Back into it

So the holidays sort of threw me. I had a hard time with everything going on to do much with photography. I've had a few weeks to settle back into regular life, and finally I've had some time to catch back up on my photography.

I will start with my non-challenge entries first. These are ones I've taken and like but they don't fit into any of the challenge themes.

This one I took while I was in Idaho over the holiday's. I liked the shot and have been meaning to do something with it. I finally got some time and worked on it, and I really like the results. I have to say it is one of my favorites:


This next set is for an upcoming challenge. I took a trip to the Salt Lake City Temple to get some shots for a challenge called 100 years. For this challenge you must take a picture of something 100 years or older. I chose the Salt Lake City Temple. I have taken a lot of pictures of this temple and I wanted to do something different, so I went at dusk Friday night and shot a few just as the sun went down, and the lights on the temple came on. I think they turned out really nice. The first one is my favorite and the one I will be entering for the challenge.

Title:
The Salt Lake City Temple Dedicated 1853

Another good one:


I loved the sky in the background for this one:

This one was for a challenge called "bits and pieces. I filled a paint drawer we had with different spices. I like the colors in it.

Title:

Kitchen Pantry

This one was for a challenge called "Out of Balance". This one was tricky because as photographers a balanced photo is a good photo, so it was hard to take a photo that disregarded those rules but still looked good. The concept behind this photo was to not only have an unbalanced photo by having a large strong color on the right, and a smaller muted color on the left. I also wanted to show unbalance in the focus made on one girl over the other. The title also shows this, and no she is not, daddy's favorite. I was also using the title to convey an imbalance.

Title:

Daddy's Favorite



This next one was for a challenge entitled "work" I wanted to try and copy the Rosie the Riveter posters from World War II. I think I did a pretty good job but the focus is a bit off. This was one of my most frustrating challenges to date. It was really hard to take a photo of myself I seriously tried almost 200 times. Either the lighting wasn't right, the pose wasn't right or I wasn't even fully in frame. Finally I got this one, like I said the focus was not in the right place (it was on my shirt not on my face) But the pose was good and the lighting was decent so I gave up and just went with it.

Title:

Women at Work "Rosie the Riveter" circa 1943

Here is one of the original posters for comparison:

This final one is one of my favorites. It was for a challenge called Rubber Ducky. It was kind of a silly challenge. Here are the specifics:

In the photo you must include the following: Exactly 1 rubber ducky, a piece of rope or string, one or more vegetables, and something red. This is what I came up with.

Title:

Ducky, having much success during the annual run of Swedish fish.

Odds and Ends

I had a bit of a crazy Christmas and photography sort of took a backseat to everything else. I actually did take a lot of pictures but most of them were just snapshots or I haven't gotten around to editing them. Here are a few miscellaneous shots that I have gotten done.

This month I am working on improving my still life photography skills. I have been taking pictures of various object around the house. This type of photography is harder than it seems.

The one has kind of a complicated setup. First I suspended a large white cutting board between two chairs. I placed my external flash (that I got for Christmas) underneath. Then I laid the object on it, and positioned my tripod above it facing down. When the flash from my camera goes off my external flash senses it and also goes off lighting it from behind. This is what you get kind of cool huh!

I guess this also qualifies for still life. Outdoor still life anyway. This one I took of a crab tree covered in snow and then added a special effect in photoshop to make it look painterly. I decided it sort of looked like a Christmas card so I added the text.

Challenge entries:

I did manage to enter some challenges this month despite the hectic holiday schedule.

This one was for a challenge called inside looking out. I decided it would be fun to give a mouses view of Santa's Christmas Eve cookies:

Title:

Twas the night before Christmas

This was my free study entry

Title:

December Sunrise

This last one is one of my favorites of all time. I don't know what there is about it but I like the mood of it. Me liking it doesn't seem to be helping it in the challenge it is only doing average. I really thought it would do better but sometimes its hard to guess. The challenge was called Contre jour which is a fancy french word meaning toward the light.

Title:

Reflecting on the Dawn of a New Year

A Christmas Baby

My friend and neighbor had a little boy about a week ago, I have really been wanting to practice taking pictures of babies so I asked her if she would mind if I shot a few of her new little one. I had big plans for some sleepy shots since newborns usually are sleepy and its hard to catch them with their eyes open. He had something else in mind, and it was a lucky thing because he has such amazing blue eyes. I didn't get to use all the fun props I brought over but I got some fun shots anyway.

Here is one of my favorites. I added a few embellishments to make it even more Christmas like. Talk about baby blues!

