Photo Class: Week 1

I have started a new photography class. It's just 4, 1.5 hour classes, but I'm already really enjoying it. The instructor spent a little time on ISO/aperture/shutter speed and so forth, but also gave us information about lenses and filters. There's so much to learn! Anyway, each week we will be given an assignment for the next class. This week's assignment is to take a picture with a filter. He's given us a very broad definition of filter for the purposes of the assignment, as many people don't have a DSLR and therefore can't attach a real filter to their cameras.

I decided to stick with something somewhat like a real filter, of the kind you would hold in front of your camera, rather than attach to it. Homemade, it looks like this:

I used clear wrapping paper, essentially, and made the frame with 4 chopsticks. Not pretty, but functional.

And the result is this!

It's not a stunning piece of artwork, but it IS fun.

Random Saturday: Jones!

It is late in the day, but it is STILL Saturday, and therefore there is still time to get in a picture for Random Saturday.

Jones Soda always have different pictures on their pop bottles. When I saw this one on a root beer, well... could YOU have left that face at the store? I certainly couldn't!

A view of the future?

It's a grey and grumpy day, so I thought a happy type of picture was in order!

These two girls were enthusiastically (and badly) playing a game of pick up hockey in the square the other day. Perhaps we are getting the first glimpse of the next Olympic champions in women's hockey!

1/800 sec exposure, f/5 aperture, ISO 43.4, 80mm focal length

Table Tennis from above

I was recently reading a book from a photographer who has a strong preference for shooting from above. This got me intrigued, and I also wanted to try it, however, I do not have the resource (or the nerves of steel) to rent a helicopter and strap myself inside the open door to shoot like that. I do, however, have a 6th story office window that overlooks a popular downtown square. A safe and easy place to start! So over the next couple of days, I will share with you some pictures I took from my window, all the while feeling like some kind of stalker! (Please note in advance that my zoom is not really powerful enough for what I was trying to do, but it's not bad!)

Every summer some lovely organization brings out various games and toys each morning that stay in the square all day. This even includes a Table Tennis (Ping Pong) Table! These two guys were quite good, and I'm very pleased you can actually see the ball as a ball-like object, not a vague blurr! (If you haven't spotted it yet, it's yellow and on the left side of the table, coming at the man in the plaid shirt.) I like action shots, I like sunny shots, and this fits the bill. I don't like the guy in the top left who is yawning, but I couldn't crop him out effectively.

1/640 sec exposure, f/5.7 aperture, ISO 125, 100mm focal length

Blurry bird

This little guy is out of focus. I may as well admit that right off the bat! However, there is a reason I'm sharing this anyway.

There are many steps involved in becoming a good photographer. One that I've been struggling with it right place, right time. In the past, a bird in flight has been nearly decapitated. With a faster shutter speed, this would have been a great picture, because the other elements are all there. He's well within the frame, the rest of the picture isn't too busy, there's no wires or other interfering objects. It's maybe a smidge dark, and issue that would have been exacerbated by a faster shutter speed, but that's a risk when shooting in the shade.

I was zoomed waaaaaay in and looking up about 1 storey to get this image and several other uninspiring pictures of this guy and others.

1/400 sec exposure, f/5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 85.2mm focal length

Random Saturday: Smilie

I recently had to open a new jar of peanut butter, and this is what I found when I took the foil off!

Happy eats to you too!

Lines, lines, everywhere a line...

So many incredible lines going on here!

I lined up the image with the lights across the top, and I think I should have used the top or bottom of the windows instead. I took several where I used one of the verticals as my point of reference, and that wasn't good at all, the whole picture ended up looking skewed.

1/100 sec exposure, 3.5 aperture, ISO 100, 9.2mm focal length

Spot the bird

Can you find the bird in this picture?

Remember that if you click on it, you get a larger image.


 (scroll down if you need help finding him)






Here's a cropped version. Spot him now? He's staring right at you!

1/400 sec exposure, 5 aperture, ISO 80, 47.5mm focal length

Introducing Lord B. Huffington

I don't think I have yet introduced you, dear readers, to my little Huff - the Lord Brambles Huffington. LBH, Huffington, or Huff, came to my acquaintance at Whippletree Junction on Vancouver Island over Christmas. He has already had some interesting journeys, meeting two dogs, taking a trip on the ferry, being relegated to the Greyhound with the "unwashed masses", learning to toboggan (he wasn't very sure about this "snow" thing), and then coming to work with me. I had declared April 4th to be Bring your Bear to Work Day. (It's much quieter than Bring your Son/Daughter/Child to Work Day.)

