Picture for 12.03.22

12.03.22

Day Twenty-two: THROUGH
http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-22-through.html

"Hey guys, can you look through your fingers? Like, peek through them?" "Oh, you could take a picture of a yoga pose! But I need more comfortable pants, though" "OH! Let's do through the years! Yeah!"

Today is low on trying for technical perfection or perfect shots, because I'm just focused on enjoying this impromptu sleepover with two dear friends that go back a ways. Appreciate the moments when they happen, indeed!

Took this picture with (gasp.shock.horror) the on-camera flash, so I took it to monotone in order to eliminate the funky colors that resulted. Nothing else was done to it... I'm going back to hanging out with these smiling faces. Lovely people!

Picture for 12.03.21

12.03.21

Day 21: RECESS
http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-21-recess.html

The first definition on the website for this word was "temporary withdrawal or cessation from the usual work or activity". While my mind immediately thought of elementary school kids out on the playground, I thought that might be kinda creepy, me showing up outside the fence with my telephoto lens. I decided to go for a more sedate activity, focusing on the words "withdrawal" and "cessation". Hence having tea and chocolates on an otherwise empty table, with nothing to distract from the moment. At least, not insofar as you can tell from the picture...

Kit lens and indoor lighting at night, so I converted the picture to black and white to reduce the effect of excessive noise. Some other alterations - took the picture underexposed in RAW since I didn't have my tripod, so I edited to get a lighter, airy look - following the usual process. One of these days I'll have to focus on getting a picture that is "perfect" SOOC... or at least good enough!

Picture for 12.03.20

12.03.20

Day Twenty: BENT

http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-20-bent.html

This picture is of a bag from Vanuatu - specifically from the island of Pentecost. The fibers in the bag are mostly flat woven, but there are stripes of fibers that have been bent in order to create a braided look. (Thanks Oegie for your indispensible assistance during these last few photo days!)

Converted from RAW, actions of Velvet Truffle and Lustrous Pop from thecoffeeshopblog.com. I really have gotten lazy with my editing lately...

Picture for 12.03.19

12.03.19

Day Nineteen: FAKE
http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-19-fake.html

I saw a ghost in my basement! Eeek!

Maybe not the most technically attractive or balanced picture, but you kinda gotta get the ghosts when you see them, you know? They just kinda disappear on you, otherwise.

Same editing process as usual: Converted from RAW and actioned. Yes, ghost was actually captured in camera.

Picture for 12.03.18

12.03.18
Day Eighteen: STATIONARY
http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-18-stationary.html
I had grand visions of getting out and about and getting interesting shots all this month. Stationary? That could  of easily been some monument of national significance and a couple hundred years of age! But.... instead I took a picture of a brick wall inside my house. Kind of a cop out, perhaps, but at least I got something up for it. Hey, this wall isn't going anywhere anytime soon...
Converted from RAW, and I don't even remember what all done to it. Probably my most processed picture yet (other than 8:SEQUENCE and 6:COMPARE), despite its simplicity, likely even over processed. Whatever. I'll care tomorrow.

Picture for 12.03.17

12.03.17


Day Seventeen: FRAME


http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-17-frame.html

Couldn't figure out what I was going to do until I was changing to go out, saw Lilly on the stairs, and knew. Didn't have time to really get an awesome shot (ie set up lights so I could use an ISO lower than 3200), but for a 5 minute photo job, I'm pretty happy with this. Pardon all the noise.


Converted from RAW, actioned upon, usual yadda yadda.

Picture for 12.03.16

Day Sixteen: VANTAGE


http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-16-vantage.html

I often wish that I could just go back behind my neighborhood to look out over the highway to the other side of the river as it seems like it could be quite the vantage. However, I can never get past how tall, imposing and even forbidding the fence along the edge of the road is, dominating the view. Not awesome.

A little late on editing and submitting this picture, but I did actually take it on the day of, so there's that. It's not the greatest picture, technically, but I was running late to go somewhere, and the picture I had tried to take earlier didn't work out... I think my favorite lens might have given up on me. Picture is converted from RAW and and modded with the storybook vintage action from thecoffeeshopblog.com

Picture for 12.03.14

Back on track with the pictures... life tripped me up for a bit there, but I've got a picture for today, and I'll make up the missing ones soon. Heck, even this one is technically 20 minutes late into the next day, but whatevs. I'm still awake.


I didn't really want to do the sink, because I figured it was so cliche, but... I didn't come up with anything better. And hey, if you make it high contrast black and white it is instant art, right?! Something like that. So yeah. You clean things in a sink. Done.


Converted from RAW with quite a few liberties in the contrast sliders and saturation, then played around with a couple filters fromhttp://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/.

