St. Maarten, continued…

There were lots of photo ops. In fact, I could turn into one of those people who makes little forward progress because they are too busy taking pictures. That used to drive me crazy with other people, so I try not to overdo it.

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Sometimes I like to play with filters or other editing options. (Camera+ has some really great built-in editing features.) There is never only one perfect choice so it’s hard to know when to stop..

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This photo in color is not nearly as good…

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The same is true with this photo. In black and white is looks very retro.

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There was one wall with a broken glass bottle ridge along its top that looked like dangerous flowers.

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It was more interesting in black and white.

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Stuck in place…

My photo assignment this week is ‘stuck in place’. This is an exercise where you pick one spot and stay in it for an hour taking photos. I went to the Austin College campus and planted myself here:

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I took nearly 300 photos! I have to choose my top 3 images (excluding the image above) to turn in late Saturday. I’ve narrowed it down to 11 images. I think that this photo will make the cut:

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Click here if you’d like to see my other photos and leave a comment on the blog to tell me which ones you like the best!

Day to night…

I just watched Stephen Wilkes’ TED Talk. He is a photographer with a vision—and some exceptionally cool equipment.

My Photo Class assignment for the week is ‘stuck in place.’ We have to pick a spot and stay in it for an hour, taking pictures. I had the same assignment last year and really enjoyed it. I’m glad to have seen this video before I set out with my camera :-).

Mirror, mirror…

That was the title of our photo challenge last week. We were supposed to incorporate a mirror or mirror-ish surface (like water) in the image. I admit that I didn’t spend a lot of time on this photo but, as it turns out, I like it a lot!

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The round mirror is a small magnifying mirror that I use when I am putting on mascara. When you stand back a little ways from it, the image is turned upside-down. The trick was positioning myself just right which took many tries.

I’ve noticed that I love photos without color, and I love quilts with lots of color. I’m not even going to spend time thinking about why that is. Perhaps, if there were more hours in the day, I’d give it a good think!

Where does the time go?

It’s been 11 days since I posted although it feels like it was just yesterday. Steve says that time is time—always the same—but I think that time is moving faster these days. I’m feeling rushed even though I don’t have any looming, horrible deadlines. Why is there still so very much to do? I know I’m not alone. It’s the same for you. Let’s all take a deep breath and slow down for a moment… and perhaps have a glass of wine.

I am still spending time each week on taking the photo for my photo class. This week’s challenge is to Go Big. We are free to interpret that however we want so I decided to show big hands, or a hand as it turned out.

When you really look a hand in different positions, the proportions and shapes are odd, but because we know what a hand looks like, we know what it is.  In this photo, if you didn’t know what a hand looks like, you might think that it was mostly big fingers.  Side note: I have a new prime lens and there’s more of a learning curve to using it than I thought there would be. It’s interesting to not be able to zoom in or out. It’s going to take me a while to adjust to the distance I need to be from whatever I’m shooting.

Have you ever tried to draw a hand? It’s not easy because when you look a hand in different positions, the proportions and shapes can be odd. But because we know what a hand looks like, we know what it is. Our eye corrects for the distortions that are right in front of us. In the photo above, if you didn’t know what a hand looks like, you might think that it was mostly big fingers.

I used my new prime lens for that photo, and the next one. This lens has a fixed focal length. You don’t zoom in and out with the camera, you ‘zoom with your feet’. As near as I can tell the optimal distance from me to my subject needs to be about 3 feet. There’s more of a learning curve to using this lens than I thought there would be but I’m determined to master it.

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That’s Bear. He’s hard to catch because he won’t stay still.

I travel to Georgia tomorrow to visit the Chattahoochee Evening Stars for a workshop on Sunday and a lecture Monday night. Maybe I’ll see you there! I’ll do my best to post some pictures on Instagram :-).

Outer space, all for you!

NASA has a massive library of amazing photos and they are right there for us to use! Read the fine print because there are some restrictions but for the most part we can use them for non-commercial purposes. I have always loved this sort of picture…

This image shows the galaxy Messier 94, which lies in the small northern constellation of the Hunting Dogs, about 16 million light-years away. Within the bright ring around Messier 94 new stars are forming at a high rate and many young, bright stars are present within it – thanks to this, this feature is called a starburst ring. The cause of this peculiarly shaped star-forming region is likely a pressure wave going outwards from the galactic centre, compressing the gas and dust in the outer region. The compression of material means the gas starts to collapse into denser clouds. Inside these dense clouds, gravity pulls the gas and dust together until temperature and pressure are high enough for stars to be born.

This image shows the galaxy Messier 94, which lies in the small northern constellation of the Hunting Dogs, about 16 million light-years away. Within the bright ring around Messier 94 new stars are forming at a high rate and many young, bright stars are present within it – thanks to this, this feature is called a starburst ring.

And the earth from space is also pretty darned interesting!

A hurricane, seen from space.

I was reminded about these free NASA images by John McWade. You should watch his free video about how he made calendars using these images. I read all of his issues of Before & After, published over the last many years. I learned so much about graphic design, text, and layout from him! He is now at Lynda.com and I wish him years of happiness there.