Talkless Thursday with Sere

Ooops!! My BIG, HUGE, mistake of totally missing my day yesterday. Time ran away from me and well, no excuses, it just is. I apologize to all! I am putting this picture up for our guests to guess on the connection to Scott's picture, for a chance to have a guest appearance on 3C1D. The connection can be just about anything, let your imaginations run!

If my fellow photographers want to do something else today or put their own picture up, I'm totally okay with that. Don't let my mess up, mess up your day. I just wanted to have something up, just in case.

Make your guesses and have some fun!!

Ready! Set! Go!


Nikon D90
ISO-200
Aperture F/6
Shutter Speed 1/2500 sec.
Lens Tamron 18-200mm @112mm
Natural Lighting, Shutter Priority Mode, RAW

Enjoy!
Sere

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

Water, Water, Everywhere....

My current photography obsession is water and water droplets. I was having fun with our sprinkler system and a fast shutter speed the other day, experimenting a little. Here is one result of that.

Nikon D2X
ISO-200
Aperture F/3.5
Shutter Speed 1/2500 sec.
Nikon 18-70mm at 45mm
Natural Lighting, Manual

I, unfortunately, do not have any city pictures from Chicago or really any kind of a city. That is kind of sad. I just hardly ever visit a city. I am probably one of the few people from Chicagoland that does not have a picture from "The Bean." I don't even know where it is located in the city. Sorry Scott I am a deprived person. So my only connection to Scott's picture is the black and white part.

School is almost out for my kiddo, so summer break here we come....

Sere

Just Breath....

I've got fifty million thoughts flying through my head all at once this evening and too much left on my "To Do" list for the day. I should have taken more time to just breath and "take in the sights" of the day. So that is where I am left, at this moment. My shot today was reminiscent of my day, a little too quick and rushed.

Nikon D2x
ISO-200
Aperture F/4.5
Shutter 1/160 sec.
18-70mm @55mm

I was rushing out to rescue a puppy that had followed momma out of his house, only problem is, he couldn't find his way back into the house because his eyes are still closed. So he was outside yipping away and momma was going a little crazy because she couldn't get him back in the house. She knew that he shouldn't be where he was. I had been wanting to take quick picture of the litter anyway so I had grabbed my camera and figured I would rescue puppy and take a shot.

I was on my way back into the house when something caught my attention in the pine tree. A toy of my sons was flapping in the breeze so I went to investigate. I looked up into the tree and saw my shot. The angle was the same as with Scott's and well his had a tree and mine has part of a tree. So there you have it.

Hope you all are having a calmer, more relaxed evening then me. Remember to "just breath" and make sure you "take in the sights" of the world, instead of rushing around all the time.

Enjoy!
Sere

Vinegar and Baking Soda Are Fun!!!

Be forewarned inner science geek is coming out with this post!! I'm sure you all have heard about, or in my case tried the baking soda volcano. If you haven't, you need to, especially with your kids or just by yourself if you're a science geek like I am haha. There's a cool, chemical reaction that happens when the two ingredients meet, something to do with carbon dioxide. Bubbles and foam are produced which is what I attempted to capture with my camera here.

Nikon D2x
ISO-800(oops left over from my fast shutter speed practice the other day)
18mm-200mm f/3.5-6.3
Aperture F/10
Shutter Speed 1/60 sec.
Nikon Speedlight, contrast filter

We've been having trouble with our tub not draining properly. It's been a real pain in the rear to take care of. I tried Liquid Plumber and all that good stuff. My husband was online researching how to fix drains and came across an article talking about using vinegar and baking soda. Ready to try anything, I attempted it. Within the first couple of drops I was in LOVE with the reaction. I immediately had to get my camera to try and capture it.

So there I am bending over the tub with my vinegar in one hand(the baking soda had already been poured down the drain) and my camera in the other. I'd pour a little vinegar in, then try and get my camera up to my face to capture the bubbles. I only had a few seconds to capture them and I knew immediately I was going to have to use a flash. The entire time I was wishing I had a macro lens, yet again, to be able to get closer up.

So there you have my abstract attempt to make something fairly ordinary look kinda cool. Try it! Get that camera out and play around with what you have just laying around your house or yard. See what you come up with.

Enjoy!
Sere

It's All About The Kids!!!

