Sooooo cold. But sunny.

I drove home from work early this afternoon since the weather/roads are terrible and I desperately did not want to spend New Years day 50 miles from home all by myself.   (And I worked super late Monday night and came in early Tuesday morning to make up the time - so it's not like I just skipped out.) 

The upside of leaving early was that I got home early.  And around 4 pm the snow stopped and the sun popped up.   My husband was not able to escape work early and implied in none too vague of language that I should go outside and enjoy the sun.

I would have happily done this except it was -6 degrees out and getting colder by the minute.  Ah heck, it probably would brighten my spirits to take some nature photographs.  So while I lacked my normal enthusiasm, out I went.

I drove to the river to see what I could find to photograph.  (I took out my Lensbaby fisheye, Lenbaby Edge80, and Lensbaby plastic.)

This was the first thing that caught my eye.  I loved this neat plant, and this was about the best shot I got.  (Lensbaby plastic optic.) 

This should have been a great Edge80 photo, but I think I was too rushed to concentrate on getting that plane of focus just right.  Plus, my camera, Nikon D7100, started acting all weird with the Edge80. It made these sounds like it was taking photographs even though I wasn't touching anything.  Then when I did press the shutter button nothing would happen.  (And nothing was recorded on the memory card.)  Turning the camera off and on let me seemed to fix it, but the camera still made these extra shutter like noises - very odd.  I suspect the camera was just getting cold, but when I switched to the plastic optic everything seemed normal again.  Mystery.

Here is my 'Rabbit's View' shot:

Next I tried photographing a tree.  I can do better, but it was so cold.  Plus my pants were frozen solid after kneeling on the ground for my earlier photos.  I kind of hurried.

Today's photos indeed worth an outing in the cold.  I did have fun.

The high temperature tomorrow is -3.  I've been reading about fun you can have with frozen bubbles, but so far I haven't been able to find any.  There is one more shop in town I can try, although I'm not sure searching for bubbles is really a New Year' eve kind of event.

But perhaps I'll have luck and be able to try something else new tomorrow to help keep my mind off the bitter temperatures.

See on,
Julee

Kite skiing and photographing toys. One big weekend.

My husband recently got a new kite for kite skiing.  Despite bitter temperatures and the quick onset of nearly 50 mph wind gusts, he went out on Saturday to Lake Kampeska for some skiing.

 

He had some grand success, although once the winds began to get gusty he called it a day.  Then I was called in and my job was to keep the kite from flying away while he got unhooked and prepped to roll up the kite. 

 

 

Here is my best shot of the winds rolling in.

 

Brrrrr.  It was quite cold by the time we got back to the car.  This whole week is supposed to be bitterly cold in most of South Dakota - and it started today (Sunday).  I suspect I will not do a lot of outside work since I really do not like temperatures below zero. 

 

I did some photography today by working up a creative photograph of a toy for a DPChallenge.  I think it's kind of cute.  Lighting seems decent, no obvious flaw except for one dust spot that was so faint I decided just to leave it.

 

I also finished my Thank You photo for my nephews.

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday to all!

 

See on,

Julee



Fisheye.

What better to do on the evening after Christmas but play with new toys?  My new toy is a Lensbaby Fisheye lens.  Cool!  Another new perspective to figure out.

I took the easy route this first day and shot my Christmas tree and some Lego minifigures.  (I have the nicest nephews.  They gave me one of the 'girl scientists' Lego minifigures that they received for Christmas - I was touched.  So I have to create a thank you with all my other minifigures welcoming her into the group.)

I'll have to work on my focusing a little bit, I was off just a touch with the Legos - and the whiteboard that is behind the minifigures did not go forward quite far enough - off to the right there is a bit of wrong space.  (But I spent 90 minutes working on the setup, enough for one evening.  Ellie cat interrupted a couple of times, once jumping and landing in the middle of my minifigures.  Incoming Godzilla!  And then the minifigures scattered. Too bad I missed that photo.)

I hope you had something fun to play with this evening too.

See on,
Julee

Playing with stars.

Yesterday and today I played around with a few star decorations so I could enter a 'Star' challenge. 

I'm kind of resigning myself to being very nearly last in almost every challenge, but it is a bit discouraging to do so poorly time and time again.  (Go to page 7 of the Golden Ratio Challenge at the link above, the Lego Marching Band was me.) 

However the challenges fuel my creativity and I do have fun trying.  I have faith I will improve the longer I participate.   

