Freeze Frame

POTD June 15th

2008-06-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Father's Day

POTD June 21st

2008-06-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

POTD June 21st

2008-06-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn Bridge.

POTD June 1st

2008-06-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks for comments on yesterday. Many of you were close. The second photo is actually a very small lemon bud. I thought it looked really interesting.

These are the last two from the back yar. The first one is some tendrills off some kind of wierd plant. The second is is obviously from a rose bush.

POTD May 31st

2008-05-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

A couple of things about yesterday. The first one is called a Bottle Brush Tree. It's proper name is Callistemon. I'm not sure if it is native to Australia. I always thought is was growing up, but don't quote me on that. I think you can tell why we call it a bottle brush tree.

Yep, the second one is a cactus. It's a pretty ordinary looking plant really, but this angle made it look really cool.

I am actually from Australia, so it was a trip home to see the family. We took the whole camera kit since my hisband is into photography too. The macro shots I took though were all in the in laws back yard.

Here are a couple more.

The first one is the handle of a rusty old Hills Hoist. Better know to the rest of you as a clothes line. I live in NY so I don't know if you have these sort in the rest of the country. I'll leave you guessing on the second one.

POTD May 30

2008-05-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

I've been away in Australia so I haven't uploaded in ages. I will try to get back on track. These are some pictures I took with my new macro lens while we were away.

POTD April 9

2008-04-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

These are a couple that I actually took last week, before my macro arrived, I just didn't get a chance to upload them. Just a couple of pretty flowers.

POTD April 8

2008-04-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

I got my new macro lens the other day, so I got some tulips this morning to have a play with. I obviously still have a lot to learn. I am not happy with teh focus in most of the shots. I guess I will have to keep trying...what a shame ;)

Here's a few from today.

POTD March 28

2008-03-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

I heard Kyan ask Michael for a bandais this mornign, and didn't really give it much of a second thought. I came out a little while later to find Elmo and Cookie in this state. I couldn't help but take a few shots. There are more ont heir backs too.

POTD March 27

2008-03-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of photos I took on Easter Sunday. It's just the first chance I have had to get them up.

POTD March 20

2008-03-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all your suggestions from yesterday. I guess there is good news and bad. The good news being that I am obviously getting better at all this, because all the suggestiosn were ones I had thought of and tried. The bad news is it wasn't all that effective.

I reposted the shot with the suggestions. The warming filter made a little difference. I had actually already applied it on the one from yesterday. I re-applied it again over the top, but it only made a little bit of difference. Here's the B&W also. I don't mind it, but it's just not what I was aiming to achiever with the shot.

I do think the blue cast was the main problem. I tried to get him to hold the umbrella back further but he wouldn't be in it.

My plan, is to try the shot all over again from scratch next time. Wish me luck.

POTD March 19

2008-03-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty miserable day here today, but it was a good opportunity to catch a pic of Kyan. It was supposed to be of his very cute raincoat, but he insisted on holding the umbrella.

I've played with this a bit in PS with Michael's help. I'm still not happy with it. It seems a bit dull somehow.

POTD March 17

2008-03-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

It was such a nice day yesterday that we headed off to the park. I wanted to take a few outdoor shots while Michael was there to help me rather than taking them on my own and waiting til we got hom to find out wht was wrong with them. I think I did fairly well on my own anyway. Here are a few snapshots.

POTD March 14

2008-03-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

I've been without the camera for a few days so I haven't posted. I got some new background fabrics last night. Just the basic black and white, but better than what I was using. I've been practicing this morning. Here is one I got. I tried to get some of Cameron, but for such a cute baby, it is near impossible to get a nice photo of him.

Update:

I think I caught a decent one of Cameron. Yay!

POTD March 7

2008-03-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

Finally on topic. I got the idea from someone's but I don't remember who. This was a full face photo that I cropped. I did take one like this straight from the camera, and I loved the general look of the shot but sadly it was over exposed and out of focus.

...and in black and white

...and after playing with the contrast and a bit of a colour tint.

