Tag Archives: photography

The 52 Week Photo Challenge…

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I’ve written about Ricky Tims’ photography class in previous posts. I’ve been in the class since January 1 and it truly is the best present I’ve given myself in a long time. I have learned so much and have become a much more confident photographer. Even my iPhone photos are better!

Ricky has begun the registration for next year’s class and there is a significant savings if you sign up before December 10. Click here for more info. This is not a class for quilters only—it’s a class for anyone interested in photography.

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If you want to get the most from the class, it does require an investment of time. And if you don’t have a good digital camera and Photoshop, you’ll need those as well. But if you are interested in becoming a better photographer this is an excellent opportunity.

Autumn photo challenge…

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My friend, Catherine, and I are both taking Ricky’s 52 Week Photo Challenge. This week the challenge is ‘autumn’. What a great excuse to go to the Dallas Arboretum! Let me just say, they have the most amazing array of pumpkins, gourds, and autumn flowers on display. Every year, it gets better.

Catherine took this photo of me :-).

Catherine took this photo of me :-).

For me, the photography challenge was to choose the correct aperture and to manually focus. I had to cull many photos, but there were a surprising number of good ones in the group. We also learned some new editing tricks in Lightroom this week that I am very happy to know.

Of the 209 photos I took, I think these are my best choices. Of these, I have several favorites. I’d love it if you let me know which photo you think says ‘Autumn’ AND is also a good photo—in focus, framed well, overall just a nice composition. I thank you in advance the time you spend doing this :-).

FYI: Click on the photo galleries to see bigger photos. Look for the right and left arrows to scroll through the gallery.

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I took a lot of street-scene-with-pumpkin photos. We went on mother and baby/little kid day. The children were decked out to be photographed with the pumpkins and adults were snapping away like crazy. There were also a lot of adults without children in tow (like us) who were there to soak up a beautiful day.

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This is a yearly display at the Arboretum. Right now the pumpkins are firm and looking good. As they sit out in the sun, and later, after we begin to get overnight freezes, they get soft and tired. The display ends at Thanksgiving, but by then they are well past their prime. If you are nearby, now is definitely the time to go!

From Nova Scotia…

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Steve and I are in Canada! We left Halifax this morning and drove mostly south. It was rainy (just like home) and gray. That made the colorful houses stand out even more. And, boy, are there a lot of colorful houses here!

This was the most purplish purple!
Such a vibrant red!
Just like a bumble bee…
Is it going to be all turquoise, or is it going to be that quieter blue?
Subtle blues, all in a row.
Electric blue!
A nice, normal blue.
Not so many brown structures…
If I owned this house, I’d want to scrape and paint. But I don’t so I can just enjoy it’s beauty.
Those are shoes nailed up on the wall!
This orange and pink just almost didn’t work, but there they were, together.
Faded pink…

This sign kept popping up. Reminded me of patchwork…

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And we figured out the the key in the next sign might mean ‘museum’, but what’s up with the @ sign?

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The forsythia is in bloom here. It bloomed at home weeks ago. I have to say that it is much happier here, up north.

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And when was the last time you saw a teeter totter! It is unfortunate that we no longer have them in the states. I used to love teeter-tottering. I suppose that lawsuits made them go away. Canadians know how to live on the edge, right?

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Speaking of living on the edge, here’s Steve tempting fate :-).

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I must have taken 200 photos today. Amazingly enough, I went through them all, deleting the bad, cropping the good, adding some fixes in Photoshop. It took too long but I’m happy I did it today. I am always happy when I keep up with my photos. I know that if I don’t, I’ll have thousands that will just sit there on my hard drive taking up space.

Digital photos are cheap and easy to take, which makes it easy to let them pile up. But I have noticed that the really good shots, the ones that I go back to, the ones I add to my screensaver, the rare ones that I print—those are the keepers. It’s hard to delete the just-OK shots, but I do it. Daily.

I took the photography challenge…

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First, an update on the iPhone that took a dip in the toilet… it works just like it did when it was new! Twelve hours in a food dehydrator did the trick. Oh happy, happy day.

In other news, I am on Ricky Tims’ newsletter list and on January 4th he announced the 52 Week Photography Challenge for 2015. I’ve had very a good camera for several years, a Nikon D90, that I’ve always meant to learn how to use, but I have never found the time (or discipline) to do it. The camera works well in auto focus mode, but not well enough.

Ricky is an excellent teacher and he knows a lot about photography. The class is very reasonably priced at just under $100 for 52 different lessons. It didn’t take me longer than a day to decide to just do it.

The first class is about selective focus. I have already learned more about how my camera works (and how I should be processing photos) than I would have imagined to be possible.

I’ve taken my series of pictures for this week. I don’t claim that my composition of toys* is particularly wonderful, but I was able to move the focal point around! I decided what was in focus, not the camera. Success feels good!

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If any of you are interested in learning more about photography, I would encourage you to consider this class. I can already tell that it’s going to be good. There are requirements… you have to have a good camera. Ricky recommends that you have the newest versions of Photoshop and Lightroom. There’s more, but those are the most expensive requirements. If this class sounds good to you, now is definitely the time to sign up.

* The toy figures are from a set of ‘horrified movie victims’ that I’ve had a long time. A small set is available for purchase here. My set has more figures, but I have not found it online. I did find a glow in the dark zombie set that I wouldn’t mind owning :-).