Snowpocalypse!

I got my camera out a few days ago and was determined to take some winter photos.  I wanted to just experiment with settings on my camera and see what I came up with.

First, I set up my DSLR on a tripod inside the house, but opened the back door so that I could see out of it but not get my camera all wet in the snow.  Then I, opened up my aperture as wide as it would go because it is dark outside and I need all the help I could get!  I then played around with longer shutter speeds and higher ISOs (I would make the shutter open longer, so I could decrease the ISO, and so on) and then I figured I would see which expsoure I liked the best later.

Turns out I liked this one the best because of the way the snow was angled and the right amount of snow lines (as you leave your shutter open longer, the snow streaks get bigger).  Here are the settings for this image: f/2.8, .6 shutter, ISO 1600, 24-70mm

For this next image, I was taking some boring shots of my Christmas tree and instead decided to try the effect you see a lot around winter time where the lights are really out of focus and they turn into big circles.  I turned off all of the other lights in my house except the tree, and played around a bit until I got this image (settings were f/2.8 .5 shutter ISO 100 24-70mm):

Two Years

The title of this post has a double meaning because I now have a two year old and my brother is coming back from his LDS mission in 4 weeks from being gone for 2 years!  I am excited and can't wait to see him.

I took these photos of Dean on his actual birthday.  There is this walking trail in my neighborhood that has a creek running next to it and all sorts of lovely fall trees.  I really like living in a small-town-feeling place but still having a costco to go shop at (YAY for the new costco in spanish fork!).  Now that Dean is 2, it's pretty much impossible to get him to look at the camera, let alone smile for it.  Out of the 200+ photos I took, he was smiling in about 3 of them.  One was out of focus, one he looked stupid in (sorry Dean) and the other I have posted here as the last photo.

The environment on this day was perfect for picture taking.  It was total cloud cover so the lighting was perfect.  I used my fixed 50, but instead of manually focusing like I usually do, I have decided that even though I am morally opposed to all things auto, auto-focus is necessary in taking pictures of a toddler.  Here are some of my favorites of the shoot!

LoLo Goes to High School

Where has the time gone? My baby sister is starting the 9th grade TOMORROW!

I had a lovely time hanging out with my mom and sister when they came to visit me this week. Tomorrow Lauren starts her first day of 9th grade and I start my first day of my 4th year teaching at OHSU.  It's going to be a great school year!

While Lauren was up visiting, we were able to spend some quality time together shopping and getting good deals (Ross + TJ Maxx!!).  I suggested to Lauren we have a photoshoot because the last one I took of her on the beach is super outdated.  And what a great way to feature the new hip clothes we got for her!

The location in these photos is actually right around the corner from my house.  It's a cornfield, a patch of wild sunflowers, a gravel road, and some railroad tracks - I really don't think I would ever come across somewhere like this in California.  I was actually shocked at how beautiful the background came out in these shots - this is my new favorite shooting location.

Lauren was a great model.  It was a fabulous time to be out taking pictures - it was about 7:30-8pm and the sun was going down and it was actually pretty cloudy.  The windy was blowing so it caught in her hair.  When we faced a certain angle, we hit the sweet spot of the lighting and her face just soaked it up.  I was very sad when we had to stop because it started raining and my memory card ran out of room. :(  I had so many favorites of this shoot and only am featuring a small amount of the loveliness of Lauren!

I left my settings on mostly ISO 100 and did half with my 24-70mm lens and the other half with  my fixed 50mm lens.  Currently I'm experimenting with how close I am to my subject as a photographer and how that affects the depth of field (area that is in focus) in my images.  This is a skill that I want to be so second nature to me that I don't even think about it anymore, but I'm not quite there yet.

Sunset on the Factory

I looked out my window one night last week to the most beautiful palette of colors in the sky while the sun was setting over the sugar beet factory in my backyard. I literally SPRINTED up the stairs and grabbed my camera/tripod to capture the vivid colors. The scene in the pictures below was gone after about 10 minutes.  I live in a beautiful place!

First, I tried doing a panorama. I have my beginning photo class stitch together panoramas for one of their first photo assignments. I used 4 different pictures to form the panorama below - click on it to see a larger version.


Secondly, I tried doing two different HDR composites with 6 different images each.  HDR works well for things that don't move.  These clouds moved millimeters while I was taking all of the different shots so when I tried to merge the HDR images in photoshop the clouds look all blurry and dumb each time I tried.  Any suggestions on what to try to make this work better in the future?

Lastly, here is a picture where I tried just backlighting the sugar beet factory with the sunset so that the shape of the factory was blacked out but the sunlight showed the shape of the spire. I did this by closing my aperture up tight - I also did this so my depth of field would be clear and in focus too.
 

