Isn't Girls Hair Awesome?

Boy Jay'me sure has been giving me great images to follow. Thanks a bunch J! With this post, I decided to focus on the model's hair. There is just something beautiful about long hair and the way it catches light.

For my photo, I just had to post this picture of my neighbors daughter. I took the photo in October but I wanted to post it now because of the sunlight shining through from behind. My only regret is that I use a crappy photo editor and I can't dodge her face a bit to lighten it up and draw more focus. The good new is that I continue my fight to join 2011 and ordered a new computer Friday. Thank God! Photoshop, here I come!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 (Just an awesome lens)
Aperture f/4.0
Shutter 1/160
ISO 100
Natural Light

As for post production, I did up the contrast, lower the highlights, upped saturation 1 tick, and sharpened.

Looking at this photo just makes me yearn even more for summer. Looking outside right now, you might think it's close. But I know we're do for a sucker punch by old man winter sometime soon. Until summer arrives, I guess I'll lean on these photos of warmer days to get me by. After all isn't that part of why we take photos?

A quick final note to you fellow photogs out there. Do any of you use Adobe Lightroom as a primary photo editor? I saw a fantastic sale the other day and I nearly bought it. But that was before I ordered the new computer and my current computer would have melted just looking at Lightroom. I would love to hear from anyone with experience with Lightroom. Thanks in advance!

Scott

Faces Friday with Jay'me

Cannon Rebel XT
f 4,5
34.mm
ISO 400


SLEEEEP OOOOVER!
4 girls ~ 1 me ... They win.
I've officially lost my ever loving mind! FUN YOU SAY? We laughed, We cried, We may do it again, when I recoup ~ or not. I had a fingernail polish bonanza here. You could get high just by passing though my kitchen! I took this shot of the youngest girl (5) as she VERY carefully painted her own nails. Relax, I had paper covering the table! I took tons of shots tonight, but this one won. Her beautiful eye is captivating and she was such a delightful little thing. I need to go because the seven year olds are STILL making noise and it's late, VERY LATE !

Have a great Saturday day!
Jay'me

The Big Thaw.....

Can you believe it is like 64 degrees out today??? It does make me yearn for spring, although I have to keep reminding myself that it is only February, but still I enjoyed the temperatures today. We have gone from one of the biggest blizzards on record to having no snow left. This is the transformation my yard has gone through in the last couple of weeks.

Nope that is not my picture for the day. I just found it to be very interesting and thought I would pass it along. Now back to Brandi's picture of the hammer and my connection to it. I am not a very big tools person. My husband has them and uses them to fix things and take care of things, so I am blessed that I don't have to. I might fix my dog pens but that is about it. My job is say to my husband "Honey, my big, strong wonderful man, the............ is broke, can you fix it, please?" Too much? Well the point is he gladly does, and I go about my life. BUT I do understand that tools make things and people use tools to make things so that is my connection. A picture of something made by people using tools.

Nikon D90
ISO-400(forgot to make that lower)
Aperture F/13
Shutter 1/80 sec.
Lens 18-200mm at 200mm (again I hit that top end, but the statue was TALL)
Manual, No Flash

Keokuk Iowa is the little town near where I live named after a Sauk Indian. You can read my little blurb about Keokuk on my travel blog if you would like to. This statue is in the town park, looking out towards the Mississippi River.

Enjoy your little taste of spring!!!
Sere

Nail it - Wordless Wednesday

I can't ever just have a regular Wordless Wednesday. It's just not how it works out. I've always got something to say. Just ask my husband.
The announce from last weeks Wordless got forgotten. So, I'll take care of that now.
Amanda - are you up for joining us again? We might have to start calling this 4 chicks and a dude. You know the drill Amanda.



Rules
The poster (that's me) will post a picture and its settings. No other verbiage is allowed. The commenter's (that's you) will guess in the comments section below how my picture associates with yesterdays (Tuesday's) picture. It can be a setting. It can be a play on words. It can be a theme. In every photo there are numerous ties, thus creating no right or wrong answer. Just make a comment below and you will be entered into our drawing to be our next guest photographer.

