Shot of the Day, Part Deux????

September 5, 2009 11:57 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Don’t think this is going to be a trend, but I actually have a “Shot of the day” for a second day in a row!*

I am super obsessed with dew droplets on plants right now. This was taken outside my job, on my way in for the morning. It also looks good Viewed On Black. Look at that bokeh! Look at that shallow depth of field! Look at all the photographic terms you are learning by reading my blog!


*I took this before 8 a.m. this morning. It might be jumping the gun a bit to call a “shot of the day” this early on, but it is a risk I am willing to take.

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“Shot of the Day”

September 4, 2009 3:48 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I wish I could be one of those photographers/bloggers who could keep up a “Shot of the day” routine on my blog (a la the Shot of the Day pool over at Flickr.) Or that I could commit to a 365 project. However, I feel I don’t have the wherewithal to do something like that right now. Aka: It would probably just result in EPIC FAILURE if committed to doing a “photo of the day” project on my blog.*

I have been taking a lot of photos the past few days with my digital camera -which is entirely unlike me. I am an “analog photography for LYFE” sort of girl. But I have been enamored with the lens I bought for my Pentax digital camera this week, because it gives me such yummy shallow depth of field. Having taken so many photos with the instant gratification of digital photography this week, it gives me the false sense that I COULD commit to making a “best photo of the day” blog post every day.

So. Let’s pretend for a minute that I DID have an ongoing “shot of the day” series on Shoot With Personality. If I did, the photo you see below you would be my offering for today.


Morning Afterhought

I feel bad for using technical terms about photography on my blog sometimes, because it might not be lingo that is well-known to those who see my blog who AREN’T photo enthusiasts. I talked about depth of field earlier in this post. I will use the above photo to explain depth of field. Depth of field (or Dof) is how much or how little is in focus in a photo. For instance, see how only a very small segment of the coffee mug’s handle is in proper focus, and the rest of the photo is sort of blurred? That is because the Dof is very shallow – very small – in this photo. The in-focus portion of the photo is quite slim. I won’t go into what I did to achieve shallow depth of field for this photo – another lesson for another day. But I thought this might be a good “teaching moment” for Shoot With Personality readers (or a good “this is what the heck I am talking about when I used that photographic term” moment.)

I quite like the idea of taking a photo each day (or many) and choosing which one I like best – it can help a photographer keep her skills sharpened. If I ever DO decide that is something I can do, you Shoot With Personality blog readers will be the FIRST to know about it.


*Perhaps if I become independently wealthy one day, I will have so much free time on my hands that I could  do a project of that sort?

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Happy Bokeh Wednesday (or a reasonable facsimile)

September 2, 2009 7:02 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

There is a Flickr group called Bokeh Wednesday. I am not a member of this group, and from the looks of it, I COULDN’T be (as they are currently not accepting new members.) However, it IS Wednesday. And I DO have some shots that show off bokeh* because I just got a lens with a large maximum aperture (a 50mm/2, for those of you who care about such details) for my digital camera (I have a Pentax K20d). And you know what that means? I am turning this into a bokeh Wendesday blog post. Hurray! It’s my way of sticking it to the man for not letting me join the official flickr group (just joking. I understand the overabundance of people who are excitedly posting photos with lovely bokeh on Wednesdays. I will happily join your merry band if membership is ever opened up again!)

Eaten Away

Ginkgo

(More) Ginkgo

Your typical “out of focus lights in the background” bokeh shot

Just a picture of Adam Hite’s arm and kung poa shrimp? Yes. But I liked the bokeh.

Happy Bokeh Wednesday, people!

*Bokeh is the out-of-focus area(s) of photos. Different lenses render the out-of-focus areas in different ways, so some have bokeh that is pleasing to the eye and some don’t. Whether or not one finds a lens’ bokeh pleasing is entirely subjective, as are most matters pertaining to photography.
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Current Updates

August 27, 2009 1:50 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Hiya.

I added some new photos to the Shoot With Personality Galleries this week.

*art photography

* weddings

*people

Don’t forget to check out the Weiss Family photos from their show in Memphis last week if you haven’t done so already.

And because I don’t like the way blog entries look if they don’t have a photo somewhere in them, here is a picture of my niece. Dressed as an American Indian during a trip we made to Jerry’s Sno Cones last month.

Yashica D TLR * cross-processed, 10 year old Fuji Velvia

(Yashica D TLR * cross-processed, 10 year old Fuji Velvia film)

Cheerio! I have been baking again recently, so expect some titillating food photography to be posted here soon.

Posted in: family, update ⋅ Tagged: