Day 38: Books and Nooks

It's Monday. That means work. Which means photos from the Book Nook. Hurrah... I'm not particularly pleased with either photo from today, but, for the most part, it's been a while since I've posted anything super crappy. Well, all that is about to change. Here is today's crap.



1/5 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 400.
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 This photo has been the bane of my existence for some time now. I've taken so many versions of this picture, it's a bit ridiculous. It has so much potential to be awesome, but always ends up looking meh. I love the lines of the racks, but I can never get the right angle on the shot to make it look very good. So this is what you get today. Just go with it.


















1/50 sec. exposure at F/3.5. ISO 400.
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 This one was taken through the front door of the Book Nook. Again, nothing spectacular. Most of the photos that I end up not liking just don't come out the way I see them in my head. I tried taking a couple of these with the signs out of focus and the ground behind in focus, but those shots just looked like I was terrible at focusing. But these don't have enough of the detail of what's behind them. And there's too much space taken up by the dark signs with nothing to really focus on. See, at least I kind of know what I'm talking about. I may not be able to physically produce the object, but I know what's wrong with it when it doesn't come out right!

I'm off to see a wizard now. And by wizard I mean that creepy guy that stands behind the bus stop. I have no idea what I'm talking about anymore. I'm gone. Toodles.

Day 37: I Don't See What's So Super About Your Bowl

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Woo! Yeah! I stopped watching a while ago! I left at the end of the third quarter to head home and 1) post this for you folks, and 2) get to bed since I have a long day tomorrow. I suppose it's common courtesy for me to share what my favorite commercial was. I really liked the one car commercial (I forget who it was for exactly) that featured a young child running around dressed up like Darth Vader. It was adorable. If you didn't catch that one, make sure you google it right now.

Now onto my show. I was over at Ben and Ashlee's for the game festivities. I took one photo of some shrimp that they had prepared before the game began.

1/13 sec. exposure at F/4. ISO 200.
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I couldn't tell you what it tasted like because it's, you know, meat and stuff. But it was still an interesting photo.

Next, we started watching the game. Well, "watching" it. I spent the majority of the first half finishing my response for class. I honestly could care less about the game; I was just there for the company. But it would have been nice to just be able to hang out instead of doing work. Ah well.

The halftime show was spent both finishing my response and wanting to Van Gogh myself. Seriously, the Black Eyed Peas are crap. Total crap. It's my duty as a blogger to inform you of this. Not only are their songs terrible, but that was an extremely weak performance as well.

Aaaannyway. The last two photos are of Ben and Ashlee's dog Jaeger (I think that's how they spell it).

.5 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 800.
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.5 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 800.
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He was pretty hyper earlier in the evening (and also moderately afraid of the camera), but he finally settled down about halfway through the third quarter. I was using my flash earlier when he was all bouncy, but they all came out bad. He was really bright and lit, but it looked really unnatural. So when he finally chilled out a bit, I was able to just turn the ISO up and get a much better colored shot. I just turned the white balance temperature down a little bit in Aperture for both of these shots. Other than that they're not adjusted at all.

Enjoy the rest of your evenings, and be safe if you're heading home from somewhere (if you've already made it home, I'm glad you made it back okay). G'noiyt! (That was supposed to be British or Australian, I can't tell which.)

Day 36: How Does THAT Happen?

Hola, mis amigos! How's your Saturdays treating you? Well, I hope. I'm here after another day at work. So I had to get creative today. Here's the first image to help set up what I did.

1/13 sec. exposure at F/4. ISO 400.
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You might remember the stove top that's on the right part of this picture from my previous post. This shot was also taken through that mirror. I actually get a little nauseous looking at this one. It's just disorienting. I jumped up on the counter and got really close to the mirror and then just started taking photos. Most of them were coming out like this--neat perspectives, but nothing extraordinary. Then I glanced over at the counter and saw a neat pepper crusher/dispenser thingy. I placed it on the floor in an area with tiling, and zoomed in so that the only things visible was the floor and the pepper thingy.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 400.
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I really like how this one came out. I'm a little bummed that the pepper thingy is a bit blurry, but overall, a pretty cool shot, in my opinion. I love the way that mirrors help things defy gravity. By shooting through the mirror I was able to make this seem like it was coming straight out of a vertical plane.

