Buzzzzy Bee!

We here on 3C1D have had our share of bees on flowers so this is not new subject matter. I enjoy seeing the different viewpoints and angles that each of us does with our shots. So here we go...

Nikon D90
ISO-400
Aperture F/4.5
Shutter 1/500 sec. +1 exposure
18-70mm Nikon @70mm
Natural Lighting/RAW

The challenge with this shot was that I saw this guy buzzing around and wanted to quickly catch him, but I had already set my ISO for a shadowy kind of setting and well I completely forgot to change my ISO for the brighter sunlight. I also should have upped my shutter speed but I didn't think that my lens would give me a wide enough aperture if I had done that. I am so wanting a F/2.8 lens.

I shot in RAW because those of us that don't have macro lenses have to improvise and zoom in as much as possible, plus editing is sooo much easier with RAW as we have commented on before. I also had the way wrong lens for what I was trying to shoot here. I should have had my telephoto lens, but I had brought my other lens for a different purpose so I had to make do.

I think my friend thought I was a little crazy because I'm chasing after this bee muttering to myself and at the bee trying to make it do what I want. Because that works so well haha. It was a good afternoon though of fun. We climbed trees, got muddy, and I got this shot. All in all a good day.

Ohhhh I totally didn't see that there is a aperture connection between Scott's picture and my picture of all having an aperture of F/4.5. Totally not planned on my part, but how cool is that?

Enjoy!
Sere

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana?

So Brandi unwittingly led me to my happy place - macro photography! Of course if you've check more than one of my posts, you already know that. I'm so happy for B and her new equipment. And her new lens kicks ass.

For my shot, I just drove over to the Fox River to see what I could see. I had designs on shooting more of a landspace with flowing water blurred in the foreground. Alas, the blessed sun was in full force and there I was without a nuetral density or polarizing filter. Turns out I really needed the polarizer for this shot too. Guess who's shopping tomorrow?

Canon 30D
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L
Aperture f/4.5
Shutter 1/320
ISO 100
Sunlight

The lens I used is Canon's version of the exact same lens Brandi used. They are both just kick ass, hardly take off your camera glass. Ordinarily I would have used my dedicated macro but for the sake of a connection I chose to leave this one in place. Plus, Brandi is absolutely right. You can pretty much do macro with these lenses.

Alright, time for an early bedtime. Get out and enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Scott

WooHooo!!

I had a photo I wanted to use to follow up Sere's picture but with Jay'me going in between us I wasn't sure I would get to. Lucky for me Jay'me gave me something to work with.


Nikon D300s Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8

ISO 200 natural light and a bunch of other settings that I can't extract at the moment.

This is a weed. It was the coolest weed I've ever seen. Instead of being rough, pointy and hurting, it was soft like velvet. While my daughter and I were enjoying some time on a friends 30 acre property I noticed this fuzzy little guy and a few of his friends. I was drawn to him from the beginning but then it rained.
And WooHoo!
The water drops caught in the soft hairs on the surface of plant creating a wonderful texture. I've been so impressed with this lens and it's almost macro capabilities. This picture is straight out of the camera (SOOC). I've done nothing but sharpening it for the web so that when Blogger tanks the quality of the photo it still looks like it does in real life.
Love it!!

xoxo,
Brandi

What day is it and what's my name again?

I'm so easily confused these days. Forgive me.

Yesterday Jay'me shared her feelings with us via a photo. Today I'm going to do the same.


Nikon D300s Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @56mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1600 sec
Aperture f/2.8
natural light

I found this gorgeous rose in the Magic Kingdom. I was instantly drawn to it. The soft, dewy petals, layers upon layers of not quite perfect pieces all held together to form something glorious.
To me it's the imperfections of this rose that make it what it is. If every piece was the same, if there was no "worn" spots this rose just wouldn't have any charm or character.
That's very much how I'm feeling these days. My "worn" spots are what makes me interesting. Like a perfect piece may fall away but it won't leave me ugly.

Dude will be here tomorrow. I can't wait to see what he brings.

Stand in your own beauty.
xoxo,
Brandi

Fun with Flowers!

I decided to go opposite of what Scott has with his picture as my connection. Mostly because today was rainy so my camera didn't come out. This shot was taken a few days ago. Scott's picture has these very vibrant and bold colors to it. My picture went opposite with pastel and soft. Although it does have the nice "bokeh"(blur) to it like his does.