What if I am not good enough to be a guest photographer?
You are good enough. We love all kinds of photographers! That's what makes this so much fun. We believe that everybody has a unique view of this world and we want to see it through the lens of your camera. Any camera goes, camera phone, point and shoot, film camera that has its photos turned into jpgs., high end professional grade cameras, any and all of them! So make a guess and have some fun!

How does this all work?
The contest will go on until my (Brandi's) next post. I will use random.org to choose the winner and post the story behind my picture and what the connection is, along with my photo for that day. All you have to do, as our chosen winner, is email us your picture before 10pm on your post day. Usually on a Sunday, but we are flexible. The photo has to be yours, has to tie into the picture from the day before, and 3C1D has to be authorized to use it. Just remember to keep checking back with us to make sure you get the post about who has won.

Only one guess per person. Have fun!

READY! SET! GO!!!!

Nikon D40 kit lens @38mm
aperture f/5
shutter speed 1/1600sec
ISO 400
natural light/direct sun

As American As...

Jay'me tossed up a batting-practice fast ball yesterday. I thought "this is awesome! I can do this one in my sleep AND be creative!" See, I love baseball. It's something I truly enjoy and of course it's very American. There are so many things you can do with that as a theme. And yet, today conspired to make it very difficult for me. So I ended up going completely obvious and borderline creative. But man did I have good ideas!

Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter 0.5 seconds
Aperture f/6.3
ISO 2oo
1 hot light at 3200K

My tie-in, aside from being beat-you-over-the-head obvious, includes the limited DOF. I once again broke out my macro and a single hot light. Because I was so close to the subject I didn't want to go wide open. You can see that even though I used an aperture of f/6.3 the focus remains quite shallow. It's exacerbated by the angle of the bat. I also chose to focus on the 'O' as sort of symbolic of the ball.

You may be wondering why I chose such a specific aperture. It's really simple. I used my DOF preview button (most dslr's have them) to preview the results. It just happens to be the one I like best. Plus my sensor is crazy dusty and if I get too small an aperture I spend 30 minutes cleaning the image! The DOF preview button only works when you have ample light but it can really minimize the guess work and cut down on waste if used correctly.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you all that I finally have a new tripod (and there was much rejoicing)! Thanks to a lucky Superbowl pick it cost me only my winnings! WooHoo!!! I used said tripod tonight with my remote shutter and felt at home once again. I promise to put it to better use next.

Also of note, I only took 12 shots before stopping. It's part of my New Years Resolution. I'm thinking I need to think more before shooting next time. Anyway, pitchers and cathers reported to camp and spring training had started. Let's hear it for summer time baseball games!

Scott

Gloves Up & Keep Your Eye on The Ball !

Well, This was fun. I set up baseballs to make them look as one soaring into focus. I ended up falling in love with the curves and stitching. The oldest ball that I had set in the background to be less bright was really most interesting to me, and soon became my subject.

I hope you enjoy the "architecture" and craftsmanship as I did. Thanks to MamaLu, I got to study them a little closer... This is straight off the camera and only cropped. I used the kitchen can lights set on dimmers and played with my speeds and depth of field. Below is a small sample of what I intended to do originally. If I could figure out how to roll and ball have stop on a tape trap without bobbling, I would try this with a long exposure and ONE ball.

Keep your eye on the sky !

Jay'me

Cannon Rebel XT

manual

1/25

f 5.0

43.mm

ISO 200

1/25

f 5.6

55.mm

ISO400

Is it coming?

Our latest Wordless Wednesday winner is here tonight. Welcome back to MamaLu.

She's been here before and needs no introduction.

Her thoughts in her words...

That startlingly aqua vehicle got me to thinking... And I thought too hard, and was torn between two shots...

We know that winter is NOT done yet! But we in Chicago (in Illinois, the Midwest) know the premise of spring in color and light amidst our monochromatic winter world.

This is Sox Park (US Cellular Field) just before sunset with its beautiful rosy-golden tones, taken from the city works building just west of the park.

This is the Chicago skyline from the Museum campus by Adler Planetarium taken just after sunset...

When the wind is less gusty I'm going to head back and retake these shots with tripod and with attention to depth of field.


I for one am beyond ready to start seeing signs of spring. This photo gives me hope.

Thanks for joining us Mamalu. Hope to see you again soon.

xoxo,
Brandi