Wordless Wednesday with Sere

We are back at it again today with Wordless Wednesday. Yay!!! So here it goes!

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?

,div> 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 (Sere'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 D2X

ISO-100

Aperture F/10

Shutter 1/200 sec.

Nifty Fifty Lens

Natural Lighting, Vignette Blur filter

SuperStar!

Happy Sunday folks! I hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of their weekend. Finding time to refresh, recharge and refocus for the week ahead.
Maybe you should take a nice, long, hot, bubble bath.

Nikon D40 kit lens @ 38mm
ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/80
Aperture f/5.0
natural light

This is one of my daughters bath tub toys. Once upon a time he would spit water like a fountain. The batteries have long since died so my dear sweet child refuses to let him in the tub anymore. I feel kind of bad for the little guy so I gave him some tub time before turning the girl child loose.
There isn't anything extravagant about this photos. I will tell you that I intentionally underexposed the shot in camera so that I wouldn't blow the white highlights. I knew I was going to have to brighten things up manually using Photoshop Elements 8. Making decisions on what post processing you're going to do before shooting is always helpful.
I took a few at proper exposure in camera and sure enough, the highlights were all blown. Glad, I thought things through before hand.

My tie to Jay'me's fantastic gumballs is two fold. One the vibrant colors of Mr. Star. Two, the childlike quality that both photos possess.

Enjoy your beautiful Sunday everyone.
Our fantastic repeat guest poster Amanda will be charming us with something fantastic tomorrow.

xoxox,
Brandi

Tickling the ivories

I'm loving music week on 3C1D. I've always dreamed of being musically inclined. A singer with a beautiful, haunting voice, a classical guitarist or maybe a funky blues singer so I can wear sequins.
Spotlights, crowds cheering my name, camera lights flashing... Sounds kind of cool.

I was not destined to be a musician though. Even my 3 year old will say "Mommy, please stop singing. You ruining the song." when I sing along in the car.

What's that saying
Those that can't take pictures?
Something like that anyways...

Nikon D40 kit lens @48mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/160sec
Aperture f/5.6
natural light

I decided I wanted something classic and simple for today. No bells and whistles just clean lines. This is my daughters keyboard. I converted it to a warm black and white to take away the plastic-y look (it's a kids toy what do you expect).
I've also been wanting to play with texture. I think if done right texture can add some depth to a photo. I might have been a little too tentative in adding the texture to this picture. Tell me what you think. I would also LOVE any links to tutorials on how to properly add texture to a picture.

Tomorrow is Friday kids! Almost time for the weekend. Scott will be back with another picture to help out a traveling Sere.
Drive safe Sere. I know your camera(s) will be firing non-stop on your journey. Bring us back some sunshine pictures.

See you guys soon.
xoxo,
Brandi

Freezing Friday Faces

Rut, what rut? Where is this rut that Scott speaks of? Oh, is it that giant hole the size of a 76 Buick sitting in the middle of my life!

Scott can speak for me. I've been in a rut. It's not from lack of interest on my part. It's from life (happy holidays here's a bucket of strees), cold (hello 10 degree highs for days) and it's dark for 20 hours a day. I've been brainstorming some inside ideas so watch out world.

I got a chance to step outside my suburban box and go down to the big city today. Chicago it's my kind of town. All the people, the hustle and bustle. It's something magical. As I strolled around I had the opportunity to meet Sandra. She stood about half way down the block, not at a corner like many of her comrades. Sandra's smile and warm holiday greetings for all the passersby caught my attention instantly.

So who is this woman standing in the middle of a city block, wishing people well?
She's none other than a Salvation Army bell ringer.


Nikon d40 kit lens
ISO 200
shutter speed 1/30 (what was wrong with me?)
aperture f/3.5


I knew I wanted to keep the bin red and tone down the background. Opening the picture in Photoshop Elements, I duplicated the photo. Took one photo and over exaggerated the reds, giving the collection bin great vibrant color. Then I took the other picture and almost completely desaturated it. Leaving just enough color to not wash it out (I hope). Using the lasso tool, I removed the collection bin in the over saturated photo and pasted it over the collection bin in the desaturated photo. Going back closely, I erased any bleed over and made it an almost seamless single photo.
The edit took about 10 minutes. Once you work with this kind of thing, it gets pretty easy.

There is probably no sound I associate more closely with Christmas than the ringing of the Salvation Army bells. I realize it's Friday Faces and I should highlight Sandra's beautiful face and not the red donation bin but I wanted my emphasis to be on the giving. The giving (of time, of money, of resources, of gifts) is what this holiday is all about. Go forth and give. Give of your heart, give of your soul and you'll be rewarded. I promise.


xoxo,
Brandi

PS - it's not too late to enter in the Wordless Wednesday for this week. Jay'me took a great shot, one that speaks directly to my heart. Click here and comment. It doesn't have to be nice. It doesn't have to be a guess. It just has to be something. Heck tell us what color your shirt is today and you'll be entered to win. Go now!