I will tell you that His Lordship was NOT impressed with the working woman's life.

Lord Huffingtong wasn't very impressed with the pile of paperwork I saved for him.

He declared this to be an inaccessible workplace, as the phone is not bear-sized, and no alternative options were provided. The keyboard wasn't good either, it's not really sized for bear paws, even small ones.

I'm a little worried about what Huff might have been telling Dexter, who lives at my work.

So there is a snapshot of LBH's day in the office! He was disappointed we didn't get a 2 hour lunch at the revolving restaurant, on the company tab. He thought we had to arrive too early and stay too long. He didn't like the quality of the pens provided (none were gold, or even silver, plated). And the decor was definitely not up to his standards. Not a single Victorian-era original piece of furniture and no originals by Picasso, Degas, or Michaelangelo.

Then again, our home isn't like that either. Poor, hard-done by bear!

Protecting your images from thieves

If you are like me and want to share your pictures with the great wide world, you might be wondering how you can make sure other people don't claim your work as their own. From my research, the short answer is: If you want a <i>guarantee</i> that no one can steal it, don't share it.

Okay, so now that we've gotten past that, let's assume that you are comfortable with some level of risk, but you'd like to at least make it difficult for someone to take your work. The following sites have various pieces of advice about how to go about protecting your stuff!

iPlus 360 has a quick explanation of 3 different ways to protect your work.

About.com has a page with many different methods.

BloggerStop.net has several methods. I don't agree with everything they say (I think watermarking is a good method, and they are negative about it) but it's worth a read anyway.

Note that watermarking doesn't have to be straight across the center of the image, the way it's shown on iPlus 360 above. That was just one example of how to do it. I would recommend not putting it too much off to one corner, or it can simply be cropped out of the way, but I'm sure you can come up with a compromise between those two extremes.

Random Saturday: Car

Last Saturday, a random house I passed. Today, a random car!

It's a cell phone picture, it's nothing fancy, photography-wise. But it's a really bright, cheerful car! (And it's parked on the yellow line.)

Brick and Shadow: Challenge Brick

Another thing I've been reading about is the power of side lighting. In my head, I always equated shadows with bad, but the pictures they use as examples are really stunning. So I thought I would try it.

It's very true that without the shadows on this stone brick, you lose most of the texture, and you don't get to see how rough and beautiful it is. I have to remember not to always shoot only in full light or full shade. 1/640 sec exposure, 4 aperture, ISO 80, 5mm focal length, macro on

Challenge Brick, take 3

Here's a 2-in-1 so I don't bore everyone to tears with a million days of bricks. Today, painted brick!

The paint here is cracking and peeling in really interesting ways - it looks almost like eyes and a nose. I also like the way the 2 colours work together. 1/320 sec exposure, 4 aperture, ISO 80, 5mm focal length, macro on

I admit it! This doesn't look like brick. You'll just have to take my word for it that that cracking paint is on brick. And looking very cool with the texture of the brick underneath and the cracking on top combined. 1/200 sec exposure, 4 aperture, ISO 80, 5mm focal length, macro on

Smiling Victorians

These are some great pictures from Victorian times.

Smiling Victorians

Back to the birds! A Crow

Another pair of bird pictures, this time a grumpy crow. He was not being cooperative at all, but I still got a couple of nice shots (and a couple of empty grass or pavement.)

Oh yes, this one I definitely cropped. But it's a neat shot of him mid-snack. 1/400 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 100mm focal length

So with a branch blocking his head, this one won't win any awards. But I love the look of his wings, fully stretched out and so crisp and clear. No cropping. 1/800 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 80, 100mm focal length

Day 2: Challenge Brick

I got in close! Actually the problem here was that I was so close, I was blocking the light. So I had to tilt the camera a bit in order to shoot above the shadow. It makes for a bit of an odd picture. Perhaps at another time of day the problem would have been less - or maybe I should have used a zoom to get close, instead.