With this warm weather we've had the last couple of days, being outside has been our top priority. We are enjoying our sunshine while we have it since rain is potentially on the way. In keeping with the last couple of posts I have also included a shot of my child playing.

Nikon D90
ISO-400
Aperture F/6.3
Shutter Speed 1/1600 sec.
Natural Lighting, Shutter Priority

I had my camera set on shutter priority mode so I could play with my shutter speeds without having to worry about my aperture so much. I was practicing how to get that "stop" action for sports pictures. It was a little bit difficult because of the shadows that played around in my yard, but I liked his expression in this shot. My son loves soccer! He plays it both seasons (spring and fall) and has fun with it.

I would suggest for anybody reading this that has a DSLR and wants to do more with it, but is a little afraid to go completely manual on their camera that you play around in either aperture or shutter priority mode. You set up either your aperture or shutter and the camera will automatically adjust for the other. You will end up way more pleased with your shots then if you stay in Auto, but it is not quite as scary as full manual.

Have Fun!
Sere

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

April Sunset

Not a very creative title but please have pity on me. I am going on a little more then 36 hours without sleep so my mind is a little, ah, fuzzy I guess you could say.


Nikon D90
ISO-400
Aperture F/5
Shutter 1/800 sec.
Natural Light, Filter

I played with filters again for a few minutes. This one is a bi-color filter that seemed to bring out the reds and yellows in the sunset. I managed to snap this picture as I was driving into town for my night out. It has to do with sunlight and I have a barn/shed type thing in the picture as well. Haha, we have barns in abundance around here. Some of them I need to take a closer look at because of their fascinating wood texture.

Hope you all are having a good night. I am going to go pass out and sleep for 10 hours I think.

Cheers!
Sere

My Knarly Looking Tree

My son and I were at a park a few days ago and there was this really cool looking log there. I absolutely LOVE funky looking trees, so I tried to capture the knarly looking knobs and humps this log had.

Nikon D2X
Aperture F/9
Shutter Speed 1/640 sec.
ISO-200
Lens 18-70mm at 44mm
Natural Lighting, Aperture Priority, Filter

I turned the picture to black and white, for fun and to connect it to Scott's more, although I suppose log and leaves would have been connection enough. But I do enjoy playing with my filters, so I used a high contrast black and white filter just to kick up the roughness of this log a bit. I may have overdone it, but I like the look.

I had planned on going back to the log to retake some pictures without children running around and screaming, but it rained on me today, so I couldn't get out.

Enjoy!
Sere

Summer Will Be Here.... Eventually!

The sun poked thru the sky for about 2 seconds today. I raced out to enjoy it and get some outside stuff done before the clouds showed up again. Scott's picture had me thinking about practicing my still-life shots again. The connection is in the collections.


Nikon D2X
ISO-400
Aperture F/6.3
Shutter 1/400 sec.
18-70mm @ 55mm.
Manual
Natural Lighting, Filter

Sorry Cubbie Fans, I have been down south for too long. I raided my sons baseball collection for baseball gear so I could practice, although the shirt is mine.

I don't do still-life shots very often, it just isn't my thing really. Like in this shot, all my settings are fine, but I don't have any real "feeling" in the shot. Anyway I will probably continue to practice still-lifes because the challenges of them call to me. But only when I have to!

I played around Photoshop because I enjoy messing around with filters. The filter I used in this shot was the contrast color range filter which helped to make the colors "pop" a bit, giving a little excitement to the shot.

Batters Up!
Sere

American Pride

My first thought when I saw Scott's picture was to play around with a deck of cards. Not sure why, but his guy reminded me of the jack or king of something. But my plans fell through and I wasn't home enough today to try that thought out. Then we were at church this evening and there was discussion about how far off base America has gotten with different things. I remembered this series of shots that I had taken with the American flag a week or so ago. It made me think about how even with its mess ups I still love this country.

But before I get to my picture I need to take care of Wordless Wednesday. I would love to welcome MamaLou back with us. So if you could contact us 3chicks1dudephoto@gmail.com and let us know when you would be able to post we would enjoy seeing what you have to show us.

