February 6, 7, 8 Photoblog

February 6, 2015: “Project Me”

I asked she answered, light painting was the idea.  I did it with the idea of projecting a tv show onto the tv.  I struggled with the lighting and keeping the back light down.  I got my idea from my personal mantra peace love and hope.

February 7, 2015: “Tapering”

Live, local and folk.  My preferred music that connects to my soul.  In preparation for the show the room is filled with a fog machine that lingers.  It makes a cool look, I enjoyed it with the colored lights.  This photo is result rather than a band photo.  I don’t have the time or energy in the present to sort through and identify my favorite.  I will post a review and photos at a later date.

February 8, 2015: ”These Boots”

I met the man who sang a song called these boots.  It is a song about everything these boots have been through.  My boots are 10 years old, have survived winters, water miles of walking, hiking, hard labor and everything I could put them through.  Today the snow began falling another 12 inches expected yet these boots guide me through everyday.  They have bottoms that screw off so can replace the heel and foot front.  These boots are made for a lifetime.  These boots are made for memories.  These boots are made for e to hold so many things close and be able to reflect.  This boots photo is inspired by a grammy nominee tonight and performer. His name is Eric Church and I am thankful I have met, planted trees with him heard his music and made great friends along the way.  Music brings people together, I am so thankful for watching these boots grow, while I watch those around me grow.

February 5, 2015: “Tire Moon”

Finding the positive is what I always search for, today was a fiasco right from the get go.  I expected to have my photoblog based around getting new tires and highlighting them with a photo.  I was excited to get new tires today, lately my car has been driving horrible in the snow acting as if it were a slip and slide. 

I had so much go wrong today with many negative feelings appearing and projecting outward.  I moved forward, I recentered, I struggled, I fought and I balanced my emotions.  I smiled and was able to put the negative behind me.  I walked outside at 9:10pm tonight looked up into the sky and bam right into my face a beautiful moon.  I knew at that moment I would freeze and enjoy a silent night.  I skipped stopping for food on my way home.  Next thing I knew I am standing outside watching brilliant clouds pass by the moon very quickly.  The weather gave me approximately 5 minutes to setup and capture a great landscape.

A 20 second exposure at f/5.6 wow, the moon shows the trees colors flow.  The clouds fly on by, I was so giddy, so happy and so glad to share this image with you.  Love life, live life enjoy the things in life that are free.  Celebrate the negative and turn it into a positive. My tires tuned to gold and I became richer today than I could ever dream.

February 4, 2015: “Ain’t it Pretty”

Snow, snow, snow go away already.  You were pretty back in November before that 8 feet you dropped in 1 day.  You were pretty in December when I was holiday shopping.  You are pretty when I have absolutely nothing to do.

You are no longer pretty, you are annoying, causing me to lose patience, causing me to worry, causing me undue stress.  I must say day after day it has worn me down.  I have a shovel in my hand, I have a car to drive and survive.  The world is in such a hurry I force myself, like every other person to go to work. It is dangerous the roads haven’t been plowed but making money has become a ridiciulous.  Productivity over people in most places, work, work, work. 

Snow is horrible, snow is great, snow is fun, snow is sad.  Today it was all of them, I ended my night with snow is fun.  I set up 2 speedlights, one on the right and one on the left.  I overpowered them t capture the snow blowing.  It washed me but I was able to bring back a little, also getting pinpoint focus was hard.  I am happy with it.  My only problem is I didn’t want to stay out to long and expose my equipment to the weather.  I could have setup another speedlight to capture more snow and set the other 2 to capture better lighting on myself. 

Overall I am happy with what turned out.  It caught what I was going.  Self portraits are hard especially in less than desirable condition.  I made it happen. Remember life is beautiful and we are all connected.

February 3, 2015: “Mirror, Mirror”

I had been hearing noises at various points throughout the day, saw a few creepy cars and was weirded out all day.  I thought how can I portray a bit of drama and creepiness. I initially wanted to set up a shot that portrayed me driving with a shadow behind me.  Being 10 degrees I quickly scrapped that idea.  I still wanted to capture that style shot, my lens was not wide enough to put on the dash and capture what was looking for, so I settled on the face in the mirror.  I was able to light up the scene with a single speed light bouncing off the dash.  It made it look like headlights coming in.  I was very pleased with the setup although before I could get focused in my speedlight batteries died.  I brought a piece of the weirdness out today.  This shot will be replicated when it is warmer and all my equipment is 100%.

February 2, 2015: “Snow Daze”

Under the cover of a winter storm I’m stuck inside, watching the storm roll through.  Hours pass and snowdrops accumulate into inches, the inches grow.   I sit silently watching the snow.  Reading, writing and wasting time.  My car becomes covered and I stay inside.  As an adult it is more of a burden than a reward.  These are just the snow daze.

February 1, 2015: “Patriot Day”

In honor of the super bowl today between Seattle and New England I want to capture a football image.  My baseball team is Boston and my second favorite QB of all time behind Dan Marino is Tom Brady.  I own his jersey so I put that together with my Boston hat. 

I had an idea to shoot light directly down on me and capture an image from above almost directly down. In setting the shot up I use my Samsung phone to focus on myself as I can tether my camera wirelessly to my phone.  It is an extremely useful technology, the only downfall is the camera will not shoot flash when tethered.  I at that point switch the lens to manual focus and leave it at its proper depth, position myself and shoot a few shots to get the right composition.  It is extremely hard to get the shot I want, even when I have everything placed properly and hop in at the right position I cannot view the composition.  I ended up shooting 3 photos, I believe it was a 15 second exposure with a single flash at the opening of the shutter.  I slid out of the picture to create the ghostly effect towards the back of the photo.

Everyday is a learning experience, I love stretching myself and working on different styles.  I am just glad the Patriots won 28-24 over Seattle.  Everyday find inspiration and wok on developing a skill.

              

January 31, 2015: “America the Beautiful”

Busy day today, I did not plan out or look for a shot to get.  I did have my point and shoot with me just in case I saw inspiration.  I was out all day and arrived home around 10pm.  No photo, no idea nothing.  I saw the flag on the fence.  Nothing special to do, no lighting to setup just change the settings in the camera for my desired exposure.

I popped open the flash took a two tenths of a second shot wide open.  The snow reflected the ambient light behind to get a solid overall composition and lighten up the fence in the background.  It came out a bit gritty.  America is beautiful in perfect light, in darkness, smooth or gritty.