Strike!

Happy weekend everyone!
I hope you're all out there enjoying some free time with the ones you love.

Before we get started... You've got one more chance to get your name in the hat for this last Wordless Wednesday. All you have to do is enter your name in the comments section and you'll be entered to win. It's really easy and if you're having any trouble posting a comment just send an email to 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com. We'll count that too. Winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced with tonights post.



My three year old went to her first "kids from school" birthday party this morning. It was an absolute blast. The party was held at a Brunswick bowling alley where a group of wild 3 year olds attempted to bowl. Talk about comedy.
When the party got underway the bowling alley went into cosmic bowl mode. If you're not familiar with this, it's where black lights are turned on, regular lights are turned off, music plays, strobes lights swirl and everything glows neon.
This was going to pose a serious problem for taking some photos. Not one to let obstacles get in the way of a good photo opportunity, I tried to do a couple different thing to capture the glowing lights but just wasn't quite satisfied.
I tried working with slow shutter on the moving, dancing, laughing kids but nothing quite struck me.
Came home and went through all the photos and thought I had a total bust, until I saw the original version of this photo (you can see it and another potential post picture here). I thought about an option I had seen in Photoshop but had never played with. An option to make a regular photo neon.

And here you have it.

Nikon d40 kit lens
exposure 1/4sec
aperture f/4.5
ISO 800

Something a little fun, a little funky and of course my build on Scott's photo would be the connection between sports.

Tomorrow guest photographer Justin will be joining us. Stay tuned.
xoxox,
Brandi

Friday Faces with Scott

Canon 30D
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8l
Shutter Speed 1/6
Aperture f/8.0
ISO 200
flash and curtain flash

This is my cousins daughter Maggie. I had the privilege of watching her and her brother at basketball practice tonight. Maggie made "40 goals" and couldn't have been prouder.

It gave me the opportunity to try a little fancy flash work. Though I'm not really happy with this shot, I really like the idea. I set my camera up so that it flashed right away and at the shutter close. The effect is the ghosting, showing motion and in Maggie's case, the fantastic mane of hair. Connection made!

I want to tell you all more about this but I'm standing in my cousins kitchen and I think I'm going to be social. Thanks for checking in and have fun Brandi!

Scott

Black & White in Full Color

Untouched in shop
Cannon EOS
1/500
f 16
18mm
ISO 320

I wish I had Wordless Wednesday. I don't have too much to say. I'd rather post a ton of photos tonight. My computer was temporarily out of commission - Thank you honey for fixing it.
In light of our most recent posts my mind went to the dogs. Dalmatians that is. I was thinking Dalmatians and Holstein cows. I had to find a colorless - monochromatic friend. I don't have cows but I do know a horse that looks like one. (Sorry Oreo) She's a sweet mare that's the size of a small bus. You can seriously fit 6 people up there. She's huge!
I ended up shooting in Auto this afternoon. I promise, I did play around with my settings .(Scott & Brandi) Don't give up on me just yet.

Sorry everyone !
Can you see the horse head and neck design in her hair with her mane over it on her own neck? Looks like an Indian pony. had to share.

1/200
f18
18mm
ISO 400Thank you Oreo!
Jay'me

Wordless Wednesday with Sere with one change....

The poster must post only one (1) photo with settings. No additional verbiage (other than the rules) is allowed.

Commenters (that's you!) must comment and guess how the photo associates with the previous (Tuesday's) photo. We will take a look at every commenter's comments and randomly select a winner on the following Saturday. The winner will get to be our guest poster on the following Tuesday. If you can't make Tuesday, we will pick another day that works for you. We aren't too picky. So if you think you have an answer (or even if you don't) leave a comment, you might just win!

No previous photography experience required. In fact, wannabe's like us, are encouraged. The only criteria; you must be able to take a photo (any camera will do), email said photo, allow 3C1D to publish said photo and follow the rules....

Only one (1) guess per person. All rules strictly enforced with a paddle (Brandi style)!

Ready Set Go!!!!


Nikon D90
18-70mm lens at 38mm
Aperture F/6.3
Shutter 1/100 sec.
ISO 640
Natural Lighting

My name is Brandi and I hate knees

Let's start with a little 3C1D business because let's face it once you all see the photo you hit the red x and move on. Don't you? Come on now, admit it.
We're not stupid we know you're just using us for our pretty pictures you don't really care what we have to say. It's all about the pretties. Nobody cares about what we have to say. Nobody loves me. *sobs, sniffle, sob, hiccup*

Whoa, sorry. I guess someone has some issues today. I'll try to keep my insecurities to myself next time.

Back to business.
The winner of the extended Wordless Wednesday is Justin!
Congratulations Justin. Send an email to 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and we'll give you further instructions. I promise to make the process speedy and easy.

Another Wordless Wednesday will be coming up with Sere tomorrow. Lucky girl she's gotten it the last two weeks. Make sure you come back tomorrow and enter your name into the drawing.

More business.
I'm working on some revamping of 3C1D. The rules are going to stay the same. The characters too. But you're going to notice some easier ways to navigate, some fun interactive polls and more importantly some new costumes for our little guys up top.
We would love some feedback on what you guys would like to see. We're all about constructive criticism so please tell us your thoughts and ideas. We'll steal them as our own and incorporate them without giving you credit but you'll always know you were responsible. *kidding of course*
Send a comment or an email and tell us what you think we need to change, add or keep.

Stop your grumbling. The business is over and now it's time for the photo. Oh wait, you just scrolled until you saw the photo. You think you're so smart. I don't think so mister. I'm hip to your action.