The Safari Zone

My very favorite activity Karl and I did during our time in Florida was going on the safari in the Animal Kingdom. We saw all sorts of animals really really close to our jeep that we were in, plus I had my camera and some once-in-a-lifetime subjects to photograph. I love animals so so much and so this was such a treat to be around such magnificent animals and enjoy their beauty and awesomeness. I have lots of pictures from the shoot that I will post here. Some animals were better posers than others!

When you first get on the safari, you are loaded up into a jeep.  We were lucky enough to sit in the very front both times we took the safari!


Some birds chillin.


Baby hippo in the water! I love hippos!


There were about 6-8 crocodiles and they were SCARY!  One of the crocs just had it's mouth hanging open and it had this maniacal grin and you could see all it's teeth.


A really totally awesome baobab tree!  I know what this is because I worked at nuskin!


Cool horned antelope animal.


The giraffes were one of my favorites because they came right up to the edge of the jeep.  I was so happy and talking to the giraffe in a really high pitched voice and he was so so sweet.


The elephants were hot and so they were taking dirt clods in their trunks and rubbing it on each others backs to help give them some homemade sunscreen.  SO SWEET!


This is a mommy warthog and her three little warthog piglets that were all running after her.  Baby warthogs!!!  Eeeeee!  These were Karl's favorite of the safari.


A "don't mess with me" lion face.


Here are the cheetahs just laying around being lazy.  They were like little divas.  They reminded me and Karl of our dog Lina - eeriely similar poses.


A wonderful and sweet rhino!  He is a little doll!  I just wanted to get out and pet him!


Well, we have reached the end of the safari.  Here is a picture of Karl that I took while we were on the safari.  Also, if you know what the safari zone is, you get +1 million cool points.

I give you...Harry Potter World!

Notes to anyone who is thinking of going to Universal Islands of Adventure and experiencing the fabulous Harry Potter world attractions...think again! Enjoy my pictures, free of cost! Save yourself from waiting in line...for EVERYTHING! Getting into a shop! Buying things in the shop! Buying candy at Honeydukes! Eating at the 3 broomsticks! And heaven forbid....going on an actual ride!

I jest but not really. Harry Potter world was a wonderful magical experience but one I care to not ever repeat unless 3/4 of the people leave. Perhaps in a few years. Plus, for all of the experience, here is a breakdown of the cost of harry potter world:

• $200 to get in to Universal Islands of Adventure
• $80 roundtrip fare for taxi to and from Disneyworld resort
• $50 food at 3 Broomsticks, including butterbeer
• $50 candy at honeydukes because most of the candy was like $10 a piece
• $35 for a wand at Ollivander's
• $10 for a slytherin keychain for Karl+
• TOTAL: $425

I will now give you my entire Harry Potter world experience so that you can enjoy the magic first hand.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but it was raining and I was sick of waiting in lines.

The castle was incredible!



Hog's head pub



Butterbeer!  Sort of like cream soda.  But very sweet and creamy.









Monster book of monsters!

The spoils from honeydukes: peppermint toads, chocolate frogs, chocolate cauldron, pumpkin juice.  Also my wand is featured.

I bought the elder wand because it was the coolest one.  This picture is blah but you get the point:

For anyone who wants to see even MORE pictures, here are the ones from my point and shoot camera which includes stuff from inside the castle and while it was raining and I didn't want to get my 5d out.

French Quarter

I've known since back in February that Karl had something secret planned for me when he made me reserve a week on my calendar in July for him. No matter how hard I prodded he would not tell me the secret! Eventually I deduced that it was some sort of trip, but I had no idea where/why/what/how we were going to pay for it.

So last week the secret day finally arrived and I was instructed to pack a bag. We sat in the airport parking lot and Karl told me that we were going to disneyworld for the week! I was so excited!! We stayed at a hotel at the resort Karl picked out called the French Quarter because he knew I would love it.

The last night we were there we were out for a midnight jaunt to get some pizza and I brought along the 5D with me on it's tripod to shoot some shots around the pretty gardens near our room...on the way to the pizza. A shirtless british man who was drunk started talking to us and he was pretty cool. He wanted to show me how to "jailbreak" my 5d. This was not my idea of a good time so we left and went and got pizza.

It was so humid out that after I stepped out of our hotel room my lens immediately fogged up. It was 100% humidity that night and I kept having to wipe the lens with my shirt (photography students: do not do this - this is not appropriate care for a lens) to clear out the fog.

Here are some shots that I took that night. These are pretty much straight out of the camera, with the exception of some cropping, and I added a teeny bit of contrast to the 3rd image. The intense yellow lighting turned out neat. What do you think?







Here I tried a long exposure with my tripod a few times. Not the best composition but kind of cool water shot.