Rainy day

I found myself on my commute home today admiring how beautiful everything gets in the rain. So sad that my phone doesn't have better resolution, I moaned about how overexposed everything was. Meanwhile, on my left hip was sitting my fancy Nikon SLR just being ignored. I had brought it to work for a quick portrait session and promptly forgot that I was hauling it along with all of my other possessions when it hit me; I am an idiot. I am carrying the perfect camera to capture these dewy leaves, I'm just so used to having the convenience of a phone that I forgot about the awesome power of a tool designed to do one thing very well.

The world through red glass.

My sister gave me a camera filter for my birthday (or was it Christmas? I'm not sure)

 No filter/color;

No filter/ Black&White

Filter/ Black&White
 (results unclear... perhaps the fennel  in my front yard isn't the most photogenic test subject)

No filter/ Black & White (woah it's so bright!!)

Filter/ Black & White (Awesome detail!!)

Filter... lots of detail, soft and delicate...

 

I think I like the no filter flower just because the contrast is cool...

The dog is super psyched about my new filter too!

Ooh and look at what happens if I just put the filter on and leave it on the color setting... I get art!
So cool!

--Thanks Kelly Beth!

New Eyes

I am in love with my new camera... it seems like it can make anything look luscious.
Hello concrete wall, water pipe, safety pin bin...

I know, it's a little crazy.

Photo Day.

The day began at 4:15am after all of maybe 3 hours of mostly restless sleep.
Grumble grumble, hit the On button. Coffee Please.
5am drive to East Oakland. Pack car
6:30 hello Birkenstock office... Novato, where am I?

 Yesterday I assisted on a photo shoot.  It started early.  So early that throughout the year I see 4am as a bed time more than a wake up time.  Oh my heck it was early... and oh my heck I could not get to bed before midnight, or stay asleep... so let's just say I was a little blurry for a good chunk of the day.

The Birkenstock offices are beautiful.  They're in a renovated Air Force hangar, high ceilings, pretty 'natural' furnishings, lots of windows and comfy chairs, tables and tables full of product (shoes)... although really all you need to know about the Birkenstock offices is that the walls are fuzzy.  They wallpapered with some kind of suede material, if I worked there I would probably pet a bald spot in my wall.

I helped dress models and clip price tags, I hauled heavy bags... we set up on top of a hill in Novato before sunrise hoping to get a shot of our models running as the light crept up above the horizon.  Instead we were greeted with fog.  The foggiest soup you can imagine slowly turned the world bright white as the light emerged.  Hopefully the photographers got some cool shots even if they weren't the shots they were hoping for. 

We had several set ups, lunch around 2pm (my dry and probably not the best sandwich tasted AMAZING by then) and relocated to catch the sun as it fell down the other side of the Earth. 

As the sun set, barn owls began their hunt for small creatures.  One skimmed right past us, looped the loop and plunged down on the other side of the bushes to catch a rodent on its last day.  After ten hours of photography and on minimal sleep, the introduction of hunting owls was rather similar to bringing a dog into a second grade class room.  Somehow the stalwart photographer managed to keep on task as the light crept away to nothing and our attention spans with it.

All in all, it was a tiring but good day.  The Corporate types, the photography team and the loveliest models imaginable all made the process enjoyable and painless.  I think I could do this again.


More sleep before the day would be helpful I think...

Photo Perspective

I love looking at other people's vacation photos.  I like the photos of tourists holding up the tower of Pisa, them standing with crazy hair and exhausted beaming smiles in front of the Eiffel Tower... Moreso I love seeing the photos of odd details.  A friend of mine visited Versailles and took photos of the courtyard through the warped windows, another took amazing perspective shots of the Golden Gate Bridge from the base of the walk way...
When you are on vacation even iconic things can be new.

I love the odd detail shots; foreign toilets, supermarkets with funny brand names (An Aussie friend of mine thinks it is hilarious that we have "Drug Stores" in America).  Some photos are taken with specific people from back home in mind "ooh take a photo of me in front of the puppet shop!", others are taken so as not to forget... so much information just slips away.  I like the way these photos show the things that make you stop and gasp.  The photos that prove that you saw "That famous building", that you were "There" all the while most of us are aware that this snap shot can never capture the feeling of standing there.

I hear that some people don't enjoy looking at other people's vacation photos.  I contend that these people are looking at the wrong things.  Most of us know what the Pyramids at Giza look like, but it's amazing to see the care of memory and the excitement of the visitor... it is the world anew and we are so blessed to have the ability to share it.

Brevity

Fighting a cold today,
Sewing at home where it is warm,
sleeping soon I hope...

The camera that I've been piecing together from ebay auctions came in and my friend lent me his lens to make sure it works... I dare say it takes some rather stunning images... I hope I can get equally satisfying results from the lenses that I actually got. The only downside to this baby is that the automatic flash is stuck and will not turn off, leaving me without any special features... but still not so shabby.

Joshua Tree Photography

I think I know why these photos look so odd. I got them back from the drugstore fully convinced that either my camera was broken or my film was ruined by the magnet in my bag... however now in retrospect I remember taking these shots with a blue filter just to see how it would turn out...



...I think they turned out rather striking.

These detail shots of the Joshua Trees were taken with the new macro rings Dad gave me...



Unfortunatley all of the shots at the end of the roll didn't produce any images at all... (I finished the roll 4 months later) so I think I'll go get a new battery and if that doesn't help I'll take it into a shop.
Some of the shots I don't have up here came out a little over-exposed, anybody have a suggestion about how to not do that?