ceiling
This is the ceiling in my office. I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes I turn out all the lights, lie on the floor and stare. The right side was done by the previous owner, I think my office was the daughter’s room. The left side was done after I moved in and realized that I had an old pack of the same set in my craft box. I kind of like that you can see the residual light in the fan in the center of the image.
light
After spending some time with David Schmidt of 211 Photography, I have been trying to train my eye to be more observant to light and lighting my subjects. The perfect opportunity to try some of David’s suggestions came up this weekend when I had my niece over. I’m very happy to say that the only post processing I did on any of these images was a bit of a vignette for effect.
I must have taken a thousand images while my niece and my pup were snuggled on the couch watching Sponge Bob when it finally occurred to me that “hey, maybe I should pay attention to the natural light I have right now,” particularly because the shots with the flash were washed out and ugly. And, “oh! look at that, the kid isn’t lit, but the dog is! Maybe I should take a pic of the DOG!” Well, what do you know, I got a good picture…
The first day my niece was here, I was chasing after her with the camera and ultimately very frustrated with the images I was getting. the whole camera was set on auto everything because I wasn’t sure I could change things up fast enough to catch her in action. Somehow David’s words must have sunk in because I put the camera on A priority and showed Emileigh the front window With an “Ooh! Look how cool!” and a finger pointed outside to nothing, she got really excited and I got a really great head shot.
There’s this amazing phenomenon that happens to all that live in my humble abode. The instant a television turns on, we all turn into zombies; it doesn’t matter what’s on, we’re all instantly glued and glazed. SpongeBob was no exception. I cued up a few episodes for my niece and my husband, my dog and I, along with Emileigh, couldn’t take our eyes off my laptop… well, maybe enough for a picture. 
I love images like this one or several reasons. I’m rather drawn to the way that snaps looked when I was a kid. I love the warm white balance and candid feel to them. And I’m almost to the point of figuring out how to do them on purpose. I put the WB on daylight and followed the little one around a bit until she started getting tired. It just so happened that the sun was coming in from over the mantle window right into the camera, so I snapped to see what I’d get…lucky for me the lensbaby is a manual focus and I’m pretty slow in the moment.re-inspired
After watching STS-130 lift-off from my cozy home office in Denver, I started geeking out again over the space program and decided to go back through my images from STS-129. Its interesting to go back with new eyes and see that even though my images are certainly not exposed the way I’d want them to be now, they really weren’t as bad as I had originally thought.
best tour guide ever
This man was the best tour guide ever. He truly was a space junkie; he’d read everything about the space program he could get his hands on and he had tons of fantastic stories about hanging with astronauts and the like.
vehicle assembly building
The day of the launch we arrived at KSC around 6 in the morning. Entrance into the compound was encouraged that early but they weren’t bussing us out to the causeway until 10. We decided to take another lap around the Saturn V and ISS complexes. It was wonderful. There was hardly anyone there and we had the guides to ourselves!
tranquility module
This would be the bum end of the Tranquility Module, aka node 3, which is currently in the back seat of the Endeavour, docked on the ISS… in orbit!
node entrance
I actually took this picture of an ISS node because it looked like a video game and I wanted to draw it for a comic book or something equally lame.
bald eagles
This image was pretty much an “oh shit, bald eagles!” shot. I took it from the bus on the way back from the ISS complex. Merritt Island is an ecological sanctuary and the NASA freaks are very proud of the eagle’s nest that has been there for over 40 years
big fish
Gentleman and I went to City Park for a walk this evening.
Soleiana
In the past few months I’ve said “damn, I wish I had my camera” more times than I can count. So I’ve started to carry Oly with me everywhere I go. I’m hoping to capture more of what I see every day while I improve my technique, both manual camera operation as well as post processing.
There’s a group of students that play hack in front of the school almost every day. I was invited to join once, but I kicked the sac on the roof. It took a pyramid of boys to get it back since the school doesn’t carry a good ladder for some reason and since then I’ve been self-banned from playing.
my favourite things
Yeah, I’m a sucker for a cute dog.
Parts is Parts
self portrait
I got Serenity’s handlebar risers in the mail yesterday. I’m really looking forward to the install…
An Uncivil Union
Tessa
Lisa
I’ve never been surrounded by more love, admiration and respect than I was at this union. Family, dogs, friends and colleagues of all walks of life let their inner children shine with smiles and hugs.
Love and light to you both!
Sealed with a kiss!
Vista Point
The San Fran trip was amazing. So amazing that I’m not going to post a gallery of images; I’m going to take my time and post each one individually and tell some background with each one.
These two images were at the end of the trip on our way back to the airport. L had never seen the ocean before so we decided to get a little extra on our way out of state.
