May 21, 2009 - Blowing Off Steam

With all of the budget cuts, work has been stressful. It was a welcome bit of fun to celebrate a colleague's (and friend's) birthday. As if you couldn't guess, the birthday gal is wearing a mustache.

Camera Data: Sony A350
Lens: Minolta 50mm f/1.5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 second
Aperture: f/2.2
ISO: 400

Several us us gave our best "come hither" look, but I don't think we are the sexiest bunch. I did get one "diva" shot.

Camera Data: Sony A350
Lens: Minolta 50mm f/1.5
Shutter Speed: 1/80 second
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 400

My internet connection has been temperamental this week. That is the reason for the late posts. I have no idea what is wrong with it.

May 19, 2009 - Footware (107)

As luck would have it, the season is almost over, but we had to buy my son new cleats.

The cleats are black and white and the background was white, but my white balance was a little off, so I converted the photo to b/w and masked to reveal the red lacing.

Camera Data: Sony A350
Lens: Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed: 1/4 second
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 100

May 17, 2009 - Public Art

Last Wednesday was open house at my school. I was lucky enough to capture some of the students painting murals for the event.

Camera Data: Sony A350
Lens: Minolta 50mm f/1.5
Shutter Speed: 1/640 second
Aperture: f/3.2
ISO: 100

May 14, 2009 - Messier 3

I few days ago. I finally got the first item that I need to do atrophotography, a wedge. This is my first shot with it. This is Messier 3, a globular cluster in Canes Venatici. My husband and I worked for hours to figure out how to polar align the wedge, which must be done to make the thing useful. We didn't do the best job. You can tell, because the stars are still a little elongated. However, I know we'll get better. I've been doing some research. Hopefully, we will get back out this weekend. I'll post a photo of the wedge and more info about it as well as well as a comparison shot.

Camera Data: Sony A350
Lens: Prime focus with CPC 800
Shutter Speed: about 4 min
ISO: 800

May 12, 2009 - Controls (64)

This is a photo of the back of a my husband's guitar amp.

Camera Data: Sony A350
Lens: Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed: 10 second
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 200 MM
ISO: 100

May 10, 2009 - Topez Filter

I downloaded the free trial of the topez adjust filter, so I tried it out on this photo.

Filter + crop (above)

Original

I really don't need another plug in, but I may not have the will power to resist. It was so easy to use.

On a different subject--I upgraded to PSE 7. At first I thought that the new masks were great, until I looked at the photos at 100%. There is no feathering on the selection so the start and end points of the mask are readily visible. Now that I think about it, maybe there is a way to tell it to automatically feather the selection. Maybe I will post that question. Anyhow, I have about a million actions in PSE 6 that I will never have the time to transfer, so I rarely even open 7. That was a complete waste of $50. I am very disappointed with it.

Friday, May 8, 2009 - My Rose Garden

This is a purple rose called Ebb Tide. The color, in the photo, isn't as true to life as I hoped. The rose is actually purple. That is why I wanted to photograph it. The auto white balance on my camera isn't very accurate. I should have used a gray card. I felt rushed, because I wanted to get the photo before the dew vanished, but the result is pink, instead of purple.

Camera Data:Sony A350
Lens: Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed: 2.5 second
Aperture: f/32
Focal Length: 200 MM
ISO: 100

f/3.5, Exposure 1/60

MAY 6, 2009 Challenge - Litter

Challenge - Litter: I went to the baseball field for litter, and there was plenty!!

Camera Data:Sony A350
Lens: Sony DT 18-70mm f3.5-5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100 second
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 70 MM
ISO: 100

May 4, 2009 - Afternoon Siesta (88)

Camera Data:Sony A350
Lens: Tamron 70-200 Macro
Shutter Speed: 1/100 second
Aperture: f/13
Focal Length: 70 MM
ISO: 100

This shot was, completely, unintended. I was after something totally different. While I was thinking about the shot that I intended, I told my son he could close his eyes, because the sun was bright. I just snapped a few, because I thought he looked cute--like he was sleeping.

May 2, 2009 - Cheap Eats

Challenge: Cheap Eats

Camera Data:
Sony A350

Lens: Tamron 70-200 Macro
Shutter Speed: 1/4000 second
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 160 MM
ISO: 800

I knew exactly what I wanted to take a photo of and how I wanted the pic to look as soon as I saw the challenge, but getting my kids to do what I needed was the most challenging part. I had my little guy hold the hose and my 8 year old hold the apple, but it was cold and windy. By the time I got the shot all three of us were wet and cold. Not to mention that I made them do it twice, because I thought I had the shot, but when I looked at it on the computer, it wasn't what I wanted. By the time I decided that we needed to do it again, one of the kids had eaten the apple. (Just their luck, I found another in the back of the frig :)

The problem I had with the shot was figuring out the right aperture and ISO to blur the background but keep the water and apple sharp. I started with ISO 400, but, then, I upped it to 800 with the second go around. (800 is about the highest ISO I use with my camera. Anything higher produces too much noise for my taste.) If I would have had cooperative assistants, I would have experimented more, changing the aperture to f4 or f5 to see what happened. I also wasn't, totally, happy with the way the apple was being held, but my little guys were doing the best they could :)