The ties that bind

The last few days we've seen lots of details. Scott's tiny marble with all of it's nicks and chips. A photo full of circles and light flair. Amanda's glass ball with all the bubbles, spots of color and blurs of background. All beautiful, remarkable details.
I've got details of a different type. The details that make something possible.


I spent some time playing on the tracks yesterday (Monday). I started off taking some photos of the abandoned train cars on the tracks but got bored. I need more, I needed to see what kept everything together. I needed details.
Anyone can see the cars but nobody can see the bolts and ties that keep everything together. Without these nifty little plates and bolts the entire system would fall apart and the train would derail. How can you not obsess over that?

I took the picture using the more vivid setting in my camera. I did this knowing that particular setting really brings out the rust spotting on metal. I knew I wanted to make this photo my "almost black and white". In Photoshop Elements 8 I upped the contrast, brightened a smidge, converted it to black and white and then added a warm filter with an adjusted opacity of almost 50%.
In the end I spent a quick 5 minutes on the computer because I knew the finished look I was going for when I shot the photo. Not bad, not bad at all.

Sere has another Wordless Wednesday tomorrow. I'm thinking we need to move things around a bit next week. Poor Scott and Sere have gotten all the Wordless Wednesdays of late.

Be Well!
Brandi

Amanda, how much do we love ya?

We are so lucky to have our first repeat guest photographer.
We were first introduced to her here and then she won again last week

In Amanda's words:

I thought I would give a little more detail this time. As you know my name is Amanda and I love photography! I have considered myself a photographer for about 10 years though I have taken breaks. I recently started to edit using Photoshop CS5. My main subject these days is my son, but I am in love with taking landscapes and macros. Ialso crochet and sew when I have the time. I am currently working on newborn props for myself and my aunt who is a great photographer.
Sorry if that rambled... :-)

Didn't ramble at all Amanda. It's so great to get to know you even better. To see more of Amanda you can pop on over to her blog http://querylovephotography.blogspot.com. Go on over and follow her, I do. Oh and this is Brandi in case you didn't know.

Now on to the photo. Here's the story behind the picture:

When I looked at Scott's photo I instantaneously knew what my subject would be. I took a similar photo in high school, though it wasn't as cool as Scot ts, of a glass ball that had a little world with butterflies and green in it. I love that photo, but I didn't want to recreate what I or Scott had done, just use the inspiration. So I got my glass ball that has orange and air bubbles inside it and found some natural light with some cool background to reflect inside the ball and voila! I got what you see here (with a little editing thrown in)!

Thanks again! I really do enjoy your challenge and I find it is very cool that you give your readers a chance to have a go at it.

Canon Powershot A495
Exposure 1/1250
f/4.5
ISO 800

Excellent job Amanda! Gorgeous as always.
I'm already getting excited about how to follow it up.

Scott awarded last Wednesdays wordless winner already. Kevin McQuire you need to give us a shout at 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com so we can make proper arrangements. As Amanda would tell you, it's an easy process. We like to share our sandbox so we always play nice.

Thanks again Amanda!!!

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

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.

Friday Faces with....*drum roll please*

Brandi!!!

Stop your crying! Scott will be here tomorrow. Yes, you really can wait a day to see his work, it won't kill you. I promise.

**stay until the end for a special announcement**


When I told Scott that I took some photos at my daughters school Halloween parade we thought we would switch days so we could show off some cute kids for this edition of Friday Faces.

Nikon d40 18-55
Shutter speed 1/100
Aperture f4.5 @32mm
ISO 800

I took a ton of photos during the parade. Getting 14 2-3 year olds to listen, smile and pose is the single most difficult thing to do. Ever. Factor in my cameras inability to handle low light situations, like being inside a school and you have some yellow cast photos.
I knew when I went through them I was going to have to do something I don't often do. I was going to have to do a little heavy editing. sigh... I much prefer to let the photo speak for itself with a quick brighten, sharpen or a little boost.
I played with a couple different things and ended up giving this what I call a newspaper feel. Not completely black and white but not sepia either.
In the end, I hope the girls smiling faces and bright eyes carry the photo. Two friends, sharing in the excitement of a special day. What could be better than that?

*******
I get to be the lucky person to announce that we are extending this weeks Wordless Wednesday. Go here and enter your name. You don't even have to make a correct guess. You just have to put your name in the hat. It's easy, it's fun and it won't cost a thing. Where else can you find that type of entertainment?
So stop making excuses and go!!!