I really like the weather at this spot this time of year. Cool, foggy and breezy. Makes me wonder if certain parts of Britain would be a good place for me…
I picked up the hat in a little antique shop in Bodega Bay. Its apparently a “vintage” hat of sorts but it has no markings on the inside. The lady sold it to me for discount because I’m the only person she’s met that could fit in it (very small head size here). I thought I’d lost it, I left it in the back seat of the rental car, but I got a call yesterday saying the rental company was going to send it to me. Guess it was meant to be!
Firsts
My niece’s first birthday was Friday and oh, what a family extravaganza it was. Lots of people, lots of chaos and enough pink to make anyone want to vomit. Like mother like daughter though; I used to call my sister the “pepto-bismal bottle” when she was little.
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- Well hello there, my Auntie!
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- Zoom Zoom
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- my uncle watching over little ms zoom zoom!
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- testing testing, is this thing on?
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- Carol Ann, smilin’ pretty for the camera
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- The niece with my sister’s SO
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- “I get by with a little help from my friends”
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- Safe in Mommy’s arms
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- another one of those pesky uncles…
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- Jasmine really wants presents too
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- Ms Jada has some soulful eyes
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- Oooh! I like this one too!
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- Oh yeah, that one fits
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- Lighting the birthday cake
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- What the hell is that?
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- hmmm, is it safe?
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- This is what happens when Mom gets impatient, she puts my hands in the icing!
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- No! I DON’T like it!
Sitting back and watching interactions most of the night, I’m pretty happy with the educated guess on my niece’s element before she hit 6 months. Most of her idiosyncrasies confirmed it for me, I just have to wait to see what her secondary is. It was pretty interesting to come back to a family gathering with my education and look through very different eyes at people I’ve known all of my life. It really put a perspective on things.
After reviewing my images from Oly, I’ve determined that I am in love with that camera. The kidney sold in order to afford it was definately a good trade.
I need to be certain not to delete images that look bad on the LCD because when I have time to view them on the computer, I’m generally elated with what I get. I experimented with manual settings as well as aperture and shutter priority and have decided that A and S modes are an absolute must when trying to capture children. S was perfect for outdoor shots when the kids were running around and A was great for indoors when my niece was opening all her gifts. I’m fond of the flash compensation on Oly too, I just need to remember to use it.
If you’re reading this and you’re family, there’s a TON more images…good and bad. If you’re interested in them, email me and I’ll send you a link to everything I shot so you can pick and choose what you like out of the bunch.
Grandma and Me
My mother and my niece
Part of doing photography is knowing what other people want.
I spent a few hours fiddling with this image this morning, trying to figure out what my mother would like best. Of course, everything I know she would like, I hate. Like those cute little captions and hearts that read “grandma and me” and hypersaturation along with perfectly smoothed and blemish free faces. Ugh.
But, I love my mom and I want to give her something she’ll like, so I gave her this image with the caption, a little extra colour and a few blemishes fixed. There is, after all, only so much sweetness I can handle…
the Aquarium
Last weekend I sat in on the Olympus how-to class at Mike’s camera and was told that the P function on my camera was an easy way to get images, it was basically an auto mode. So today, I decided to give it a try at the Aquarium, where I swear, god and everyone is in town for my niece’s first birthday. I can’t say I’m too impressed with it. It consistently shot fast, but it always had too high of an iso which gave most of the images a lovely artifact that will no doubt become artistic in the future. For now, however, I’m pissed.
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- she likes sweet potatoes and carrots and isn’t much for sweets…yet
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- well, auntie sucked her fingers, I guess its the thumb for the niece
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- silhouette of the niece and her mum
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- I don’t know wth this guy was doing, he was alive though…
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- mmm texture
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- I really wanted this one to turn out better than it did…next time its all manual settings!
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- Grandma and niece
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- I love the colours on this one
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- Middle sis and a fish
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- The man, who has a most excellent sense of humor
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- Littlest sis and her man <3
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- So when did the Aquarium start carrying tigers?
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- Starfish have radar…
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- My family thinks this fish must have told a lot of fibs…
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- Striped
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- I loved the look this boy was giving the shark…he really meant it too
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- The lack of eye lids gives them a look of psychosis IMHO
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- I just really liked the contrast on this one
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- This young lady told me the name of almost every shark in the shark tank
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- Schoolkids at the Sting Ray pool
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- This little girl was really into the sting rays
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- A little treat to entice?
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- Its weird to think of my mother as a grandma…
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- there was a bubble machine outside the aquarium…
I’ve learned my lesson though. From now on I’ll shoot only manual settings. I probably won’t be able to react as fast as I want to in the beginning, but at least I’ll get what I’m after.
I’m also not as fond of the vivid colour setting as I thought I was. Its HORRIBLE on people’s skin! The Oly guy at Mike’s camera said he shoots his landscapes in the muted setting, and I think I’m starting to see why. If I want saturation that bad, I’ll add it post process.