Here is that scene but in the abstract.  (I consider this my take on a Starry Starry Night.)

I tried a few more shots with my Lensbaby and a cute red tree.

Nothing genius, sorry.  But I continue to try on.

Merry Christmas,
Julee

Rural snowman.

I was out driving around shooting photos for a 'dead fauna' challenge when I came across this cute snowman.  (It looks like they even have some lights on this little guy, but despite it being nearly dusk they weren't lit when I was there - and this was about ten miles outside of town, so I probably won't get back.)  He's still cute.

Merry Christmas.

See on,
Julee

Meet my Troll.

I read a blog recently that had several suggestions on small things a photographer could do every day.  One suggestion involved having a small item, that would be carried about all the time, and could be photographed daily.

I tried the daily photograph thing and there are just some days where there is literally no time - and on those days my brain doesn't feel anything positive just because I shoot any photo.  For me, I find that I enjoy the process of trying to photograph a scene or subject that interests me.  That doesn't mean they're all good, and some are downright bad, but for me I decided the daily photo was something I was not going to aim for.

That said, I loved the idea of having something along with me that might inspire me at times I wouldn't normally be inspired.  What to choose?

I have lots of Lego minifigures but those seem too small.  I wandered around toy aisles and saw lots of cute figures - like Monster's Inc or Toy Story characters - but I don't have any kids so how long would they really interest me.  The one evening I glanced next to my TV and realized I had the perfect characters already at home.

Trolls.  (I have two, but I'm going to work with my favorite one first.  His hair is a bit wild so we'll see how he does getting carried about in a backpack, but if he starts looking worn I have an all wooden troll too.  He also has quite a long nose, although you can't necessarily tell from this photo.  But his information card said he's unbreakable so hopefully the nose will be fine.  If it breaks, I'll glue it back on and it'll be okay.)

First stop was my Christmas tree.

He doesn't have a name yet, but what do you think?  Cute and original is what I was going for.

Merry Christmas.

See on,
Julee

My Christmas Tree.

Today my husband and I put up our Christmas Tree.  First I had to run out and buy a Christmas tree, plus light, plus decorations, but most of it was half off so that was nice.

We are happy with how it turned out.  Small, but pretty.

And the same tree with the lovely blurred lighting effect. 

Happy Holidays!

See on,
Julee

Nice day for skiing, Lego style.

The busy holidays are basically upon us.  Both my husband and I have work Christmas parties this weekend, plus we need to clean and wrap and figure out those last few gifts.  But the sun was out so I had to get outside and photograph for a few minutes at least.

I already got one of my Christmas gifts - because 'Black Friday' became 'Merry Christmas to me' when a long desired Nikon D7100 went on 'Lightening Deal' at Amazon. 

The stars aligned for me to even know lightening deals existed, since my first visit to that part of Amazon was only two days prior.  Then during an attempt to see how it all worked I tried to click on something and was immediately 48th on the waitlist - so some stuff goes fast - lightening fast - what were the chances I could remember to be at my computer at the right time?  (During a couple of other items of interest I proved the chances of me remembering was very low).  But there was an 'unknown Nikon deal' coming up in four hours and somehow I actually remembered to sit down at my computer 2 minutes before the sale started.  Then when it turned out to be the camera I had wanted I clicked fast and it was in my cart.  Just like that.

(Then I had fifteen minutes to chat with my husband about "should I really buy"?  He kind of shrugged - probably knowing he really wasn't going to affect my decision making process.  The camera was 33% off - probably won't see that again until the camera has been upgraded once again - so a pretty good deal - why wait until March and pay full price?)

So then it arrived two days later - I love you Amazon Prime - you and your fast shipping and free streaming TV shows and movies.  There was, of course, a lovely blizzard which meant I stayed in the town where I work rather than drive through ice on the interstate - so it was an extra two days before I could open the box and admire my camera.  It took another day for me to connect the camera strap and charge the battery.  It took almost two weeks before I took my first tests shots.  (I also got a 'how to' book and the buttons are all different than on my Nikon D5100 - so I have to figure out how to do everything all over again.  Even in my half hour today, I ended up shooting all in 'auto' exposure because I couldn't figure out how to change my focal point.)

But it was a lovely day for skiing, and since I did not get out for any skiing, I let my Lego Minifigures out top play. (Picture composition is a little off, but it was the cutest shot of the bunch).

I think they had fun. 