POTD March 5

2008-03-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

I tried to take some photos of the baby today, but it was a bit of a disaster. He just wasn't in a photographic mood at all, then the camera came up with an err 99, so I have nothing to show today. These are a couple more from the other day.

(I don't know why the borders are a different size. I did them the same way. I might need to try doing it a different way)

ETA: Michael came home, did the exact same thing that I did and fixed the camera. I really hate it when that happens...which seems to be all the time. At least the camera is back.

POTD March 3

2008-03-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday. I do think my photography is improving which is nice, and I love all the inspiration I am getting from the rest of your blogs.

Here's one for today. Just a feet shot. I know it's not original in any form, but it is a photo I have been wanting to scrap. Might play with a few textures before I am finished. Any suggestions for a good one?

POTD March 2

2008-03-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

Kyan went out with Daddy yesterday and brought me home some flowers. Obviously I took some photos of them, and he wanted to play with one. I'm so pleased this one turned out. I had to play with the background on this as I was using a sheet since I don't have a background yet.

POTD March 1

2008-03-01T17:35:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a chance to take any new shots today, so this is from yesterday again, only I decided to take the opportunity to play with texture. I've seen this on many of the other POTD blogs and quite like it. Here's my result. It's only my first try, but I am pretty happy. I cropped the photo and played with the curves a little.

POTD FEb 29

2008-02-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure yet how I feel about this one. It's not quite what I had in mind, but still maybe not too bad. We got our new Wacom tablet today, so I am looking forward to having a play with that over the weekend.

POTD Feb 27th

2008-02-27T19:46:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a chance to take any photos today so I decided to go back at have a look at some fromt he other day. The photos from when I took this particular shot were not great, so I decided to use it to play in PS. This was taken at too high an ISO and was terribly out of focus so I converted it to black and white and added exagerated the lack of focus by adding extra noise. I wont be printing this one, but it's something a bit different. I like how it kind of looks like a drawing.

POTD Feb 26

2008-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

I needed to take a new headshot today for one of my design teams, and michael was at work, so I went the self portrait option. Kyan decided he would like to be the one pressing the button and did pretty well (the camera was on a tripod after all). He decided he also wanted in, and so we did a few silly ones together, then we got Cameron in on the action too. We ended up with a lot of rubbish of course, but this one I quite like. So, on topic for the week, this is me interacting with my newborn as shot by my 3 year old.

POTD Feb 25th

2008-02-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Something different today. I 'm not sure what I was really trying to accomplish with this flower shot, but I am pretty happy with it. I really NEED a macro lens. I would love to have been able to get in a bit closer, but in the meantime, this will do.

Meanwhile, my husband... the one of us who actually has some photographic knowledge, headed out with our new lens on the weekend. Have a look at his efforts and let him know what you think: http://michaeljbarry.blogspot.com/

POTD Feb 24th

2008-02-24T16:56:00.001-08:00

A couple of people yesterday asked about where these shots were taken. It's in Brooklyn and the fence is in the front of a brownstone on my street. Obviously this place is full of them, so I'll have to go out some time and find some more interesting ones to photograph.

We've had a heao of snow here lately, but with sick kids, today was the first time I could get out. I didn't find much worth taking. All the snow is disturbed now, I wanted to get some hanging on leaves, that sort of thing, but didn't have any luck. Also ran out of light since Michael had been out with the gear taking shot of the city today.

Anyway, here are some tree photos from the park. I converted them to emphasise the silhouetted shapes against the snow. Not sure they are much good, but I think they are interesting.

POTD Feb 23rd

2008-02-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

I'f feeling a bit better now, thanks to those that asked, but the kids are both sick, so even though it snowed and snowed yesterday and Kyan really wanted to play, we stayed inside where it was nice and warm. That meant that the only snow photos I could get were from the window, so I have nothing spectacular to show. The first is just the view from my window. I do like the contrast between the snow and the branches. The second is the fence across the road. It's not a great photo, but I liked the shapes in it.

