"WHERE'D YOU GO?!"

That's probably what you guys are asking. Well, I have almost literally gone nowhere, and I am now officially making my return to my 365 Challenge.

I owe you guys 32 photos, but today I will only post a few that I took over the long hiatus. Sandra and I have decided that it would be best to tack the days onto the end of the year instead of posting all of the photos I took or neglected to take since (1) I must definitely say I did NOT take a photo every single one of those days, though I did take one most of them, and (2) I have been extremely sick, and by the time I get well enough to make up for the missed photos, I will have a ridiculous amount of photoshoots to work on.

Let me catch you up a little.

Ursa has finally stopped looking for Roxy and now spends her time calling out to the other dogs on the block.

Daisy, my ironically named orchid, has passed on due to overheating.

I felt better for all of three days. Grandpa hit the shutter release for me because I have managed to lose my remote.

I learned how to draw with Soft Pastels for Drawing in Color class

I expressed myself in collage form for that same class using my photos and song lyrics. (Tears of a Clown and Mad World)

I finished a Drawing project in one class session, basing it off of Monet's style and JMW Turner's painting.

The friend whose maternity photos I took had her baby. Yay!!!

And, finally...

Today, I had a stalker. He watched me that intensely for over 5 minutes. The little creep.

Otherwise, I have attended more doctors' appointments than classes, begun physical therapy, gone through withdrawal from medications, come down with a sinus infection that's currently plaguing me, spent an entire day with my grandfather at the hospital, been told I am a carrier of a blood disorder, and (holy cow, GOOD news) been informed that I am an Honor student. Now I am going to be observed for two different sleep disorders this week. Life is... something. On the plus side, I've begun a tutorial that may very well become a small e-book for you all that explains (as thoroughly as I possibly can) the Photoshop toolkit.

Thank you for hanging in there with me. I pray I don't let you down again. :-(

So Far So Good

Interesting wall sculpture at Ohio University's art building, Seigfried hall

The headache is just a headache today, not a migraine, and my prints were all really good today, so yay! Unfortunately, I have an art history midterm today that I am not looking forward to failing. Much too tired and headache too bad to remember anything. Luckily, I don't think my GPA will suffer very much from a less-than-perfect grade. As long as my photography grade is perfect, I honestly don't care.

This is my love, and even when I have bad days, I know I'll still love it tomorrow. <3


Speaking of bad days, here is an edited version of yesterday's photo to hopefully make up a little for the awfulness. Cheers!

Born to Blush Unseen

Today's challenge was to go abstract, so out of pure laziness, I decided not to leave my seat. I turned around and, with my 200mm lens, zoom panned on a fake cactus in my dining room. For some reason, this is what happened instead of the typical zoom effect. Guess my shutter speed was too low. Either way, I rather like it. -shrug-

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!