Now I'm going to go learn about my new camera.

See on,
Julee

Winter Wonderland.

I saw an announcement last week for a 'Winter Wonderland' light display right in Watertown.  The location of the event was in a city park that has camping during the summer, so it would be a drive through type thing.  I have to admit I was pretty excited since I love holiday lights.  The display is only lit Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and luckily I remembered tonight around 7 pm, so we had time to make it tonight.

I also captured a beauty of a shot of one tree just down the block from my house.  (This first photo was taken using a tripod, but the rest were handheld - from inside the car.)

 

Lit up tractors - how awesome!

 

All in all such a fun and colorful evening.

 

See on,
Julee

We Wish you a Merry Christmas.

It was a brisk -15 degrees today, and while I did venture out once for a few groceries I did not stay outside for long.  So I got out my Lego carolers and one of my sparkly ornaments and shot a few photos. 

I played around with lighting using a worklight, flashlight, and colored gels.  I got around the reflection issue by having the light point away from my scene and by having the focus point of the camera about a foot in front of the ornament.  I didn't manage to get a shot I totally loved, but my cat, Ellie, got really jealous and jumped up knocking everything over - so I took a break to post.  Poor kitty.  (Not really, she gets PLENTY of lap time on the weekends, it's simply her desire that 100% of our time at home be lap time.)

See on,
Julee 

Redlin Art Center campus, a bit of hometown beauty.

Today I visited the campus of the Redlin Art Center.  Terry Redlin is a local artist whose paintings have beautiful highlights of light and often rural Americana.  Last winter there were holiday lights on the trees around the museum, and I was looking forward to photographing those lights, but it appears this year the lights weren't put up. 

 

But despite the -5 degree temperature, I hopped out of my car for a few minutes of shooting anyway.  The lights on the bridge and the lights around the museum are quite pretty at twilight.

 

 

I liked the shot below because you could see the moon.  (The moon wasn't quite bright or low enough to be truly spectacular, but hey, I liked it.)

I am not sure what the weekend will hold photographically.  The below zero temperatures are supposed to remain until Sunday when we get some snow.  Maybe I'll brave the cold or maybe I'll aim for shooting something interesting on my dining room table/photo studio.  (Thank you accommodating husband who is happy eating at the coffee table - I'll put my 'studio' away come spring.)

See on,
Julee

Holiday lights.

Tomorrow I start my first photography 'class'.  It's an online class where I will learn about photographing holiday lights, ornaments, wrapping paper, and more.  I am totally excited.  But during my journeys this weekend I came across a lighted holiday tree and I couldn't resist trying to photograph the lights.

 

 

You can still tell it's a tree - wahoo!  (This was taken with my 28 - 85 mm lens with intentional out-of-focusness in order to give the lights a lovely and large blur.)

 

See on,

Julee

 

 



Cracks in the ice.

I did not venture out for any shopping until 3 pm today, and even then there were still crowds out and about.  The only stores I visited were a small, local sports store and Hallmark.  The worst line I stood in had two people in front of me, I suspect a lot of folks waited in much longer lines today.

But it was a beautiful, sunny day here and I also made time to get outside for some photographs.  My husband went out with me and we drove around the two local lakes to see if the lakes had frozen over yet.  Indeed they had.  There were even a few folks ice fishing near the shore on Lake Pelican.  (But we never found a vantage point where I could photograph them well.)

My husband is much braver than I am on the ice, he walks right out.  There were actually a few cracks in the ice, but he jumped up and down and it was frozen a good way down.

(The Lensbaby wasn't the best choice of lens to show the cracks in the ice, but it was hard to tell if the shot worked or not on the little screen on the camera - but you can still see the relatively large crack.)

It was neat how the water froze thick on the rocks.

Here is the beach on this cold winter day before any snow has fallen.

 

Finally, here is a shot I captured near our other lake, Lake Kampeska.  I thought it was cool that you can see a big airplane in the background.  It is a retired Fed Ex plane that our tech students get to use to learn about repairing airplanes, and it sits right near a runway at our little airport.  Someday I'll have to remember to try and catch a nice photo from this same perspective when an airplane is coming in for a landing.

See on,
Julee

More holiday spirit.

It is getting close to the time when it seems universally acceptable to begin holiday decorating and truly getting into the holiday spirit.

It is also a busy time of year, so taking photos gets kind of a backseat to family time, shopping, decorating, wrapping, etc.  (Although tonight's excuse for a rushed photo session was a long day at work rather than holiday fun.) 

