Day 90: Write This Down

90 days! Can you believe it?! This month has gone by really quickly. I can't believe it'll be April tomorrow. I can't believe it's supposed to snow again tomorrow.... Ah well.

Today's photo comes from The Book Nook. I was trying to find something in the store to photograph, and I had something set up, and then I saw this. There was just something about the way that the "cord" was curled up and over itself. I thought i'd make a really cool photo. Plus the cord is just so blue. Like a great blue. This is from a pen that we have attached to the counter for people to sign their credit card slips with.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 400.
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Unless I get some more comments overnight tonight, I don't think I'll be holding the drawing for the contest. Thank you to Matt and Jess for commenting, and if you'd like an image print, let me know. But since they've already one a contest (February and January, respectively), I'd much rather let someone new one. Problem is, no one's commenting this month! Maybe I'll just carry it over to next month? Or maybe I'll put the contests on hold for a while. We'll see. Whether or not the contest stops, I promise that the photos will keep on coming! Have a great end of March!

Day 89: Picture Pages

While it's not time to get your crayons and your pencils, and Bill Cosby will not be making an appearance, today's photo is still a picture...of a page...in a book...that I was reading...that I'm still reading...and most likely will still be reading through the weekend...because it has over 800 pages. But at least it's a good book (and at least I stopped with the ellipses).

Sorry that I didn't have a chance to photo anything else today. I spent most of the day reading, then played racquetball, and now here we are. Plus it's snowing here. Hard. No joke. Tomorrow is March 31st and it's supposed to snow all weekend. Stupid climate change.

1/15 sec. exposure at F/4. ISO 100.
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Tomorrow's the last day to comment for the contest, so make sure you do! I only have two commenters so far and they're both people that have won already! Peace out!

Day 88: It's Almond Butter Jelly Time

Almond butter jelly. Almond butter jelly. Almond butter jelly and a baseball bat. Well? What do you want? I don't have peanut butter.

We're out of paper towels, so when I made my lunch today I used a napkin. When I opened it up to put the bread on it, I noticed that the slices fit perfectly on each side of the napkin. So I thought: PHOTO! I put the almond butter and jelly on the slices then took the photo. I took it at a longer exposure than was necessary for the shot, but I like how it really washed out the napkin and made it white, which brought out the color of the jelly.

1/4 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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This is actually one of my favorite photos for the month. It's simple, but fun. I wish I had either cropped out the knife completely or gotten more of it in the shot (It's that small silver thing on the right edge). What do you think? One of your favorites? If so, comment for the contest! Only two more days! Do it up!

Day 87: Yield To Me

So I have to apologize again. I promised yesterday that I would be back to my normal, bubbly self today. But I was pretty wiped out, plus I had a bunch of reading to do for tomorrow (so that I can start next week's reading tomorrow), then class, then racquetball, then groceries. It didn't leave a lot of time for photo taking unfortunately. So I took this while I was driving home. It's okay. Good in theory; poor in execution.

1/5 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 800.
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Sorry again. I promise that tomorrow will be a better day. Only a few more days to comment for the contest. I only have two comments so far this month, so let's get on that, eh? So long.

Day 86: Meet Kohen Andrew Again

I'm completely exhausted. So I'm just posting the photos with little to no commentary. I promise tomorrow I'll be back to my normal, lovable self. But for now, enjoy some more photos of my nephew Kohen. Comment for the contest. Pretty please?

1/25 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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1/25 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
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1/25 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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1/25 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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1/13 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
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1/8 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 200.
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Day 85: Meet Kohen Andrew

Conference is over. It was okay, but a little bit lame. And I'm exhausted. We're in Findlay, Ohio tonight, staying with my sister and her family. Which means I finally got to meet my nephew! I took a few shots of him tonight, using my diffusion filter. I'm still not very good at using this filter effectively, but these came out okay. Plus I had to use my flash, which I never really like very much.

Anyway, here ya go. That's all for today. Make sure you comment for the contest.

1/200 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 100. Flash used.
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1/200 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 100. Flash used.
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I like that last one. It looks like a paparazzi photo: "Get that camera outta my face!"

