Saturday, February 26, 2011

Splish Splash


Today was a photographic failure. I had to cheat so badly to get this photo. My white background had distracting silver brads on it, so blanked it out except for the shadows because this photo is extremely boring otherwise. I don't know. Hope you like it more than I liked editing it. lol

I thought I'd try this out thanks to Shayne Gray's inspiring post, but I couldn't get enough light no matter what I did, and then when I finally got my flash working how I wanted it, I couldn't find an object that would create a good splash. This tiny one was created by a heavy Mexican coin. You might be wondering "Why Mexican?" Well, the answer is that it's magnetic and I could use my nifty magnet pen to get it out of the water from behind my tripod. Laziness for the win!

Other objects I tried include a 50 cent piece, a gold dollar, a golf ball, and three different sizes of rocks since I had no fruit to use. Nothing created a splash. I'm starting to think that glass was cursed (or, uh, specially made not to splash?). Any pointers on what I should have done?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Playful Portrait


Alright, so I was sick today and didn't feel up to doing anything other than sleep-- which somehow I managed not to be able to do. That didn't mean my teddy bear couldn't have a little fun. ;) She was jealous of that sexy pepper last night and had to show it up.

Maybe tomorrow I'll give you something better!

On the Irish and Desirable Veggies

Oh, come on. Who doesn't talk about the Irish and desirable veggies every once in awhile?

It's a story I have to tell because I was thoroughly amused by it, and today was a hard day to amuse my unhealthy self. My Art History professor was showing us photographs from Edward Weston, and someone in the class said, "I don't get it. None of his nudes are sexy. They all look like landscapes!" The professor said to him, "Wait 'til you see what he does with vegetables. Have you ever seen a sexy pepper?" What was just as amusing was that I immediately knew exactly what photo she was talking about. How messed up is that?

You can't tell me you don't love this pepper.

On another note, my Photography class went terribly yet amazingly. I snapped 10-12 photos this morning to finish up the roll of film I wanted to develop, and one of them was quite pleasing to me. I've been trying to practice frame-in-frame shots since that's something I've never really gotten into, and I may or may not have gotten a nice one. The problem is that I forgot to print it. Here's why.

First, I should have checked my reels before I went dark. The two sides of each reel were not matching, so they didn't meet up quite right. I couldn't get my film onto those reels for the life of me. Then, I learned that my particular darkroom doorknob was backwards the hard way-- it should be locked on the outside but unlocked on the inside, yet someone opened up my door while I was in there. It was locked on my side, but whoever opened my door a little spilled light all over my roll.

Once I finally did manage to maneuver the roll onto its reel, I began the developing process. My tank, however, decided that it didn't like its light seal, and the thing fell open even though it had been sealed just fine while I was agitating. Once again, my roll of film was exposed to light prematurely. I asked the professor what he suggested, but he said I might as well trash the roll. Twice exposed is pretty much a death sentence, right?

Wrong! Somehow, that roll managed to come out perfectly fine. Talk about luck of the Irish!!! Even Professor Williams couldn't believe it. However, after all this trouble, I'd used up almost all my class time. I spent the rest of it trying to print a few photos from the beginning of the new roll. How stupid of me. They're all photos from the Photowalk post, only taken with the SLR instead. You've seen them!

Instead of posting my photo of the day TODAY, I'll give you one you haven't seen yet. It was taken last year when I was just learning what White Balance was and how to tweak it. Somehow, it's still a favorite of my friends'. I hope you like it, too!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Bury Me Alive

Everybody's got to breathe somehow.

I was bored and dissatisfied with my photo for today's challenge (natural beauty), so I decided to posterize it and turn it into a mock book cover. The lyrics are from a beautiful gothic rock song called Bury Me Alive by the band We Are the Fallen. If you like Evanescence, you'll love them. They're actually the original band from Evanescence with a different singer (who sounds almost exactly like Amy Lee. Shocker.)

Anyhow, photography class tomorrow so goodnight! <3

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Dynamic


Yep, today I had a brief stint with HDR. I mean, how could anyone pass that opportunity up? Especially when standing in an auto shop full of amazing tire parts.

I didn't get to go to class today, which really made me sad, but it was still a decent day anyway. In fact, it was my mother's birthday! [Happy birthday, Mom. If ever you should see this blog again, be reminded that I love you.] But anyhow... on to the next photo.

The least tasty doughnut on the planet, HDR style.
And last but not least, the prettiest thing you'll ever see at an auto shop:

Background: black shadow on a black tile. I didn't black it out myself. No patience.

Down in the... Ditches?

Today was a great day followed by an awful night. I am very excited that I got a box full of photography supplies   I bought last week. RC paper galore!!! And my grandmother got the car fixed, so no more annoying hum all the way to Photography class. Yay!

However, on my way to class, there was something gigantic on the expressway that none of us saw until the car was about to run over it. It not only gave us a flat tire, but also bent our rims. Needless to say, I didn't make it to class seeing as we had no spare and help didn't come for an hour.

Then, to make matters worse, we couldn't get up the steep hill to our home with that donut tire they gave us, so my frustrated grandfather backed off the hill too fast and went right into a ditch. Not just any ditch, though. No, this was a ditch filled with knee-deep water, a streetlight in front of us, and a fire hydrant within four feet of our tail end. The towtruck drivers took almost 2 hours to get there, and then they managed to hit that hydrant with our car. The poor poor car.

I almost forgot to take my photo of the day because I was so frustrated. I did manage to get a semi-interesting texture photo, though. I combined it with an in-camera image overlay from yesterday's set to get this. Hopefully you'll get some use out of it.


Time to go cuddle up in bed with my teddy and my feather pillow (yes, I still cuddle with both of those. It's been a rough night. Leave me alone!). Goodnight, loves!


OH, by the way, I finally found out what model my Nikon SLR is. It's an FM. Good to know! lol

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sleepy Sunday

Even my butterfly house is sleepy.

I can't seem to wake up today. It was a perfectly fine day, though. Ran into some technical difficulties, but what's new? I wanted to take some more photos outside, but the weather went nuts and we got some crazy hailstorm mixed with giant, scattered snowflakes and a small amount of rain.


Then, Sandra gave me the idea to try taking a selfie version of her photo and grunge it up using a tutorial she found, but none of the windows in my house were reflecting me no matter what I tried. I wonder if I'm part vampire. ;)

Finally, I gave up and tried photographing some things in my room, but I was dissatisfied with every shot, so I spiced up one of them and a portrait of my grandmother with this tutorial that Sandra linked me to (we were bored today. Can't you tell?). Here are the results.



Lastly, Sandra linked me to this interesting tutorial and I had to try it out, so this is what I got.


Creepy, huh? Well, now that I've scared the bajeezus out of you (or just bored you to death), I bid you goodnight!