Nikon D40 kit lens
exposure time 1/250sec
aperture f/5.6
ISO 200
focal length 50mm
spot metered
manual mode

When I looked at Scott's eyeball I got to thinking about other body parts. Parts that are beautiful, soulful and expressive much like eyes. I decided that there really isn't another body part that 'speaks' the way the eye does.
So I challenged myself. I said "Self, I challenge you to pick a body part and make it expressive, soulful and beautiful".
I knew I couldn't pick knees because those are the single ugliest body part ever. Elbows are second and since I was challenging myself I could tweak my 'rules' to suit my needs. I just love when I can do that.
I decided on hands. More importantly I decided on the hands of my husband and my three year old daughter.
To get the emotion I was looking for I wanted black and white. Knowing this I set my camera to black and white and shot off some photos (I love that function). Deciding to play it safe I turned it back on normal and fired off a few more.
I also wanted some type of spotlight. Having to work with time constraints and the attention span of a flea (my three year old does great but that husband of mine he sure does get antsy) I knew I was going to need to get some Photoshop action going on.
I took one of my black and white exposed shots, bumped up the contrast and brightness and then added in a spot light filter that I tweaked to suit my needs.
In the end, I congratulated myself, I made hands look beautiful, expressive and soulful.
Mission accomplished.

I've Got My Eye on You!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed 1
Aperture f/16
ISO 400

Hello everyone! Tonight you get me, Scott, because life happens and Jay'me will be unable to post. It happens to the best of us and I'm always happy to flaunt my latest experiments! We'll catch ya next time Jay'me! Sorry it's not working out for you tonight.

Here you see the experimentation of a frustrated budget. You see, I can't buy everything I want. Otherwise, I would have a real ring flash of my own and wouldn't have to buy an angel food cake for the sole purpose of making my own ring flash. That's right, I made my own using an angel food cake pan (of the plastic sort - still looking for a metal one to make a more permanent ring flash).

For those who may not know what a ring flash is check this out. Its necessary when you get so close your lens would throw a shadow over the subject using a normal speed light or built-in flash. The results can be fantastic. As for me, I needed to make mine. I plan on posting a photo of it on our flickr page when I get a chance. In the meantime, here's the how-to.

My problems didn't stop once I built the flash. You see, my camera is old. Furthermore, because of my said budgetary woes, I don't own a remote cable for my flash. I just can't buy it knowing whatever camera I buy next will be able to wirelessly trigger my flash head. So what's a guy to do?

I had my subject stand in a dark room, focused manually, set the shutter to 1 second, and fired the strobe manually. It was very reminiscent of my self-portrait, except I wasn't likely to run into a parked car. It also means there is a little blur that just pisses me off. Wait till I get everything I want! It'll be amazing.

My connection with Sere's beautiful wolves is simple: they have fantastic eyes. I wonder what they would look like really close? I'll leave that to braver souls. For me, I'll stick to angel food cake and humans.

As it turns out, I got to play with a real ring flash. My brother-in-law has one for use with his dental practice and he was kind enough to lend it to me for a week (Thanks Scottcee!). I actually really like the results but I thought since I went through the effort of making my own I really should post a photo using the homemade rig. Here's one with a real ring flash. There is some ghosting and I'm not entirely sure why. But the detail is great.

Okay, I'm off for now y'all. Peace out!

Scott

The Big, Bad, Wolf..... Not!

Nikon D90
18-200mm lens at 95mm
Aperture f/5.6
Shutter 1/400 sec.
ISO-640
Natural Lighting
Shutter Priority

Happy Halloween everybody!! I hope everybody had a fun and safe day today with whatever you did. I actually was a very bad mom and totally missed the whole trick-or-treating thing which was yesterday, instead of today. Ooops, hopefully my son will forgive me. Instead we went to a Harvest Fest where he got all sorts of free candy and had fun playing games.

I debated whether or not to post something more Halloweeny but decided that these beautiful creatures were more interesting and deserving of a post. I had the great pleasure of being able to go to Battle Ground Indiana this past week and was able to get up close and personal at Wolf Park to four pure timber wolves. For me it was a dream come true! I have always, always loved wolves. I used to collect wolf stuff, everywhere I went. I could have had a whole room dedicated to them at one point and to this day, I still every year get a wolf calendar to hang up somewhere in my house. This is a research facility that studies wolf behaviors and does wildlife photography seminars as one way to fund their research. You can also Adopt A Wolf to help them out.

I was able to spend several hours in the enclosure with these guys and one gal and took tons and tons of pictures. In this shot the wolf was jumping, apparently this is something this wolf (Wolfgang) loves to do. I just thought it was great to watch and I tried to get a picture of him at the very top of his leap where he pauses for a second. My connection to Scott's photo is the colored leaves in the background. I could have also done a reflection shot, but I liked this one better. It shows a little more character, and these guys did have some character. Wolfgang happens to be the alpha male of the pack so you had to be a little cautious around him. He did great until they allowed the alpha pack female back in and then he became a bit less relaxed and had to show everybody else in the pack who was the boss. Fascinating to watch and beautiful animals to photograph.

I have more photos of the wolves on flickr if you are interested in seeing them. I could have posted tons more then I did, haha, and driven everybody crazy.

Nikon D90
18-200mm lens at 150mm
Aperture F/7.1
Shutter 1/1000
ISO-640
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Also please remember that we have extended our Wordless Wednesday for this week until tomorrow (Monday), please go here and make a guess. It's fun and painless, I promise!