1/200 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 100. Flash used.
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1/200 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 100. Flash used.
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They gave us clown noses at the conference, so they all thought it would be funny to torture the baby with it. Of course, we all had to take pictures of him.

Check back tomorrow for some more photos of Kohen. I'm sure there will be plenty.

Day 84: Decoy! Decoy!

I'm reporting to you from Canton, Michigan tonight. Up here for a conference at U of M tomorrow, and I'm staying at my Uncle's house. Basically what that means is: another short post.

I took some photos of their dog Decoy. He's a sweet "little" Golden Retriever. My roommate Reggie is up here with me for the same conference, and when we got back from dinner (delicious Thai food), Decoy was sprawled out on the floor. So I grabbed my camera and snapped before he moved (though, as you'll see in the last photo, he eventually did).

Here're your photos, ya filthy animals.

1/30 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100. Flash used.
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1/30 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100. Flash used.
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1/40 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 200. Flash used.
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1.3 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 1600.
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Conference tomorrow, then driving down to stay with my sister. It'll probably be a late post, but hopefully some baby pictures. Contest is still happening, so make sure you comment! Toodles.

Day 83: Strange and Bizzare

Quick post today. I only have time to write a few sentences since I have to be back on the road to head home tonight, then to Michigan tomorrow for a conference. I worked and since I needed to take photos before leaving to drive home, I had to get creative again. One of the photos is something I’ve never done before, but the other one is something that I did when I first bought my camera, but it’s new to the blog. I took one of the children’s chairs that we have and propped it up between the counters. Then I angled my camera so that the chair was still “right side up”. It makes for an interesting optical illusion, I suppose.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 800.
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The other image I took through a knife block. I put the camera all the way up to one of the slots so that only that amount of light came through. It’s an interesting photo. Abstract, for sure.

1/10 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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And now I’m off! Not sure what tomorrow’s photos will be, but Saturday’s will most likely be of my nephew (who I finally get to meet!). Maybe I’ll get one of him in his Superman bib that I got him. Who knows.

Don’t forget to comment for the contest. Only one more week to go!

Day 82: Tea Party

Of course it's not really a tea party if I'm drinking it by myself, but it's the only title I could come up with that had anything to do with tea. I snapped this shot while working on my conference paper at Starbucks this afternoon. Good news: paper is basically finished. Bad news: you get another lame photo today.

1/50 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 200.
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That's it. Contest. Comment. C-ayonara.

Day 81: Late Dinner

Lame post on the way. But I warned you yesterday. Stopped after class for some tofu that's the best. And now I'm posting....hey?

I took a photo of my late dinner. Here it is. I'm done today. Sorry. This week is nuts, so.... yeah. Pitchurrrr.

.5 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 400.
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Also, don't forget to comment for the contest...

Day 80: Around Indiana on Day 80

Gonna be a quick one tonight. Sorry. I have waaaaay too much to do this week. I apologize for my posts from now until Sunday. They'll probably be pretty ugly and thrown-together. It's 11 at night right now and I still need to watch one of the Matrix films so I can write a response on it tomorrow. Plus I need to finish Red Dead so I can write my paper on it. And I need to get all of my reading done for next week because there's no way it's happening over the weekend (I'll be in Michigan for a conference).

Anyway. Here're today's photos. One is from class and the other I took while walking around after class (it was a really nice day/night here today). I took a bunch while walking around, but they all came out a little blurry/shaky so I'm not going to post them today. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the photos below.

.5 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 800.
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.6 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 400.
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Day 79: Stupid Clouds

Well, I woke up at 6 a.m. to try and catch the supermoon on its way down. I looked outside and it was still pretty high up (and thus kind of small). So I went back to bed for a half hour. When I woke, it was a bit lower in the sky, but not low enough to get any good shots of so I walked back home and made a cup of tea. When I walked back down the street to start shooting, a ton of clouds rolled in and covered up where the moon was. Stupid clouds.

But since I was awake I figured I might as well get some sunrise photos. I walked back home, got in my car and drove to the other side of Elderton (a terribly long drive, I know). I parked down a business driveway and walked to the other side of Rt. 210 and set up on the other side of the guardrail (safety first!). Then I took some periodic photos as the sun was rising.

