I have a terrible memory. I can’t remember names, birthdays, dates of anything important, or numbers of any kind really. There is also a history of Alzheimers in my family. Perhaps I am showing genetic traits of it already or perhaps I just have a visual learning style. My brain takes pictures of everything and that’s how I remember things.
My brain takes a snapshot of words, and then I read them. I read full sentences by looking at only a few words. I don’t read letter by letter, therefore I can be a terrible speller, unless I write the word with a pen and paper and sometimes I miss the details.
My brain takes a snapshot of people when I meet them. I recall where I met them, the background, people around us, their posture, their clothes, their hair. Once that changes, I have no clue I might have met them and their name. Their face will be familiar but unless I can recall that initial picture, I have a very difficult time remembering them.
My brain takes a snapshot of events in my life. I can recall in great detail different situations such as my heart surgery I had when I was only two because I see it all in pictures. But I have to think for a second to tell you how old I am.
My brain takes a snapshot of where I last put my keys but if I move them in haste before my brain snaps the shutter, they’re lost for days.
Perhaps it is for all these reasons that I want to physically take pictures of things in my life with a camera. Perhaps I want to preserve all that I see and feel in print before Alzhimers really sets in and I can’t remember my own name or before I lose touch with things that mean my Life. But it wouldn’t be the only reasons.
There is a passion underlying my need for pictures, my need to capture every moment, every rush of energy. I knew it existed even long before I ever entered these DLS workshops. I remember seeing my Uncle take pictures; my father and his camera equipment. I remember getting my own camera and getting my first roll of film developed. I remember being told to stop taking so many pictures because people would get tired of looking at them. Who cares? I thought. I liked them. It’s the same reason I have thousands of digital images stored and I can’t hit the delete button. I like them.
Taking these workshops at a time when I am fully supported by my best friend, has made my passion spark after being hidden deep down in my toes. Not only do I now want to take pictures more than ever, I want to take good ones. So that perhaps my albums won’t be so boring to other people and they’ll see what I feel in each image.
What do I want to take pictures of?
Anything. Everything. Of you. Of my children. Your children. Of people. Places. Fascinating things. Boring things. Moments. I want to take pictures when my brain takes a snapshot and says, I want to remember that.
On the practical end of things, sure, it would be great if I could turn this into a business venture or an extra income to help out with providing things for my children and helping ease the burden of one income off of my husband’s shoulders. Photography would have a lot more drive behind it than being a nurse has ever had for me. But I’m only new at learning the techniques for a good photograph and wish to build up to that. But I know I have it in me. I know I can take a picture that someone will want to frame, and even if they don’t, I’ll frame it.
Awards and recognition don’t mean much to me at this point and I don’t know if it ever will. Perhaps one day, I might want to enter a contest just to see what becomes of it. I do get a little giddy thinking that I could set up a studio and have people want me to take their pictures. Or better yet, being able to go somewhere, anywhere, and know that I can capture someone’s memories for them and leave them with a beautiful image they’ll always have. How cool is that?
I have dreams as to where I want this photography to take me and it isn’t a New York fashion shoot. My dreams? I’m with people that really care that there is more substance behind an image than if there are shadows under someone’s eyes when there “shouldn’t” be any. To me, photography is about people, whether there are any in the image or not. It is the feeling you get when you see a photograph, good quality or not, and you get a little goosebump or two because something deep down in your toes says you like it. And I like it too. That’s enough for me. ~click, click~
Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tagalong
That was me. I played "Follow the Nikon" the other day when I followed Hope (DSL Pedagogue) to Jenn and Isaac's to get some further instruction on metering. They just recently bought their own Nikon so I thought we could compare camera's. Hope is on the out with her Pentax but hey, she's the mentor so you can't harass her too much. Anyway, I have been doing some practice since knowing how to use the meter in your camera is pretty crucial to getting a proper exposure. And if you don't understand lighting and how it affects your pictures then your pretty much screwed as a photographer. So I'm in the learning mode. I haven't been finding the proper exposure in a blink of an eye, its more like after a half a dozen pics first. lol.
