Day #4 of 365 Challenge

A little about today's photo. It was an experiment on several levels. The cars are four model cars that my husband received for Christmas. They're replicas of police cars from different eras. From top left, clockwise: 1949 Mercury; 1964 Ford Galaxie; 1940 Ford Deluxe Business Coupe; 1958 Ford Fairlane 500.

First, I've never, ever tried to do any kind of staged photography. The kind of photo where you set up the entire shot from lighting to positioning. It was interesting to say the very least. Being fairly new to this, my equipment list is short. Very short. A camera, a few lenses, some filters. That's it. No backgrounds, no lights, no softboxes. In fact, until about 4 months ago, I'd never even heard of a softbox! So, my setup was very basic. For a background, I put a black silk shirt over a barstool. I used the other barstool to balance the camera. Big mistake. I should have taken the time to use the tripod, but it's in the garage and it is C.O.L.D. in there! I also should have used additional lighting. Lesson learned.

Next came creating the collage. Another adventure into unchartered territory. I think it took longer to create the collage than to actually take the pictures. I use Corel PSP X. It's what I have used for years and while I'm not an expert, I am familiar with it, and it's cheap. I managed to get the four photos collaged, but as you can tell, there is some distortion. I cannot seem to resize without this problem. Trial, error and practice, I guess.

I learned a lot from this experiment. First, I need A LOT of practice! Second, I'd rather spend 30 minutes setting up a shot properly than spend 30 minutes fixing a photo with editing. And finally, I have so much to learn but I'm having a blast in the process and that is what matters. And, when I lack the "correct" equipment, I can make do with items I already have - it pushes me to be creative.

Oh, and always use a tripod...even if it's in the very cold garage.

Day #3 of 365 Photo Challenge

Since I focused on macro shots yesterday, today I went out to the edge of the city limits to work on some hyperfocus shots.

This is a West Texas sunset. I took this about 6 p.m. this evening, just as the sun passed below the horizon. The dark strip along the bottom of the photo is the horizon, the flat land around the panhandle of Texas.

There are many photography groups doing variations of the 365 Photo Challenge. For personal reasons, I have opted to do my own thing versus participating in a structured format. Mainly, I like to do my own thing and for my own reasons. Plus, I can set my own guidelines. For this challenge, my rules are fairly simple. I will only post pictures that I take that day. No cheating and posting pictures I took a year ago. While I do have some really great pictures I'd love to show, the purpose of this challenge is to watch my progress as I work through the Professional Photography course during the upcoming year. Also, the only way to improve is practice. My only other rule is to keep the post-processing to the absolute minimum. I will do some editing as needed, but I'm not going to totally change a picture. What you see is pretty much what I photographed.

Day #2 of 365 Photo Challenge

This is the types of picture I usually enjoy taking - nature or macro and this is both.

The great thing about photographing nature is nature doesn't care how the picture turns out. This branch never asked me if the snow made her look fat. The branch didn't fidget or fuss as I took several minutes to take several different photos, testing out different apertures, lenses, and filters.

A little bit about this photo. The branch is from one of the Bradford pear trees in our front yard. Last night, dense fog rolled in and this morning everything was covered in a frosty glaze. Just beautiful!! I cropped the photo to what you see here, and brightened it just a bit in PSP X, then added the border and signature. I prefer to do the least amount of post-production editing I can get away with...it's not as enjoyable to fix a picture as it is to take a picture.

Nature accepts itself for what it is...beauty made by God. Wouldn't it be a great place if we all could learn to see the beauty in our own uniqueness?

One thing I would like to eventually do is combine photographs with inspirational quotes and Bible verses. Just playing around with ideas...

Finally, if you didn't already know, you can click the pictures to see them in "full view".

Day #1 of 365 Photo Challenge

I would love to think that I am off to a great start with this photo challenge. However, it is only day one, and I do have a slight tendency to lack follow-through. The heart is willing to go the full 365. The mind is sometimes lazy, and I hope I last longer than one week! Encouragement is always welcome.

So, here it is...day one. Thanks to a bored 15 yr. old who was so desperate to just get out of the house he suggested, "let's just go drive around", we loaded up the car, drove to Sonic for drink treats (a reward for the 6 yr. old who went along somewhat willingly), and drove around town. Our first stop was our newly rebuilt church. The old one burned down a couple of years ago, and the new one is just amazing. The outside brick work, and the inside detail of the sanctuary are just gorgeous.

After taking a few pictures of our church, we headed downtown to look at some of the older, more historical churches in town. This is a Presbyterian church - I should have written down the year it was built - and as usual, my picture doesn't do it justice.

I am working my way through a professional photography course and I have SO much to learn. But, I have found that after a few months and the beginning lessons, my knowledge and output have increased substantially! My goals for completing the 365 Challenge are:

• Follow a project through to the end
• Practice both writing and photography
• Be able to look back a year from now and hopefully see marked improvement in both my writing and photography

Thank you for following along!

Adios 2009!

Today is the final day of 2009, and what a year it has been. Some good, some bad and a whole lot that falls somewhere in between the two. But, for better or worse, the year ends tonight. And with a blue moon even! So I figure, what better than to end the year with a post on my blog, which in recent months seem to be "once every blue moon"!



With the close of one year, and the beginning of a new one, I've decided to set several goals for the year. Don't we all!?!?!



One of my goals for the upcoming year is to blog more regularly. Another goal is to participate in a 365 photography challenge. This means that I am challenging myself to take at least one photograph every day in 2010. To simplify things, I decided to combine the two. I will be posting the daily pictures here on my blog as a means to keep up with the challenge, and also to help me photograph things I'm either passionate or obsessive about.



I look forward to starting this project tomorrow, and I look forward to sharing it with you as well. I hope you'll follow along with on this journey, whether it is just from an observation point-of-view or an active participant. If you'd like to participate along with me, please let me know as I'd love to share the journey with others. As always, I'm open to your thoughts, comments, and even constructive criticism regarding my photos.