I did manage to get 1 sleepy shot. He is so alert for a week old baby I couldn't believe it:

This is what he was doing most of the time. I thought it was cute anyway:

This is what he wanted is Binky and blankey. So I just decided to go with it and take a few more of his beautiful eyes.

One more he was almost asleep, but anytime I got that camera anywhere near him he would pop those eyes open:



Another one almost asleep, but he just couldn't let go and close those eyes. His mom said he slept for 4 hours strait after the photo shoot. He must have wore himself out trying to stay awake.

One more:

I took Sydnie Christmas shopping at the outlet malls last week. I dressed her up cute for a photo shoot I had to do for a challenge called window shopping. I really loved the way these turned out I think I am going to frame one for my wall. However they are not doing well in the challenge, not because they are bad pictures but because I cropped too much of the window out and it is hard to tell she is window shopping. Oh well that's a mother for you, I just couldn't help cropping it down to what I thought was the best part of the picture.

This is the one I entered. I wish I could get her to smile she did when the camera wasn't pointed at her but whenever I pulled the camera out she would get mad. Poor girl is going to have a camera phobia because of her mother.

Titled:

All done shopping.

Here are a few more. I love them all despite her grumpy looks.

Here is another challenge entry for a challenge called "from the ground up" This didn't turn out quite as well as I had imagined it. But sort of interesting anyway. It is doing fairly well but not exceptional.

Title:

And we all float on

Here is one I took for fun it was sort of an ordinary photo until I played around with it a bit. I really like it now and I can't even explain why.

I woke up to a spectacular sunrise about a week ago here is one of many great shots of that sunrise I took. I may enter it for my free study, I haven't decided yet. At any rate it needs a bit more editing if I do.

More Textures

I have had fun playing with textures this month. It is fun to play with them I think I might use one of the shots below on our Christmas card. I like using textures but they are not allowed in the challenges I enter, so that is why you will never see a texture on any of my challenge entries.

The pictures below I shot for a challenge these didn't work out because the lighting was bad. They are perfect candidates for textures. They hide most of the imperfections and highlight the good parts of the photo you want to show.

This was at the end of the photo shoot and Sydnie was getting tired of posing, so she started to play with her hat. I think they are really fun shots of her.

The goal of these pictures was to try and get some cute shots of Sydnie holding Lu Lu. The lighting was bad so they ended up a little blurry, but you can't tell with the overlay.

This one I just liked because of her cute smile and her eyelashes.

This weeks challenge entries

This one is for a challenge called "Faces in Houshold Objects". It took me a while to figure something out but I finally pulled our Wii out and saw that the disk opening looked a little like a mouth, but what to use for eyes. I looked through the basket of Wii stuff and found the numb chucks, perfect! This one is doing pretty well, it is just above a 6 and any time I get above a 6 I am really happy. A low 6 means you have mass appeal and most people like your photo. High (like a 6.8) and you are in ribbon territory.

Title:

Wii see you!

This one is my Free Study entry for the month of November. Generally you save one of your best shots from the month and enter it in the Free Study. This is the one I chose. It is doing pretty well. Currently it is at a 6.2 and for a Free Study with over 260 entries that is really good. So I am happy I won't win a metal, but my score means I am on the right track as far as my photography and editing skills go.

Title:

A Tranquil Autumn Lake.

This one hasn't gone into scoring yet it is for a challenge called "Horizons" I had a hard time finding a day when the mountains would give me a good horizon. Finally early one morning I looked out my back window and saw the sun reflecting on the fog over the lake. I ran out in freezing weather but managed to get some pretty great shots. I am going to start to try and predict my scores this one I predict will score around a 6.4 or higher, part of the reason I think it will do so well is because of the low number of entries around 70, when there is less competition your score tends to be higher.

Title:

A Misty Morning Horizon

Here is another shot from that morning, I am not using it for a challenge but liked it anyway.

This one is for a challenge called "celebrating life" I took my girls and some of their friend sledding to take some pictures. They started sledding down the hill with just their coats and so I laid down on the hill and waited for them to go zooming by. I just love their faces in these. My girls were right behind them and you couldn't see their faces so I had to cut them out. This one is harder to predict because the photo quality isn't as good, but it has a lot of emotion so that will get me points. I am predicting 5.8 or higher, but I am hoping it will surprise me and get me above a 6.

Titled:

Who Needs a Sled?

It Snowed!!!

The snow came over this Thanksgiving weekend, and while it was miserable to drive in, it was fun to take pictures of.

This is my latest challenge entry. The challenge is called "Orange", I thought it would be fun to take a picture in the snow, I think the white of the snow sets off the Orange nicely. I still don't know what I am going to title it or which one of the two photo's I am going to use. I am leaning toward the first one, the challenge deadline is in a few hours I better hurry up and choose.

