A Personal Photo Challenge: Christmas

Our community goes all in for street decorations and I'm lucky enough to live just a block off the village centre where the lights are brightest.  

Miss S -- aged two and half this Christmas -- is in rapture.  We make every possible excuse to walk down Goldstream, and excuses are easy to come by as that's the logical route to the library, the playground, the grocery store and the fabric store.  

 Now that I've wet your appetite for lovely Christmas light street scenes, I have to confess that my camera has spent far too much time alone at home.  I'm hoping to bring it along and catch twilight as the lights come on one of these days, but you'll have to content yourself with day time photos taken under grey skies.

Linking to Donna's Personal Photo Challenge.  Please visit the other participants as I'm sure their Christmas scenes will get you in the spirit.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Trees

The vibrant fall colours that I was hoping to show you never materialized.  As more and more leaves skitter ahead of me down the sidewalk, I'm beginning to realize that they aren't coming; they've passed us by completely this year.  In exchange for those reds and oranges, we've enjoyed a warm autumn.  No frost yet.  Cherry tomatoes and zucchini are still ripening in my garden (in November).  The days are shorter, yet wool coats languish in the back of the closet while we enjoy more than our share of sunny Sunday afternoons.

Taken with my Nickon 1 J2:  Aperture Priority,  f/10,  1/100 sec,  ISO 200

I took these photos on one of those unexpectedly sunny weekends.   What started as a family walk turned into a family frolic.  We chased each other around tree trunks and twirled until we fell over.  We collected acorns and dueled with sticks.  The silliness that a two-year-old brings out is amazing.

Taken with my Nickon 1 J2:  Aperture Priority,  f/10,  1/125 sec,  ISO 200.

I even took some pictures.  for these first two I was experimenting with sun stars and perspectives on those long tree shadows.  These Garry Oak trees have already dropped most of their leaves and I like their bare, linear look.  The black and white treatment accentuates this.

Taken with my Nickon 1 J2:  Aperture Priority,  f/10,  1/125 sec,  ISO 200

Finally, looking straight up into the sky.  I especially like the bits of sunlight on the centre tree.

Challenges during this photo shoot had to do, for the most part, with doing two things at once.  Let's just say that camera settings for trees against bright sky are very different from those for family silliness among falling shadows.  I was going back and forth, wishing for more efficient controls, and not always getting it right.  Oh well.  The fun far outweighed the camera frustration.

Linking to Donna's Personal Photo Challenge, and looking forward to seeing everyone else's trees.

Still Life

I had a wonderful time with this month's Photo Challenge on still life.  I'm eager to show you my pictures and tell you all about them, so let's jump right in.

Aperture Priority setting     Shutter: 1/250     f/5.6     ISO 100

Tomatoes.  They're rolling in from the garden -- beautiful and sweet and so photogenic.  For this photo shoot I dragged the dining room table close to the patio door and threw a blanket over one of those tri-fold science fair booths for a background.  It was a sunny morning and the tomatoes are in direct sunlight while the backdrop is not.  Can you believe that the backdrop is actually a white blanket?  I didn't expect it to look so dark, but I like the effect.  The tomatoes certainly stand out.  Looking at my pictures now, I wish I had played a little more with depth of field.    The glare is disappointing too, but overall, I'm happy with this one.

Aperture Priority setting     Shutter: 1/100     f/7.1     ISO 200

Confession:  My enthusiasm for this particular challenge on still life photography is strongly driven by my Etsy shop.  Good pictures are everything when you sell your handiwork online and I still don't have a product photo set up and I'm truly happy with.  This is one of my crochet baskets.

Getting enough natural light is a huge challenge; I'm far too dependent on the weather.  For this photo, I took my cardboard science fair backdrop and a white table cloth outside to the patio table.  It was mid-morning, a sunny day but not in the sun.

The first thing I notice here is that outside at this time of day the light is soft and less directional.  It doesn't make for a very dramatic photo, but it does show my product well.  I think I'll experiment further with the outdoor option.  As long as the rain holds off, that is.

