Prints, Edits, and Stripes

I took this photo a few days ago with my awesome new  High-Def  Panoramic Fisheye Lens (for the millionth time, THANK YOU SANDRA! *hug*) and somehow completely forgot about it. Came across it today while cleaning out a card and couldn't leave it behind. Hope it was worth it. :)

Now, today's challenge was to feature stripes somehow, so here are my photos for the day.

Wind chime from my bedroom window, using my 55-200 mm lens.

My poor, abused guitar by my other bedroom window. Today was all about daylight!

Finally, I will show you my terrible school prints, starting with the most overexposed: my dog, Ursa.

I've got a LOT of learning to do. Maybe next week will be better! *fingers crossed*

In the Mood

I was in the mood to do more self-portraits today. Don't know why, but it seemed like it would be fun, so here they are.

Haha yeah... I had fun. They were all taken in my bedroom with a ton of lights on and a couple reflectors to help them out. Hope you like them!

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EDIT: Oh hey... the daily challenge was monochrome. Go figure! LOL

Fore!

The Daily Shoot challenge was to take a photo from a low point of view. I was feeling all over the map so my photos are completely different. First up, we have... the blinds. Yes, the blinds. I get bored.

I was lying on my sofa playing with the settings on my camera when I shot this for the heck of it. I know it's really strange, but I like it for some odd reason.

Next, we have the bird. The cardinal, to be exact.

Definitely not a prize-winning creative masterpiece, but the reason I am posting this one is because it was almost completely unedited. I added a vignette and used the Unsharp Mask, but that was all. The contrast, the color, the framing, everything is right out of the camera. I've finally learned how to tweak my shooting mode settings so that there's more contrast and sharper edges without having to use the not-so-great Retouch Menu. I love learning things! Thank you, Manual.

Also, I spent hours today printing some of my negatives from the Minolta x-700. For the record, I am AWFUL at printing. One particular picture took me more than 9 tries just to get the contrast I wanted. What a waste of expensive Ilford paper!!! Luckily, we were able to get some more, but I have a feeling these boxes are going to go quickly. -sigh- Hopefully I can scan some of my decent prints and post them here for you guys to see my progress. :-)

Anyhow, enough rambling. Have a good night!

So You Had A Bad Day

It's been a horrible day, so the sooner I post this photo the sooner I can get to bed and today will be over.

Sorry for this cruddy photo. I've learned that photographing in my living room's terrible lighting when I am in a bad mood and feeling too lazy to get out of my chair is not a great idea. Tomorrow, I will hopefully be feeling better (we get an extra 50 minutes to print during Photography class because the teacher will be late!) and I'll try again in a less lazy way. You can't even tell from this picture that I really love that class ring. :-(

Tomorrow will be a better day. I know it.

Selfie

Oh, how I hate self-portraits. I always want to do them, but then once I do, I hate every photo. Blegh.

Anyhow, you can probably expect to get some macro tomorrow, as Sandra bought me a macro fisheye lens I've been wanting. I'm so excited!!! (For the hundredth time, THANK YOU, SANDRA!)

On top of that, I also learned how to print my negatives today (yay!) and my grandmother found me a Save the Tatas breast cancer shirt, so it's been an awesome day. Now to go fall into bed! :D

Lomo Droplets

Today, I felt like experimenting, so for the first time, I tried droplet photography. I'm pretty happy with it. Definitely something I'd like to try again. These were processed with my Lomo filter again (if you like the look, check out this tutorial).

This is what happens when you use Lomo processing on black and white photos.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!






In case you're curious, here's my setup:

A water-filled cup with a tiny hole in it inside a bandanna hung from my tripod over a pan half full of water with a mirror in the bottom. The pink came from a metal tin lid with checkers on it, but you can use anything you want for the reflections. I used my reflector because the room is so poorly lit.


It would be much easier to put the pan in a sink and turn the faucet on to a very slow drip, but my sinks were in use so I had to improvise.

The cup in the hanging bandanna from above.

Statuesque

http://www.alancottrill.com/

The beautiful work of Alan Cottrill (check him out at the link below the photo), whose studio is here in Zanesville, OH. I have the pleasure of visiting any time I want, so today Renee and I swung by. Here are a few more photos. If you're ever in town, you should drop in and take a look!

The Nizz

I'm feeling playful today. So here's my photo of the day. My girl, Renee (aka The Nizz), under my bed. If you're interested in a tutorial, this one's a really quick and easy one. :-)