Who Likes A Little Bling??

Brandi's "flare" on her jacket made me think of bling. Not sure why, maybe it was all the little pins that it had on it. Those of you that know me, know that bling is not my thing, I don't typically swing that way. Go ahead and laugh, it was meant to be cheesy haha. But I do have a few things, so I went scrounging through my jewelry box and found something that might twinkle and flare. My first attempts were pathetically bad so I decided to wait for my husband to get home so we could have a pow wow together on what to do. I knew what I wanted, I just had to figure out how to get there. His brain though very different from mine complements my brain, between the two of us we can usually come up with something cool.

Nikon D90
Lens 50mm fixed
ISO 200
Apeture F3.2
Shutter 1/25 sec.
No Flash, ummm flashlight with filter

This was another one of those pictures where I had to look around and try to find something to photograph. "Bling" always reminds me of light and shiny things as does "flare".

For my set up we went downstairs to our basement and used one of those little kid tables. You know the ones where if any normal size adult were to sit down, their knees don't fit under the table. I placed a white sheet on the table and then used a couple of tri-pods to lift up the sheet so we would have a plain white background so as not to have anything interfer with the background. I then took a strand of white Christmas tree lights and placed them behind my main object for actual usuable light and to add some extra light interest in the picture. I am also trying to figure out how to blur tree lights so I can use that technique for our family Christmas picture. I snagged a crystal vase from my mother-in-laws curio cabinet and a necklace of mine from one of my good friend's weddings in which I was a bridesmaid. So there was my bling.

At first I tried to use my wireless remote Nikon Speedlights to flash on the object and give it some twinkle. Nikon has a system where my D90 is considered a commander and I can signal, wirelessly several different flashes that can be placed around what it is you are photographing. This is an awesome technique to use because I can get studio lighting in onsite locations without the mess of wires and fairly minimum equipment. You can also set each flash to a different strength, depending upong available lighting and what you want to do. Long story to say that I did not like the results with the flash. So Jonny had this great idea to use a small penlight for some straight, rather harsh lighting. We then placed several different colored filters over the penlight to give the light a different hue. Not completely satisfied with the results, but again this is a learning in process for me and I am definately stretching myself with these kinds of shots.

Let's see how Jay'me likes a little bling!

Floating Away

Before I get to today's photo I want to ask you all for some extra thoughts, prayers and love for one of our Chicks.
Sere, as you all know, lives in rural America. Her husband is a farmer and they are a farm family. Working hard everyday to carve out a little (or well, huge) piece of land to grow something for the world to enjoy.

Last night around 7pm CST the machine shop housing the tools for the farm caught on fire and was destroyed. The shop is the closest building to Sere's home. Fortunately, no one was injured and her prized Siberian Huskies were all safe as well.

In a world where your success is directly linked to the tools you have loosing a machine shop is a devastating blow. Please say and extra prayer, send some extra love or just some kind thoughts for Sere and her family as they navigate through the mess that will come.


Now without further adieu,


Nikon d40
18-55 1:3-5.6
1/250 at 46mm
f5.3
ISO 200

I had quite a few ideas on what I wanted to do as a follow up to Scott's post. A few of them were a little more PG-13 building on the "moon" in Scott's photo. Around mid-day I was feeling a little despondent and couldn't quite get my "mo-jo" going. Thankfully I have a wonderful little girl that wanted to play outside in the beautiful sunshine on a gorgeous 78degree evening.
After numerous trips down the driveway on her bike we moved on to bubbles.

Ah Ha! Bubbles! BINGO

Watching them swirl around capturing the light from the sun, casting colors about just like a kaleidoscope.

Perfection

Taking photos of bubbles floating in the sky was pretty tough with the equipment I have. There wasn't enough depth in any of the photos.
As I laid in the grass feeling a little discouraged once again, I noticed a bubble just sitting perfectly atop a few blades of grass.

I knew I wanted to capture only the bubble in focus so I went wide open (f5.3 - sure would have been nice to have the f1.4 but...). My auto focus (the only auto I use on my camera) couldn't find the bubble so I had to do the focus manually. Not my strong suit given the fact that I wasn't wearing my glasses but I feel strong with how it ended up.

A calm, peaceful, delicate bubble, resting on the soft blades of grass in the remainder of the beautiful setting summer sun.

Where are you going to take us next Jay'me? Can't wait for the journey.

Somewhere Over the Kaleidoscope?

Canon 30d
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f.3.5-5.6
Shutter Speed 2.5 Seconds
Aperture f/5.0
Focal Length 39.00mm
ISO 800
Natural Light

This is a photo I'm posting out of resignation. I didn't really have a clear aim other than I wanted to get something through a kaleidoscope. Actually, I didn't know I wanted to shoot through a kaleidoscope until I walked past one in Borders Saturday night. Long story short, I took MANY photos experimenting with different light set-ups and subjects and in the end, the best one was using the moon.

My camera was on a tripod and the kaleidoscope was held with a boom tripod. I used my remote shutter and probably should have tried a lower ISO setting but I was tired and I wanted to go to bed. 800 it is!

The biggest challenge I faced with this was the composition. How do you get enough of the kaleidoscope in the frame without obliterating the subject entirely? It was easy with the moon - it's a relatively small subject when shooting at 39mm. But trust me, it's not always this easy! And that was the source of my frustration with this particular idea. Lots and lots of pictures that just didn't do it for me.

Sere really got my gears turning with her post and her challenge. True to form, this isn't really what I had in mind. But I have a lot of fun shooting. Plus, I'm a little further down the road of learning all I can about photography. I'm sure I'll be pulling out the kaleidoscope again soon!