I had to take these while it was snowing so they have sort of a grainy look. I wish I could have taken one without the snow but it hasn't stopped once since I took this picture.

This next one is for a challenge called "Clouds" I really didn't think this one would do that well, but it has surprised me with a pretty high score so far. I won't make the top 10 but I should finish in the top 20. I saw this out my back window and walked out on my deck to take it. I thought it was fun how the cloud was sitting on the mountain.

titled:

"At the end of a long day, even a cloud needs a rest"

This next challenge entry is a bit weird, so it requires an explanation. This challenge was entitled "Posthumous" he is a photographer with a very abstract style. His work is mostly in black and white and almost always a bit blurry. We were suppose to copy his style. This is what I came up with. It's doing okay, its hard to copy another persons work, especially when its not your favorite type of photography. I much prefer crisp clear images, to abstract blurry images. I did have fun making this and I think it turned out sort of cool in its own way.

title:

"A snow angel takes flight"

This was a runner up for the cloud challenge. I really liked it. I had a hard time choosing, but in the end I think I made the right decision.

Textures

I have been playing around a lot with textures lately. I have learned a lot from other members of DPC. Here are a few of my favorites:

In other news:

I have been doing quite well with some of my challenge entries lately. My Off centered finished 10th out of 170 entries and my reflection entry finished 19th out of 150 entries. We will see if I can keep up the pace on my entries this week.

Landscapes

I am learning there is an art to each type of photography and those who are really into photographing landscapes are really particular about it. After failing miserably on my free study challenge entry for October, I decided I needed a little more practice taking and editing landscapes. There really is an art to it, and I had fun practicing some techniques I learned this week.

It also happened that two of my challenge entries involved landscapes this week I will start out with those.

This first picture is my entry for the "reflections without a mirror" challenge. I was nervous about entering it, especially after bombing on my last landscape entry. But one of my mentors on DPC assured me that it would do well, and so far it has. Not as well as some of my other shots have done, but well enough to encourage me to do more.

Title:

Sunset Reflections

This next one is also a challenge entry. It is doing really well. For awhile there I thought I was going to break my record and get the highest score I have received so far. But it has dropped a little in the last few days. Oh well, it is still doing really well, and I should get a top 10 out of it, and if I am really lucky there is still a chance for a ribbon or an honorable mention.

This challenge was called "off centered subject" I had an idea to have one of my girls trying to catch snow with their tongue but it just never snowed hard enough this week to try it. So I went with this instead. I really love her look in this one. In case you are wondering what she is looking at, it is the cows in a pasture next to us.

Title:

"Winter is Coming..."

This is the version I almost entered. I really liked it but you can really get knocked down for over processing and I chickened out at the last minute.

The next few, are ones I am thinking of entering for my November Free Study entry. In case you are wondering what Free Study is, it is once a month and you can enter any picture you want that you took that month. Everybody saves their best photo's for it and the competition is fierce. Those who win free studies are the really accomplished seasoned photographers. So I really don't have a chance at winning, but I would like to try and get a good score.

This one I took when I was taking the photo's of Sydnie in the field. The sun decided to peak out of the clouds and I got some really neat shots:

This is one I took when I was by the lake getting my reflection shots. I was walking along the lake and stumbled across this cool old structure. The clouds really were doing some cool things behind it, and I got some great shots.

Here is another from my photo shoot with Sydnie. I decided to take some pictures of the cows in the Field across from us. I like this one, but it really isn't my favorite of the three.

My sister and her family came for the weekend. They have not ever had a family portrait taken. Her husband is anti family portrait. My brother is requesting a family picture of everyone this year for Christmas. So she talked him into going outside our house just before they went to church to just take a family "snapshot" We were so rushed I only got a few shots. I had to merge a few to get a decent smile on everyone.

Snapshot or not I just couldn't live with that background. So I decided to use my editing skills and give them a little better background. I used one of the shots I took with Sydnie that had a blank background and merged them together. I thought it turned out kind of fun. Who needs to go on location anymore? You can just find a picture of your favorite background and stick yourself in it, sounds like a good idea to me.

On a side note the results came in on two previous challenges I entered. The triptych the one with my three girls merged together was disqualified, which was actually a lucky break for me since it wasn't doing well.

The Orange and Blue Complimentary colors did really well. I got 7th place out of 100 entries! That means I was on the front page with all the ribbon winners. It's been exciting doing so well in the last few challenges I have entered. I'm sure it won't last, so I will enjoy it while I can.