My connection was little ones and faces. I LOVE spring babies! That little guy was about 3 days old when I took that picture. He's about twice the size now that he was then. I have a few flowers that were blooming and I really wanted to get spring baby with spring flowers for the shot. So I took baby away from mom for a few minutes to take a couple of shots and then went back and swapped out one baby for another until I thought I had a shot that I liked. I ended up with a few smushed flowers and some cute puppy pics for my work. Moving on, here is my picture for today.

Nikon D2X

ISO-100

Aperture F/7.1

Shutter Speed 1/500 sec.

Lens 18-70mm at 70mm

No Flash, Natural Lighting, Polarizing Filter

For whatever reason the beautiful red flowers with the flag caught my attention at this little park, in this little town of literally like 50 people near my house. It was a windy day, so the flag was just flapping all over the place, but the sky was just soooo blue. I just had to take some pictures so while all the passerbys watched I was laying on the ground, kneeling, moving my body into some nice contortionists positions to see what shots I could get. It was great fun! My connection to Scott's picture would be a part of the main focus running off the camera. In this case it would be the flag pole.

Now I am ready to shut my phone off and chill with my honey.

Take Care!

Sere

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

Water Droplets!

I loved how both Scott and Brandi used lighting to really make their pictures work. My tie in was supposed to be using lighting as well to create a certain effect in my post today. It didn't go so well and I ran out of experimentation time. I didn't really like any of the pictures I took, but since I had run out of time I had to choose one, so I did.

Nikon D2X

ISO-100

Aperture F/8

Shutter Speed 1/25 sec.

18-200mm at 200mm

Natural Lighting

Without having a macro lens I find it hard to capture water droplets which I so want to practice learning how to do. This is why I use my telephoto and zoom in, but it just doesn't work very well and as you can see the picture gets so soft looking. I love that I was able to capture the droplets on the leaf, but it just didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned it in my head.

On the plus side I did learn a new way to sharpen an image in Photoshop that I hope to play around with some more.

Off to bed I go, I am beat! Tomorrow is another day!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Has anybody ever tried to see how close to the end of a rainbow you could get to? I've never tried it. I guess for me part of the allure is the mystery of a rainbow, along with the fact that it is a promise from God. However you look at rainbows they are wonderful to behold.

Nikon D2x

ISO-640

Aperture F/4.5

Shutter Speed 1/125 sec.

Exposure -1 step (that was an oops)

Natural Lighting

This was one of those I spotted the rainbow and ran out with my camera. Missed around with aperture a bit, but really just wanted to capture it before it disappeared on me. I had taken this picture awhile ago and thought that this was an appropriate time to share it. Obvious connection with ROY G BIV.

Still having issues with my spacing. What the heck!! This is really annoying!

Enjoy!

Sere

Friday Faces with Sere

This was not the picture that I had planned on posting today. But it was just such a beautiful, sunny day (a tad windy) but beautiful that I decided to head out and play with the kiddos (human and animal). I was looking for bird's nests, instead I had fun taking shots of Nanook, you've seen him before here, and my son playing together. Hope you enjoy it.

Nikon D2X

ISO-200

Aperture F/8

Shutter Speed 1/500 sec.

18-70mm at 65mm

No Flash, Natural Lighting

I have no real connection to Amanda's gorgeous shot except for the spring theme. I don't know about anybody else but I am really glad to be able to head outside to take some photographs and not freeze to death. Yay for spring!!!

BTW I am having some issues with spacing, anybody else having any??? Not sure what the deal is because I'm doing the same things I've always done. But my paragraph spacing is WAY big.

Enjoy! Sere

It's the Everyday Things

Sick child=no camera time today. After taking care of all those things that a mom needs to when her child is not feeling well it was way past dinner time and the day was effectively gone. But..... My husband was playing chess with my son before bed, so I just decided to snap a few pictures of that. The connection being all about the common, everyday things of life. Blueberries and chess pieces in this instance. Nikon D2 ISO-200 (oops not so good for inside shots without flash) Aperture F/1.4 (wide open baby!) Shutter Speed 1/10 sec. Nifty Fifty Lens No Flash, Indoor Lighting

Friday Faces with Sere

Okay so for about 2 seconds here in the midwest we had nice, warm weather. Then it reverted back to this disgusting cold, damp stuff that I hate (as I'm sure almost everybody else does too). So I was forced to go back to the days of warmth and sun for today. Meet Mr.(or it could be Miss) Pelican.


