Day 6: An Apple a Day...

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Day number 6! As I mentioned yesterday, I planned the next few days for messing around with Apple Aperture 3. I download a trial version, but am planning on getting the full version once I have some money to do so. From just messing around on it for about an hour or so today, I really like it. It has a very user-friendly interface and you can get some great turnout from its RAW processing. I mean, I don't even know what I'm doing yet, but am still happy with some of the color that it produced for me.

Speaking of color, this first image is monochrome. Hah.

6 sec. exposure at F/11. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

I took this one of my guitar. I set a longer exposure, and I strummed the low E string while the exposure was happening. I was hoping the vibration would have showed up a little more, but whatevs. I also shot in RAW, which if you're not sure what it is, I'm probably not the best person to explain it. The shortest answer I can give is that it's basically an undeveloped digital negative. You have to upload it into a program that handles RAW processing (most photo programs do; if you're shooting on a Canon like I am, you'll also have a limited one with Digital Photo Pro, the included software) which then produces a finished image. But you can tweak lots of tiny details. More details than I know their purpose at this point.

Anyway, I put it into a Single Color Monochrome adjustment mode. It then allows you select the color that you want the monochrome to be. I also adjust some other sliders and things, but I can't remember what at this point. I was basically just messing with the image until I got bored.

For the next image, I wanted to make sure I shot something that had some really bold colors. Something that would really stand out when I tweaked them in Aperture. So I took a picture of one of my Superman toys.

1/5 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 400.
Click here for larger image.

Again, I messed around with a lot of things (including putting this one in black and white) until I got this to come out. I think the part of the image that I was most surprised with how it came out is the blanket behind the toy. The blanket is actually a lighter, sky blue. But when I started tweaking some settings, highlighting the blues, it really started to show the texture that the image ended up having. You can really see the "fuzz" of the blanket. Not bad for just hitting a bunch of buttons, eh?! 

That's it for today. I'm thinking you can expect the same type of post for tomorrow and maybe the day after that. But I will try and pay more attention to what specific things I'm changing in Aperture and write about that. Like I said, I was running a bit blind today, just randomly changing settings here and there. Maybe I'll just do one photo each the next two days (one tomorrow and one Saturday) and show more a process (i.e. how it looked un-tweaked and how it looks finished). Yeah. I think that's what I'll do. So come back for that. What else are you gonna do anyway?

Day 5: Yeah, I Got Nothing

Don't even bother reading today. I really don't have much to post. I took a few pictures, but honestly I've been running around all day putting finishing touches on my application so I didn't have much time. So you're getting a post, but unfortunately it isn't much of one.

The first photo I took when I was in the library today. I tried to get the same perspective that I saw, but I couldn't get it to go "deep" enough. Looking through this gap was actually a pretty cool view, but when I tried to snap a picture of it the depth of field stayed pretty shallow. I didn't have my tripod with me so I couldn't set a higher aperture to get more depth, so this is what I came out with.

.3 sec exposure at F/6.3. ISO 400.
Click here for larger image.

The next picture I took while I was driving (like Day 1's photos, probably not the best idea). But the light was coming through the clouds in a pretty awesome way. But lucky me, I was driving down one of the main roads that runs through Indiana, so all of the pictures I tried to take had buildings/lights/wires/etc. in them.

1/125 sec. exposure at F/6.3. ISO 100.
Click here for larger picture.

So yeah. Sorry about today. Sadly, I can't promise there won't be more like this in the future (especially once the semester starts), but I'll do my best to make them few and far between. Over the next few days I'm going to be installing Apple Aperture 3 (the trial for now), so I think I'm going to take some pictures in RAW so I can mess around with some post-processing. Just fair warning, I might not take a lot of really great pictures (not that I take really great pictures on a regular basis). I just really want to get some practice with both RAW and Aperture so I can improve things in the future. That's it for today. Again, I'm really sorry that it was a lame day. Ta-ta for now.

Day 4: Light Writing in the Dark

Welcome to Day 4! Surprise surprise, I actually had an idea in my head and it worked when I did it! Crrrazy. Today's post is about me playing in my bathroom in the dark. Wait... scratch that. I mean, yes technically that's what it's about, but not in a gross way, ya sickos. I thought it would be fun to see what happens when I control the light completely. In other words, I set the camera up in a completely dark room and then I decide where the light will go, for how long and in what direction. Wanna see what happened?

The first thing I did was set up my camera on the tripod and attached the remote shutter release. Now because I was starting the exposure in the dark, autofocus wouldn't work. So I set the lens to manual focus and set a roll of paper towels on the back of my toilet (Hey, I told you where this was taking place. It's your fault if you're still here!) so I could adjust the focus to the best of my ability. Then I moved the towels and took a test shot of my arm in full light, just to make sure it looked okay.