So to keep myself in the spirit, I pulled out some sparkly holiday bows and my Lensbaby.

Voila...

This second photo is pretty abstract for me - but I love it.  (It's not exactly what I was aiming for, but it was close for a quick five minute experiment.)

See on,
Julee

Angry Birds and Camp Wanahlegoh.

My Thanksgiving events started this weekend, so it was a busy two days filled with family fun.  Ah the memories made amidst ham, potatoes, cheesecake, wine,and trains and Legos. 

Trains and Legos you wonder...  Well, the local model train show was this weekend and I have a number of young nephews and nieces who have a blast looking at all the train stuff - although admittedly the adults have just as much fun.  One of the most spectacular displays at the train show is the Lego display.  Yes, it has a Lego train, but there is also an entire city of Legos complete with Camp Wanahlegoh, a lego bank, a lego greenhouse, and more.  So cool.)

Once I got home, after relaxing for a bit in front of the TV and watching Brave, I pulled out my camera for a short session.  I was looking around for inspiration and my Angry Bird characters caught my eye.  I suspect there is a story coming eventually surrounding these guys, but here was tonight's best photo - courtesy of my Lensbaby Plastic Optic.

Can you see the fear in the pig's eye?  He's toast!

Oh, and here is Camp Wanahlegoh if you're curious.  It's a camera phone shot so the quality isn't the best.  But if you look closely you might be able to see one of the Lego men on the zip line.  (He's right above the leftmost black tent.)  Awesome!

See on,
Julee

Eggs.

Tonight I hope to make you giggle just a bit. 

DPChallenge had a challenge with the theme of 'eleven'.   I was trying to be creative and come up with an interesting idea for how to shoot a photo of 'eleven'.  I was able to go back to old challenges to see what kind of things other folks have done with number challenges and there was everything from photos of the number to photos of that number of items.  (Like for a 'four' challenge folks would photograph four birds, or an address with a '4' in it.)

Lots of the DPC folks are amazing photographers, and much further along in their skill development that me, but that doesn't mean I can't be creative and have fun.  So my goal was to come up with something where the 'eleven' was an integral part of the idea, rather than just photographing 11 gumdrops.

I really did not have much luck in the creativity department except for one genius idea.  (At least I'm pretty proud of it).  I photographed eggs.  Oh yes, I know there are twelve eggs in a package - but that's where my creative twist came in.

I photographed 11 white eggs with one brown egg.  So I had my full dozen eggs, but just 11 that were the same.   The second shot is my actual entry, the colors are much better, but I got this awesome chicken suit Lego man this afternoon and had to throw him in one of the photos.

I also tried having one of the eggs being a broken egg, but I did not like that quite as well.  The perspectives (slight angle) was just better in the other photo.

And wouldn't you know it, this photo is getting me my highest score yet.  (Not really high mind you, but high for me.)

Light is proving to be an incredible challenge.  I am going to work on mastering it, but I suspect it'll take months to get a handle.  Notice how my second two shots have a much whiter background that my shot with the Lego man.  Granted, I was shooting really quickly this afternoon to get something with Lego guy in it, but I used the same lighting from last weekend with the other egg shots.  The only difference was that I had my foam core boards behind the eggs tonight rather than just white paper.  The foam board is taller so maybe blocked more of the room lighting?  I don't know.  Between getting the color of the background pretty, getting the shadows right, and figuring out the whole reflection issue - I've got plenty to learn.  (My book on lighting arrives tomorrow - so I am on it!)

See on,
Julee

Mad Scientist on the Loose.

So I picked up some foam board over lunch hour, in order to have a bigger and better 'studio' setup and I meant to play around with reflection again - but after having to wait around for two hours while my camera battery charged I got sidetracked with my mad scientist Lego person who I had totally left out of my 'cast' of Lego characters photo.

How could I do that?  That's me, or at least it was until I left chemistry for quality assurance.  (Less safety glasses required in quality assurance.)

Here's mad scientist guy making a wild creation...

 

 

 

(Thanks to the red light on my headlamp for these!)

 

See on,

Julee

Into the season of sparkle.

So it's not quite the season, but it's so darn close I just couldn't resist getting a start on adding holiday sparkle to my life.  I found some pretty ornaments and thought I'd try them out in my little home studio.

