Posts from ‘July, 2009’

***Important Announcement:  I’ve amended one of the rules/procedures for my Project 365 due to my time constraints as a very busy mommy to a very active boy.  Sometimes I am so exhausted by the end of the day that it’s been getting too hard for me to get the day’s photo processed and posted on my blog and I end up staying up way too late.  So, sometimes I may post yesterday’s photo for today’s entry.  I don’t plan on doing this all the time but I think it is alright to bend this rule a bit and I reserve the right to do this as a sometimes very tired mommy in the thick of the terrible twos, tantrums and all.  I also have a lot on my plate right now with my “Building a Photography Portfolio” class and need to devote more time to the work required for this class.  I will never go further back than the day before though, unless it is something I shot on film and just got developed and scanned.  Lastly, when and if I do go on vacation in the next 300+ days (which I really hope I do) I will probably just catch up when I return home or post photos from my iphone camera since I have the Wordpress app on my phone.

With that having been said, today’s photo I shot last evening at twilight in my own backyard (surprise, surprise!).  I am really having fun with the macro lens I borrowed from my dear friend and I’m still in love with waterdrops and cobwebs.   The cobwebs and waterdrops set of photos I last shot were done with my Cybershot and I really wanted to do some with my DSLR since I only have this lens for a limited amount of time.  I also hope to include some of these photos in my Imagining Wonderland portfolio/book.  Hopefully the few who look at this blog aren’t growing tired of these kinds of photos yet.  As for me personally, I think I could stay in this world for a long while, continuing to navigate my camera into the land of bokeh and the pleasantness of dreaming in macro form.  What a lovely world it is up close, and, still even in my own backyard. 

Oh, how I want my own macro lens!  The list of camera equipment to purchase someday is neverending…..and now I think I’m adding a printer to that list (shh, I haven’t told the hubby about that yet).

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it has to be lived forwards.”
-Søren Kierkegaard

A few days ago when I was at the MOPA library, I was incredibly inspired by a photographer’s work that I had never seen before.  I decided to try to make an image inspired by some of her work. 

I love the feeling within Sandi Haber Fifield’s images.  They seem like beautiful, dreamy litttle vignettes that express something like the above quote, which by the way is one of my favorite quotes.

In our backyard, Mr. Bee was feeling a little blue so he landed on top of Little A’s (AKA Little Fidel most recently) pirate ship to take a little break.  I had a 20 second window of time  to quickly shoot this photo and then he flew off again into the wild blue yonder.  This is another Sony Cybershot photo taken on extreme close up mode.

I’d just like to say that I’m realizing it takes a brave soul to post a photo everyday when we artists have a lot of fears and insecurities.  I am no exception.  There are many postings from the past 42 days that I wish I could change because I’m either embarassed of the quality of the photo or something I wrote.  However, I am realizing that this is just the nature of blogging and it is something I am trying to get past.   When you’re posting to the web everyday it’s very hard to not be a perfectionist.

Sometimes it is nice to be able to “marinade” with your photos before you decide what to do with them and then choose the best ones.  With Project 365 you don’t have that option, which is why I’m realizing this really does take a brave soul.  I’m not that brave, but I’m trying to be. 

So, for the record, I think I can say that I am truly proud of today’s photo and, as an amateur photographer, my hope is that I will find when I get to day 153, or 246, or 365 (or whatever day in the future it may be) I actually start to see a progression where I have improved so much that I am posting a photo to be truly proud of everyday.  

I hope this has made some kind of sense.  Ok, enough said then.

P.S. Thanks so much to those of you who are leaving comments and supporting me in this project.   Feedback of any kind helps me tremendously in so many ways.

I don’t do very many self portraits so I thought it might be time to try one again.  It’s probably not the safest thing to do (LOL) but I took a self portrait of myself while driving home tonight from a class field trip at the MOPA and dinner afterwards with my friend and classmate Deanna.  It was incredibly inspiring to be exposed to the work of so many talented photographers at the MOPA tonight.   I think all of us got some great ideas on how to proceed with our photography portfolios for the class.  It was such a treat to get to view other photographer’s portfolios and peruse their library.  I had no idea this resource was available to me and I definitely plan to return to the library soon.

We grabbed dinner at Mama Testa’s afterwards because my stomach was growling and I’ve had a huge craving for their food.  Wow, the place was just packed tonight!  Apparently, ever since the Food Network aired the cookoff between the Mama Testa cook and Bobby Flay (Mama Testa’s won!), business has been booming for them.  It is no longer a little hidden gem, but I’m happy their business has picked up in this economy.  It’s nice to hear those kinds of good stories.  I had the mojados de carne (little beef taquitos in a scrumptious broth with cilantro, onions, and lots of other goodness) and I devoured it.  There wasn’t a single piece of taquito left in my bowl.  Yup, guess I was hungry.