Nikon D90
ISO-200 +.7 Exposure Step
Aperture F/7.1
Shutter Speed 1/250 sec.
50mm Nifty Fifty F/1.4D Lens
Manual, Natural Lighting, Filter

I very deliberately overexposed this shot to blow out everything on purpose. I wanted to see how it would turn out and I really enjoyed what it did. It gave it a very ethereal look that I accentuated with a pastel filter. I also lowered the contrast down a tad because I liked what it did to the picture and gave me more of the "look" that I was going for. I had shot this in RAW knowing that I would be playing with it.

I LOVE messing around with flower pictures, you can do so many cool things with them. Filters are great fun to play with in these kinds of shots and I have done that a few times to give them different effects.

Enjoy!
Sere

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Everyone looks at everything different. As you all know, I LOVE a good piece of metal. Give me something dirty, rusty, gross and I'm in love. The depth of the imperfections astounds me and I find myself drawn in.
Yesterday Sara captured something classically beautiful. Who doesn't love a beautiful blond haired little girl? Everyone (myself included) is drawn to pictures of beautiful things. But, as my daughter reminded me this morning the things we usually find "ugly" or "offensive" can be beautiful as well.
Our lawn hadn't been mowed yet this season and when my almost four year old opened her blinds this morning she squealed with delight.
"Mommy look at all those beautiful flowers. This whole place is filled with them."

Nikon D300s with Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @66mm
natural light
ISO 200
Aperture f/2.8
Shutter speed 1/2000sec

I don't think a yard filled with dandelions is classically beautiful like Sara's daughter but I do think the flowers serves as an ample tie-in.

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER
Before I announce this weeks winner of Wordless Wednesday (or Talkless Thursday as the case may be) I should share the tie in and the story behind the photo... it's my job.
Click here for the picture.
My tie in was "sleeping like a log". Except my girl wasn't sleeping. She was pretending to sleep Easter morning so I could take a picture of her amidst her "mouse" friends.
The winner this week is... Sharon. Great guess Sharon. You were correct (not that that matters). Contact us at 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and we'll make the necessary arrangements.

Find the beauty around you.
xoxo,
Brandi

Surprise!

We've got a guest photographer today. I want everyone to meet Sara. She was the winner of Scott's wordless Wednesday.
Everyone give Sara a warm 3C1D welcome.

A little from Sara in her words...

I didn't get quite what I was hoping for but one decent shot of the bunch will do, especially when the model grows weary of being the subject of meticulous instructions ("Smell the flower, honey!") and apparently doesn't want to get her knees dirty in the dirt (after picking up trash and planting in the woods at school all afternoon). If it looks to you like my daughter is rolling her eyes at me, I think you might be right. The tie-in is the flower. It's red of course. You can't see it but there are yellow tulips right beside it. Of course, the red is her favorite so I went with it. But she is wearing yellow so the color ties in, too.
The project definitely bred discontent with my current camera. I used a point and shoot, the Canon Powershot (and not even a new one) with a trigger that's retrofitted with a paperclip. I'm hoping a new camera is in my near future. We'll see! Thanks for letting me play today! Sara

Boy we can relate to the unwilling model and the working by sheer will camera. Thanks so much for playing with us Sara. We hope you can join us again soon.
Go on over to Sara's blog and check her out.

Want to play with us too. We promise it's easy. Go here and make a comment. Doesn't need to be anything fancy. Just say pick me and maybe I'll pick you. Tomorrow night the winner will be announced.

xoxo,
Brandi

Happy Easter Everyone

I hope you've had a wonderful, indulgent Easter spent with family and friends.

We've got one of our great 3C1D friends with us tonight. I'm sure you all remember MamaLu.
Here's what she's got to say today.


Here's my shot for today. The leaves pick up the green from the grass in Saturday's picture with Scott and Justin. Since today is Easter, and as it's (supposedly) spring, I wanted to depict renewal and rebirth. The daffodils are easy to tie in with that theme. With humans, one type of renewal and rebirth is based on emotions triggered by memories that never die, but lie dormant until a word, a photo, a song, a scent - something - triggers them. These are precious gifts, as are the flowers in spring. Enjoy.
Mamalu




Bring on the spring! From all of us, to all of you, Happy Easter.

Hoping Spring is Springing!

I am posting this to say I'm ready for Spring! Plus I want to motivate a friend of mine - you know who you are. This is a gerber daisy, as I'm sure many of you know. It might be my favorite flower. They are extraordinary blooms, and when you look through a macro it's even more apparent.

Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Aperture f/14.0
Shutter 1/60
ISO 800
Sunlight

You'll notice the rather small aperture. The idea was to get a good solid depth of field with such a close-up picture. Owing to the small aperture I was forced to drive up the ISO a bit. I found however that when the subject has this much going on the noise is really difficult to notice, especially on the screen. It's there but it doesn't detract like it might from a crystal blue skyline.

