Month: October 2011

Now that I have a pest service that has thankfully eradicated my ant problem, I no longer have spiders, either. Not that I miss the spiders, black widows and jumping wolf spiders mostly, and neither would be my favorite arachnid. But spiders have webs and webs can be magnificent photographic subjects. So, this morning when I got out of my car at the gym and caught sight of some of yesterday’s rain drops clinging to a spider web, I retrieved my camera to take a few shots. I was a bit surprised that my 35mm prime lens was still attached; no zooming in on this web. But I pushed the lens into the shrub and came up with some interesting shots. I especially like the bokeh effect from using the wide aperture.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/200
SOOC

Stuck inside because of the downpour this morning, I looked around the house for something to photograph. I ran across an old carpenter’s rule that I found at a garage sale years ago and bought for a quarter. It’s seen better days but it seemed like an interesting subject; it is a 36 inch folding Stanley Carpenter’s Rule, No. 66, made of boxwood, information that can be seen in the photograph. I positioned it on a piece of old growth redwood salvaged from the “Old Silk Mill” in Petaluma, the former Sunset Line and Twine Company (my family’s business for many years); the redwood shelving was put in more than a hundred years ago when the building was owned by Belding Corticelli and they manufactured silk thread there; when the Sunset building was sold, some of the pieces were saved. I thought the old rule and the old hunk of wood made a nice pairing.

I used my OTT lights for the primary lighting and positioned the camera directly over the subject, using the tripod for stability.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/40
SOOC

I’m making a pot of lentil soup in the slow cooker so although the Slow Food Movement certainly didn’t have Crock Pots in mind when they started their movement, I think this qualifies.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/3 sec.
WB – Tungsten
SOOC

My car, that is. After I washed my car this morning and took off the boots, I decided I liked the look of them with the water running down the driveway behind so I got my camera and took a few photos. The op-art print on the boots makes them look a bit bulgy but that adds interest and weirdness.

Focal Length 55mm
ISO 100
f/4.8
1/80
SOOC

It’s been 280 days and today was one of the few days I’ve had trouble finding a decent subject for my “photo of the day.” After rejecting a possible photo opportunity coming home from the gym this morning, and then walking around my house and yard after lunch and taking a bunch of lackluster and uninspired photos, I was actually discouraged and not looking forward to trying to come up with something decent. I don’t know why I struggled so much today because usually an idea comes to me early or I am out and about enough that I encounter an interesting subject. Since I hadn’t gone out of the house after my workout, I went for a walk down the street behind my house thinking I might find some inspiration. Instead, I was discouraged by the enormous amount of litter strewn among the sidewalk plantings; I was annoyed at the general shabbiness of the area; and I was depressed after encountering the mummified carcass of someone’s pet cat protuding from under a shrub onto the sidewalk.

The only bright spot on my walk was a gold leaf that radiated in a small splash of sunlight. I snapped a couple of pictures of it and went home. I think the only thing that will make me feel better this afternoon is watching another episode of “Dexter,” Season 5. I’m already feeling my black mood lifting in anticipation. Is that sick?

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/80
SOOC

When I read the headlines this morning, I cried. I have been an unyielding proponent of Apple Computer and an admirer of Steve Jobs since late 1983 when I first read about the soon-to-be-released Macintosh in Newsweek Magazine. His death is indeed a profound loss to the world.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/14
5 seconds
SOOC

When I got out of my car at the grocery store this afternoon, I thought the clouds made an interesting pattern and then I noticed the US Flag, a bit frayed on the edges, flying over a nearby McDonald’s and thought the combination of clouds and flag would make a perfect composition. When I downloaded the images, the flag was underexposed because I hadn’t paid attention to the spot metering and the camera had targeted on the patch of blue sky, so my photos were not as interesting as I’d hoped. So I played with the image a bit. I dodged the flag to lighten and brighten it and then applied one (and possibly more?) of Aperture’s presets. I liked the results, but when I tried to duplicate what I’d done on some of the other photos, I was unable to do it. Yet another thing for me to learn about.

Focal Length 170
ISO 100
f/32
1/125
Aperture Toy Camera Preset; vignette; dodging; and ??

Yesterday, this dandelion was intact, a perfect round poof. Today, many of its seeds have been dispersed. I thought I’d memorialize it before today’s storm hits. This is a little underexposed but it seems to go with the gloomy skies.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/80
SOOC

I have a bouquet of deep red gerbera daisies that I have been trying to photograph for a few days but I haven’t been able to get either a composition I liked or the correct exposure to yield the exact color of the daisies. It is a dark, blackish red and none of my attempts to make White Balance adjustments resulted in anything close to the right color. Today I tried three different times, each a couple hours apart, using natural light from the window before I got a photograph that I liked. The color isn’t exactly right but I like the composition and the color is close, helped by the black background (my kitchen table). By the way, for this photo, I left the White Balance set to Auto.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/14
1.3 seconds
SOOC

I was busy with many little chores today but I found myself standing in the living room, staring at the piano and lamenting that I haven’t played in so long and wishing I’d kept up my jazz classes. I took the dust cover off the keys and thought, “well, at least I can make it a photo of the day.”

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/3.5
1/8 seconds
Exposure +1

I love the luminous effects of backlighting so this morning while I stared at my lamp with its stained glass shade, I realized it might make an interesting composition because the shade is backlit. However, after fiddling for half an hour with various shutter speeds and apertures, it is clear that I need to learn more about lighting and how different lighting affects different photographic situations. Ah, another project for me to pursue.

This is the end result and the colors are fairly accurate.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/25
2 seconds
WB: tungsten (and I have already reset my WB setting to Auto lest I experience yet another series of “blue” outdoor photos.)
SOOC