Well, turns out I have a HUGE reflection issue.  (Which I kind of knew would happen, but I'm here learning people so I had to try and work with what I had for this first round of photos.)

My setup involves leaning several pieces of white cardboard leaned up against a photo album that sits up against a Rubbermaid storage container.  Today I even resorted to taping the cardboard in place so that two pieces of cardboard could be side-by-side - which increased the size of my backdrop.  (That move was my first attempt at reducing some of the refection.)

My lighting involved the overhead light, a large 'happy' light to the right of my set, an LED work light to the left of my set, and either a headlamp or a flashlight usually straight in front of the set or sometimes above the set.

I've been reading a little about reflections, and I knew I would have trouble as soon as I added a reflective item to my stage, but winter is a great time to learn about fixing unwanted reflections.  (Tons of reflective sparkle, sparkle, sparkle available over the next month, plus it's cold and while light painting outside sounds intriguing I suspect my fondness for the idea will wane a bit as the temperature drops and drops and drops.)

I found a book that I'm hoping will have some practical advice, so we'll see if I can improve.  But for now, enjoy today's best shots:

(And for this last shot, the blur is intentional, that's my Lensbaby in action.)

See on,
Julee

Foggy day.

All week our weatherman had predicted a nice weekend.  He was correct only in that the temperature is a pleasant 50 degrees.  He was incorrect about any sun.  Today was totally gray and foggy, and it drizzled most of the day.

 

But not to let it get me down, I figured the fog might give me a great opportunity to capture those three trees I feel in love with last weekend without the clutter of the city being visible.

 

And it worked! 

 

The top two shots are with my Lensbaby (first shot is with the plastic optic, second shot is with the Edge 80).  The third shot is with my 'regular' 16-85 mm lens.  The river was actually flowing just enough that there wasn't much of a reflection visible, so I'll have to keep trying for that perfect shot, but I really quite like what I captured.

 

There was also a grain elevator (at least I think I'm using the terminology correctly??)  right across the street from the river and trees.  The fog made for an interesting scene and I liked that is was full up with corn accentuating the time of year the photo was taken.

 

 

It is supposed to be gray with a mix of rain and snow tomorrow, but I've got an '11' and a 'glass' challenge to be working on, so hopefully I can come up a few ideas and get out and shoot.

 

See on,

Julee

Meet the cast.

I have seen a number of folks who photograph Lego Minifigures.  Some put Lego Minifigures in interesting scenes while others recreate famous photographs with them.   I am a fan of this kind of work, and as an adult who has indulged in the joy that is Legos, I thought maybe I too would have fun adding them into my photography.

So day 1.  Here's the gang.  (At least some of the gang.  I pulled most of my favorites out of their 'Lego scene' just to see what my different lenses would do with them.) 

First up my 16-85 mm lens.  The light's not perfect - I'm using the overhead dining room light, a happy light, and a small headlamp - so it's not ideal but I'm learning here.  It's hard to know what works and what doesn't until I see it on the computer screen.

Oh, and yeah, this is the most in focus I got all of them in one shot.  I played, briefly, with decreasing my aperture, but frankly those looked worse.  Excuse coming...  I had only about 30 minutes to play around tonight, so worked really quickly to try out all my lenses.  (Focusing on good content will be later.  Apparently.  Since I didn't even come close tonight.)

Next up my Edge 80 Lensbaby.  Interesting.  I was not successful in getting one group in a diagonal line that was exactly in focus, but I came close. That was enough for me tonight.  (I seem to have trouble with manual focus.  My next camera will have a larger viewfinder and a larger screen which is said will help my focus ability.  I suspect it won't be some magical sort of improvement in my ability to get the focus right.  Mostly I think I need to keep practicing.)

I tried getting the front guys in focus in this shot, sort of got it - but you can see on the backend of my photo I actually photographed off the edge of my 'stage'.  Nice going.

 

I love my Lego fisherman, and thought he would be cute with the Lego mermaid behind him.  Notice my issue with the background again.  (But cute idea yes?)

 



 

Here is my Lensbaby Plastic lens.  I like how everything has kind of an otherworldly vibe.  Nothing is in sharp focus, which bugs a lot of folks, but it's actually the point of the lens and it can work perfectly in the right situation.  (I'm not sure this is the exact right situation, but again, just playing around here.)

So now I just have to come up with inspiration for a photo with one or more of these little guys.  Plus I think I need more Minifigures.  Have you seen the chicken suit guy?  Awesome!

See on,
Julee