Man, posting everyday is tough. And the funny part is, it isn’t coming up with the photographs that is proving difficult, which was my original hesitancy at beginning this project. Sometimes, I don’t have a lot to say. Or the stuff I have to say would feel weird next to the pictures I’m posting, or weird next to anything really. As you might have guessed, today is such a day. I am feeling a little pressed for time as well. We leave for Albuquerque tomorrow morning, and of course, I’ve got the last minute scramble going on: laundry, packing, errands, etc. Today is the last of my Horsetooth Reservoir images, so I think I’ll just leave it at that.
I know, I know…I can’t help it. If there’s something that looks remotely fuzzy or feathery in my general vicinity, it’s like my camera locks on it and I just can’t not take the picture. So I present you with today’s cuddly creature: a little bunny that was hanging out near our car in the parking lot of the marina.
It has been raining for the better part of two days. I believe it started on Friday night and hasn’t stopped yet. Of course, the amount of rain has varied. At times it’s been a light sprinkle and at others the type of downpour that makes you dash through it to avoid getting soaked on your way to cover. Personally, I like this sort of weather; it makes me feel cozy and grateful for the shelter of my home and an adventure to go outside. And it keeps my flowers watered for me, which is always a bonus.
It seems, however, that water will be the theme here on Photodork for the next few days. I have a couple more installments of the afternoon on Horsetooth Reservoir to share and yesterday I photographed the overflowing banks of the Poudre River. Anything I might even consider snapping a shot of in the next 24 hours will probably be soaked unless its indoors.
No matter what though, they’ll be a change of weather and scenery on Tuesday as Dylan and I embark on a road trip to Albuquerque with his mom that morning. We’ll be there for the rest of the week and I am excited for the prospect of new things to aim my camera at. If you’re familiar with the area and have suggestions of places to see, I’d love to hear them.
You can expect the next few days to be filled with my Horsetooth images. I took 142 pictures, people! I can’t just squeeze that into one post! So, I’ve been dividing the images into 36 exposure segments and picking the photo of the day from a different segment each day. And, if you’re super nerdy like me, you realize that 36 segments is not just a arbitrary number but rather the number of exposures on a large roll of film. I know, I amaze myself with my dorkiness sometimes, too.
One of the unforeseen benefits of this blog is an increased number of photo-related discussions with people who are checking out the site. Sure, during the school year I talk photography for about 3 hours a day. These conversations aren’t always quality though. In fact, I’d wager that 50% of the time the word “photo” passes my lips it’s in this sentence: “You’re missing the following (insert a number between 3-8 here) photo assignments”. Or this one: “Your grade in Photo is a(n) ____”. Don’t get me wrong, I like my job and I don’t mind the more mundane part of it like keeping a grade book and such. It’s just that I prefer the conversations I get to have about the medium itself.
I bring all this up as a very round about way to my discussion yesterday with Dylan’s mom, Jamie. She asked me a question about megapixels (as in, what’s the difference between a 2.o megapixel and a camera with more, really?). And I am sorry to confess, nice readers, that megapixels are one of those technical aspects of photography that make my eyes glaze over and my brain turn lazy circles wondering why I just can’t get myself to care about this. Luckily, to a certain point, megapixels aren’t the be all and end all of digital photography. If you’re looking at two cameras (don’t you wish the plural of camera was cameri? I do, but that’s a little off point, isn’t it? Sorry.) with a small difference between the amount of megapixels each offers, I wouldn’t get my feathers too ruffled. What I’ve been told, and what I believe, is that what really effects the quality of the image is the glass in the lens. The better the glass quality, the better the image clarity, etc. So, if you’re in the market for a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) then focus more on the lens you’re purchasing and not the megapixel count. If you’re considering buying a point-and-shoot though, you might pay a little more attention to the megapixel count, but certainly don’t lose your head over it. Once you get beyond a certain number, like 10, it really is a moot point. And don’t worry, if your eyes glazed over while you read this, I completely understand.
It may not come as a huge surprise that I am not really the outdoorsy type. Sure, I like mountains and trees and water. I do my part to be “green” and eco-friendly. It’s just that most of the stuff that I really enjoy – photography, knitting, baking, reading, yoga, dorking around on the internet – can pretty much be accomplished indoors. That, and even seeing the sun out the car window gives me a mild sunburn. And so its fairly rare that I spend the better part of the day outside. Yesterday was one of these days as Dylan and I accompanied my dad and first mate Bessie (a 15 year-old Bordie Collie mix) on a boating trip at Horsetooth Reservoir.
It was a beautiful day for both boating and photography. The clouds managed to keep the sun from being too intense, but it was still bright and warm. I had to coat myself in sunscreen twice, but really, there was no avoiding that or the light of sunburn I sustained anyhow.
