katydid...not take a hiatus from photographing!

I got so wrapped up (literally) in the holidays & such that I haven't gotten around to posting any new pictures. But, rest assured, I HAVE BEEN TAKING THEM! Here's a sample from over the past weeks:

katydid...make a gummy bear army.

That's right: a gummy bear army.

Back story: I was out getting stocking stuffers (candy...shhhhh don't tell Hans!) during my lunch break and bought some gummy bears for me to keep at my desk. Well, I forgot to take them out of the bag when I got back to the office. On the ride home from work I started thinking about how light might look going through them. They are, afterall, gummy jewels of sugary goodness!

So, feeling inspired, I got home, grabbed a flashlight, my camera, and white paper to put them on. Of course, I ate the poor buggers that wouldn't stand up properly. Gimps. All & all it was an experience in night photography & noise reduction software (my camera is woefully noisy)! It also hightlighted my need for a true macro lense. **sigh** Someday...

Anyhow, some of these turned out super cool, although it appears a bit like they are heading to the Mother Ship.

katydid...get into the spirit of the season!

Hans got his new bike frame yesterday. A shiny, new, red bike. He named it Radio Flyer and rode it this morning, so it's already dirty. :( Good thing I took a picture of it!

The other one is from this morning. I snapped it just before leaving for work; the sun was rising and only the very tippy-top of the trees have leaves. The red color is partly due to the red leaves but also the sunrise. It was totally worth being 5 min late to work!

katydid...work on using aperture creatively.

I freaking puffy heart a good depth of field! And how do you get that, class? That's right, say it with me: A-PER-TURE! HOLLA! So, this weekend Hans & I headed over to T.R. Island and tried to capture what late fall looks like here. It's a pretty ugly time of year. The trees are half barren and there's lots of brown around. This is what I came up with:



Notice that it's basically the same picture, just different focal points (one has the focus on the foreground & one has the background).

I love the pattern & texture on the tree. I was trying to focus on pattern this weekend. It can be so hard photographing places and things that are familiar to you. Hans & my teacher suggested that when we have "photographer's"-block, we focus instead on shadow, lines, etc. to help us see our world in a new light.

I don't know what these berries are, but I love this grouping of three.



I wish all of these pictures were crisper...my shutter speed was a bit too slow and I was shivering! :)

Santa, can I have a tripod PLEASE?!? I've been good! Promise! ;)

katydid...make a kick arse turkey!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

To one and all...

(From top left to bottom right: The Meal, mouse-eye'd view of the feast, Wine & Dine with your Turkey, and Hail To the Turkey)

katydid...know about aperture.

Aperture is a "hole" inside the lens. When you change the aperture, you're either making the hole larger or smaller. Smaller aperture numbers (like f/1.8) let in more light than larger numbers (like f/8). In my mind, there are two main reasons to adjust your aperture: exposure and depth of field. Adjusting aperture to do a correct exposure is sorta the "boring" use of it. In a low light situation, you may have little choice about having a large/wide open/small number aperture if you don't have a tripod (the shutter speed would be too slow for holding the camera still). Similarly, on very bright days you may have little choice too.

Using exposure to vary the depth of field is more "artsy" and interesting way to use aperture. You can isolate a subject in the foreground (or background for that matter) and 'washout' the backround (or foreground). Look at these:

See how the subjects (or one of them) are sharp and the rest isn't quite as sharp? Thank you aperture!

Also, next time you're watching a movie or TV show, notice how the person talking is sharp and often the background or the person they are talking to isn't....This can give you a lot of ideas on how to use aperture!

katydid...learn about ISO.

Ok, so I'm a few days late.

Anywho...

Bryan Peterson had a great analogy. ISO is like a worker bee. So, if your ISO is 100, then you have 100 worker bees. And, if you move your ISO up to 200, you then have 200 worker bees. Thus, for a given aperture (shutter speed), the higher the ISO the faster your shutter speed (smaller aperature). Put another way, higher ISO is more sensitive which is why you often need higher ISO for low light situations and lower ISO for bright, daylight situations.

Good to know, right?!

The exercise was changing the ISO, keeping the aperature constant & seeing what happened to the shutter speed. Here are the results (my model for the exercise is my ficus bonsai, Newton The Fig Tree):

ISO ___, aperature, shutter speed

ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/2

ISO 200, f/3.2, 1/4

ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/8

ISO 800, f/3.2, 1/15

ISO 1600, f/3.2, 1/30

Notice that the pictures are exposed almost exactly the same. Also notice that the higher the ISO (especially on the ISO 1600), the nosier the picture. The noise is more apparent (to me) in the shadowy areas...the black isn't really black...sorta splotchy.

So, now I get ISO!

katydid...trash her dress.

Well, I didn't trash *my* dress...I trashed another Katie's! Trash the dress photo shoots are a new trend in wedding photography. It's a post wedding way to wear your dress and get some interesting pictures in it. There's often a fair bit of controversy around it...messing up a perfectly good, expensive piece of clothing is seen, by some, as frivolous. However, TTD sessions don't have to destroy the dress. Like the one I did today; the dress wasn't anymore ruined than mine at the garden ceremony.

The pictures...

It was totally fun. I learned a lot too. I used Hans dSLR and having a proper camera really did make all the difference, especially for the action shots. The downside was, though, I wasn't used to his camera, so I couldn't properly expose the pictures AND get the shot. At this point, I'll take the shot & try to expose it properly next time. :) Using the 'burst' button was also a lifesaver for the action shots. And, the biggest lesson I learned today: waking up at 6:30am and braving the cold is *totally* worth it. Old Town Alexandria was deserted and the lighting was so warm and flattering.

Some post-shoot pictures:

Tomorrow I'll post about the ISO & exposure. Later, g.

katydid...get a boat load of chocolate.

Hurray! My husband is back from Germany and has brought me like a kilo of chocolate. Good man.

Jealous? (about the husband, not the chocolate, of course!)

The point of this post is that I believe that even the everyday and the mundane deserve to be photographed. In fact, I think it's more of a challenge to take an interesting picture of chocolate bars & your darling husband ignoring you than it is, say, to take an interesting picture of a sunset or a exotic location. By nature, those kind of out of the ordinary pictures appeal to our eyes...but something you see everyday? Not quite as much. Hence the challenge!

Besides the above, how about:

OR

Hmmm...I'm not particularly stoked about any of the above, but HEY! that's why I'm here!

I've decided I'm going to work through Understanding Exposure (by Bryan Peterson). This weekend I'm going to tackle understanding ISO & exposure exercises. And I've got 2 photo shoots.

I'll post results!

katydid...get her hair cut.

Howdy strangers!

In the future I'll post my adventures in focal lengths, shutter speeds, and lighting. But for now, I'll post about my hair...all 12 inches that got chopped off.

That hair met my husband, it went to Mexico and Thailand, it started 2 new jobs, and looked all purdy on my wedding day. *tear* It will truly be missed!

Now it'll be shipped off to Wigs For Kids to make a hairpiece for a kid with cancer. And I get a fresh new look. Sweet deal all the way around, right?!

But, if you tell me I look like Janeane Garofalo, I'll slap you upside the head. In the sweetest, most polite way, of course!

Happy photographing! :)