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

Reflections.

Today my goal was a picture of the Big Sioux River.  (Spoiler alert, here is my favorite shot of the day, captured after more than two hours, and three destinations of searching.)

Anyway, I started off bright and early with a visit to a spot near the zoo.

There is a cool, wooden bridge along the river right there that I thought might make a neat photo.  Traveling to that destination required some back-woods hiking, albeit just a few meters of it. But in those few meters I got one of my white shoes full of mud (which I didn't let slow me down) and then I cut open an almost healed burn (which did slow me down since I had nothing except my white jacket to slow the bleeding).

That outing was kind of a fail.  Although one of the shots I did end up finding interesting.

 I thought I did an all right job of capturing the repeating pattern.

After a relaxing lunch at home, during which I enjoyed Hotel Transylvania - nothing like a good cartoon movie to lighten the mood - I was ready to try again. 

So I headed back out toward the river.  It took about 15 minutes of shooting photos capturing nothing much when suddenly in my viewfinder were three tree with a neat reflection in the river.  It was perfect, there were annoying buildings and city stuff around, but still, I could see the beauty.

I next headed over to a park that runs along the river.  Jackpot.  Another wooden bridge, that was my top picture, plus my favorite rock bridge and more trees in reflection.

What a great end to my day. 

See on,
Julee

South Dakota Countryside

This morning I wandered just a few miles outside of Watertown, then turned off the main highway onto a dirt road. (I love late fall/early winter trees.  Without their leaves they are a bit wild and dark looking.  Today  I wanted to see if I could find some cool photos of trees.)

Who knew how rural it could get, and what luck I could have, just one mile off the beaten path?

I love the giant tire out in the middle of nowhere.  Why is it there?

And next up 'The Rural Stop Sign.'  I've been wondering where one goes to practice shooting, and now I know.  You just drive around the countryside and aim at signs.  Can do!

It is probably one of the last lovely days in South Dakota before winter really sets in.  (I say lovely despite the 20 - 25 mph winds.  But a stocking hat helped and as you can see the winds were not apparent in my photos since it was partly sunny so I could use fast shutter action on my camera.)

Heading out shortly to see what else I can find. 

See on,
Julee

Pumpkin Snowman.

My friend told me about this adorable guy...

It was nice we got an early season snowstorm right before I photographed him.  Thanks Rose.  He's awesome!

I actually emailed to my husband that I hoped it stayed cold because I wanted to capture the snow on the tree branches during my lunch break, but most of the snow was melted before my noon outing so I did not capture anything exciting.  (I should have taken the time before work when the snow was probably an inch deep on most branches.  It was one of those lovely mornings when everything is white.  But no, instead I showed up for work a half hour early.  Someday I'll learn to take the shots in the moment when they are there.)

I was driving along a rural road when I found this tree.  After shooting this photo and turning my car around I noticed from another angle the tree was "S" shaped, like a funky Dr. Seuss tree.  But there were power lines and other distractions behind the tree so I didn't take the photo.  (Leave it to one day after the S-Curve Challenge for my to find one in nature - my entry to the S-Curve challenge is  below.)

All of the snow should be melted by the weekend, but there will be plenty of snow photo ops yet to come.

Here is my 'S-curve' entry.  I called it "Highlighting the S-Curve".  I thought maybe I would get a point for creativity.  Nope.  This is on track to be my worst photo entry yet.  (And I was second to last in one challenge.  Maybe this will be my personal worst.)  Ah.  What can I say.  I was learning was an S-curve was and it was the best I could come up with in three days.  Plus I like the pink.  I suspect I should have had the camera angle lower and at the far end of the S.   

This last photo was one of my first shots at drawing an S-curve.  In retrospect maybe this would have been received better, although it's only sharp right in the center and I figured the shot needed to be in focus throughout.  Photography is really awfully hard.  (And liking and not liking a photo is so personal.)

But as long as I'm learning and still having some fun with it, I'll keep trying.


See on,
Julee

Pumpkins in a wagon.

One of my goals for photos is to capture interesting, seasonally related photos that I can rotate into frames around the house to help highlight the season.

My mom has this neat photo of pumpkins in an old, gray cart.  It's a fabulous photo.  So I wanted a photo like that!

I came across a neighborhood in Watertown where they've got a wagon full of pumpkins.  My first photo-shoot out there was around a month ago.  I tried my Lensbaby lenses but none of the photos looked good.  So I ventured back out and tried again with a more traditional lens.

I desaturated in Photoshop and came up a photo I really kind of liked because it made the wagon look a little more old-timey.  Below is how the wagon looked in real-life.

It's not terrible, but none of the photos I captured left me feeling excited or particularly interested either.  But I am pretty happy with the processed version at the top.  Thanks Topaz! 

Tonight I am playing around with photographing candy and S-curves.  Stay tuned!

See on,
Julee

The search for leaves.

The DPChallenge presented the group with a 'fall foliage' challenge.  But unlike most challenges where you have just a couple of days to capture a winner, this challenge was a month long.

On the upside, during that month I was able to determine that my main lens for shooting these types of photos was broken.  I had time to replace and try out the new lens.

I think I have been on at least five outings where I have been looking for pretty and/or unique scenes. 

And yet still I remain slightly dissatisfied.  I am aiming for beautiful and unique.  The tree full of yellow leaves below is pretty, as is my giant tree with red leaves.  But I suspect there will photos of entire countrysides with trees full of color, so I'm not sure one lone tree from me will be enough to make a decent showing.  (There will also be those who capture the one lone tree, but they will have sun rays shining stunningly through the branches.  I did not capture anything that magical.)

 

 

Then I found some sort of sad-looking leaves, often the last leaf on the branch.  Not bad.  Not beautiful, but maybe original at least.

 



Or here is a still dirty-but-red leaf that has fallen.

Then there were these gorgeous, almost fluorescent green leaves with just the start of some red.  These might have been fantastic shots had I been able to get a whole shot in focus.  (It was a typical South Dakota windy day, winds of 20 mph. No matter of quick my shutter, always some blur.  Darn it.)

Finally I captured some shots looking up into the trees.  Who knows what will turn out a winner once I get home and can view on the big computer screen.  

 

Pretty much all I'm striving for is a 5.  (The range is 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.)  I am just thrilled when my photo is at least 'average'.  But even getting this score during voting can be tough.

Not sure what I'll choose yet.  There are still ten days remaining in the challenge, although most of the fall colors near me have now either turned to brown or have blown off onto the ground.

But thanks mother-nature for giving me some brilliantly colored outings this fall!

See on,
Julee