Visualizing May...Week 3

I suck. This week I didn't have a lot of time to take cool, decent shots- or do cool things with water like I had planned. I still pulled seven shots from the week, but I can't guarantee when they were taken. I made up for it at the end of this though, I swear.

These pictures are pretty much a walk-through of my boring week.

May 15th (Missed)

New bar in peoria. Buddy Joel and wifey...

1/4 f/2.8 ISO200

May 16th

I found this as odd - so had to snap it...(his eyes followed me)

1/4 f/2.8 ISO200

May 17th (ish)

This one has a story. There is a relay for life group here in town that will drop off flamingos in a yard - for a price. It's a prank that includes a very well written explanation about the cause and also the opportunity to pay a small fee to have them moved to whatever yard you want them to goto. Our good friends sent them to us, and I was pretty surprised to come home to these.

2.5s f/2.8 IOS400

May 18th

A bird. Boring, I told you so.

1/4000 f/2.8 IOS100

May 19th (Missed)

Not too far from home are a couple lakes. This is the spillway for one of them.

1/250 f/8 IOS100

May 20th

Just above the spillway was a powerline with a bunch of fishing line on it.

1/640 f/9 IOS100 (why f/9? This is one of the only times I was in P mode)

May 21st

Walking on a nearby beach, we saw this little guy.

1/320 f/6.3 ISO100

OK, OK! I know these weren't the best. My apologies. To make it up, I have a video of something I've been playing with lately, and that also related to a picture this week. Someday once I've mastered basic photography concepts (i.e.-not now) I would love to dabble in the world of videography. I recently got a version of the Twixtor plugin to use in After Effects, which helps blend frames together when slowing them down by a large factor. This was my first attempt at it.

Movies make everything ok, right? Next week should be AWESOME. Reasons?

• My flash unit came in two days ago
• My 24-70 2.8L comes in on Tuesday
• Other accessories come in by the end of the week
• Friday we're shooting a graduation on the lake
• Saturday we're shooting a birthday party

Awesome.

Visualizing May...Week 2

Week two is down and it is increasingly difficult to find interesting stuff to take photos of - which again, was kind of the point of FORCING myself to get creative. Instead I think I got lazy. Also, I really liked a couple shots I took this week, so some I've doubled (or tripled) up on the days.

To start, I have a couple pics - neither of which I'm counting towards my project. My lovely wife comes with me for most of the pics I take. In fact, she helps me with some of these, and may have even snapped one or two that I post here for my project. Sometimes I take my time shooting leaving her with little to do - so she gets me at work.

And the result...

Now for the goods...

---

May 8th
 Macro shot of a peice of my wife's jewlery (that we need to get cleaned!)

1/50 f/8 IOS800
Original

May 9th
 First attempt at light painting - I need more practice and a better flashlight...

30s f/8 IOS400

May 10th
 These two I took on the same day - love them both.

1/800 f/8 IOS100

1/400 f/2.8 IOS100

May 11th
 Some random building.... :)

1s f/10 IOS100

The next two I only claim to have edited them - but Joanna took them.

May 12th (Missed)
 Crop of a spider chilling on a for sale sign

1/80 f/2.8 IOS100
Original

May 13thThe leaves and propeller things were coming down like crazy and I like the ominous look when silhouetted

1/100 f/5 IOS100
Original

May 14th
 I was very pleased with most of the fire shots I had. I think these "Fire and Ice" ones are my favorite from the bunch.

1/125 f/2.8 IOS800

1/125 f/8 IOS800

1/400 f/8 IOS800

So there you have it!

My second week is finished! Overall I'm pleased so far. Not thrilled, but pleased. I expect to play with light painting and fire more - the fire shots, most of which I didn't put up - came out awesome and was fun to shoot. I also have plans for some similar water shots I hope to get to this week.

Have ideas for me? PLEASE share them! :)

Rorschach would be proud!

I played with fire yesterday. I had a lot of fun.
Lots of great images were made. I'll only share a few.
Except for the final image and the framing, these are unedited. Be sure to click them for the full sizes and tell me what you see à la Rorschach.

1/400 f/7.1 IOS200

1/200 f/4.5 IOS200

Reaching for air!
1/200 f/2.8 IOS200

Ghost and a candle?
1/400 f/2.8 IOS400

Nuke
1/400 f/2.8 IOS400

SHARK!
1/400 f/2.8 IOS400

Always wanted a parrot...
1/200 f/2.8 IOS400

Preview of next week. :)
1/250 f/2.8 IOS800

Finally... Some fun with CS5.

I going to post my three favorites for my Visualizing May post this week, so if you like these please check that out when it goes up later tomorrow.

Also, one of my new favorite sites is Learn My Shot. It's where I saw this technique first and is definitely worth taking a look at for new (old too) photographers.

Visualizing May...Week 1

First week has gone by and I only really missed one day. This is going to be a rough project.



May 1stLocal church on a rainy night.

1/20 f/1.8 ISO800
Original

May 2ndMiller park - I hate the lights, want to reshoot sometime.

30s f/18 ISO800
Original

May 3rdRandom light fixture at favorite bar

1/30 f/2.8 ISO100

May 4th (Missed)One of my favorite non-humans

1/30 f/1.8 ISO800

May 5thMy other favorite non-human

1/60 f/1.8 ISO2000

May 6thMacro shot of my eyeball

1/80 f/8 ISO3200

May 7thI like shadows.

1/1600 f/2.8 ISO100
Original

Overall the first week is "eh". I have some techniques I'd like to try this week, but would need for some equipment to come in first.

Speaking of equipment: In about three weeks I should be getting a couple new lens's.

Canon 24-70 2.8L

This will replace my Tamron 17-50 2.8 - anyone want to buy it? :)

Canon EF-S 10-22 3.5-4

This will be my new landscape lens. I've wanted an UWA for a while - especially for my APS-C camera, so i think this will be a great match for me until I get a 5D mkII.

May 1st, 2011.

Nine Years, seven months, and twenty days ago two buildings fell down. Osama Bin Laden was one of the primary guys responsible and today it was announced he's dead.

Waldo 1; Osama 0; (But he put up a good fight)

How damn hard was it to catch a 6'5 jihadist carrying around a dialysis machine from cave to cave? /facepalm

Everything has it's pros and cons... America is obsessed with retaliation and retribution - which can be warranted, but it should never be an end goal and should never cause someone to lose sight of the real threat. Osama the man wasn't a threat, it was the ideas he represented and after him is another 200 folks in line for his job.

I have an eye-for-an-eye mentality when it comes to punishment, so I am happy that he has the chance to meet God and be judged - but I am also pretty surprised to see so many people scream and shout as if the war is over and everything can go back to pre 9/11 days. If the goal of the military was to get retribution, it's time to bring our troops home now more than ever. When that happens I will be jumping for joy in the streets.

Also, President Obama had a very nice speech. Probably my favorite, or in the top three. Undoubtedly, it will be his "historical" presidential speech. He briefly discussed the concepts behind the 9/12 project, who the enemy was, why they were the enemy, why we went to war (giving hidden props to Bush in the process), the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11, and an appropriate-enough description of the intel and process of what happened. He acknowledged that the effort is not over and the fight is not done, and is not against a religion. Best of all? He did not omit "under God" again when quoting the Pledge of Allegiance. For that, we thank you.


Also... Where was I when it was being announced? Taking this:

1/20 f/1.8 ISO800
Original