Cleveland in Winter

I am yours

More Frost

Frosty Window

I noticed the sunlight coming through the frost on my living room window this afternoon, and grabbed my camera. The sun kept going in and out of clouds, and it was close to setting, so I had to be quick. I never quite got the shot I wanted, but this one turned out to be interesting.

I usually do a small bit of digital editing with my pictures, mostly cropping and adjusting the contrast. With this picture I used the "I'm feeling lucky" button in Picasa (which automatically adjusts color and contrast). It turned the slightly darker shadows in the frost into a vivid blue, which I like, even though this isn't really what the frost looked like when I looked through my lens.

Messy Desk

I don't know if this is a "good" photograph or not, but I had fun making it. I had the idea of photographing my messy desk, because I wanted to post a picture that gave a little more information about me and my life than I think my pictures often give. At first what I had in mind was a straight-on shot that showed the top of my desk and the hutch. I took some pictures like that and looked at them on the computer. During my first year with this blog I usually ended up doing a quick shoot like this, then just picking the best one, posting it and being done for the day. But today I decided I wasn't done.

So I put the data card back in the camera and kept shooting. I tried changing the position of the camera, changed the lighting, adjusted the aperture and ISO, moved some things out of the picture, moved some things back in. I ended up taking about 35 pictures of my desk.

I'm still not sure this is the best picture I could have made. I wanted it to express something, but I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure if I succeeded. But I'm glad I kept trying. This picture is definitely better than the first 30 or so that I took.

I wish I could take the time to make pictures every day like I did today. I feel like I learned a lot, and I'm eager to do it again. I know that in the coming months I will probably end up with a lot of 11:00-and-I-forgot-to-take-a-picture pictures, but I hope to have more like this one than I did in my first year.

What do you think of this picture? Does the effort I put in come through? Do you think it expresses something?

Blue and Grey

And so it begins...it's 11:00 and I have forgotten to take a picture. So I pick up my camera and shoot the first thing I see, a grey comforter and Mark's blue cycling jersey.

I'm finding it hard to be as creative at the outset with this new year. The first time around I seemed to see good ideas everywhere. I'm going to have to push myself to make better pictures this time. I guess I don't mind having a dud every now and then, if I keep up with posting every day. But I also need to take the time to be creative and put some effort into learning new things. I think I have a good eye, but I can't depend on that to make good pictures every time. I need to learn new skills, practice new techniques and learn more about using my camera to get the effects I want. I also want to work on being more expressive with my pictures.

Well, I have plenty of time to work on these things. 7 days down, 358 to go...

Procrastination

It's now exactly one month past Christmas, and these gift bags full of Christmas presents are still sitting on the bench in our hallway. One of these days I am going to put them away.

You Make Bath Time Lots of Fun

I couldn't resist including this one...

Box of Animals

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Shade

Friday, January 22, 2010

Speaking of Breaking Rules...

So, I just made the announcement that I'm back, and now I'm out of town and forgot my card reader, so I have no way of uploading my pictures...So much for posting every day.

But, I did take pictures today, and I think I know which one I'll post, it will just have to be after I get home on Sunday night.

Breaking Rules 1

Last night I looked through much of my first year of Photo Dilettante. I noticed that often when I wrote about my pictures I wrote that I had struggled to take pictures that day--I just didn't feel like it or wasn't inspired.

During that year I bought the book The Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson. I picked the book up again yesterday, and decided to make better use of it in this year of making pictures. The book is filled with simple exercises to inspire and stretch your creativity. I've decided that I am going to use these exercises to give me a little push, especially on the days that I feel less than creative.

I wasn't terribly pleased with yesterday's picture, but I knew that if I wanted to get this going again, I just needed to get started and not put too much pressure on myself which could end up causing me to procrastinate. So I just took the first picture I found.

Today I did the first exercise Patterson mentions in his book, which is to list the rules of "good" photography, and then break them. The first rule he mentions is, Hold your camera steady when shooting a picture.

Cabinet and Candle

This is a very familiar scene from my house, but the way I've cropped it in this photo makes it look very unfamiliar. It's interesting how removing the context of a familiar sight can give it a whole new feeling.

I'm Back!

I was looking through some of my old photos online today, and thought, I need to start taking pictures again. Having the pressure to post a picture a day was really helpful, actually, because it forced me to be more creative than I probably would be normally. So, I've decided to do it again. One picture a day, for one year (yikes! am I sure I want to do this?)

Of course, it will be a bit more challenging since I now have a little one. I've decided that to avoid having all of my pictures be of Isaac, whenever I post one of him I also have to post one that isn't of him. Otherwise I will take the easy way out and this will end up being a baby blog, not a photo blog. Maybe I'll just post all the pictures of Isaac on the adoption blog we started when we first began the adoption process...I'll have to see how things go, I guess.

Anyway, stay tuned. The first picture of 2010 coming up, to be posted by 10:00 tonight!