Not too bad I guess but I really have the expectation that I can pick up my camera, snap the shutter and have it all play out like I want it in the LCD. Not too high of an expectaion for owning the camera for a month, lol.
Anyway, I really enjoyed being the tagalong. I didn't get any pics of Sydney, which is a shame because she is an absolute beauty but I did take quite a few of her baby brother Jacob. He provided a really good subject to practice metering. Don't take it to heart Hope, but the mouse wasn't that photogenic. :0)
Not too bad I guess but I really have the expectation that I can pick up my camera, snap the shutter and have it all play out like I want it in the LCD. Not too high of an expectaion for owning the camera for a month, lol.
Anyway, I really enjoyed being the tagalong. I didn't get any pics of Sydney, which is a shame because she is an absolute beauty but I did take quite a few of her baby brother Jacob. He provided a really good subject to practice metering. Don't take it to heart Hope, but the mouse wasn't that photogenic. :0)
Friday, April 18, 2008
More Homework....
So this was our most recent task and I am not thrilled with it, but I thought I’d post what I attempted to accomplish anyway.
The exercise: to photograph 5 “subjects” with unique family, individual, children, and parent shots.
Well, I had some dilemmas. First, no subjects. Its been difficult scrounging up a group of 5 that would be willing (and patient) that are not busy tending to kids or work. So I thought, well my house is FULL of toys, surely I could find something!
First attempt: The Spuds.
Problem: Very uncooperative. I threatened to deep fry their potato butts but instead Ethan kissed them goodbye and lovingly pulled their arms out.
Second Attempt: The Littles.
Problem #1: Very, very little. I had to crawl all over the ground on my belly, in the rain (thanks Hon for the umbrella!), with the most statuesque group of people. They refused to do anything other than hold up their hands. Who brings a cell phone while they’re getting their picture taking???
Problem #2: A huge giant of a boy, decided that he knew how to pose the Littles better than I and decided to help out. I lost track of who I snapped a picture of and who I didn’t. Oh well, lol, at least the Giant Boy had fun. (so did I!)
The exercise: to photograph 5 “subjects” with unique family, individual, children, and parent shots.
Well, I had some dilemmas. First, no subjects. Its been difficult scrounging up a group of 5 that would be willing (and patient) that are not busy tending to kids or work. So I thought, well my house is FULL of toys, surely I could find something!
First attempt: The Spuds.
Problem: Very uncooperative. I threatened to deep fry their potato butts but instead Ethan kissed them goodbye and lovingly pulled their arms out.
Second Attempt: The Littles.
Problem #1: Very, very little. I had to crawl all over the ground on my belly, in the rain (thanks Hon for the umbrella!), with the most statuesque group of people. They refused to do anything other than hold up their hands. Who brings a cell phone while they’re getting their picture taking???
Problem #2: A huge giant of a boy, decided that he knew how to pose the Littles better than I and decided to help out. I lost track of who I snapped a picture of and who I didn’t. Oh well, lol, at least the Giant Boy had fun. (so did I!)
Homework - Metering
Okay this is task was to learn how to expose for light and dark areas using natural light. I was most excited about getting this task done as I was having trouble trying to figure out how to meter properly. I think I had it pretty well figured out until I took a picture of my all-black puppy afterward and got a very over exposed photo! lol. Oh well, at least I know what I did wrong so that's a step in the right direction.
Dark Object on Dark Background
Dark Object on Light Background
Light Object on Light Background
Light Object on Dark Background
Dark Object on Dark Background
Dark Object on Light Background
Light Object on Light Background
Light Object on Dark Background
Homework - Emotions
Pictures need to evoke some sort of emotion to have an impact with whomever is looking at them. The emotions we needed to try and express using only still life were: Loneliness, Frustration, Exhaustion,and Serenity. I had the hardest time coming up with an idea for the last one. I sooooo wanted to take a picture of my hubby and his tired face (he was on nights but so lovingly got up to babysit so I could snap away)! I also had a lot of fun draging Ethan's bear around so I added some extra shots of his lonely day without his lil' buddy.