I’m actually not one for landscape photography, but as that’s what I had handy I gave it a shot (or 142 shots, to be precise). And as I shot the afternoon away (and ate hot dogs and chips and brownies and jumped into water that was a bit too cold…I don’t want you to think I was attached to my camera the whole time), I thought a bit about the different reasons that we photograph. There is commercial photography, journalistic photography, artistic photography, as well as keepsake photography. Well, that’s what I call it. Most people take keepsake or souvenir photos of the important moments in their lives. Birthday parties, graduations, vacations, and gathering of family and friends all fall into this category.
Of course, the categories can mix and mingle. Yesterday I shot for both artistic and keepsake reasons. Part of this was because its really hard for me to turn off the part of my brain that is constantly looking for an assessing situations for photographs. What I was really interested in though was remembering the afternoon and journey. While the images may not make it onto this site, there are images of my dad and Bessie and of Dylan because when it comes right down to it, that was the part of the day that mattered, spending time with people (and dogs) that are important.
Right. So, as sometimes happens, things exploded yesterday. I mean, obviously nothing actually exploded, except for maybe my schedule and feeling of calm…those kind of went right out the window. Things should settle down a bit tomorrow (for a couple of days anyhow) so I promise a better, more complete post then. For now, to make up for the lack of text, I’m leaving you with two photos for the day.
And one of them is even of the pestilent little ginger that dominates, well, everything he can pretty much reach. Captured at a rare moment, when ruling the world was not the first item on his agenda.
Raise your hand if you notice the quality of light around you. Man, I hope I am not the only dork raising my hand right now. I am really observant about light: the way it strikes things, the way it falls across a space, the color cast it gives to an area at different times of day, as well as the amount of it in the room with me. I’m not sure if this is a side effect of years with a camera in your hand and in front of your face or if it’s just part of being detail-oriented. Certainly both are true in my case.
Whatever fuels my acute perception of light, it was not happy with the situation yesterday. I prefer, as much as possible, to use natural light in my photographs. An overhead, interior light isn’t going to cut it in most cases and I’m not one to spend a lot of time fussing with a lighting system. It seems my attention to detail stalls and then completely dies in the face of technical things like reading my camera manual or learning to set up studio lights. That stuff cramps my style, and it’s where editing can save the day. I spent more time than usual with this portion of the photo process on this last set of images because I just didn’t have the quality or quantity of light I was looking for. The lack of light also necessitated the use of my flash which I didn’t like at all.
In terms of editing, I’m a big fan of Adobe Photoshop. And trust me, I’m not being paid to say that (although, I wouldn’t mind being paid to say that. It’d still be true and I’d have more money. Win-win). In fact, I technically paid to say that; Photoshop is not an inexpensive program, although discounts are available if you are an educator or student. However, if you have a program on your computer like iPhoto, Picassa or some other editing software that you use and get along well with, I am absolutely in support of this. I still use the edit button on iPhoto sometimes when I’m feeling lazy or pressed for time or even just curious. The main advice I would give about the editing software you use is that you should feel comfortable with it. Photoshop offers an incredibly wide set of options and tools and that can be overwhelming. I’ve taken a Digital Photography class and a Photoshop class just to figure out what I’m doing. Of course, it’s also my job to teach it and I got kind of sick of looking dumb in front of 20 some-odd students everyday. If I was going to be playing the fool in private, I might not have minded remaining self-taught.
And speaking of editing, you might have noticed that little, old Photodork.org has had some major renovations recently. Dylan is to thank for these changes, as well as for his patience, as I was quite specific about the way I wanted things to look like around here (I know. Me. Being particular about something. It is hard to believe). In any case, I am very happy with the new changes, and I hope you are too.
It might have seemed like Dylan and I’s trip to Eaton Grove was purely for photo purposes, but in actuality we went there with the goal of buying flowers to fill the large (as in 8 feet long and nearly 2 feet wide) planter that we’d built. I know, we think we’re pretty cool too. So far, I’ve refrained from photographing said flower box, just so it doesn’t get old later in the Summer when things really start blooming and I become obsessed with documenting it extensively. I figure that way I’ll have proof that I don’t always kill absolutely everything I plant.
One of the flowers we chose to plant were poppies and so far they’ve been kind of droopy, making me fretful and anxious which I usually save for later on in the growing process when I’ve neglected to water things for several days. Today, however, Dylan came upstairs and presented me with the shell of the poppy flower. One of them has hatched! Or whatever it is that flowers do between the time they shed their pods and bloom. I’m pretty excited about it, if you couldn’t tell by the fact that not only did I photograph said pod, but also devoted an entire post to it. Oh well…it’s not like you visit my site just for the stories, right?