Once I had this set up, I was ready to go. The only thing that I still needed was a way to control the light from where I was. I didn't want to use the bathroom lights; I wanted something more focused and direct. So I used a flashlight. My mom got me this little plug in flashlight for Christmas and it worked perfectly. Plus it's blue light which ended up giving the images another quality altogether. It's called an Eco-I-Light. Not sure where she picked it up, but I'm guessing you can find it at most stores. I would highly recommend it. I plan on using mine a lot this year for picture taking, especially considering how well it worked for today's photos.

5 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 100.
Light shone approx. 2 sec.
Click here for larger image.

So the first set of pictures I took were just of my arm. I don't know why, but I think it's kind of creepy to just see an arm in the dark, completely "unattached" from the body it belongs to. So I decided to try my hand at seeing how creepy of a picture I could come up with. Well, really neither of the two styles are particular creepy (but wait until we get to the faces. heh heh), but I still think they came out kind of cool. This first one is just a solid shot of my arm. I just set a long exposure then turned the flashlight on briefly during the exposure. I really like how you can't tell the difference between my fingers and the shadows of my fingers too. Again, not floored by how this came out, but still happy that it worked at all!

10 sec. exposure at F/7.1. ISO 100. Light shone
approx. 2 sec. per "on" cycle.
Click here for larger image.

The next picture is also of my arm, but this time I set a longer exposure and turned the flashlight on and off several times during the exposure. Each time I turned the exposure off I moved my arm into a different position. This created a really neat "ghosting" effect. I think this type of effect has a ton of potential, and I definitely want to try it again in the near future. I don't think this pictures are really the best I can do with it. But (again), the biggest thing I'm taking away from today is the fact that I thought of trying something and it actually worked the way I wanted it to. Can't you just give me that at least?!



The last set of photos I took using the same techniques described above. For the first one I used the off/on technique and just moved my head during each "off" and for the second I just used a single "on" during the exposure. I think the first photo is pretty creepy just because of the multiple faces happening. The second one just looks neat. I give credit for that one to light. Using a regular flashlight (white or yellow light) wouldn't have given this photos the same tone that they have with the blue light. It definitely gives them a darker feel in my opinion.

13 sec. exposure at F/6.3. ISO 100. Light shone
approx. 2 sec. per "on" cycle.
Click here for larger image.

13 sec. exposure at F/6.3.
Light shone approx. 4 sec.
Click here for larger image.

Welp, that does it for today. This gives me hope for the rest of the year. Let me know if you have any other "light-play" suggestions for me. I'd really love to try them out, especially with how easy these were to do. It's a really simple technique that can add some style and pizazz to your photos. Not that I have any cred to actually say that yet, but it was really simple and these have pizazz, right? Ugh. See you tomorrow.

Day 3: With All This Crap, You'd Think I Could Find Something

Well I did it. I made it three days. What's that? I'm doing this for a whole year?! Aw, man.

I spent all day at work, and we have a lot of random crap in our store (Book Nook in Indiana, PA). A lot. So there must be something to take pictures of right? Well, yeah. Actually there is. The problem is that I've already taken a lot of pictures while at the store. I like to walk around all day and look for possible candidates, then after the store is closed I start snappin'. But rather than retake pictures that I've already done (it's only day three remember. I'll need to save that as a back-up when I'm really in a pinch), I wanted to make sure I took something new today. So I thought I'd play with mirrors.

Originally I wanted to take this small mirror that we have and try to angle it and zoom "through" it so that the picture would end being of me and the camera, etc. from behind (bouncing off of another mirror). It didn't work. At least not with that little mirror that we had (I couldn't even get it to work with me looking through the mirror, so I didn't even try it with the camera). So now what?

3.2 sec. exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

I then thought to myself, "What would happen if I set the mirror up on the counter with an object in its view (angled, so the camera wasn't in the reflection) and slowly turned the mirror during the exposure?" The answer is this image here. While kind of cool, nothing really special. Plus, in order to get the long exposure time to move the mirror, I had to turn the aperture setting really high (for a smaller opening) in order to not wash out the image completely. The result is that a lot of the image is in focus (including the entire background) which takes a little away from the shot in my opinion.

1 sec. exposure at F/6.3. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

The next picture I took was mostly just for the sheer silliness of it. Rather than move the mirror, I simply propped it up against a book and turned the hamster so he was looking into the mirror. I call this image "Hamster's Big Day". Also, I love the fact that he's using a Sweet Valley High mirror to "get ready" for his big day. Honestly, I really like this picture, but again, for the stupidity of it. And because nothing was moving, I could use a smaller aperture setting (bigger opening) and keep just the fun stuff in focus.