See ya next time!!

xoxox,
Brandi

Dinner?

My dinosaur has eaten your duck for dinner.

Nikon D40
kit lens @38mm
aperture f4.8
shutter speed 1/40sec
ISO 200
manual
natural light

This is the guard dinosaur that has been in my parents bushes since they moved into the house in 2002. Rex even stayed and guarded the house during the construction that followed my parents house fire.
Technically Rex is a toy from the original Jurassic Park movie. I'm not sure how or why it came about that Rex lives in the bushes but he does. We dress him up for holidays. He's got his very own Santa hat. We leave him dinner. Just last week he had a fork and plate in front of him. He's just like a regular family member.

I set about finding a photo today and thought I would find another animal to photograph. I tried to get my parents grumpy cat Gizmo to participate but she just asked me to speak with her agent. Pretentious little brat.
I looked around for squirrels while I was taking photos outside. All the squirrels in my parents neighborhood must be watching the University of Iowa game (Go Hawkeyes!). Not a single one to be found.
Then walking up to the front door, I spotted Dear Rex. He was a good sport.
Nothing overly complicated in this photograph. I was in spotty shade (from a tree) so I needed to watch my exposure. I didn't want to get 'hot spots' and I didn't want to underexpose all the details in Rex's coloring. Borrowing my brothers CS4 Photoshop, I gave Rex a little tweak to balance him out. I really wanted to play up the dirt and grit he has in his mouth from eating Scott's duck. So I highlighted those areas and gave them a little boost.
A great afternoon spent playing with toys.

Our Wordless Wednesday winner from this week, Myndi, will be posting tomorrow. Watch for it.

Run Brandi Run

This is not the shot I planned on getting today. Mother Nature gave me something better to work with.



Nikon d40
kit lens @22mm
f4.0
1/25sec
ISO 400
natural light
spot metered

Right as I got home tonight a storm began to rev up. I quickly got the child and the husband eating dinner and ran outside to capture the amazing sky.
You can see from the golden hue that the sun was still warming the sky behind me, casting it's beautiful warm glow all over the leaves of our huge cotton wood tree.

I did minimal post processing. I tend to agree with Scott in most cases less is more, in the processing department. I needed to brighten things up a bit, which, I knew I was going to have to do when I took the picture. I didn't have quite enough time to make all the necessary adjustment, I barely made it inside before the skies unleashed and raindrops the size of my head fell from the sky.

After the rain calmed the girl child and I went out to play in the puddles. I was pretty sure that I would post a picture of the girl splashing but there was just something about the glow of anticipation in this photo I had to post it. Luckily for me I'll just take my 'rejects' and put them on my other blog.

Thanks Mother Nature, for once it paid to procrastinate.

xoxo,
Brandi

An American Classic - by Brandi

Nothing says America like...



Nikon D40
1/10 sec
f4.0 @ 38mm
ISO 400
natural light

When I saw Kristen's (How awesome is it to have a different name?) photo I felt very American. There are a few things that instantly come to my mind when I think of things that symbolize America. Baseball, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, aviation, apple pie (which I baked and is currently cooling) and Harley Davidson.
This particular type of Harley emblem has a ceramic center (the star part). The ceramic emblem has been attached to the fuel tanks of select Harley's since the 1950's. Talk about iconic.

Photographing a chrome emblem such a this poses all sorts of challenges. Getting a photo without getting all the colors of the surroundings is the hardest of those. To minimize this I used the white side of the reflector to block the space behind me. I also decided that while this emblem has a silver background I needed to convert the entire photo to black and white in Photoshop during post processing.
The black and white conversion allowed me to blend out some of the "shadows" with ease.

This photo may not be red, white and blue but like Kristen's it makes me feel very American.

Did Someone Say Flare?

In Scott's previous post he mentioned sun "flare".
As soon as I read the word my mind immediately went to this scene in the famous movie Office Space.



After that quick chuckle in my brain, I thought about a long lost jacket. A jacket I had circa 1998. I was almost positive I still had my jacket and all my "flare". Much digging through old Rubbermaid containers ensued and sure enough, there it was. The jacket and the "flare".


Nikon d40
f5.6
1/125 sec
ISO 200
34mm focal length
spot metering, natural light

This shot was probably the single hardest shot I've taken for this blog to date. In a perfect world I would have had someone either pose for me or take the photo for me. Fantasy world would had also brought me cooler temps, less wind and a slightly better location.
Alas, I do not live in a perfect world. I live in the real world. A world where it was 93 degrees with huge wind gusts. Talk about sweaty. And let's not forget, I no longer have a wireless remote after dropping it in the lake, so I was working with the 10second timer built into my camera. Not exactly convenient.