It is a most ambitious project indeed to take a photo everyday and post about it, but I forget what I did last weekend and sometimes I don’t even remember what I did yesterday (case of the mommy brain).  When I look back on the year I will have a nice visual history of memories.  I want to improve my photography skills and need more reasons to get out with my camera.  I don’t ever want to be caught in a rut where I don’t feel like using my camera.  Photography is my meditation and outlet in life.  I simply need it. 

For anyone else out there who is curious about this idea, there is a great article on Photojojo about it.  There are a lot of people doing it and there are so many ways in which to go about it (just self portraits, around your neighborhood, nature, hands and feet, family, anything and everything).  I encourage anyone who is interested in doing this to just get started with Day 1 immediately!  Then, please let me know so I can see your site.  I think the most important thing is to let all your friends and family know that you are doing this so they can follow along and comment on your posts.  This definitely helps you stay motiviated (hint hint to my peeps).    There are days when I feel like I can’t keep this up anymore, let’s hope there aren’t very many of those days and that I can push on.

I did not take this photo but I wanted to post what I found on the net today because it is just amazing!  To read more about it, go here.

I love trees.  Some trees are so powerful that they call to me and I end up making a quick u-turn and pulling off the side of the road to photograph them.  I found this lovely willow tree in the neighborhood of Point Loma.  I remembered that since it was overcast light I might get good results by trying to photograph the tree on a slow shutter speed with camera movement.  This is what I came up with after doing some additional work in Photoshop.

Moon Jelly

What a wonderful weekend!  I kicked it off with photography at Cabrillo National Monument, followed by a spontaneous playdate at Scripps Aquarium with my brother and my niece, and  finished it up with another photo shoot at Lake Hodges.  I feel so lucky to live in San Diego and have access to so many wonderful places to visit and photograph.  On top of all this, the hubby mowed the lawn and cleaned the house while I was at the aquarium with Little A.  He is the greatest hubby ever and I am so grateful for him.

I also just got a new plug-in for Photoshop and I’m having so much fun playing with the different effects.   I still have a ton more photos to process but for now, here are a few to share:

Lake Hodges

Egret

Today was the second day of the photo workshop and I managed to get up at 5:15 and make it there by 6am.  It was painful, but once I got some coffee in my system and a chocolate donut (breakfast of champions) I was good to go. 

I’ve decided I really love mornings and I need to become a morning person.  I just love how serene it is in the morning and there’s hardly a breeze (which makes it much easier to shoot close ups of foliage).  It was so nice without the crowds and tourists around too.  In fact, it was so quiet at times that I could hear wildlife scampering about on the leaves.  I saw squirrels, bunnies, birds and pelicans.  I didn’t get any shots of them as I had my wide angle lens on and couldn’t really zoom in on them but it was great having them around for company while I was out there.

I shot for several hours on my own and didn’t end up following the group today.  Everyone was photographing the statue and the lighthouse trying to get a great shot to win their photo contest, but I was more interested in shooting stuff for my portfolio and just enjoying myself out there.  It was very overcast and the light was flat, which made perfect conditions for macro and close-up shooting.  I nerded out on trees (branches, roots, leaves, algae etc.) shooting close ups with my wide angle lens (I have lots to process and will post those sometime in the future). 

After that, I headed down to the tidepools.  Low tide was already over but there was a south swell coming in and it was breaking nicely.  The break is called “Ralph’s” (something I learned today).  There were a lot of surfers out there and lots of spectators.  It was a nice way to end my photo shoot by photographing the gorgeous rocks and ocean and watching the surfers. 

All in all, it was a lovely time for me.  I came home, crashed, and took a nice nap.  I think I shall try this waking up before dawn thing again.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I surprised myself.

Tonight I went to Don Gale’s Photo Workshop at the Cabrillo National Monument.  Most of his lecture I had already heard during his free seminar at REI a month ago so I went out on my own and started shooting. 

The opportunity to photograph this enchanting place was well worth the $35 fee, especially since they kept the park open late just for us and tomorrow they will open it extra early as well.  We can get there as early as 5:30 am but I’m hoping to get there by 6am.  It will be interesting to see how different everything looks in the light of dawn.  I admit I’m a little worried about waking up that early as I’m a night owl and I usually don’t wake up until 8:30.  I must get to bed soon!

I learned a lot more about nighttime shooting and now I know I really need a flashlight to help me focus.  It was extremely challenging as the light faded away.  I kept trying to get this one shot with the tree and the sliver of the moon but no matter what I did the moon was more of a big splotch.  I think my focus was off but it was so hard to tell with so little light.  The above two shots were the best ones I got.  I’m sorry I don’t have any cliche skyline shots.  I was too engrossed with these shots that I ran out of time.

Here are a few more shots but the focus is a little off.   I really wanted the moon to be in better focus. I’ll have to figure out how to expose the moon properly for next time.

Tomorrow morning I will try again with a flash light.  I’m definitely learning by trial and error.  It is very difficult to shoot the moon, however I do love to shoot the moon (in the metaphorical sense as well) – LOL!

Moonflowers I

Moonflowers II