 

Manual setting     Shutter:  1/30    f/6.3    ISO 500

Finally, a small Hydrangea bloom from my front garden.  It's another simple composition, but I had several experiments in mind.  For starters, I wanted to try using a paper backdrop like several of Donna's recommended articles suggested.  I've always used fabric simply because that's what I have, but it wrinkles.

The set up for this shoot included a meter stick stuck through a roll of kraft paper and balanced between two bar stools.  I pulled the paper down and taped it to the front of my daughter's colouring table (just the right height).  I moved the whole works around a couple of times (note the wrinkled paper) and landed up beside the family room window.  

Then -- drum roll, please -- I switched my camera to manual.  For the first time.  I don't have much to say about that as I didn't really know what I was doing.  See the results for yourself.

Several of Donna's recommended articles waxed eloquent on how controlled still life photography is, how leisurely and drawn out the process can be.  I had to laugh.  Clearly those photographers did not have two-year-old helpers.  Miss S was involved, to some degree, with all of these photo shoots.  She especially likes climbing up on a chair beside the tripod and pushing the button.  Leisurely, no.  Fun, always.

A big thank you to Donna for hosting this Personal Photo Challenge and to all the other participants for joining and visiting.  I'm excited to see what you've done.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Movement

This month's Photo Challenge is all about controlling shutter speed to capture a sense of movement in a photo.  This is all very new and very intriguing to me, so after pouring over Donna's suggested reading I found my camera's Shutter Priority setting and took my favorite moving target to the beach. 

Experiment #1:  Freeze Motion.  

She's just learned to jump and was more than willing to practice in front of the camera.  Here she is in mid-air.  It was a bright day and the picture is overexposed, but the alternative would have been to adjust the exposure compensation and lose that lovely smile to the shadows.  I've been contending with that little conundrum all summer and seeing faces always seems to win.  

Shutter: 1/640  Aperture: 4.5  ISO: 100

Experiment #2:  Blurred Motion.  

It takes 20 minutes walking along a forest trail to access this particular beach.  It's a beautiful walk and a lovely beach -- well worth the effort -- but a certain amount of prioritizing is necessary.  On this day, towels, snacks, bucket and shovel won out over the tripod.  I took this picture by steadying the camera atop a backpack frame.  The objective here was to use a slower shutter speed to blur the waves a little to create a softer image.  I included a bit of bare sand in the foreground for contrast.  When I compare this shot to others taken at the same time at faster shutter speeds, I'm not sure it made much of a difference.  I'm sure a tripod would have helped.  It was also a very still day.  Maybe the effect would work better with more wave action.

Shutter: 1/60  Aperture: 16  ISO: 100

Experiment #3:  Panning.  

Minimal success here too.  I think lack of practice is the main issue and I know what to do about that.  Looking at this picture, I also wonder if the background is too simple -- too horizontal -- to blur properly.  Thoughts, anyone?  At very least, I had a good time directing Little Miss's energies.  Though this picture doesn't look how I hoped it would (with a blurred background streaking past a crisp little girl) it certainly gives a sense of motion.  She's running like the wind.

Shutter: 1/80  Aperture: 16  ISO: 100


finally, A Word of Explanation
This is my first post in quite a while.  I stepped back in an effort to do one thing well rather than many things half way.  It's working too.  My Etsy shop is thriving.  But I miss a few things about this blog, so I'm back in a sort-of-kind-of way.  I'll post when I feel like it and you might see a little more about my shop.  At very least, I'll do this Photo Challenge because I enjoy it so much.

Joining, for the first time in a while, Donna's Personal Photo Challenge.  

Colour

I expected to feature bright spring colour for Donna's current photo challenge.  My garden is full of bold reds and blues just now, not to mention that spring-fresh hue of green.  But an anniversary get-away drew me into the smoother, softer tones of the sea.

Standing on the beach, I thought of these two vistas as monochromatic.  It wasn't until I increased the contrast a little (as I do with most of my photos) that I really saw the depth of blue in sky and water.  Inspired (intrigued?) I bumped up the saturation the tiniest little bit.

This was the view from our private hot tub.  We watched the blue blue blue of sea and sky and missed a certain little girl with blue eyes, who kept her Nana and Grandpa very busy.