Lonely Day: http://picasaweb.google.com/mamabear365/LonelyDay
Lonely Day: http://picasaweb.google.com/mamabear365/LonelyDay
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Homework - Still Life
Okay, so here is my waaaaaay overdue homework from Week two! If this was high school, I'd flunk. And have some serious explaining to do to my parents. Anyway, the assignment in a nut shell:
PART ONE
5 objects, 5 arrangments, same shooting location.
Part Two
5 objects, one arrangment, different shooting locations/angles.
PART ONE
5 objects, 5 arrangments, same shooting location.
Part Two
5 objects, one arrangment, different shooting locations/angles.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Travelling Camera
It's coming! It's on its way! It's in Calgary!!! Can't you feel the excitement??? Soon I'll be an official Nikon user, well, a reader of its manual anyway. lol. I’m going to be snapping away once that battery is charged so I’m sure it’ll take me even longer to post pictures because now I’ll have even more to go through than I do already! lol.
My poor computer. I don’t think it can take many more. I either have to start picking and choosing favorites and deleting the rest, or expand my hard drive. And I think it’s cheaper to delete at this point. It’s that decision process that’s hard. Which to keep, which to toss. I know I do have a lot of poor quality photos but I still like the pose, expression or memory that it gives me. But thanks to my newly acquired watermark (thanks H!), I think I’ll start marking my best shots and perhaps that will start me on the path of purging photos. With this new camera and larger memory cards, I’ll have to get into the habit of being more selective and deciding which ones I want to print, share and actually store on CD’s.
In the meantime, I am counting down the days and minutes till I hold the camera in my hands and look through the viewfinder. It’ll only be seconds before that shutter button is clicked (after a charged battery of course).
Can you hear it? Shhh! They’re loading it on the truck!
My poor computer. I don’t think it can take many more. I either have to start picking and choosing favorites and deleting the rest, or expand my hard drive. And I think it’s cheaper to delete at this point. It’s that decision process that’s hard. Which to keep, which to toss. I know I do have a lot of poor quality photos but I still like the pose, expression or memory that it gives me. But thanks to my newly acquired watermark (thanks H!), I think I’ll start marking my best shots and perhaps that will start me on the path of purging photos. With this new camera and larger memory cards, I’ll have to get into the habit of being more selective and deciding which ones I want to print, share and actually store on CD’s.
In the meantime, I am counting down the days and minutes till I hold the camera in my hands and look through the viewfinder. It’ll only be seconds before that shutter button is clicked (after a charged battery of course).
Can you hear it? Shhh! They’re loading it on the truck!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Overdue Homework
I'm finally posting some homework to be graded. It's long overdue but I figured it was time I should do it and actually get some practice in. The first task was learning about depth of field. I had a hard time with this one because my camera really limits what I can set my aperture at, even when I am in a manual mode. I gave it a whirl but I really see very little differences in these pictures. It was on this task though, that I finally learned that I can focus manually with my camera. Again, it is very limited but at least this camera has the ability and I was very happy to have discovered it.
TASK 1
7 objects in a row, attempting different f-stops. AV Priority, using a tripod & 2-sec delay to help avoid that stupid camera shake icon ('twas no use). I didn't control the shutter speed and I could only move the f-stop in increments that the camera set, not one at a time. My manual focus was set on the blue block closest to me.
f 3.5, 1/20
f 5.0, 1/10
f 6.3, 1/6
f 8.0, 1/4
I see very little difference.
TASK 2
A long edge with 3 different focal points. I think this turned out like it should have. I also made an attempt to keep the entire edge in focus and have it drop off at the end into pure fuzziness but I couldn't figure that out. I blame the camera. Hahaha.
TASK 3
This did not turn out AT ALL!
Dark room (with very little light), shiny object, tripod, 2-sec delay, flash disabled. Adjusting the aperture till object is in focus at an estimated distance. Once again, I had my camera in AV priority. This was the best pic at f3.5.