Here is a list of what it took to get this shot.
camera (obviously), tri-pod, light reflector (gold for added warmth), kitchen chair (to prop the reflector up), chip clip (to hold reflector in place on the chair), bag of charcoal (to anchor the reflector in place - I said it was windy) and lots of patience.

I spent the hot afternoon standing on the front stoop of my house for 30 minutes, setting and resetting my timer, taking photo after photo while waving at my neighbors as they laughed at me. I would have preferred a different location, maybe one with a little privacy, but the harsh sun today was more than I could compensate for being solo in my mission. So I chose the brick wall under the porch that offered some shade.
Post processing - I didn't do much. I really tried to watch my histogram while I was shooting so I would have appropriate exposure. Using the reflector gave that soft, warm, goldy glow to the photo. So all I needed was a quick sharpen (for web viewing) and a little cropping in Photoshop and I was set.
Lots of challenges for a seemingly simple photo. But, isn't that what this is all about?

Sere's coming up tomorrow. Where will she take my "flare"?

Objects In The Mirror

Nikon d40
Lens 18-55 1:3.5-5.6GII
1/640
f4.6
ISO 200
focal length 40mm

So I spent the day at the Milwaukee Zoo with my best girl K and my parents. We had a terrific time and there was certainly plenty of things to inspire my creativity. I probably annoyed the daylights out of my parents with my constant camera clicking.
For the first time since we started this I had a really hard time deciding which photo I wanted to use.
I sat down tonight with my 200 photos from my day and went through them. Sorting out the bad from the good (which fortunately the bad numbers are decreasing rapidly thanks to this experience) and trying to find ones that I felt would build nicely off Sere's previous waterfall in motion.
In the end I narrowed it down to 3 strong possibilities. I'm not going to "pull a Scott" and break the rules I forced myself to chose just one. Girls are just better at making tough decisions :) If you're interested in seeing the other contenders in my group you can check them out on my other blog.

I chose this photo because of the motion. Motion just kept speaking to me. Strangely it wasn't the water, it was the motion of the water. So in this photo not only am I moving, doing 70mph down HWY 43 in my parents mini-van, but the photo shows the movement of the pavement and my surroundings. I took about 15 of these photos, this one won out because I was finally able to capture only the objects in the mirror in focus. I've been working hard at narrowing my point of focus and capturing a truly sharp photo. While this photo isn't as sharp as it could be (taking photos through windows is never easy for crispness) it does achieve my narrow focus, at least I think so.

So there you have it... Motion...

Oh and with expection of a small bump in sharpness for better web viewing I made no modifications to this photo.

Here Are A Few Of My Favorite...

Greens...


Nikon d40
same old lens (boohiss)
1/40
f/8
ISO 400
focal length 26mm

So my head us full of ideas of where to go with Sere's powerful picture. Something about that photo really spoke to me. I don't know if it was the lighting, the subject matter or the fact that it was taken somewhere I've always wanted to go. Either way it sent my brain into overdrive.
Having Kate at school today didn't help my ADHD tendencies. She usually slows me down or makes me focus and use my time more wisely. I bounced around town finding all kinds of inspiration.

All day I found myself surrounded by the color green.
It started with the clips I put in Kate's hair, moved with me to the Starbucks for my favorite drink, then in all the fresh summer produce at the farm stand. A box of Mike and Ike's given to me by my mother sat nestled next to a few bucks.
Green, green everywhere.

All green... all happy, spirited, multi tonal, dimensional GREEN.
Putting all of these things against the backdrop of my green dining room seemed like the perfect finishing touch.

A little tweaking in Photoshop Elements 8 (that I'm now thinking I over did) and I was set.

Before this adventure I would have just kept moving through my day without the realization that the color green surrounds me. I'm so grateful to my friends for pushing me to see the things that are right in front of my face.

Whatcha got Scott?

First Comes Love

Nikon D40
Lens 18-55 1:3.5-5.6
ISO - 400
1/1600
f3.50
focal length - 18mm
no flash

So there it is. The first photo in our photo challenge.
I've walked passed this sign several times out at the airport and always found it interesting.

In deciding what I wanted to shoot I thought it should be something unique that I've wanted to take a photo of forever but just never managed to find the time. After all, isn't that the point to this entire challenge.
I did some post processing in Photoshop Elements (Elements 8 to be exact). I upped the vivids, the luminosity and added some lighting effects. Having taken the photo 9am and in the shadows it was feeling a little drab. I wanted to just make the photo "pop".

I'm so excited to begin this journey with 3 of my best friends. I can't wait to see where this takes us.

XOXO,
B