POTD Feb 21

2008-02-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

Well like many people on the 2peas board, we decided to try to get some eclipse shots last night. We have pretty decent gear now, so we hoped for a good outcome. We were still limited though and think this is probably the best we could do with the equipment we have.
One of the good things about living in a brownstone, is that we could climb up onto the roof which was nice and flat and set up the tripod away from any street lights. It was ridiculously cold. It was a joint effort by my husband and I. I'm sure he will leave a comment here claiming all the credit... and yes perhaps he did do all the settings, but I was the one who pressed the buton.

Anyway, its not real clear, but I kinda like that it looks like the moon has a glow rather than just being totally out of focus. We might look at getting an extender and might do better next time.

POTD Feb 20

2008-02-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling unwell today, so no photos even though our new wide angle L lens arrived today. This is another one from the weekend. Off topic again. I really like texture in the timber and the perspective fo the shot. I had a play with DOF too.

POTD Feb19

2008-02-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't have time to take any new photos today so this is one I took yesterday, just playing around. It's not a great photo and I've done nothing to it. I knew at the time it could be better but right in the middle, Kyan smacked his head on the lounge and got upset, so the photo shoot was over.

By the way, thanks for your concern for Kyan after yesterday, He has a nice bruise on his head, but he's fine. He had already been warned not to do it and did it anyway, so I'm afraid he didn't get too much sympathy from me.

POTD Feb 18

2008-02-18T15:39:00.001-08:00

Now that I know that the theme for the week is shape I thought this one might suit. It's another one from my little adventure yesterday. I just wanted to see what it would look like if I used the fence to frame the boat shed. I wouldn't mind having another go at positioning the boat shed through the fence, but other than that I'm happy with the shot. This is as it was shot.

The shape factor is obviously the shapes created by the pailings of the fence.

POTD Feb 17

2008-02-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

Today I left Michael and the babies at home, at headed up to the park by myself, just to see what I could come up with. I have 17 shots that I have saved to have a play with. I can't remember how many I took, I think it was about 100. Alot of them simply didn't work. Some of them I know why, some I don't. Shutter speed seems to be my problem today. I can look at a photo and know why it didn't work most of the time, but knowing exactly how to fix it is something I am still working on. One thing at a time.

On yesterdays post, a few people asked about focus. The main thing I learned was the correlation between focal length and shutter speed, but like I said, I'm not really sure how to fix that yet. I'll get there though. Sara, I'm not sure about the things you mentioned, but I'll check out the FAQ thread, thanks.

Here's my favourite so far. This is more or less as shot. Just played with the contrast a little.

ISO 100 f/8.0 1/30

This is a set of stone stairs to the left of the waterfall.

ISO 200 f/16.0 1/25

I took this one with reflection in mind. I liked how the tree reflected in the water but was broken up by the sheets of thin ice. I wanted to include the leaf as a point of interest. I did play with the histogram for this one a little in PS to get better brightness and contrast. Not sure I am done with it. Michael thinks it needs to be cropped in a bit tighter on the leaf.He might be right. It gets a little lost, but I don't want to lose the reflection. It does look better when the whole thing is larger though.

ISO100 f14.0 1/13

Thanks for all the comments.

POTD Feb 16

2008-02-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all the welcoming comments yesterday. I already feel like I am learning lots.

This is one I took of Kyan the other day. The background is actually the inside of our fire place, and I really like the way it looks. Unfortunately as with many of my shots, the focus is a little off. Michael has since explained to me what I did wrong, so hopefully tomorrow I might try to have another go at it. Meanwhile, I quite like the composition and Kyan's beautiful blue eyes. I haven't altered this photo at all.

POTD Feb 15

2008-02-14T13:32:00.000-08:00

This is for the POTD challenge at 2peas. It is not on the set topic, but some I'm really happy with. I have to credit one of the other 2peas ladies for the set up idea. I saw a similar shot on her blog and loved it, and thought it would be a great shot for Cameron. Remember that I am no photographer and I am just strating to learn how to use the camera properly, so there is probably a lot wrong with the photos, but I'm very happy.

PWAC Black and white

2008-02-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

This is for the black and white challenge at 2peas.