Yikes.
TASK 1
7 objects in a row, attempting different f-stops. AV Priority, using a tripod & 2-sec delay to help avoid that stupid camera shake icon ('twas no use). I didn't control the shutter speed and I could only move the f-stop in increments that the camera set, not one at a time. My manual focus was set on the blue block closest to me.
f 3.5, 1/20
f 5.0, 1/10
f 6.3, 1/6
f 8.0, 1/4
I see very little difference.
TASK 2
A long edge with 3 different focal points. I think this turned out like it should have. I also made an attempt to keep the entire edge in focus and have it drop off at the end into pure fuzziness but I couldn't figure that out. I blame the camera. Hahaha.
TASK 3
This did not turn out AT ALL!
Dark room (with very little light), shiny object, tripod, 2-sec delay, flash disabled. Adjusting the aperture till object is in focus at an estimated distance. Once again, I had my camera in AV priority. This was the best pic at f3.5.
Yikes.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Eureka!!
I'm soooooo excited! I just learned that I can override the Auto Focus on my camera!! Stay tuned for my homework assignments! FINALLY!
Meter This, Meter That
Okay, so I've been getting a lot of "subtle" hints to update my blog but I have been so busy nursing a baby. You would think that I could have mastered the art of typing proficiently with one hand, supporting her head in the other but I haven't. She still enjoys eating at rather a slow pace and with her cluster feeding over the last 3 days, it feels as though that is all that I have been doing. She has my attention, or rather my breasts, at her beckon call which has literally been every hour on the hour with snacks in between.
When I haven't been doing that, I've been heavily researching cameras. I am on my way to joining every other photographer, pro and wanna-be-pro’s, with owning a digital SLR camera. I have held off on buying one for quite some time because not only is it an investment, but I really wanted to learn how to take a good picture first and learn what all those buttons and functions actually do. I have never been the believer that you needed a $$$ camera to take a quality pic but I'm sure it does make things a little easier. There are a few shutterbugs in my family and I have seen their quality of work with just the basic camera and I know I have taken a few good quality pics myself with my little point-and-shoot; although I have no idea how I did it, hence the workshops.
I'm glad I am under the leadership of a photographer that doesn't believe in the philosophy "all you need is Photoshop" because personally I don't have time to go through the hundreds of pics I do take and fix them all up. I say "fix" because I am definitely not in the stages of "enhancing" them. To me fixing my photos means that I took a crappy photo in the first place and I wish I didn't because I really liked that shot, pose, or moment-in-time. If I were enhancing those pictures it would mean that I am trying to do something extra special/creative with a really good picture that I took in the first place. And besides, I barely have time to upload and post my pics as it is. Hahaha, makes you wonder why the heck I think I have time to peruse this new hobby!
Mostly I guess it's because I have always LOVED LOVED snapping pictures of things and people. And I have always LOVED admiring and pondering other peoples pics. My problem with buying a digital camera in the first place was that I could now take even more pictures which meant a more difficult time choosing which ones to keep and which ones to delete. These workshops I have been taking though, have been helping me with that too. I can now look at my pictures and think "Gawd! That turned out horrible" and actually be able to fix it. (Well, with practice I'm sure I'll be able to fix it! lol)
Anyway, here are a few shots that I took at my last class when we all discovered the joys of metering.
When I haven't been doing that, I've been heavily researching cameras. I am on my way to joining every other photographer, pro and wanna-be-pro’s, with owning a digital SLR camera. I have held off on buying one for quite some time because not only is it an investment, but I really wanted to learn how to take a good picture first and learn what all those buttons and functions actually do. I have never been the believer that you needed a $$$ camera to take a quality pic but I'm sure it does make things a little easier. There are a few shutterbugs in my family and I have seen their quality of work with just the basic camera and I know I have taken a few good quality pics myself with my little point-and-shoot; although I have no idea how I did it, hence the workshops.