The last pictures that I took were of the crazy blue snowman that sits in the window of the store. I really like the color of the snowman, but am never in the store when it's dark enough to really capture a great image. This is the "best" of the pictures that I took. Mostly because I like the red streaks from the car passing by in the background. If the snowman is still up next Friday, I'll try and get another picture of it. We keep the store open later on Fridays, so it'll be darker. But who knows how it'll come out still. I think that maybe too, I might try and shoot only the reflected snowman in the window rather than getting both in the shot. 

5 sec. exposure at F/13. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

Well, that does it for today. I work again tomorrow, but I think I'll wait and shoot until I get home. I have a couple of things I want to try so we'll see how those come out. Until then, visitor, I bid you a dew.

Day 2: I Need to Stop Napping in the Afternoon

So today was an exceptionally nice day considering it's January 2nd in Western Pennsylvania. And rather than using that nice weather to get out and take some good photos, I decided (not by choice) to take a nap while watching TV. Blame it on the fact that I'm getting over a cold or blame it on boredom. Either way I was a little upset that I wasted so much time inside today.

But for now, onto the pictures! I was really only happy with how a couple of things came out today, so I'm only posting two pictures today. The other ones aren't terrible, but just so-so. Not worth posting either way. And then another set I took for a specific purpose to use in the future (HDR). It wouldn't make much sense to post those now.

Once I got my lazy bum off the couch and out of the house, I headed up to the Co-Op Park in Indiana, PA (it's an outdoor park that is run/owned by the Student Co-Op at Indiana University of Pennsylvania). It's a nice woodsy area that probably would have given me much better photo opportunities in the fall. But it's winter now, so we take what we can get. I was really hoping for some nice sun through the trees/branches shots, but couldn't find anywhere really great looking that maximized it (those were some of the throwaways I was talking about before).

1/60 sec. exposure at F/4.5. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

But then I stumbled onto this really crazy looking tree. It was probably about 4 or 5 feet around at its base, but then about 3 1/2 to 4 feet off the ground it just splits into a bunch of branches that grow straight up for a bit before they do what branches do. So I attached the camera to my tripod and attached the remote shutter trigger. I held the bottom end of the tripod, bracing it under my right arm, so the camera was positioned in the tree right where all of the branches split out. Then I took the picture. I think what I like most about this picture is the fact that you everything you see in it is all part of the same tree, but it looks like a bunch of trees grouped together with camera and me in the middle of it.

As I was walking back to my car, I decided to stop and take one last set of photos. Now, I understand the irony of taking this picture in a nature park, but I always like photos of telephone poles. In my opinion, there's just something really cool about that perspective as it just keeps going and going--especially with a completely clear sky above it.

1/25 exposure at F/13. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

I also like the fact that this one had spikes in it that were low enough that I could get real close to the first one and keep it in focus. I think I probably looked pretty funny to anyone that may have seen me taking this picture, but oh well. That's the life I've chosen! The best way to describe it is doing half-splits while my chest and nethers rested against the pole. 

That's it for today, lerdies and gentlemules. I'm at work all day tomorrow, so Day 3's photos might involve some sort of "still life"-esque things. We'll see. Maybe I'll try and get creative. Thanks again for stopping and I hope you're enjoying yourselves so far. And again, any suggestions you have for me to try either leave a comment on here or email me at 136songs@gmail.com. Remember, I have to do 363 more of these... Any help you all can give would make my sanity last a little bit longer (unless, of course, you're only here to watch me slowly go insane. In that case, why would you help me, meanie?). Adios amigos!

Day 1, Part 2: This is Gonna Be a Long Year

Well, the first day of shooting is done and out of the way. I ran into a bit of "cabin fever" though. It was raining all day long, which meant being confined to shooting in the house for the most part. And man did I have a hard time with that. I was literally walking around with my camera thinking, "Hmm... Should I shoot this? How about this? No. That would be silly." But my goal is to take pictures no matter what, so pictures were taken.

10 sec. exposure at F/11. ISO 100
Click here for larger image.

The first thing I tried was something that seemed cool in principle, but ended up not coming out as I had imagined it. I think it's due to several things. The room was too small, so I couldn't move the camera back any further. I imagined it without the door still being in the shot too, but that was as wide open as I could get it. Also, I planned on taking this a little earlier with some more light, but I fell asleep watching a movie so it was starting to get a little darker on top of the already gray sky. All in all, meh. But the good news is, they can only get better. Right?

2 sec. exposure at F/9. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

Since I tried my hand at outside shooting while inside and it didn't work too well, my journey around the house began. First stop? The refrigerator. I've seen some really cool photos of the inside of a fridge before and thought it might be fun to try it myself. Not so much. All it made me realize is that I really need to clean out the fridge tomorrow.

1/4 sec. exposure at F/5.6. ISO 400.
Click here for larger image.

