It was a toss-up between these two photos, so I thought I’d just use both of them.
What is it, you ask? It’s the string-pod! It buys you up to two stops in low light for handheld shots, and fits right in your pocket.
Man, I just love McGyver photography equipment. So cool, so simple, and so cheap.
And this one didn’t even need duct tape or gum. Or gum wrapper.
I’ve been reading up on bokeh, and if I’ve understood what I’ve read so far, then according to Ken Rockwell, that top polygon in the background is an example of bad bokeh, the one below it is neutral, and the blue one below those two is the best-shaped one of the three.
Is that right? I’m not sure. In any case, that’s what I was trying to do here. So no comments about the photo of Santa Cruzan Mango Rum with Bailey’s Irish Cream in the background. Or the fact that this picture of bottles of alcohol was taken before 9am today. They’re just props. Really, they are.
Honest.
What do you call the photographer’s version of writer’s block? Whatever it is, that’s what plagued me today. I was absolutely uninspired to photograph anything all day. So Day 15 will be the tip of my red pen because, well, even that was unused today.
And to think I spent a good part of last night imagining all these cool things I was going to photograph up close. Right.
I have some photos that are bleh in color, and a bit less than bleh in black and white. What to do, what to do.
What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour:
7. Not too happy with how your photos look in color or black and white? Try infrared faked in Photoshop. It just may be what you’re looking for.
I was scanning through my old shots to find a nice one with enough bright, sharp foliage to test out the infrared technique. I’d been going through some infrared photos in Flickr, and a number of them are simply amazing. But I was slowly getting frustrated with my inability to make them look at least a little bit like the ones I had seen on Flickr.
While I don’t know yet how to realistically recreate that true infrared white glowing foliage effect (is it even possible done solely in Photoshop?), I discovered that it can do wonders for those in-between shots.
Here’s one I took some years ago, straight out of my first digital camera (a 1.3 Olympus that probably cost more then than my Canon S5 now). This was Pebble Beach in Monterey, California. Which happens to be my favorite place ever in the world, other than home, of course.
I liked it enough to keep it, obviously. But I clearly didn’t know what do with it.
So I followed the easy step in my CS3 Power Tour workbook to fake the infrared look. And yes, I said “step” because that’s all it took – just one Channel mixer adjustment, and I was good to go.
I thought it turned out pretty well, and much better than a straightforward black and white conversion. Here’s another one from that same trip:
Now, I know the foliage should be white, but hey, don’t those rocks look cool?
The beginning of this week brought some really amazing colors to the sky. Remember my garden’s recent invasion of the dark pink-purple mums? Well, early this week, they saw a sunrise that matched them perfectly. (I should say they would match if it were October and the mums weren’t frozen yet.)
I peeked out the window again before lunch, and this is what I saw.
The sunset later that day wasn’t half bad, either.
Almost looks like a wildfire, doesn’t it?
Much as I’m a warm climate lover, I’ll say this about winter skies: they’re almost never boring.
Oh, and mom, before you worry about your only daughter making it a habit to hang outside her window in all sorts of precarious positions to get these shots, please be reassured that these pictures don’t always require some level of balance or acrobatic skill. Which I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear, since I posses neither.
Case in point: that sunset photo above. This is where I was when I took it.
See? I wouldn’t lie to you, would I?
And before you start worrying about a whole new set of things, no the car wasn’t moving. That was a parking lot, and all those other cars there weren’t moving either. I wouldn’t risk my life by attempting to dodge traffic knowing full well I have no talent for crossing streets safely.
Just … don’t ask me if I sometimes take pictures while driving. Trust me, you don’t want to know.