So let's give a toast to spring! Here here! And more 60 degree days please.

Scott

Drops of Water

Jay'me's painting/Brandi's photo gave me a chance to shoot flowers, something I really enjoy doing. Normally this time of year I would scoff at the idea. After all, it's a bit more authentic when you can actually get outside and shoot flowers as they grow. Here's the thing. Round these parts it's winter. Furthermore, the sun has been completely MIA. I mean, has it taken a liking to a different planet? WHAT THE HELL!!! So I thought maybe shooting a flower might give me a little jolt of synthetic sunshine and turn my frown upside down. I still miss the sun, but it did help staring through the lens at this extraordinary flower.


Canon 30d
EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
ISO 200
Shutter Speed 1/4
Aperture f/9.0
A single hot light

I tried about 7 different set-ups with different ideas each time. The truth of the matter is that it is devilishly difficult to balance the light with the water and the flower and maintain focus throughout the shot. You can see that the water droplet loses sharpness at the edge. It seemed necessary to achieve a sharp refraction through the water droplet. I couldn't get both.

To be fair, I chose not to completely close up my aperture because the Sahara Desert rears it's ugly head in the form of a dusty sensor when I do that. Perhaps if I'd just get it cleaned I could have achieved both a sharp refraction and water droplet edge. Or then again, maybe it's not possible. Do any of you know?

Lastly, I wanted to make something of an announcement. I was thinking the other day (dangerous, even on the good days) and I thought it would be a great idea to have a 3C1D outing for us four and any of our small but faithful followers. I checked it out with B and J and they are excited by the idea. Sere I'm confident with be all in as well. What I'm thinking at this point is spring time, and I'm hoping to sort of center it where as many people as possible can join in. So what I want from you readers is a thumbs up or thumbs down on the idea and a general idea of where you be! I can't speak for all of us but I would be willing to travel a bit for the sake of the group. I think it could be a total blast and a great way to strengthen our little community and learn a bunch. So what'd'ya think gang? Are you in?

See y'all later

Scott

Wild Orchid

Well... I got it at the grocery store so it isn't really that wild but it's an orchid. An orchid that is indigenous to Hawaii. Hence, my tie in.


Nikon d40 kit lens @ 48mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 1/5sec
Aperture f/5.6
manual
kitchen light and supplemental living room light

I should have taken a pull back photo of this little mini photo shoot. I'm heating up the spicy sweet chili that our friend Josh brought over for dinner. I've got cornbread in the oven and I'm cutting up the brownies for dessert. All the while, I've got the tripod sitting in the kitchen, a potted orchid plant sitting on a stool in front of the only white space we have in our house (a door). Miss K, my 3-year old is eating dinner, Josh and my husband are talking in the living room. I'm using my remote to fire off a couple shots. Occasionally, walking past making adjustments and such. I decide there isn't enough light in the kitchen so I grab a lamp out of the living room, walking right past the boys chatting. Pay no attention to the crazy lady with the lamp.

The food was delicious. The photo was well... adequate. I wish I had gotten my potted orchid a little earlier in the day so I had some natural light. I also wish I had a macro lens so I could really have had fun with this beauty. But isn't that the nature of photography? Always wishing you had something more, different, better.... What do you wish you had? What piece of photo equipment, kitchen gadget, book, tool, accessory are you coveting?

xoxox,
Brandi

Poison

In the immortal words of Brett Michaels from Poison circa 1989

Every rose has it's thorn,
just like every night has it's dawn
just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song.

I fully understand why all of you from my generation hate me now. I accept it.


Nikon d40
18-55mm 3.5-5.6
ISO 200
f5.6
1/320sec @50mm

Seeing Scott challenge himself to do a shot he's long wanted to attain pushed me over the edge to finally get this picture. I've made quite a few attempts at this photo. It's a difficult shot to get without a macro lens and it certainly would be sharper if it was a macro lens but, some days we just have to work with what we're given.
I set up some tripod lighting, created the most ridiculous set up, using things I had around my house (like my favorite black skirt) and camped out on my bedroom floor for the better part of an hour. Taking shot after shot making adjust after adjustment. On something like this where the smallest movement in light position effects everything I had to be careful.
I would love to hear from some of the macro "professionals" following our blog for some tips for improvement. I'm always open to some constructive criticism, can't get better without it.

I am happy to report though, that at the end of my hour I had several pictures to choose from that I would happily post and have connected to my name. This, my friends, is a successful mission.