The next attempt at random household object shooting was the water cooler. I took close to 30 photos of the water cooler. With this one I also tried to play with lighting as well (though it doesn't show at all). I pointed a spot light (the kind you can buy at a hardware store for your garage) at the ceiling away from the cooler. I wanted more available light so I could shoot at a faster shutter speed. I was trying to "catch" a bubble as it went up the bottle. This turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it would be (thus the 30 attempts). The photo to the left is the closest I got to capturing it ( you can barely see it at the top of the water). But I needed to stop. I was drinking so much water it was starting to make me sick.




Closing out the day, though, I ran into some really great inspiration. I headed into town to meet some friends for dinner (well, they ate. I just went for the company). Of course, I took my camera with me and had the idea that I would set my tripod up in my passenger seat. I used manual focus and attached my remote shutter trigger. I set the shutter speed to "BULB" which would allow me to hold the shutter open for as long as I wanted (thus negating the need to switch shutter speeds while I was driving. I realize this probably wasn't the safest thing to do, but I was at least trying to minimize the amount of stupidity). Then as I drove home, I'd wait until I got to an area that had some lights or until a car was heading towards me, and I'd press the shutter release button and hold it for a while (I also tried swerving on purpose for one of them, but then thought better of that. While it would have made the light streams move more, it also made me look more like a drunk driver. I didn't really want to try and explain to a police officer what I was trying to do). I'm really happy with how these came out. I definitely want to try some more of this in the future, but with someone else driving so I could sit in the back seat (with the camera still in front) and make some minor adjustments while shooting.

10 sec. exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

20 sec. exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

11 sec. exposure at F/14. ISO 100.
Click here for larger image.

All in all, I suppose it was a good day one. I realized how tough this will be sometimes (maybe pretty often actually), but I still ended up with something I was happy with. And that's really why I'm doing this. I figure by the end of the year I'll at least have a few things worth remembering.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll stop back. Please bear with me as far as formatting issues and things like that go. I'm still trying to navigate my way around blogger and until I figure things out it might look a little ugly around here.

Day 1, Part 1: The Journey Begins

Good morning and happy new year to everyone. Today will be broken up into two posts. The first one (this one) will serve to better acquaint you with what you can expect from my blog over the next year (and maybe more if you all enjoy it as much as I do). The later post that will drop this evening will be the first "actual" post for the blog's purpose.

A year ago, my girlfriend at the time convinced me that it would be fun to do a Photo 365 challenge on the Flickr website. So I signed up for a Flickr account and joined (one of the many) 365 groups. Here's a brief explanation of what the Photo 365 Challenge is. Essentially, the goal is that you take photos every single day for one year. You post your best picture to the group and (hopefully) get some feedback from the other members. This meant two things: 1) you were taking pictures every single day for a year. By default your skills as a photographer would improve just from the sheer amount of practice; and 2) you were able to receive feedback which, coupled with the practice, makes your improvements that much more significant.

After less than a month, however, I found it was increasingly difficult to keep up with. Between school and other commitments, I just didn't have time to get out and take pictures. So when this year past year began to close, I debated trying it again. But rather than doing it on Flickr, I decided I'd rather do it on a blog. Which brings us here.

There are several reasons I'm choosing to do it on here rather than on Flickr (or another photo sharing website). The biggest of which is that I can get into a little more detail about what I did or didn't do with a specific photograph. With Flickr, you just post and that's that. There's no chance to share or explain anything really. And I want the chance to share, but not because I think I'm King Kodachrome with all things photography. You see, the real goal of my blog is to show how much fun you can have with photography even with a limited skill set. If other beginners stop by and see what I'm up to, I hope that they will feel better about what they're doing in photo-lives. I don't expect to create beautiful images every day. A lot of what I'll be sharing will probably be pretty crappy. But it's the best way for me to improve. And if I can make other people feel better about what they're doing by embarrassing myself a bit, then so be it. It wouldn't be the first time.

I plan on trying all kinds of techniques that are out there. From simple to complex, I'll fumble through them all. And I also plan on trying all kinds of styles: from portrait to landscape to still life. If there's anything you'd like to see me try either leave a comment on one of the posts or send an email to 136songs@gmail.com. I'll do my best to get to them all. I figure the best way to figure out my strengths is to try as many different things as possible.

So today the adventure begins. It's raining pretty heavily here, so the biggest challenge today is going to be figuring out where/what to shoot. I was planning on hitting up a park, but that doesn't seem like it will happen. I look forward to this year and I hope that you will all stick with me. As I said in the last post, at least you can all enjoy the ride of watching me go insane trying to accomplish this. Okay, I guess that's it for now. Please stop back this evening for the first official 365 post. Until then, happy snapping!