Random Photo Catch-up Post 2-- DONE!

I'VE FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH MY EDITING! Kind of. At least for this challenge, anyway... -bites lip-
Okay, on to the randomness.

219/365; Aug 18, 2011; Playing with an angel statuette

220/365; Aug 19, 2011; Barely edited flower in a neighbor's yard

221/365; Aug 20, 2011; Gotta love restaurant signs.

222/365; Aug 21, 2011; Bee and wildflowers on a photo walk

232/365; Aug 31, 2011; Otherwise unedited HDR-style tomatoes given to us by a friend

233/365; Sept 1, 2011; Duck? Vintage duck? Taken from the car

234/365; Sept 2, 2011; "The Mile-High Club"

235/365; Sept 3, 2011; Weed in my dog's yard

236/365; Sept 4, 2011; "Think she can see me?"

237/365; Sept 5, 2011; Um... random neighbor's lawn ornament.

238/365; Sept 6; Really interesting texture on a bridge

239/365; Sept 7; Must have had a texture complex those days... Another *ahem* interesting texture

240/365; Sept 8; A wall that must have looked pretty cool to me at the time.

241/365; Sept 9; The view from my seat every night

242/365; Sept 10; I love my friends already. Even If I only met them within the past month. LOL

243/365; Sept 11; Speaking of people I love, these are my favorite people in the world!!! My grandparents. <3

244/365; Sept 12; Creepy little toy that my dog hates. (Small because it freaks me out.)

245/365; Sept 13; Speaking of my dog (LOL! Coincidence, I promise), this is her waiting for Gma to get home. So tyoot.

246/365; Sept 14 TODAY! YAY!; Awesomely distressed foam head in my bedroom.

Okay, hopefully I'll keep up with the editing a little better from now on. But I doubt it, so don't hold your breath... LOL

That Time of Year Again

Yay, Spring! It was such a beautiful day, I had to spend a few hours basking in the sun on my lovely back porch. While I was sitting there, I thought I'd take a few snapshots from my seat. :)

I'm meeting with the local pro photographer tomorrow between my classes to get some insight on the local scene and how to get into the business. It should be a learning experience! I'm really looking forward to it.

In other news, I've decided to enter the PDN Faces Photography Contest for kicks. I'll be entering my harlequin series (there are more than I posted here) under the Self-Portraits category and portraits I took in the multiple City Methodist church under the Environmental Portraits category. When they're all re-edited and ready for uploading, I'll be sure to post them here. If you're thinking about entering, I'd love to see what you submit!

Now, I shall FINALLY post part one of the template tutorial. I've been putting it off for a day when I was alert enough to at least understand my OWN tutorial. haha, Today's the day. Hope you get something from it!

Makeup

Hey guys! I didn't forget you yesterday. It was my birthday, so I had kind of a busy day, and then by the time I got to take my picture, I was way too tired to edit it. Heck, I was too tired to really try taking a decent photo as it were. I experimented with a few things, but nothing was working out. It would be awesome from where I stood, but missing something in the frame. This is the best I could do.

On the plus side, I finally realized how to make my photos save with the colors they are in Photoshop. I've been so frustrated since I first started shooting in RAW because my photos are missing a lot of the vibrancy they have in my Photoshop.

In other news, I have a new acoustic electric guitar!!! It's a beauty, and its body is slimmer than the average acoustic, which is great for me because I have such short arms and such a large bust. Playing is much more comfortable now! :D Maybe I'll photograph that tonight. ;)

Ye of Little Faith

Did you really think I'd forget you guys?! :) I just spent a long 7 hours trying to uncover the items I've been hoarding for most of my life, dragging them from house to house in innumerable containers as if losing just one thing would mean death.

Or something slightly less dramatic.

Thought I'd just confuse the mess out of you all before I finally hit the hay. Today, I felt like trying some more abstraction, so here it is. Hope you get a kick out of it! It kind of looks like a bunch of floating boxes to me. Or maybe that's what they are. HMMmmm.