1/250 sec exposure, 4 aperture, ISO 80, 5mm focal length, macro on

Graffiti in the city

I saw this and with the lighting at that moment, I really wanted a picture! And all I had with me was my phone. So it's not of stellar quality, but I still like it.

Last time I posted a picture of graffiti, I also tagged it with art. This time, I don't think that's the case.

Random Saturday: house

There is no major photographic aim here. It's just a very random house that caught my eye as I was walking around. In fact, I like this idea so much I'm going to begin doing Random Saturdays. These are just strange or interesting things I've seen.

There's at least 3 different major artistic elements going on here, 2 on the front of the house and the glass brick wall to the right side.

Yes, it would be better without the large branch, but otherwise I was shooting straight in to the sun.

Another rabbit

This is NOT the same rabbit as last Sunday. If you look at the ear length in particular, this one has much longer ears. It was also much calmer and let me walk around it taking many pictures.

I moved forward very slowly, and he just kept letting me get closer and closer. I love the little patch of sunlight on his back. 1/200 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 100mm focal length

MY FAVOURITE PICTURE! I adore this image. I actually think he's yawning, because there was nothing to startle him and he didn't take off. You might notice this is from the other side of him than in the first picture. There was a small patch of bushes to the left of the image, and I was able to go in behind them to get to his other side for several pictures. 1/320 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 100mm focal length

Stretching, listening. Details same as the last pic.

Sick of the paparazzi. Or he realized there was a dog coming. 1/500 sec exposure, 5.0 aperture, ISO 200, 70.6mm focal length

Challenge: Brick

The last time I undertook a challenge, I called it Challenge Blue. Here, here, here, here, and here. Bonus here. This time I took up Challenge Brick. I work at the edge of downtown, and there are some beautiful older buildings around. I've been admiring the variety of bricks for a while, and now I will share some of them with you!

I took this picture. An old, broken wall. Very cool, in my humble opinion. But the picture doesn't really do anything for me. And then I thought, all the stuff I've been reading, they keep saying GET CLOSER! 1/160 sec exposure, 4 aperture, ISO 80, 5mm focal length

So I did. What do you think? I love it. I think it's a much better picture. Way more interesting, less cluttered. 1/160 sec exposure, 4 aperture, ISO 80, 5mm focal length You can see the settings are identical to the previous photo. I moved me to improve the picture. I didn't even use macro setting.

I'm taking tomorrow off and then posting some other images. Challenge Brick will continue next week!

Friendly cat

This has got to be one of the friendliest cats I've ever seen. I stopped to take her picture, and she just kept getting closer and closer, meowing at me. I'm not usually a cat person (allergies) but this one has just gorgeous colouring.

Of all the shots I took of her, this is my favourite. She just looks so regal here, with her paws delicately and precisely positioned, her tail held high. (And then I chased her out of the road so she wouldn't get flattened by a car.)

1/200 sec exposure, 4.5 aperture, ISO 125, 28.4mm focal length

Blue Jay series

I hope I didn't scare the people who live in this house. I spent quite a bit of time with a long zoom on my camera stalking the birds in their yard. The result was this trio of images of a blue jay.

This picture I did crop to get in closer to the bird. He was in the shade, so 1/40 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 200, auto white balance

A slightly different view and uncropped this time. He'd turned his head away from me, but it gave a great, full profile. Same details as the last, 100 mm focal length.

This one I also cropped just slightly to remove a distracting element on the left. I love how clear and crisp his silhouette is in this picture. 1/1000 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 80

Long time no see!

I have no excuses for ignoring my blog. I find winter uninspiring, and by February I was out of indoor ideas, so I just stopped. However, the weather is warming up again and I'm feeling inspired again, so here we go!

Here's a small series of images of one little guy I saw yesterday. He's seems fairly young and was rather skittish. Maybe he knows he's still quite white against a very brown and yellow ground. (It's snowing again today, so he'll blend in better for a little while.)

He says, "I'm watching you."

"What's that sound?"

"If I pretend I'm eating, maybe I can trick you in to making your move." See the eye? He's not paying attention to the grass.

"What's over there??" (Note that it's not me he's looking at, I didn't do anything to alarm him.)

Just after this image was taken, he retreated slightly in to the bushes.

About the images! 1/640 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO (100, 125, 80, 80), auto white balance