I'm glad I am under the leadership of a photographer that doesn't believe in the philosophy "all you need is Photoshop" because personally I don't have time to go through the hundreds of pics I do take and fix them all up. I say "fix" because I am definitely not in the stages of "enhancing" them. To me fixing my photos means that I took a crappy photo in the first place and I wish I didn't because I really liked that shot, pose, or moment-in-time. If I were enhancing those pictures it would mean that I am trying to do something extra special/creative with a really good picture that I took in the first place. And besides, I barely have time to upload and post my pics as it is. Hahaha, makes you wonder why the heck I think I have time to peruse this new hobby!
Mostly I guess it's because I have always LOVED LOVED snapping pictures of things and people. And I have always LOVED admiring and pondering other peoples pics. My problem with buying a digital camera in the first place was that I could now take even more pictures which meant a more difficult time choosing which ones to keep and which ones to delete. These workshops I have been taking though, have been helping me with that too. I can now look at my pictures and think "Gawd! That turned out horrible" and actually be able to fix it. (Well, with practice I'm sure I'll be able to fix it! lol)
Anyway, here are a few shots that I took at my last class when we all discovered the joys of metering.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Birth of a Blogger
This is my birthday. Of a blog that is. I hope you give me a little room for errors as I'm sure there will be a few, if not many. So how do I want to celebrate my birth of a blog? I could write a verbose report of my life to date and how I wound up typing to a screened audience but I figure if I can capture your attention and get a reader or two, perhaps you will follow along and start to fill in the blanks.
My first outing in weeks, since the birth of (no, not a blog), but my baby daughter, sent me to the Muttart Conservatory for a photo session. It is a secret desire of mine to take a photo that I don't have to photoshop first to make it look presentable. So I went with my daughter bundled in a sling, my point-n-shoot with a few added accessories, my instructor who happens to be a fabulous shutterbug and has photographed my children, my mama's group, and my family, and a little bit of wishful thinking that I too, could become a celebrated photographer. Well, I'll settle for a great mom that takes great pictures but heck, I can dream.
It took me a while to kinda figure out what I was doing. I had not touched my camera in a few weeks as I was too busy being 43 wks pregnant (I'm proud of that one!) and now caring for my little bundle. It has only been my husband taking photos of his little girl and her more than loving brother. He, of course, loves the Auto features but I am determined to stay away and learn about the Law of Reciprocity (did I get that right??). Apertures, shutter speeds, ISO's, exposure, depth of field... wt??? Alright, I'm trying to learn. And I'm a bit sloooooowww.
So I snapped away. I even managed to use my tripod for the first time. Thanks to some help snuggling the baby!! They are no National Geographic shots but I'm darn proud of them. If not for how clear some of the pics turned out (especially being off the Auto mode) but for the fact that I think I learned a little something about what the aperture actually does.
My first outing in weeks, since the birth of (no, not a blog), but my baby daughter, sent me to the Muttart Conservatory for a photo session. It is a secret desire of mine to take a photo that I don't have to photoshop first to make it look presentable. So I went with my daughter bundled in a sling, my point-n-shoot with a few added accessories, my instructor who happens to be a fabulous shutterbug and has photographed my children, my mama's group, and my family, and a little bit of wishful thinking that I too, could become a celebrated photographer. Well, I'll settle for a great mom that takes great pictures but heck, I can dream.
It took me a while to kinda figure out what I was doing. I had not touched my camera in a few weeks as I was too busy being 43 wks pregnant (I'm proud of that one!) and now caring for my little bundle. It has only been my husband taking photos of his little girl and her more than loving brother. He, of course, loves the Auto features but I am determined to stay away and learn about the Law of Reciprocity (did I get that right??). Apertures, shutter speeds, ISO's, exposure, depth of field... wt??? Alright, I'm trying to learn. And I'm a bit sloooooowww.
So I snapped away. I even managed to use my tripod for the first time. Thanks to some help snuggling the baby!! They are no National Geographic shots but I'm darn proud of them. If not for how clear some of the pics turned out (especially being off the Auto mode) but for the fact that I think I learned a little something about what the aperture actually does.
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