Alright, so today is the last day that I will squeak by with using photos from our recent trip to Eaton Grove. This last set of images was kind of the catch all category: stuff that didn’t necessarily fit in with my flower or animal pictures. I always just shoot whatever catches my attention or interest, so I really never know what I’m going to get (much like a box of chocolates).
This was one of the first things I loved about photography: that element of chance. Of course, its much more pronounced when you can’t just look at a little screen on the back of the camera and see what you got. Not to say that this isn’t convenient and all, especially when you’re photographing a wedding or whatnot, but something magical lies in prying open a developing tank and stretching the film out before you with no idea of what you’ll find. Sigh…please pardon the nostalgic moment.
Aside from the trip down memory lane, I suppose the advice I’d dispense for the day (’cause that’s what keeps you coming back, isn’t it?) is to photograph everything and anything that catches your attention, no matter how odd or unworthy of photographic attention it may seem. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve become distracted with some weird little detail only to emerge from the little world I sometimes go to with my camera and find someone staring at me like I’ve gone round the bend. Usually it’s my dad…we have different ideas about art. Very different. Anyhow, that’s part of being a photographer, or at least the person with the camera in their hand at that very moment, if you don’t fancy yourself an artist. You get to decide what’s important and direct your viewers’ attention to it. Just make sure you use your power for good and not evil and you’ll be all set. Remember: with great power comes great responsibility.
Alright..so not the best title of a blog post. Maybe I should have thrown an excellent or incredible in there somewhere, just to spice things up. But at least its informative, right? True to the name of the post, today we will be continuing to chronicle Friday’s trip to Eaton Grove.
Besides having all the flowers, plants, and trees that you could ever possible need and then some, the nursery also plays host to a small menagerie of animals. These were actually the first thing I took notice of and photographed when we arrived, because I’m kind of a sucker for animals. There was also a very large turkey stalking about, but as he scared me a little, there are no pictures of him (I really need to work on this honesty thing, it’s becoming quite unflattering).
I ended up doing a fair amount of cropping of each of these images during the editing process. The composition of your photo, what’s actually in the photo and where, is one of the most important aspects of photography. Unlike painters, illustrators, and other designers, however, photographers don’t always have complete control over the arrangement of their subject matter. Animals, for instance, don’t just hold the pose while you worry about composition. The good news: you have two chances at achieving good composition. The first opportunity is really the ideal one, and it comes when you’re taking the picture. I encourage you to get the best composition possible at this point. It just makes everything easier. However, if things don’t come out exactly as planned (which is more often than not) than you have a second chance during the editing process. There is no shame in reinventing your composition in Photoshop. Let me say that again: there is no shame in reinventing your composition in Photoshop. I’ll tell you right now that I sheared off a good deal of the image in all three images that are featured here today. And you know what? They didn’t really start off all that shabby, I just had a different image in mind. It seems like people give up on pictures if they aren’t composed well right out of the chute (or perhaps shoot is a more apt term, hehe…forgive the bad pun). If you like your subject matter and managed to expose and focus properly you’ve got so much to work with, I promise you. So be bold and unafraid of cropping. It’s a useful, and oft overlooked, tool.
After my two-day slump, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about even getting out of bed on Friday morning. Of course, the day had a few advantages before it even began. No lame phone calls to make first thing in the morning? Check. Not feeling like death warmed-over? Check. Oh…and I’d made a cinnamon chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake the night before from my new favorite website, so I had that to look forward to for breakfast. Seriously people, I’ve made five things from that site in the last week and I haven’t missed yet. If you haven’t checked it out yet and you have even a remote interest in cooking/baking, it’s kind of imperative that you do so. Just saying.
The highlight of the day was a trip to the semi-local plant nursery, where Dylan and I loaded up on flowers for our newly constructed flower bed. I took my camera along and had lots of “Ooooh shiny!” moments, so the trip will actually serve as fodder for my Photo of the Day for the next several installments. I think I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 images, so I’ve broken them into categories. Eaton Grove also has a collection of animals (birds mostly) that will be tomorrow’s focus. I mean, is it really fair for flowers to have to compete with a goose/swan (there was some debate over the species)? I thought not, too.
This is not to say that the flowers weren’t spectacular. I was dazzled by the sheer variety and number of lovely little blooms at the nursery and had quite a bit of fun just moving between the plants and photographing them. Maybe one complaint? (Because, you know, I have to be a bit of a pill sometimes.) I find it really difficult to move away from using my macro setting when I’m around flowers. I tried a couple of times to take wider shots and capture the way that the little containers of flowers went on forever, but I always some them coming out differently in my head. And so I stayed pretty firmly in macro mode and felt a little gimmicky. I mean, I guess I wasn’t taking pictures of babies in little flower costumes stuck in oversized terra cotta pots (sorry Anne Geddes, that was kind of offsides), so at least I had that going for me.