As it turned out there was a barn at the bottom of the hill that really made these photos something special. They're all HDR images (I didn't like how normal exposures were coming out, so I started snapping varying ones to composite). And for the most part the images are pretty much the same, but I like them so here you go.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
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Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
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Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
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And then here's one more that I took towards the beginning while I was waiting for the sun to start coming up. This is not an HDR image.

4 sec. exposure at F/20. ISO 100.
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All in all, I consider today a good shooting day. I'm really happy with how those HDR images came out today. Of course, I said "stupid clouds" earlier, but the clouds and the barn are what make these photos pop. I think they're among my best, not just of the HDR, but of everything I've shot so far. What do you guys think? Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below!

I just realized that today is already March 20th, so I should probably let you know that I'll be doing another contest for March. The rules will be the same as they were for February so get those comments rolling! Ta ta unta tamara.

Day 78: Hunting the Elusive Supermoon

Tonight the moon is the closest it's been to the earth in 18 years. At only 221,565 miles away, it makes for an epic show--provided you can catch it when it's just right. Unfortunately for me, I was ill prepared to catch it when it was just right.

I knew it was supposed to pop up just after sunset. We were at Tres Amigos (un restaurante mexicano muy delicioso) for our friend Kevin's birthday. We met there around 7, and sunset was supposed to occur around 7:30. So I kept (much to Kevin's dismay, I'm sure) crawling out of the booth trying to catch a glimpse of this beast, but each time I went out it was nowhere to be seen. We ended up leaving the restaurant a little after 8, I think. And there, just past the building housing Tres Amigos, was the Supermoon. I grabbed my camera out of my car, but 1) I had my kit lens only, and 2) there was nothing around to frame the shot. When trying to capture photos of the moon, you need a decent zoom as well as something to establish the moon next to. Otherwise it always shows up as the same size circle.

By the time I got home and attached my other lens, the moon was starting to creep higher into the sky (and thus appear smaller and smaller). I was able to snap a few shots (I'll just show them all at once below), but nothing that was as great as I was hoping to get tonight when I found out about the supermoon. I've set my alarm for 6 a.m. I'm hoping to catch it when it's on its way down, but we'll have to see how that works out. And I will actually wake up for this one, at the very least to try. When it comes to photographing the moon, there isn't a single better thing in my opinion. It's hands down my absolute favorite thing to take pictures of. My ex used to make fun of me for it all the time.

Now on to the photos.

Note: I was getting A LOT of lens flare with these shots. I think its the lens. I tried shielding it somewhat with my hat/hands, but it was all for not. I did my best to adjust them in Aperture, but this was the best I could get them to come out.

5 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 200.
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15 sec. exposure at F/10. ISO 100.
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5 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
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That about does it. I'm super sleepy, and if I'm waking up at 6 to try and get some more moon-tacular photos, I need to gets some sleep. Actually, I need to get some sleep anyway, but more so probably because of that. Check ya laturrrr.

Day 77: Fool on a Hill

Today is a fairly unexciting post. Not that that's anything new. It was an absolutely, completely, 100% gorgeous day outside today. Which meant, again, I'd rather have done other things than walk around taking photos. Once the newness of Spring wears off I'm sure I'll be able to get out and enjoy the weather for photographic purposes. As for now, I spent the day playing racquetball and golfing. And playing Red Dead (I'm really regretting this paper right now).

While I was on my way home from racquetball (and before golf), I got stuck towards the bottom of the hill leading into Elderton, PA. Stuck meaning in traffic, not breakdown stuck. So I snagged my camera and took these two photos while I was waiting there.

1/15 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
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1/125 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 100.
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Obviously that first photo is overexposed. I took it as my car was slowly creeping forward which gave it the blur effect. It was completely accidental, but I kind of like how it came out, especially with the sun just peeking over the crest. The other one is evenly exposed, but I was hoping the sun would have been in that one too. Alas, I was too far under the hill at that point.

My pizza is reading (mmmmm.....Tofurkey). And I'm going to leave that sentence because it's funny. I meant to say, my pizza is ready. But my fingers are apparently faster than my brain right now. Off to Deliciousville!

Day 76: Greenless

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. Even though I think it's a stupid holiday, I think that everyone else should be entitled to enjoy it. I'm not a big drinker (as you could see by my lightweight antics of last week), and I really hate crowds of drunk people. Those two qualifiers really prevent me from wanting to go outside at all on St. Patrick's Day.

