunity to experiment with all of the advanced camera functions and editing tools we're learning about. And these images could double as a cookbook scrapbook (this would make an awesome gift, if I were the scrapbooking type anyway). 

The best lunch ever

• Istanbul - I am traveling there for a business trip for 12 days. Since I'll be there for a full weekend I'll hopefully have some time to shoot. I am looking forward to it, but I don't want to limit myself to one weekend of shooting for this project. I guess I have to see what I come out with and see if new theme ideas emerge. 

• My cat. Just kidding, that would really be crazy-cat-lady of me. But enjoy this kitteh picture anyway! 

Hard life

                                        

Archives - more from Portugal

I am really due for a vacation. A vacation that consists of actual travel, not just having off of work and watching 30-Rock marathons while eating holiday cookies (don't get me wrong, that was great).


The temperature outside today was -8. -23 with wind chill. It was horrible. AND, we're supposed to get more snow this week. All I can do is wear my down coat with an obnoxious faux fur hood (my Nelly coat as my friend Joe calls it) and wait for spring. 


I thought I would balance the snow pictures in my last post with nice, sunny shots from our trip to Portugal in 2009. 

Aveiro

Some vineyard town north of Porto 

More snow, more Lightroom fixes

Original: 

Edited: 

                              Original                                                          Edited 

 

My first lesson on editing...

...really introduced me to a whole new world of photography. I am trying out different programs before I make a big purchase. Today in class we got a demo on Adobe Lightroom, so I downloaded a trial version and played around with it after class. 


Exhibit A: The shallow-depth of field shot of Tinsley I used in a previous post.  The original shot was shot with auto white balance, so the tungsten lighting brought the warm colors out and made Tinsley look yellowish. In Lightroom I updated the white balance manually, so the tone in the overall picture is much cooler and she looks nice and white. I also tried to bring more of the green in the pillow stand out, which was previous muted under the tungsten light. 

                          

Exhibit B: This first photo was taken in the Algarve region in Portugal. It's clearly overexposed. This was one tougher to edit because there are both warm and cool tones in the picture so its a bit tricky to capture both. Nonetheless there is a noticeable improvement in the second photo: the exposure is corrected, the clarity is better, and there is more saturation in the blues and greens. 

I have a lot to learn in this editing space but I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to improve these photos with just a brief overview of the software. I'm looking forward to playing around with more of the features on Lightroom and also getting my feet wet with other software. 

Can you tell I'm a fan of peanut butter?

I love cooking but like most people this usually only happens at night, which is great for dinner but not so much for photography (however I did manage to find this blog post with great tips on shooting food without natural light...I haven't tried any of these techniques). I spent the past couple of weekends doing some baking so I made sure to snap some shots of delicious (if I may say so myself) results. 

Peanut Blossoms with mini Reese's Cups

PB&J Bars

If you are interested in the recipes: 

• Peanut Blossoms
• PB&J Bars

Speaking of food and photography, foodgawker is a great site. Just a warning, it'll make you say "me want food", Jenna Maroney-style. 

Let it snow

We got about a foot of snow this week. I had to rush to take these to avoid my camera getting wet so these are a bit underexposed. These were taken at one stop above what the camera was metering but snow (being white and all) is tricky. 

Concert photography - Charles Jischke

In the spirit of great photography, I am sprucing up my blog of my amateur pictures and incorporating photos taken from...actual photographers. 

Anytime I go to a concert I manage to take a blurry cell phone picture. I don't see the point because you can never make anything out (not to mention I am never close enough...don't even get me started). 

Charles Jischke is a really talented concert photographer who went on tour with Billy Idol and his band last year (believe it or not being a photographer for the band was sort of a side-gig and he was actually there for some music-related thing that I will just butcher if I try and talk about it)...he's been really helpful in me getting up to speed with photography and since I am a huge Charles fan I thought I'd include some of his photos here. I can only imagine how challenging it is to shoot concerts (with the tricky lighting, limited time and space, etc) but he manages to do it really well. See for yourself...

 

Sorry for another cat picture but its all about bokeh!

Taken with my 50mm f/1.8.

Gorillapod (photo archives)

I really like shooting night shots without flash but carrying cumbersome tripods can be really inconvenient, especially if you are on vacation. Last January I went on a weekend getaway to Disney with my mom, so I thought I would give the Gorillapod a try. You obviously don't have as much flexibility as with a standard tripod but it gets the job done and you can get some great shots. 

This was taken at Port Orleans Resort where we were staying. There is a little foot bridge that takes you to the main lobby and restaurants from the rooms. I wrapped the gorillapod around a support beam from the bridge and ended up with this shot (8 second exposure). Hitting the shutter produced considerable camera shake since it wasn't on a flat surface so I had to use the camera timer. 

If you decide to get a gorillapod make sure you get the right size because the smaller ones won't support a heavy SLR camera. A couple of things to note is while its really light and portable its not very sturdy and it may be difficult to achieve the composition you want if you don't have an existing raised surface (like a table or bench) or something to wrap it around. 

Happy New Year!

Ok so it's been a while since my last post. For reals. I can give you the "I've been so busy" excuse but who wants to hear that? 
I just started a new class at NESOP - Advanced Digital - so I will be updating this more frequently for sure. The 4 people that read this blog should be very excited! I am especially excited to learn how to edit, something I have been scared to touch with a 10 foot pole. In fact we get great discounts on software so pretty soon I'll be purchasing editing software for the first time. Will keep you posted!