Any-hoo, that's about it. I picked up some film and batteries for the film camera I just got. I couldn't figure out how to load the film and accidentally rewound it all the way back in the canister without using it. Awesome, right? Yes, I am a graduate student. Luckily I picked up a two-pack so I was able to figure it out with the second roll. I took a couple of photos of Molly, but obviously can't tell how they came out. I figure I'll try and take a couple of photos every now and then with that one, and then I'll get it developed and get them scanned in to share. Maybe that can be a special day when I'm stuck and couldn't shoot (though, I figured I would have certainly had a day like that already and I haven't, so who knows...). But for now, enjoy your evenings. Tomorrow's Super Bowl Sunday. I could care less about any of it, honestly. I'll be going to a friend's house to watch, so I'm sure I'll try and take some pictures during that. Maybe wait until people start getting drunk so I can share it with the world. Heh heh heh. Not really. That's inappropriate. Like your face! Ohhh snap!

Day 35: They Will See Us Waving From Such Great Heights

Sorry for the late post! BUT, I have a lot to share today! I drove down to Pittsburgh because I found someone selling a Canon SLR (film, not digital) camera and lens for $60. I really just wanted the lens; I figured where else was I going to find it that cheap, plus I got another camera with it. I haven't tried out the camera yet (I don't have any film, and the batteries are dead; I'm going to pick up some of both tomorrow), but as I was driving to meet the couple I found probably the best place in Pittsburgh, particularly for photographers.

1/160 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100.
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Well, do you agree? I was in Mt. Washington, a suburb of Pittsburgh. It sits way on top of (what I'm assuming) is Mt. Washington. And along this one road there are platforms that stick out off the side of the mountain that are absolutely perfect for photo taking. I plan on returning here a lot at different times of day just to see what I can come up with.

Here's one of the river, taken if you were to look to the right at the above image.

1/125 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100.
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In this next one I tried to emphasize and integrate myself with the two taller buildings in the skyline. It actually took quite a few tries before I was able to frame it just right. I came up with a couple of more ideas similar to this to try in the future while I was driving home (of course).

1/160 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100.
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The last two photos didn't come out exactly as I had hoped (it was really bright and I was having trouble viewing the images on my LCD, so I couldn't tell at the time). Again, these are shots I'd like to revisit in the future, perhaps trying them at night. In these two, it's tough to see the cars. I wanted the blur effect of the cars driving by, but for some reason it's tough to really see them.

1/4 sec exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
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This is probably the best one of all that I took. There was one of a bus driving by that was perfect, but the rest of the image was blurred too because I was all twitchy when I took it for some reason.

And here's the final photo for today. I do like the vertical position as opposed to the horizontal. I think it gives it a little sumpn-sumpn more.

.3 sec. exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
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Like I said, it's tough to make out the cars in these (even more so in the ones I didn't post). The black blur in the center of the left lane is a car, but it blends in with everything too much. Ah well. Live and learn, learn and live.

I'm really happy with my photo adventuring today. Not that anything is particularly exciting in and of itself, but just the fact that I actually got out and shot somewhere other than home or work. I'm must be getting ready for bed now. Work seems to come so early lately. Sleep tight, world. Don't let the bed bugs bite, Earl.

Day 34: Zoooom(ed In)

Today was a work day. I took a couple of photos for an assignment that I had to do. For this mini-project thing I had to look at a photo of something and then look at a close-up photo of the same something. I'm not sharing those. Don't worry. They were just photos of two gift ribbons (one of the two of them; one zoomed in on the two of them). I haven't look at the questions I'm supposed to answer yet, but it had something to do with perspective/perception or something along those lines. I originally was going to post them on here and describe the assignment, but I didn't feel like working on it tonight.

Which brings us to today's actual photo. I found a food chopper thing. At least that's what I think it is. It's got a wood handle, and then it's just a rectangular piece of metal attached to that. I think that maybe you use it to chop vegetables and things. Who knows. Not me. I laid it flat on the counter and zoomed in on it to get the reflections from the lights above. It came out okay. Kind of abstract.

1/30 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 400.
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I tweaked it in Aperture a bit. I tried to draw out and emphasize the two halves that showed up in the image (one darker/one lighter). Anyway. That's it. Sorry that these have been shorter lately. I hope you're still enjoying the photos. I'm still definitely enjoying doing this and am really glad I've gotten (and stayed) in the habit of taking photos everyday. Thanks for stopping by! Bye! Buy?

