07-06-30 | Scarboro Cottage

Just some pics that we took at the Scarborough Cottage (aka Danny & Marilyn's) yesterday. Jess took the first and second (don't even ask), and I snapped the third one of the moon. Go team!

Healthy Competition

Last night while Bob and I were on our way home from a walk and discussing our shared "custody" of the camera during our evening walks - the gauntlet was thrown down. Bob suggested that I create my own blog to post pictures for some "healthy competition". Anyone would agree, it's alot less work to hack into his blog while he is pulling a double shift then start my own. Besides a couple of pics don't make a blog :D I'm not as technically versed as Bob and so can't explain how I achieved these pic's I just think they look pretty. Maybe Bob can help explain it to us.
Enjoy,
Jessica

07-06-27 | Suburban Sunset

I haven't taken any pictures in the last couple of days (a little busy with the long weekend coming up), so I'm posting a series tonight. I think the title says it all, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.

07-06-24 | Flight o/t Feather

This feather was caught in a very thin spider web and it took me a few different attemps at different angles to get a shot where the web wasn't visible in the picture. Makes it look like it's just floating there...

07-06-23 | Off the Grid

Went out for a walk tonight and took a bunch of pics... A lot of good stuff, but we really liked these in particular. The title refers to the first picture above, the others are just eye candy.

07-06-22 | Right and Wrong

I went over to a pedestrian bridge (that crosses railroad tracks) not far from our house to see if I could get something interesting. I took some shots from one side of the bridge and then from the other, along with the one directly above of the multi-coloured cars as they passed underneath (Ishka didn't like that part). The result plays out like a literal Right Side/Wrong Side of the tracks scenario.

07-06-21 | Night Roses

So, to try something different tonight, I went outside after I got home from work and took some pictures of our rose bush using a narrow beam flashlight to illuminate it. The results were pretty cool. The first one above was with a quick shutter and the second with slightly longer shutter, and because the wind was blowing a little, it created that polarized motion effect.

07-06-20 | McEnroe was Here

Out with the dog tonight (go figure) I came across this tennis ball laying in the middle of the road and just thought it looked neat. All the green of the surroundings and then a dot in the middle of the pavement.

07-06-19 | Nothing(ness)

I got nothing worthwhile today, so this is what the inside of a lens cover looks like.

07-06-18 | Sunset and Vine

I snapped this pic tonight just north of us by Whittamore's farm. Nothing special, but it's pretty.

07-06-17 | Memory Card Blues

I've really got to remember to put the memory card back in the camera after I pull the pictures off. This Bee was in a perfect position when I got Jess to grab me the camera, but I got back to take the picture and the memory card was noticeably absent. And of course, after retrieving the memory card, he had moved on to another (less photographic) bud. Regarless, this was the best of the rest.

07-06-16 | The Light of Night

These are some low light shots I took while we had the dog out for a walk tonight. The lamp post shots look kind of odd... Almost like a 3D rendering superimposed over a photographic background.

07-06-15 | ...of the Valley

Jess' Lillies opened up today... I know, soooooo exciting. I just like the way this pic turned out... The three of them lined up (and then the one shrouded in the background) makes for interesting composition.

07-06-14 | The Abyss

I took this picture of Jess' Hosta because I thought it was kind of cool how it kind of hollows out in the middle and creates depth. Hence the title of this post.

07-06-13 | Evangeline...

We got haircuts tonight. Not very interesting subject matter, I know. But I snapped this shot of Jess that looks waaaay too much like Evangeline Lily (Kate from LOST).

07-06-12 | Dark / Light

After playing around with the exposure settings yesterday, I decided to try capturing the extremes. I took the first picture above under bright fluorescent light and the second with a single tungsten spotlight. Both needed to be touched up in Photoshop to get the desired effect, but I accomplished what I set out to achieve... Two different styles in the same environment.

07-06-11 | Broken Cymbals

Today I'm posting a couple of shots that I did some post production on in photoshop. One shows a soft side and the other shows a harsher, polarized side. These were taken in the basement and were pretty washed out (an overall gray layer to equalize the levels in the picture), primarily because they were taken under fluorescent lights.

Update: After I posted the first set of pics that were altered in Photoshop, I decided to go back downstairs and see how closely I could replicate the effects added after the fact using only the options available via digital photography tricks. Exposure, shutter speed, saturation, contrast, etc. Obviously I can control much more through photoshop, but the results weren't too bad and technically, I could have gone further with longer shutter speeds, etc.

07-06-10 | Dead Man's Hand

We played poker last night, which inspired this shot. Marilyn wiped the floor with us, but Tyler "All In on the first hand" Beattie gave her a run for her money. Aces and Eights proved to be my demise. I really should heed my own advice.

07-06-08 | Smooth Water

You know those "serene" pictures you see of rivers or waterfalls where the water seems all smooth and blurred out? That is basically achieved using Shutter Speeds. The longer you leave the shutter open, the smoother (or technically, blurrier) the water, or any moving subject for that matter, gets. Seeing as I don't have rivers or waterfalls in my back yard, I had to improvise to play around to see the results for myself. The first picture above would be the result of using, say, a standard point-and-shoot camera, and the second was the result of controlling the shutter speed (In this case, I left it open for about a second). I think I'm getting this photography thing...

07-06-07 | Bob vs. Work pt.2

This better not be becoming a theme (see previous post: Broken Vows)... buuuut... I had another mishap at work today when I went to grab a case from a pallet and it happened to have some broken bottles in it with some sticking out of the bottom, and... Ouch. A trip to Emerg. and two stitches later, this was the result.





Note: These pics are probably not for the weak of stomach.

07-06-06 | Burn One Down

After playing with Automatic ISO settings the other night I wanted to test out how setting my own ISO in low light would turn out. The shutter moved a little slower, which caused a little bit of blurriness, but the result above is pretty much what I had anticipated. The blacks are black, and there is very little graininess.

07-06-05 | Multiplicity

Seeing as I didn't post anything for a couple of days last week, I figured I'd try and make up for it by posting a couple tonight. This was me playing around with a longer shutter speed to see what kind of effect I would get if I moved myself around to various positions for varying lengths of time. It probably would have worked out better if I wore some clothes that contrasted my surroundings, but, oh well, It's almost midnight and it simply wouldn't count if I posted after 11:59.

07-06-05 | vs.

I came up with this idea because I realized I didn't have any "posed" or "set up" shots as of yet. The goal was to make it look like a modern take on the old Godzilla movies where the monsters battled it out in front of a giant stationary picture. I didn't have any giant pictures, so I just stood the figures on my laptop with a picture of the Eiffel tower on the screen.

07-06-04 | Local Limit

Tonight I just played around with different angles and manual ISO levels in darker settings (until my batteries died, that is). Trying to find the right clarity vs. graininess (as seen in last night's shots).

07-06-03 | Arena Lights

Jess and I went to go watch my old hockey team play tonight... mostly to take pictures of something other than stuff in my yard. The action shots didn't turn out very well (mostly due to user error, I'll admit.) But the shots of the arena turned out pretty cool. I love the graininess that you get when flourescent light meets concrete.