Magic Hat

iphone 3

Yesterdays post was a nice representation of animal affection/relationship.
My house is full of puppy love...
What It's not full of is working cameras.
I'm seriously down to my camera phone. I will be getting a capable camera soon, very soon I hope.
Unfortunately, It was rainy today and tough I took many shots, what I have to offer is very ordinary indeed. I tried really hard to get a girl with puppy shot. They were all very orange and when I adjusted what I could they were VERY blurry!
Unfortunately my only tie is they're both girls and yes she was posing with her "Magic Hat"
I wish she could pull out a Magic camera for me...
I went black and white because it flows better with the graininess.
Jay'me

Friday Faces with Sere

I went out yesterday to help a friend of mine's daughter who is interested in photography do a senior portrait. These two girls were hilarious and a lot of fun to work with. Both are just beautiful young women and I was really glad to be able to help her out. We went out into the woods by her house and took some fun pictures with trees and a stream, logs and rocks. Oh and her adorable little dog. Then as we were heading back in, trying to beat the rain, we passed by the horses. I thought that taking a picture with the horses would be fun so we stopped and took a few more with them. I had a hard time deciding between the picture that I posted and this picture, but I love horses so that one won out.

Nikon D90
Nifty Fifty 50mm Fixed Portrait Lens
Aperture F-2.8
Shutter 1/1000
ISO-640
Aperture Priority
Natural Lighting but I did add a gold reflector to give it more warmth

She is taking a digital photography class, but I think that they are doing a disservice to the kids because they aren't talking about the basics of photography. They seem to be concentrating mostly on how to manipulate a photo with software which is fine but these students need to learn the basics of aperture, shutter speed, ISO and how they all interact with each other. Which is why she wanted me to come and help her out. I was more then happy to do it.

Big thanks to all of you who made guesses on Wordless Wednesday this week. It was a real stumper this time but a great picture. Check it out here! Kevin is our lucky winner and next weeks guest photographer. Kevin, please email 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com if you haven't already and let us know what day works for you. We look forward to seeing what you will come up with.

Jay'me you are up. Have fun!

My Veteran by Brandi

I was given a great gift today.
After driving six hours to visit our family, my uncle gladly climbed in my car with me for destinations unknown to him. No questions asked, no apprehensions, just jumped right in, ready for anything.

Since my grandfathers passing my uncle, the oldest of 5, has become the patriarch of the family. He is the glue that helps hold together our very large family not allowing, time, distance or life's drama get in the way of us being together.
He sacrifices his time, his energy and heart to do whatever he can to help those around him. Just this year he helped a 92 year old gentleman work his farm. Working hard for long hours he gave himself to this old man to help him continue to reap product from this beautiful earth.

Growing up in small town Iowa, my uncle learned that you helped those in need. You worked for and with your neighbors and you never stepped down from a challenge. Everything you did, you did completely with honesty, integrity and dedication.

This work ethic and genuine concern for the fellow man followed my uncle over to Vietnam when he was but a young man. He supported this country, his fellow soldiers and did his family proud.
He may not have gotten a heroes welcome when he returned from his time 'in country' but he certainly deserved one. I'm proud to say that today, on this Veterans Day, I was able to be with my uncle to see him get the praise he so richly deserves.

I took my uncle to a job site that I've been a part of. I asked him to stand next to the American made steel beams, below an American flag at the site of a future Harley Davidson. I did it all so I could capture him surrounded by as much America as I could gather. Steel, construction workers, Harley Davidson and the American flag all in the middle of this beautiful country.

The America that we now know is in part because of my uncle and the other fine men that he stood next to all those years ago. On this day I honor a man that I am humbled to know and proud to call family.


Nikon d40 kit lens
ISO 200
shutter speed 1/640
aperture f/4.5 @ 13mm
manual exposure, natural light

This photo is untouched. It's raw, its real and it's one of my favorite pictures. Not because it's technically the best, or because I manged to follow up Scott's Wordless Wednesday with a vertical post because nobody can figure out what the image is of, but because I'm lucky enough to know this great man.

Thank you to all of our Veterans. To my Grandfathers (WWII), my uncles (Vietnam), my brother (peace time) and my cousin (currently awaiting another deployment), I love you and I'm very proud of all of you.