They Scare Me
This was near my bed
They scare me. They always have. They used to bite me when I was a kid, when my bedroom was in the basement. Now, as an adult, the quietest room in the house is in the basement, and its where we sleep. And I’ve been waking up with bites again.
So what do I do? I take a picture of it. Zooming in on it made me nauseous. I know we need these little buggers, but UGH! Do they have to bite me? In my BED?!?
Butterfly Pavilion
Upon a certain person’s recommendation of needing to get in touch with child-like happiness and much needed time with my husband, Gentleman and I went to the Butterfly Pavilion today. I enjoyed talking with the young, soon to be biologists, entomologists and botanists throughout the pavilion; we all shared a deep appreciation of the complexities and beauty of nature.
Gentleman and I certainly appreciated the hyper saturation of oxygen and humidity in the building, but not so much the birthday party that was still going when we first got there. I was impressed with the patience most of the employees displayed when dealing with obviously spoiled and stuck up youngsters and was rather appalled at a story that involved a two year old smacking Rosie the tarantula, killing her, and the mother’s lack of empathy or responsibility toward the situation.
As for the photography itself, it felt was nice to take my time taking pictures. There was no pressure to go fast or grab that one great candid shot and I could actually think about my technique with Oly. I’m particularly proud of the last image entitled Full Frontal. That butterfly just let me stick my camera in its face for a few minutes and didn’t fly off no matter how close I got to it. I thought that was very kind of it. What I am most impressed about today is that none of these images were taken with a macro lens. The only thing I did was set proper ranges on the image stabilizing system. As usual, only cropping was done, no adjustments otherwise.
Curvy Roads
Serenity and Aprilla
Today was frought with curvy goodness. I met up with M and A at A’s house and then road up to Evergreen for a late lunch at a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant that I never knew existed.
Aprilla
This was the first time I had Serenity for this ride and I have to say that I am not disappointed in my decision to trade in the Shadow for her. The curvy roads were smooth and easy and I was able to hold my lines at faster speeds than I ever could before.
And A has recently acquired a 2003 1000cc Aprilla with all the bells and whistles. Evidently its been very well taken care of, the previous owner happened to work at the shop he bought it from, and the amount of power the thing has is frightening.
Also for the awesome_box, I met M for the first time today. I very much enjoyed his company and it was actually his idea to hit the Vietnamese spot for tasty sustainance. I’m looking forward to more encounters with him and his lady in the future.
Serenity and Aprilla again
Aprilla
As for Oly, well, for right now I’m only comfortable shooting manually because I have absolutely no clue how to use any of the other functions. I tried to use the more automatic functions and I just couldn’t get what I was after.
*sigh* That just means I have more learning to do!
For the Love of Tea
The other table's tea
The more sensitive I become, the more I appreciate higher end teas. Because of this, I am ever expanding my repertoire of places in the Denver/Boulder area that serve them. Today’s little adventure brought me to Seven Cups on south Pearl, boasting that its the only traditional Chinese tea house in Colorado. The owner of Seven Cups is a tea master from China who spends 3 months out of the year in China in search of the best crops of tea. If any are not up to her standards, she won’t have them in her store.
Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised with the qualities of top shelf teas they served. And it just so happened that the manager of the place will be attending SWAC in January, so I made a friend as well.
I learned that there are only 3 varieties of true yellow teas existing in the world today as well as the best way to drink said yellow teas. I had no idea that my champagne taste really was that picky, but I honestly could taste the difference between the Pai Mu Tan from Wynstone’s that was masquerading as a top shelf yellow, and the freshly picked 2009 Jun Shan Yin Zhen, one of the 3 true yellows left in the world. Just as impressive, the leaves never went bitter, even after 7 steeps.
this is how I work best
After a few hours of Integrated Pharmacology and Endocrine Pathology, I sat and talked with the manager of the store. Turns out she also works for an acupuncturist who teaches Gong Fu/Taiji/Qi Gong and is already well integrated into the TCM world here in Denver. She gave me her employer’s card and invited me to check out the martial arts studio on one of the open nights so I could see if it could help with my “defenses” a little.
my gaiwan
After much yammer I aquired a traditional gaiwan (drinking cup for oolongs and yellows) and 25g of Jun Shan Yin Zhen for drinking in class. As sad as it sounds, there aren’t words for how happy this makes me. I can go to Seven Cups and study for as long as I want to on one cup of tea. The company there is wonderful when I want it and sympathetic when I need to be left alone. I don’t have to ask for special favours when it comes to ingredients because there’s no food and no specialty drinks there. The manager even said I could bring in my own food if I needed as long as it wasn’t fragrant; fragrances affect the teas.