Tuesday, September 30, 2008

YAY! My Camera is Home:

Last week The Mike took *my* camera on his fishing tournament trip to Clearlake and I missed it greatly.

Oh, Lawdy did I miss it so! It's become a part of me. Like my knitting.

I made him promise that he would actually take pictures of his environs while out and about and I have to give him credit. He not only "took pictures", he took a few good ones!

My top three favorites:

The land line is even and the clouds look great. He's pretty close to the 1/3rd rule too.


Again, the lines are even and his subject matter is attractive


My personal favorite. Look at that composition! I would have taken that picture myself, LOL.

He had some also-rans. The top three almosts:

A really good shot but I find the lopsidedness distracting


Another really good one overall, but the subject matter is too far away for me to identify


The Mike's partner took this one. The subject matter is eye-catching . . . and the fish is a beaut too, LOL. Tray doesn't know from out-of-focus or framing or anything picture taking related so I'm not really unhappy with it outside of the generic "it could have been better" if taken by someone more into photography.

Thank me that I've spared you the other 32 horribly crappy pictures he came home with. Bless his pointy little head though because the effort was worthy of an A+.

He doesn't listen to me about how to fold the laundry properly, but maybe . . . just maybe . . . he's been keeping his ears open when I discuss photography.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Stunned:

My virtual friend Diane is going through a tragic loss right now.

Diane has been a very important part of ravelry's Project 365 group and is such an inspiration to me personally in my photog passion and path. Whenever I talk about my love of taking pictures, I start with ravelry, project 365 and Diane.

The things she's taught me about my camera and the way I look through it are priceless. She usually adds something to any comment she puts towards our shots.

Her son's picture reminds me of The Mike so much. She captured via a camera the way I see Mike every day. The gentle giant-ness of them. The potential and the gleam and the essence.

She can get it on film whereas I can only capture it with my naked eye.

My soul is sad for her. Such a kind and nice person does not deserve this pain.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Same Difference:

I've met up with another local photographer and we've been hitting the same places - together and apart.

Her set of shots versus my set of shots.

She's damn good, I think. Those comparisons aren't exactly the same but they are as close as close gets for the most part.

My Favorite Three (of hers):





How is it that we were at the same event and saw things so damn differently? That's what I want to learn.

Tomorrow I'm taking one of my cameras gifted from Knitting Suzanne out and about on the town - fresh manual film and everything, LOL! I need to learn how to wield a "real" camera by now. No more Scare-dy Cat hiding.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Clang Clang Goes the Trolley:

I ran out for an errand today, and luckily remembered that I've been wanting to visit the Amtrak station just down the road.

There's a picturesque foot bridge that goes over the tracks. Without having a clue about the the train schedule, I lucked into a passenger train arriving while I was on that bridge. My initial emotion was fear of being up there, but it didn't move or anything so I'm definitely going to go back up there.

My favorite three:





You can see the entire set here.

Monday, September 15, 2008

09/15/08

I got my weekend photos up and organized finally.

Here's the set from i Madonnari in Downtown SLO, and here is the set from yesterday's monthly Beer & Knitting meetup.

My favorite three:




(I didn't notice the reflection until I had put the pictures in my computer)





Over on September 11th's flickr blog entry, there is an interesting interview with some photographer. One of his tips/suggestions is (paraphrased) to not always look at the display monitor after taking a picture. Just 'go shoot' a bunch of shots without critiquing them in the moment. That stuck with me and will be something I do the next time I've got camera in hand.

I cannot believe it myself, but I left the house today without my camera. It was completely by accident and I'm annoyed I did it. After knitting group this morning, I'd intended to wander the Bob Jones Trail since it's right there. Oh well, next Monday for sure. Probably for the best, as I had one of my six stuck up in a tree all night. She's finally home and safe and *shocker* doesn't want out, lol.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Photography Blog:

So, another thing I've been thinking needs to be separate from my knitting and my "blue content" is my love of photography.

I'm seriously in love with the taking of pictures. The elusive "one" that stands alone.

The more I learn about the craft, the more I learn what more there is to learn. Does that make sense?

I'll have to figure out the balance of all three blogs but I know what I'm envisioning. Ain't no way I'll be updating all three every single day, but every day I'll be updating at least one.

Today I took several shots while at this year's i Madonnari event at the Mission in SLO. I'd met a fellow flickr friend for the first time last week and she invited me to come hang with her in SLO today.

We walked around, her with her digital SLR and me with my Kodak digital and snapped away - from one end of downtown to the other. We ended our afternoon at Bel Frites on Garden St. Who knew fries could be that good?

I then skeedaddled over to Moonstone's Cafe for the monthly "Beer & Knitting" meetup. Oh, yeah. You know I took pictures.

I'll be getting them up (hopefully) tomorrow.