Meh, goodnight!

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!

Remember Me

Poor little guy.

Today was pretty uneventful. My grandfather and I did change the bed in my room, though, and now it's only a matter of time before I have the photo-friendly area I've been wanting. Can't wait to start shooting in there. It's definitely the best-lit room in the house. You can see that lawn gnome from my east window! lol

Anyway, enough with the gab. Bedtime! Have a great day, my friends. :-)

Diagonalomo

Today was my first class in Athens, OH. It was a long drive there and back (over 3 hours altogether), but the city was AMAZING and my B/W Photography class was great. I'm very excited about this particular class. As of tomorrow, I will (hopefully-- VERY hopefully since I'll need it the next day) own a Nikon 35 mm film camera. EEEE!

Okay, enough with the fangirl squealing. On to the photos!

The daily challenge was to make a photograph today with a diagonal line leading the viewer's eye through the composition. Since I was in such a beautiful city, I took photos there. And, being in a strange mood, I decided to try out a sort of vintage lomo look. This is what I got.

Technically, the challenge photo.

and my personal favorite of the day

I rather like the lomo look, but it's definitely not for everything. What do you think?

Why So Serious?

How was your day? Mine was great. My friend Renee is visiting for the week! I decided to photograph her today. The challenge was to illustrate coldness, but I didn't exactly go for that. On the other hand, it actually sort of works despite the warming filter I used. What do you think?

On another note, Sandra has requested that I revisit my cruddy image from a couple of days ago, so I used all her suggestions about it and this is what I came out with:

I do like the edit better-- the texture is a metal one I downloaded years ago-- but I'm still none too thrilled with this photo. I guess I'll have to try again someday!

Inspiration was a no-show

:( Sorry. I spent today cleaning and sleeping my pain away. Wasn't doing a very good job on my photography. Maybe tomorrow?

The view from my window.

Heavenly Peeeeace

Merry Christmas, y'all! I hope it was a great one. :)

Today's challenge was to illustrate peace and harmony (or just plain peace and quiet!) so I went outside once it began to snow. Here's my shot.

And a few more for the road. :)

Mother Nature loves you.

Seeing Red

Today's challenge was-- you guessed it-- red. Since most of my photos have been Christmas-related, I didn't want to go that route, so I looked around and found a faded fake flower on my back porch.

Shockingly enough, I barely edited this thing at all. Cropped it, adjusted the contrast slightly, and added the pinline frame and signature. I didn't even add that glowy effect, though I'm rather curious as to where it came from. It's not one of my best photos, but I'm happy with it for now. :)

Too Tired to be Inspired

:( I'm not very good at this daily challenge thing. Hopefully, things will get better once I'm no longer running around all day like a madwoman. Until then, here is the horrid, uninspired photo for the day's challenge of "circular or round objects." Processed with this action.

Excuses Excuses

I spent part of the afternoon and the entire evening wrapping Christmas gifts today. I am pooped. Far too pooped to take pictures...

So naturally, I took pictures.

Jingle All the Way

Greetings! Today, the challenge was to find a repeating pattern and make a photograph of it. Unfortunately, I was not feeling all too creative, so I grabbed my belly dancing belts (or my "jingle belts," as I like to call them) and snapped away.

Here are the more generic photos.

Hmm. There's something wrong with the color after uploading. Meh! And here are the other two.

Shallow

Today's challenge was to use a shallow depth of field, which I do pretty much always, so I decided to use today to experiment with RAW. I've only been using it for a few weeks now, so it's still pretty new to me.

First up, we have an abstract photo. I used my 3 close-up filters to get right on my (fairly obvious) subject and used the on-camera flash. In editing the photo, all I did was tweak the levels and add a vignette. Somehow, it ended up being my favorite for the day.

Next, we have the cake photos. I'm not too fond of them, but I took the time to edit them, so here they are.

Lastly, the more experimental photos.

With flash.

Without flash and color manipulated with RAW

I hope today's post isn't too disappointing. :-/