This picture is a couple of months old, but I love the colours.  Red.  Pink.  Blue.  All very saturated.  I used a vignette tool in Picasa to darken the edges of the photo a little and draw greater attention to Miss S's face.

Linking to Donna's Personal Photo Challenge.  To be perfectly honest, I'm scrambling a little to get this up today.  My mind has been full of other things this week, but it's been fun to browse through my pictures and think of colour.  I'm looking forward to visiting your colour too.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Up Close

I've been noticing some teeny tiny blooms this spring.  Lichens and mosses cling to rocks and walls and trees and put on their own itty bitty displays of colour.  They also sit still longer than my toddler so they make excellent subjects for a little camera experimentation.  Specifically, I'm learning how to control depth of field in Aperture Priority mode. 

These lichen were tricky to photograph, partly because they're so small (about a centimeter tall) and partly because I had to all but crawl off a rock face to get down to their level.  No tripod here, but I think I held my breath while I squeezed the shutter.

These ones where more accessible.  In fact, they appeared right at eye level as I came around a corner in the trail.  I really like all the different textures and colours here.  I count at least four (maybe five) different kinds of lichen and moss.  Does anyone know what they're called?

Finally, a satin flower from my recent wild flower spotting expedition.  I especially like this picture because it includes a sense of the flower's setting.

All photos are taken with my Nickon 1J2 in aperture priority mode.

I'm participating again in Donna's Personal Photo Challenge.  Every month I learn something that helps me take better pictures, and it's fun, of course, to see what others are up to.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Words and Letters

Linking to A Personal Photo Challenge.

This month's photo challenge has been the most fun yet.  I love words, and there were so many possible directions to take this challenge:  Signs, books, a photographic alphabet -- all beckon to me.  As you'll see momentarily, I have focused on signs -- words found and photographed in the wild -- but I may well do a little extracurricular shooting around this theme.  My inner English teacher demands it.

I like the puny potential here.  Can cracked souls be fixed like Birkenstocks?

Inspired by the slightly artsy feel of this image, I had fun playing with the different filters in Picasa.  I'm amazed at how much the mood of an image can be manipulated.

A shortcut through China Town.  I zoomed out from the neon Fantan Cafe sign for a little context and captured exactly the sort of scene that I'd been after for last month's challenge on street photography.  Maybe I just had to get warmed up.

Finally, a little graffiti scratched onto the sea wall.  Who is Kurtis?  Was he here to kiss the girl who wrote this or was he obliviously living his own life somewhere else?

This picture benefited from my Picasa play.  Here I increased the colour saturation a little and brought up the shadows in order to emphasize the depth of colour and texture in the cement wall.

I'm wondering, how much post-processing do you typically do on your photos?  What program do you use?  Do you tweak all, most or just a select handful of your photos?

Thanks again to Donna at A Personal Photo Challenge for another stimulating camera assignment.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Street Photography

Linking to Donna's Personal Photo Challenge

Even as I type, I'm considering not participating in the Personal Photo Challenge this month.  But here I am, armed with the proviso that this post is more about process than product.  I carried my camera around and actually snapped a few shots on the street.  It wasn't as hard or as scary as I had expected and I might even try again when I can change a few ingredients in the mix.  By that I mean that I'd like to leave Little Miss at home and go downtown by myself.  Street shooting, it turns out, is all about being subtle and reacting quickly to what you see.  Both are challenging with toddler it tow.



But I tried and I'm proud of myself for that.  As I walked the neighbourhood, I wore my camera around my neck and started watching people.  Very interesting.  I saw lots that I'd have loved to capture -- like a cluster of five teens walking down the sidewalk all with heads down, texting -- but couldn't move quickly enough to get a the shot.  Even what I did shoot lacks quite a bit in terms of composition and timing.  This lady and her dog, for instance, were in the sun, where they would have shown better, three steps ago.

I thought this was interesting.  Two strangers, back to back, waiting for the bus and isolating themselves from the world.  But they're had to see -- too much shadow and too many things in the way.

This last one is my favorite.  It was a cold, windy day and anyone out on the street was clearly going somewhere with purpose and speed.  I wonder what drove this man to layer up his coats, pull up his hoodie and hit the street.  Does he not own a pair of gloves?