But I did go outside! Not to take pictures, unfortunately. It was a beautiful day out today, but I was stuck at work all day long. So I wanted to actually enjoy the weather instead of just going out to take pictures. I went for a run instead. It's been a loooong time since my last run, but it was nice.

This is what I actually photographed. I set my camera up on my tripod and stood in front of my closet door.

1/4 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 200.
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That's me. I didn't do anything to this one other than set it up and push the shutter button. It's a little on the yellow side, but I wanted to keep that this time. With the brown door and my brownish skin, I think it makes everything a little warmer. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking out of my butt with this stuff. Oh well. I need to get back to Red Dead Redemption. I have to present a paper on it next weekend (I know, right?!), but I need to finish playing through it again so I can get notes for my paper. I love the game, but it's tedious going through a game like this. I should have started playing again a while ago, but I had so much other stuff to do. Ugh.

Day 75: Stop Blaming Things on Terry Gilliam; Mr. Nolan's At Fault Too

Today's photos, if I may so myself, are pretty awesome. My friend Ben and I have been playing racquetball on a fairly regular basis, though with spring break last week we've been a little off. But we did play tonight, and I was on campus early to do some reading. So I got to the racquetball court a little earlier too. I set my camera up, using my racket and goggles to prop it up at an angle. The shots below are the result.

This first one was just me standing to get a test shot (so I knew where I'd be; to make sure I was in focus, etc.).

1/25 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 800.
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The next few that I took were at the same settings, and the shutter speed was a little slow. Needless to say, I ended up a little blurry. Oh, I forgot to mention that I was leaping. As you can see in the next photo.

1/125 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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And this one.

1/125 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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And then two more.

1/80 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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1/80 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 800.
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They all came out a little dark, so I had to adjust them in Aperture. I needed a fast shutter speed to limit the blur, but that equals darker exposures. But I still think everything came out pretty cool. I'm glad I stuck with my plan to do these. I got the idea earlier in the day, but then I felt awkward doing it with people walking by. But then I went ahead and did it anyway. So there's that. And here's this: goodbye.

Day 74: Blame It On Mr. Gilliam, Part the Second

Sorry for the late post. Sorry for the lame post. We watched 12 Monkeys in class tonight, which capped off my three day Terry Gilliam-athon. I might actually watch Time Bandits tonight as a bit of an epilogue, but we'll see. It depends what else I find on Netflix. Anyway, since I couldn't think of anything to take pictures of today, I crawled into my closet, laid (lay?) down on the floor and took this, another Gilliam-esque perspective a la Sunday's post.

1 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 800.
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I messed around with this one in Aperture, mostly out of boredom. And partly because it's a lame photo, so I figured I could try and give it some flair. Okay, yeah. I agree. It didn't work. But you can't fault a guy for trying.

That's all I have today. So....yeah. You can leave now. Unless you want to hang out and look at more of my photos. I'd be okay with that too. Maybe tell me which ones you like? Comments make me happy. You want me to be happy don't you? You don't? Oh. Well. Ummm....

Day 73: Head. Phone. Headphones.

Okay, I finally watched the trailer for Super and I wanted to share it on here. I already feel like this is going to be my favorite movie this year. It has everything I could possibly want in a movie: Slither writer/director James Gunn, Ellen Page, and Nathan Fillion. I cannot wait for this movie to come out. At least it's only a couple of weeks away (provided it comes to a theater near here). Then again, I'd be willing to drive to New York just to see this.

Okay. Sorry about that. I just really needed to get that out of my system. Now onto the photos. I wasn't sure what I'd take pictures of today, and then I was putting my clothes away today and saw how I had hung my headphones onto the mic stand. I really liked how it looked, so that's what I photographed. I set my camera on my tripod, turned off my bathroom light (that's where I record, which is why the mic stand and headphones are in there; it's the best acoustics in the house), and turned on the closet light. I set it for a longer exposure and this is how they came out.

25 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 200.
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I messed with the white balance temperature settings and turned the contrast up on this one. Other than that it's as is.

8 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 200.
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This one didn't have anything done to it in Aperture. It's as is as it is.