Wordless Wednesday with Scott

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!!!!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Mode Aperture Priority
Shutter Speed 1/1250
Aperture f/4.5
ISO 400
Exposure Compensation -1
Natural Light

Orange you beautiful

Brandi here, jumping in for Jay'me who is experiencing internet troubles on a day where her English bulldog is giving birth.
The photo is Jay'me's but you get my drivel attached. Sucks to be you.

Like any good friend, I have an inbox full of pictures that Jay'me, Sere and Scott have taken. Not the photos they have for here but the photos that friends share just because. The little snippets of life, if you will.

When Jay'me sent out her distress call I knew I had something that would work. Sere's photo yesterday was all about orange. The calm glow of the sunrise that warms your heart.

I thought this picture of Jay'me's daughter M did exactly that.

Cannon EOS Rebel XT
Shutter speed 1/125sec
Aperture f/8.0
ISO 400

Who's ready for a little Wordless Wednesday tomorrow?

Sky's The Limit

I have to say that I am obsessed with sunsets and sunrises. They are a sign of renewing and beginnings or endings depending. I have a goal of trying to get sunsets or sunrises in every state of the United States. No two are ever really alike and depending upon where you are, when you take the shot, at the time of the year you take your shot, it always changes.

I was up early the other day and was able to catch this glorious sunrise. I just thought that the colors were just breath taking. Hope you all enjoy it as well.

Nikon D90
ISO-640
Lens 18-70mm at 46mm
Aperture F/13
Shutter 1/60 secs.
Manual Settings

I rushed out of my house and was messing with my settings to be able to get as true a color as possible to what I was seeing and manual was the only way to do this. So I played around with several settings until I found the one that I liked. In doing this I completely forgot about my ISO/film speed and did not change that. I wish I had set my film speed lower for these shots. Otherwise I was pleased with the sky color. My connection to Justin's picture is the sun.

Welcome Amanda, winner of last Wednesdays' Wordless Wednesday! Please email 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com in order to get your post up. I know I speak for all of us when I say that we look forward to seeing what you will be bringing us through the camera lens.

Jay'me will be up tomorrow, unless Amanda wants to post on Tuesday. Stay tuned....

Justin in the house! And a winner

Justin was the proud winner of last weeks Wordless Wednesday with Sere. Not to be confused with this weeks Wordless Wednesday with Sere. That lucky winner will be announced down below.

For today's mission though, we've got Justin. Here's a little bit about Justin by Justin.

Everyone else started out with their relationship status, so I might as well do the same. I have been married for about two and a half years, no kids, one cat. I live in my parents' basement (go me!) due to my unrelenting student loan debt and terrible employment luck. All thanks to my wife, Macbook Pro, and XBox 360 for making sure my life doesn't totally suck, or at least that I'm distracted enough to not realize it. I consider myself an amateur filmmaker, though I need to advance from the "awesome idea" stage to the "actually making movies" stage. I appreciate the opportunity to post on here and hope you like it.


And now a little about the picture in Justin's words.

It was such a nice day outside for a softball game so I took my POS camera along to see if anything came to mind. I wanted to get the softball in the same shot as a round sun, but the clouds decided not to cooperate. I am more of a film guy so I liked the way the jet trail gave movement to the shot. So I took a few pictures and decided to just see what I could do with them in post on my NLE system with full 64-bit Photoshop CS4. I have no idea what I'm doing so I just tooled around with standard settings like brightness/contrast and hue/saturation then messed with colors and the like. If I ever get to guest shoot again I'll either make them post a video or I'll steal a nicer camera from someone.


Fujifilm FinePix A820 (only the best)
Settings: I refuse to give out my trade secrets

Justin's tie in is obviously, sports. I (Brandi) love how the last three photos have all been sport related and yet none of them are remotely similar. Thank you Justin for joining us. I think you did a terrific job.

Now on to the business of winning. For this weeks wordless Wednesday we only had three guesses. I took that information and put it into random.org and let them generate the winner. Moving forward all contests will be chosen that way. We certainly don't want to play favorite around here.

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 3
Result:
2

The result is comment two. Comment two was Amanda. Congratulations Amanda, you get to come join us again! We're excited to have you back. Just send an email to 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and we'll chat again.

Sere is going to get the week going for us. Hoping the week is fantastic in every way.