All that to say that I think I've gained more in terms of thought process and learning to look than these photos may suggest.  Thanks for pushing me this month, Donna.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Shadows

Linking to Donna's Personal Photo Challenge.

When I first read this month's photography challenge, a couple of thoughts went through my head.  First, I smiled to think of my Little Miss this last fall desperately trying to shake off her shadow.  She doesn't like it one little bit and we are careful, on sunny afternoons, to point her into the light.  But I realized that the shadow hasn't given us trouble lately, so either that stage has passed or -- and here's my second thought -- our shadows haven't been around in a while.

Mysterious.  Ominous.  The case of the missing shadows.  But it's true.  Here on the Canadian west coast winter months are grey and drizzly.  We don't see the sun for weeks and months on end -- or does it only feel like weeks and months?  I started paying attention.  Mostly, it's pretty grey with the occasional, and very unpredictable, break of passing brightness.  Twice in the last month, we had a string of three or four sunny days. What a boon!  I'd like to tell you that I was out there with my camera, making the most of that sunshine, but I wasn't.  There was Christmas to prepare for.  The flu hit.  I went out without my camera.  You know, life.  But I did get out into the garden, camera in hand, for a few minutes last week before the sun set (so early).  So here are my offerings.

In these two shots the late afternoon sunshine projects images from the garden onto an old fence and casts a dramatic dichotomy of light and dark across a wooden shed.  I like the texture in both, though the shed is my favorite.  On this day I had literally minute to work before losing the light and didn't remember until it was too late that I wanted to play with the exposure settings on my camera.  This is a feature I learned about in Donna's recommended readings and wanted to try out.  *Sigh*  I settled for darkening the shadows and bringing up the highlights a little in Picasa.

Both of the above photos taken with my Nikon 1 J2, a 10-30mm lens and Shutter Priority setting.

I wasn't sure about including this picture as reflections aren't quite the same as shadows, but I finally had opportunity to use that exposure setting.  Here I lowered the exposure a couple of notches and was pleased with the deeper, stronger colours of the pier.  There's so much to learn and I'm having such a wonderful time at it.  This was a good day for camera play and you can read more about it here if you like.

Photo taken with my Nikon 1 J2, a 30-110mm zoom lens and Aperture Priority setting.

Thank you to Donna for tossing out these challenges and to all the other kind bloggers who visited me last time around.  I might be getting hooked.

A Personal Photo Challenge: Let There Be Light

New camera in hand, I'm busy learning the ins and outs of taking good photos.  Donna's monthly photo challenge plays into that so nicely, that I'm giving it a try for the first time.  These photos are taken with my Nikon 1 J2 and a basic 10-30mm lens.  I used Picasa to bring the shadows up a bit, but that's it for editing.

Little Miss and I snuggled right up to the glass patio door to try out some new window stickers.  She was entranced.  One of the articles that Donna recommended reading talked about going into the garage to take photos with dramatic light.  I don't have a garage, so I tried the window.  It's winter on the Pacific coast, so we had a grey sky and a little drizzle to work with.  Even so, we had nice directional light coming in.  I like the modeling on Miss's face and hands, and the blurred out garden in the background.  There's a term for that blurred effect, but I don't know what it is.

Going to black and white really emphasizes the shape of Miss's face and I appreciate the contrast between the bright garden and the very dark inside of the house.  But is one eye too much darker than the other?  Something strikes me as not quite right.

I ducked outside for this one and took the photo through the glass window.  The trickiest part of this set up was avoiding my own reflection in the glass; it required just the right angle.  The light was oblique enough that everything reflected on the window.  Of course, that's what makes it such an unusual photo.

This photo reminds me of a certain artist whose works we use to see when I was young in Ecuador.  He liked to paint translucent bubbles and steam trains flying in the air above his surreal landscapes.  Here, Miss S looks out at the world -- at a wood floor and a shed with cedar siding, at trees and planters, at dining room chairs and lawn chairs -- with an expression of wonder.  A dismembered snowman floats by.  It's not my favorite picture, but it gets the imagination going.

Does anyone have thoughts on that black eye in the second photo?  I'd appreciate tips of any kind.

Linking to A Personal Photo Challenge.