Okay. That's it for day 73. I kind of like these photos a little. They're not spectacular, but they're kind of fun in a simple way. Is anyone even listening? Hello?

Day 72: Blame It On Mr. Gilliam

Today's post title says it all. I've been watching a lot of Terry Gilliam movies lately. We're watching 12 Monkeys in class on Tuesday night, but after reading the chapter that was assigned to us, I've been thinking that I may do my final paper on something with his films. So I rewatched Tideland this afternoon, I rewatched Brazil a few days ago, and I'm about to start The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus again for who knows how many times. One of the aspects of Mr. Gilliam's brilliant filmmaking that I enjoy the most are his ultra-wide angle shots. The man fits so much into a single frame and it makes me ridiculous jealous (mostly because I really, really want to buy an ultra-wide lens, but they're pretty pricey). So today's post is my (very weak) attempt at some Gilliam-esque photos (wide angle, askew view, etc.)

I'm going to give all three photos and then I'll talk a bit about them underneath. Each shot is essentially the same; the only thing I changed (as you'll see in the caption below each photo) was the aperture setting and the exposure. I wanted to experiment with depth of field a little bit today.

1.3 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 400.
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2.5 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 400.
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5 sec. exposure at F/6.3. ISO 400.
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As you can see, increasing the f-stop number (thereby decreasing the aperture's size) increase how in focus I myself am. The only thing I did to any of these photos in Aperture (the software) was decrease the white balance temperature in each photo to 3900. I wanted all of the photos to have essentially the same things applied save for aperture and exposure settings to really emphasize the difference in focus and depth of field.

As far as lighting goes, I left my bedroom light on and opened the bathroom door just enough to let the light through (behind me). I also turned my closet light on and left that door wide open (to my right in the photo; left from the viewer's perspective). That's all the light that was used. I think that helped create a deeper scene as well. I just really wish I had a wider angle lens to get really crazy with the shot (i.e. more of the room and empty space to create a more isolated shot).

Well, I hope you guys liked my little experiment today. Like I said yesterday, I'm going to do some random shooting again this week. It's not that I don't like the themes that I've been doing, it's just that it gets monotonous and slightly boring after several days. Okay, peace out, g.

Day 71: Uptown, Downtown and Some Things In Between

Boy oh boy are you all in for a treat. I have six, count 'em SIX photos to share with you today! Well, two of them are different versions of the same shot, but it's still six photos. I felt bad that I haven't been shooting as much lately, so I took a stroll around town after work today.

The first photos, though, were taken from the roof of the Book Nook today during the parade. They are HDR composites, but the parade was really lame so there wasn't much to photograph.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
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Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

I don't know why, but I like the sepia one. It's anachronistic. It looks like it should be an old photo, but it's full of very modern objects. They are the same HDR composite; I just made the second one into a sepia tone after it was composited.

The next one is of the same intersection, but from down on the corner after work. Also, it's pointed back towards where I was standing on the roof of the above shots.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

The clouds that started rolling in the late afternoon were amazing. Lots and lots of texture. I like how this photo came out too. The HDR really makes certain photos look much better. The clouds have a depth that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

The next two photos are of a church/steeple on 7th St. in Indiana. Same basic thing though; I really love the way the clouds looked this afternoon/early evening.

Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
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Photo composited in Aperture using Photomatix HDR Plug-In.
Click image for larger version.

This last photo is not an HDR composite. As I was walking back to my car, I noticed a few birds up on a telephone wire. I got underneath and pointed up and took this shot.

1/40 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100.
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The clouds don't look as cool because it's not composited, but I like the small patch of blue near the birds. I also like that they were close enough to the transformers so that both the birds and the transformers could be in the shot. I brightened this up a bit in Aperture and I cropped it down some.

It's supposed to be a bit warmer, but mostly cloudy tomorrow so I don't know what I'll be getting myself into. I think I'm going to go back to some random shooting for the next week or so, mostly just to break up the monotony of shooting the same stuff over and over, but also to get back to shooting things that don't need to be tweaked in Aperture. I want to get some shots that turn out good just from the camera, to get better at actually shooting good photos, instead of making them look good with my computer. Stay tuned, listeners. I mean readers. Whatever.