Day 33: A Faucet Runs Through It

Hullo world. Today was annoying. I checked the weather right before I went to bed last night (around 11:30), and it said we were supposed to get a hellacious icy rain storm starting around 3 a.m. and going through until late in the morning. So I didn't bother setting an alarm to wake up at 4:30 to go stand in the rain in Punxsutawney for the Groundhog's Day celebration. Well, surprise surprise, when I woke up at around quarter to 9, it was sunny and 40 degrees out. Stupid weather people. It would have been such a nice morning to go do that and get some great photos, but nooooo I had to take stupid pictures of my stupid faucet in my stupid bathroom's stupid sink.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100. Flash used.
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The two pictures are kind of neat, but nothing super awesome by any stretch. I had to use a flash to get the photo to where you could actually see the stream of water. When I wasn't using the flash, it all blended together and looked like I was photographing my sink. Using the flash makes the water look almost like an icicle. Kind of interesting if you think about it: when water molecules slow to (for all practical purposes) a complete stop, they form ice. And since I took a photo of the water molecules, I essentially stopped them in time, forming ice! Hey, it's fun. Leave me alone.

1/8 sec. exposure at F/8. ISO 100. Flash used.
Click image for larger version.

For this image, I tweaked it a bit in Aperture afterwards. I adjusted the image so that the blacks in the drain and at the top become really black. In the earlier version of the image you could see down the drain a bit, and you could tell that the dark on the top was part of the faucet. Like I said before, nothing super spectacular about these images, but I did think I might try something similar to this in the future using my famous blue flashlight technique. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Okay. Time for Human Target. It's a good show. You should all watch it so it doesn't get cancelled like all great shows are destined to do (I'm looking at you with a tear in my eye, Firefly). Now go. I'm just going to ignore you now until you leave.

Day 32: It's Them Birds Again!

Greetings! It's a new month and a new day so here's some new photos! I spent the day at home because we were supposed to get some nasty, icy weather that never really came. Although it did rain, and depending on how fast the temperature drops tonight, it may still happen. Either way, I stayed home so here's what happened.

The first photo I took in my bathroom again. It's the perfect place to shoot where I can completely control the amount of light influencing the photo. I took in a small tealight candle on a dish and shot a couple of times. I was also using my diffusion filter (thus, the slight "noise" quality to the image). At first I only shot using the light that the candle was producing, but then I decided to use ye olde trusty flashlight from some of my other posts. I like that it gives it the blue color partially, giving it all three primaries (the red candle, the yellow flame, and the blue light).

1/25 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 400.
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Eventually I think I'd like to mess with this some more in Aperture to really highlight one color over the others to see how much it changes the tone of the photo. And I still don't know how I feel about the diffusion filter. I do like the look it gives some photos, but I feel like I'm not using it as effectively as it could be used. Ah well, that's why I'm doing this thing, right?

Later on in the afternoon, a fog started rolling in behind our house. Those of you that viewed my blog in its first few days might remember the background image on the site. That was taken last November (I think) during a thick fog. There's a great treeline back there that looks awesome in the fog, particularly when the trees are bare, as they are now. Anyway. It was foggy back there again this morning, and since it had stopped raining, I went out to that patch of shrubbery where I spent some time with the smart birds from a couple weeks ago. (Post is here.)

1/50 sec. exposure at F/5. ISO 200.
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As you can see I was actually able to capture the birds this time. Well, sort of. I like a couple of things about this image, but still think it could have been better. The things I like: 1) The three layers of "depth". There's the brush in the foreground, the birds behind that, and the treeline in the back; 2) The color. It has an almost sepia feel to it, though this is a color image. The only thing I did in Aperture was turn the Temperature setting in White Balance up a little bit. I think the fog helps give it that softer feel as well. This one was shot without the diffusion filter (using it in fog seemed redundant).

I wish a couple of the birds had come out a little sharper though, so you could definitely tell what they are. I don't know. Maybe that's just me being picky about myself and my photos. Enough about me though. I'm dying to know what you all think, so please leave comments below.

Tomorrow is Groundhog's Day. I really want to try and make the trek up to Punxsutawney to see the big to do, but it'll mostly depend on the weather (and by weather I also mean, whether or not I want to wake up that early). I wanted to go last year but just couldn't get motivated, and I figure since I'm so close I need to experience it at least once. We'll see. You'll either get pictures from Punxy tomorrow or you'll get some other random crap from around here. In other words, hope the weather breaks and doesn't get too bad. Adios muchachitos!