******
In other blog news - Amy, the proud winner of last weeks Wordless Wednesday will be joining us for her guest post tomorrow. Can't wait to "meet" her.

Additionally, with Jay'me's absence we never announced the winner from Wordless Wednesday two weeks ago. Congratulations Allison! We'll be sure to keep you posted on when Allison will be joining us for her guest feature.

If both you girls could kindly send an email to 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com to get further instructions that would be wonderful. I promise the entire guest photographer process is super easy and I'll make it as painless as possible.

Looking forward to the new faces. Stop in to see what Amy gives us tomorrow and then Sere will start off the work week on Monday.

xoxo
Brandi

Wordless Wednesday with Sere

Wordless Wednesday Rules

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

Commenters (that's you) must comment and guess how the photo associates with the previous (Tuesday's) photo. The winning guess gets to be the guest photographer for Sunday.


No previous photography experience required. In fact, wanna-be's like us, our 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...


1 guess only per person. All rules strictly enforced with a paddle!



Ready Set GO!!!!!!

Nikon D90
ISO 100
Aperture F-6
Shutter Speed 1/200 sec.
Lens 18-200mm at 120mm
Aperture Priority
natural light, bumped up the clarity a bit and added a gold reflector

Wordless Wednesday - Brandi Style

Wordless Wednesday Rules -
The poster must only post 1 photo and settings. No additional verbiage (other than rules) is allowed.

Commenters (that's you) must comment and guess how the photo associates with the previous (Tuesday) photo. In this instance because of the mishaps yesterday this photo ties into all three photos posted yesterday.
The winning guess gets to be the guest photographer for Sunday.

Our first guest photographer! Squeal!!!

No previous photography experience required. In fact, wanna-be'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 -->
1 guess only per person. All rules strictly enforced with a paddle.

So without further adieu.

Ready, Set, Guess

Wordless Wednesday




Nikon d40
f4.2
1/60 sec
ISO 200
28mm
natural light with reflector
manual setting, manual focus

Summer Coming to an End

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed 1/4000
Aperture f/3.2
ISO 400
Mode Aperture Priority
Natural Light

This photo comes from Woodstock Square, the site of the movie Groundhog Day. It's a fantastic square that just screams "quaint Midwest town" and most of the sites are of the big variety: the Woodstock Opera House, the gazebo, the brick roads, you get the idea. And when I went to photograph the square, I thought I would walk away with a photo of something large. But while I was strolling through the square enjoying the sunshine, I was struck by these flowers. I noticed two things immediately. First, the bees LOVED them and were zooming around with glee. Second, what appeared to be a rather large bloom was actually many small blooms bunched together giving the illusion of a larger bloom. My wheels started turning and I thought about why this might be. Could it by evolution in action? Are bees more attracted to big blooms? I certainly don't know. Maybe it's for defense and the bigger blooms are meant to look like something else. Whatever the case, I promptly popped a squat, screwed on my macro lens and tried desperately to capture a bee. And because you didn't get a picture yesterday (sometimes, the holiday's get the better of you) you get 2 today! WooHoo!!! I'm not cheating, I'm catching you all up!

Here's the bees - I call it "Summer Lovin'!"


Canon 30D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Shutter Speed 1/2000
Aperture f/16.0
ISO 400
Mode Aperture Priority
Natural Light

You'll notice in both cases I had an ISO setting of 400 and a very fast shutter speed. The idea behind that decision is my attempt at freezing the flight of the bees. Turns out 1/2000 isn't fast enough as you can see the bees antennae blurred in the above picture. Plus, catching a bee mid flight is devilishly difficult. I might as well come clean - I haven't done it. But that's not for lack of trying. I managed to get this shot only by slowly moving closer and closer. That and the fact that they were literally "getting busy" allowed me to get really close.

The other detail to notice is the difference in aperture. With the flowers, I wanted to isolate a focal plain and bring to the fore a few blooms with one really the crux of the picture. With the bees I wanted to maximize my chance at getting the bees in focus from head to tail. So with the flowers, I shot rather wide at f/3.2 to get the tight depth of field. With the bees I stopped down to f/16.0 to achieve a much deeper depth of field. Those of you that have read multiple posts know we all like to play with depth of field and I promise this won't be the last time we mention it.

My connection to Sere's post is simply the colors. There are great colors in her picture of the carnival (Brandi's too for that matter) and I wanted to really concentrate on colors for this post. Plus, in the case of the carnival I attended this weekend there were fireworks. These flowers sort of reminded me of fireworks. So here you go, the fireworks of nature, both on the color front (the flowers) and the romantic front (so that's why they say "the birds and the bees!").