Picture for 12.03.15

I was trying to figure out what to do with this theme all day, but wasn't sure. Thought I would go out to the Mall and find some shots there with my free evening... then realized that my swelling foot was not going to be able to handle it, and restricted myself to finding a shot around the house. Still couldn't find one until I realized the glass that my... uh, apple juice?... was in had some pretty angular characteristics. Add on to that that I couldn't get my camera off of Macro, and we've got a winner.


Usual workflow for the month... convert from RAW and use some actions. Done.

Picture for 12.03.06

Sorry to post out of order, but apparently I forgot this one...

Day Six: COMPARE


http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-6-compare.html

This is dinner, before and after it was eaten (read it right to left... l liked the left side of the "eaten" bowl better than the right.) Having looked at the pictures that others have done, I see that "compare" could have been interpreted much more easily, but this was my original idea, and was pretty fun to play with. You can even see the time change, as it was much darker in my office after eating dinner than before (hence the changing wall color)

I did put salsa on the sweet potato, but the pictures without were much prettier. In this case, aesthetics win over reality.

Edits: Converted both images from RAW, then the pain of my life in getting the bowls to line up. And of course, they never actually did, so I just gave up since I have somewhere to be - you can see where there's kind of the outline of the bowl above the right-most upper rim, and where I kind of tried to edit it out... yeah.

Picture for 12.03.08

Day Eight: SEQUENCE


http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-8-sequence.html

So, this kind of photography is usually done with sports, but I didn't think it would be appropriate for me to leave my job in the middle of the day to find some athletes... so here's what I've got. Working on the technique more than the composition of the picture itself, but I'm excited to use this concept in the future.

Lots of editing... 5 different pictures layered, extensive layer masking (figured out some new tricks! yeah!), reduced opacity progressively (although you can't tell with the ball on the right... lowest opacity, but nothing to demonstrate that against!), and two different actions from thecoffeeshopblog.com.

Picture for 12.03.07

Day Seven: CONTRAST



http://www.marchphotochallenge.com/2012/03/day-7-contrast.html

I really wanted to capture the contrast in camera without doing major obvious editing, and I figured you can't really get more contrastastic than a silhouette. I enlisted one of my co-workers for this shot who doesn't usually like getting her picture taken, but was willing to cooperate for this. Happily, not only did I get my shot, but we also got some non-silhouette shots that she likes too, so it's win-win! For a perfect silhouette I should have had her step away from the window a little more - she's got some light falling over her shoulders - but I think I actually like it better this way.

Converted from RAW, emphasizing the blacks and contrast, then used the Velvet Cream action from www.thecoffeeshopblog.com to slightly change the look a little - almost black and white, but with a little warmth on the window frame and her skin to keep the picture from being cold. And of course, the image looks vastly different on my work computer than on my laptop. *sigh*

Picture for 12.03.05

Today was kind of a cop-out, but I'm tired and okay with just throwing something up. While not a tool in the traditional sense as one might tend to think of, the computer keyboard could be said to be the tool that I use the most by far. So I say it works.

Picture is SOOC, using the camera-generated .jpg.

Picture for 12.03.04

And... today's project took even longer than yesterday. Yes, I realize I could have bought the bread from the grocery store, but where's the fun in that? Herein lies an image of bread that I made from scratch specifically for the purpose of taking a picture of it. I'm really an over-achiever, sometimes. Speaking of overachieving, I took 80 pictures today before settling on this one... mostly of the bread in various stages, but also of my first-ever omelette that I tried to make. My omelette techniques need some work, let's say.


Converted from RAW, then used the "Golden Afternoon" action from The Coffeeshop Blog (http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/) in Photoshop Elements 9.

Picture for 12.03.03

For the March Photo Challenge (www.marchphotochallenge.com) day 3 theme of soil I decided to go with a little less literal interpretation, and made a dirt cupcake, complete with gummy worms. Considering about 3 hours worth of work went into this (from shopping, mixing, baking, composing and posing), I'm really hoping this day ends up being my most complicated one, or I am going to be really tired by the end of the month!

This picture sounds like it was easy - absolutely no editing beyond the conversion of the RAW file - until you look at the fact that I took over 45 shots to get this one! Getting the focus right, while working with the limited light sources inside my house, and making the cupcake look like dirt *and* look appetizing... it was a heck of a feat. While I don't claim this picture to be perfect, or the accomplishment of all my goals, it was definitely the best picture, and one that I'm definitely okay with. The rest? They're getting deleted. Not even worth it.

Sad story to go with the cupcakes: Took them with me to visit a friend that lives an hour away... and left all the cupcakes there, including the Pyrex dish. I never ate one after all. While the friend will probably eat one or two, she definitely won't eat all of them. I do hope she finds people to share them with!