Nikon D90
ISO-200
Aperture F/11
Shutter 1/400 sec.
Natural Lighting

Mr. (or Miss) Pelican was hanging out by the tarpon feeding area where all of the crazy tourists(including my family and I) pay good money to feed these HUGE fish in the ocean. He was trying his hardest to get any fish that the tarpons did not get. I believe he was a little upset with me because I had a camera in his face instead of a fishie and he(she) was letting me know all about his not so happy feelings. I just thought he was kinda cool because he had blue eyes and was quite pretty as far as pelicans go.

Here's hoping that spring and warmer weather gets back here soon. Anybody else feel extra, specially cold after our 70 degree days today? We even started a fire at our house. Brrrr!

Later,
Sere

Signs of Spring

Oooops woke up at 2am and realized I had forgotten to post my picture for the day. I even had everything all ready to post and then my day got away from me. In any event here is my post for the day and I believe Jay'me will be up later today for some Wordless Wednesday fun.

Nikon D90
ISO-100
Aperture F/7.1
Shutter 1/100 sec.
18-200mm @ 92mm
Natural Lighting

As usual I am wishing for a macro. The focal point on non-macro cameras just aren't the same when trying to capture things like this tree bud. Can you see the lovely spider web hanging from the bud? For our family seeing the buds on the trees around our home is how we know that spring is just around the corner. Maybe it's the farmer in my husband whose job it is to grow things, so we notice and find it fascinating. We love to watch the buds grow and then explode with life. It's pretty awesome if you have never taken the time to actually watch it happen as the days unfold. How remarkable it is from a seemingly dead living thing to just start to pop out with life and color.

Sere

Sunset Meanings

I love sunsets! Sunsets are so different depending upon where you are in the world and the time of year. People attribute many different meanings to sunsets when they watch one, depending upon their mood, time of life, and who they are. Sunsets can mean the ending of a day, maybe promise of another day, riding off into the sunset of living happily ever after, to show someone God's beauty at what he has created or maybe it is just the different wavelengths of light that create the different colors that you see in the sky. However you choose to view sunsets, they are pretty spectacular to see.

Nikon D90
ISO-200
Aperture F/8
Shutter Speed 1/500 sec.
18-70mm @ 65mm
Natural Lighting

For me sunsets make me pensive and are thought provoking. I'm back to Brandi's moments in life. When the sun is setting that means that day is done, over. I sometimes ask myself what have I done this day? Did I make a difference for somebody, spend enough time with my family, tell the people that need to hear how much I love them? Did I do what God wanted me to do this day? Maybe you think these same things, maybe not. Maybe you just sit back and enjoy the moment of watching a sunset with your family and just enjoy its beauty.

My connection to Scott's is in the color red and moments with family. My family and I all watched this sunset together down in Key Largo, enjoying each others company (though my son had been pretty bratty this particular day as well). I hope everybody had a chance or gets a chance to enjoy a beautiful sunset with their family as well.

Sere

For Scott and Brandi

Scott was all about his girls. He loved his family deeply and that was what was most important to him. Brandi is all about enjoying the moments in life, those precious moments with loved ones that keep you sane through lifes cruelty and frustration and sadness. It's the little moments piled one on top of another, captured in our case a lot of the time on our camera, but also those that aren't, that make life bearable and wonderful and worth living. It is in that spirit of these two wonderful people that I am posting this picture. In this case it's not the greatest picture I've taken, but it portrays one of those precious, special moments in life.


It was taken with my Nikon D90 but I am not going to post the settings because to be honest I had it on full auto mode. I'm sorry, I shudder as I write this, but it's the God's honest truth.

I had come up to visit Brandi and Scott and while I was up there I was able to visit with my family. Now I have all boys at my house so girly things like painting toenails and that sort of thing I just don't get to do very often. My wonderful sis-in-law and brother have two adorable girls that she is willing to share with me sometimes so I can do those girly things. In this case, we all sat around chatting, laughing, loving and painting each others toes and fingernails. I was able to paint my niece's toes the color you see here (the top toes in the picture) and on her hands she had one hand a bright purple color and on her other hand a bright blue color. It was one of those precious moments in time that make life worth the pain of living it.

You will be soo missed Scott.