And I'm spent. What a weekend, what a beautiful flower, and what beautiful fireworks. May your day be blessed with the same. Till next time...

Scott

Summer's Last Hurrah.....

Last day before school begins so we decided to head out to check out some surrounding parks and prayed we didn't get rained on. I packed up my tri-pod and a few lens, flash and diffuser figured it couldn't hurt. So we're walking around on some trails and I've got my camera out just kind of shooting some snapshots. Trying to figure out what I was going to take a picture of for this blog. Sounds like a nice day all around so far.....

Until I went to set my tri-pod up to get a shot of us together using my timer and realized that I didn't have the thingie that connected my camera to the tri-pod. Drat!!! There goes that idea. Then I went to turn my camera back on and CRAP nothing! Absolutely nothing would turn on. So I'm freaking out wondering if I somehow broke my camera, beginning to hyper-ventilate. I'm sure you guys understand this. On top of the fact that now I'm getting upset because I am without camera to use, which is like losing an appendange you get my drift? And then it started to rain. Off we went running to the car. Taking deep breathes I decided that we would go and get ice cream. I WILL not let this ruin our last hurrah of summer before school begins. So we went to get ice cream and then proceeded to head back out to play in the rain and in the stream, sans camera and had a blast. All that to say that I did not get many pictures today, but this is one that I thought might work for today's blog.



Nikon D2x
Lens 50mm fixed
Aperture F5.6
Shutter 1/125 second
ISO 400
I played with this picture in raw format, zoomed in a ton and put a midnight filter on it to enhance the water droplets on the flower.

Oh and by the way it was my battery, camera is alright. The battery which had enough life in it most have been bad because it just died out of the blue. New battery and my baby is like new. Takes deep breath and thanks God.

I'm kind of a portrait photographer by nature so when I saw this picture I wanted to share it with you all as well.



Apeture F1.8
Shutter 1/160 sec.
ISO 400
Did nothing, straight out of the camera.

Water, water everywhere!

Nikon D2X

ISO 400

F13

Shutter 1/15s

Lens 18-70mm at 29mm

Speedlight SB800 with Gary Fong Diffuser on it

I started thinking about what photo I was going to take today, not having seen Scott's post from Sunday so I was going off of the post from Saturday. In any event, crazy enough we both went for waterfalls. Course I went a different direction but still waterfalls.

So my mind was on showing motion and immediately I thought about water and trying to show the motion of water. Of course this idea came to me while I was driving my two hours to Iowa City to return some stuff and check out Eddie Bauer's new fall line. Alas my OCD kicked in and I had to keep pushing it to the back of my mind. Heading home I realized that I still had to go grocery shopping and of course feed my child. The feeding of my child went quick, we pulled into good ole Mickey D's. I hate it but I wanted quick so yes I fed my child junk so I could go and play with my camera. Is that so wrong? By the time all that was done I was running out of light so I packed up my junk and drove to David's Chamber outside of Nauvoo Illinois which is a small, cute waterfall so I could get shots of moving water. Took several shots quickly and didn't really get any shots that I liked. So I chose one of the okay shots to post. I need to get more practice in. Not as beautiful as Scott's picture but hopefully you get the sense of motion, which is what I was going for.

Not sure who is going next Brandi or Jay'me. Looking forward to seeing what either one of them post next.

-Sere-

A Graveyard Tale

Nikon D2X

Lens 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5G

ISO 200

F7.1

1/90sec

Focal Length 70mm

No Flash, Natural Lighting

Alrighty hope this loads okay! Obviously I used the tree from Jay'me's picture as a basis for my picture. I was trying to do an atmospheric shot of life and death, light and dark, while trying to incorporate the live oak and spanish moss that Savannah Georgia is known for. Savannah is also known for ghosts and such, i.e my choice of using a graveyard as well.

I used Adobe Photoshop to bump up the vibrancy a little bit on the green foliage and adjusted the lighting a bit

*****************
Brandi busts in again! Dang I'm a total blog stealer. So, I just realized that this post didn't actually post to the blog. I know Sere was having some internet issues while traveling so I'm re-posting it. I'm crossing my fingers that Sere is ok with that because it's 10:17pm and I'm not mean enough to message her to ask permission.
So, if something isn't right it's my fault. I accept full responsibility.
Looking forward to building on this tomorrow. My brain is already in overdrive.
Great job Sere! I would have never thought to take a photo in a graveyard but it makes for a beautiful shot.