Project 365: February 2008

Project 365: Feb 28, 2008

I'm gearing up for St. Patrick's Day - and so is my neighbor!

Project 365: Feb 23, 2008

Happy Birthday, Monkey!!

(My niece, Morgan)

Project 365: Feb 22, 2008

Red-tailed Hawk, far off across the golf course sitting on the tee house. Digiscoped with my spotting scope and point-n-shoot camera.

I think I need a better point-n-shoot camera, or at least one that has a better track record with digiscoping. I'm displeased with the results from this one, though I do like it for standard snapshots.

Project 365: Feb 20, 2008

Lunar Eclipse

Partial at this point, on its way to a total lunar eclipse at 9:30pm central time. This is the last total lunar eclipse we will see until December 2010! Go look now!! Perfectly clear skies for Chicagoland :)

* This lapse in Project 365 photos brought to you by a very wicked flu. Boo.

Project 365: Feb 18, 2008

Printed this in photog class today. I took it at the cemetery near my house. It's the shot I was hoping to get - the one I ended up laying on my back in the snow to shoot. It still needs some work. I have a feeling this print will be my pet project all semester.

Project 365: Feb 17, 2008

My first set of negatives, developed in photography class. I'll print some of them tomorrow. Can't wait!

Project 365: Feb 16, 2008

No, it's not a photo, and no, I didn't create this graphic, but in the spirit of encouraging those who can to spare some thoughts and prayers for everyone at NIU, I dedicate today's Project 365 post.

Project 365: Feb 15, 2008

I went shooting down at the pioneer settlement off 9th Street in Lockport, along the I & M canal. I was shooting b/w film, but brought along my point-n-shoot so that I could snap a shot to represent my day for Project 365 (since I won't have my film developed and printed for at least a week). I converted the shot to black and white in Lightroom to be true to what I shot today.

The Story of Stuff

I've traditionally been content to take the "ignorance is bliss" approach to the footprint I leave on the environment with my consumption and disposal of goods, but since I've started watching birds and interacting a bit more with my natural environment, I'm beginning to see the importance of the natural resources and the environment around me, with all its wildlife and beauty.

This isn't your typical "go green" propaganda video. It paints a very clear picture of how we got to where we're at, and the core of why we need to change. It's worth 20 minutes of your time. I promise.

The Story of Stuff

Project 365: Feb 11, 2008

Today, I developed my first roll of film in the darkroom. This is a shot of all of my chemistry, ready to go into the developing tank. Jessica was my mixing partner, and we were totally rock stars - first ones mixed and ready at 68 degrees. It was a bit of a challenge, as the subzero temps outside resulted in a shortage of warm water on campus. The water in the darkroom was coming out of the faucets at 42 degrees, so our instructor had to get a bucket of hot water from the cafeteria so that we could mix the hot with cold to get our chemistry to 68 degrees. I explained how to get 68 degree water from 42 degree water and 108 degree water. (With a 66 degree difference between the two, just about equal parts of each would get us in the ballpark of 68 degrees). With that, we were good to go.

Two of my shooting buddies from the summer class are also in this class - Gloria and Rhonda. Good times! I snapped a few pics of us on my Blackberry to commemorate our first day in the darkroom.

Wednesday, we'll learn how to make a proof sheet.

Project 365: Feb 9, 2008

A Canada Goose Reflects

This is a crop of a larger photo I took of more geese sitting on the ice island in the pond in my back yard. I counted close to 150 geese there, between the pond and the banks of the golf course behind it. The temperature took a near-50-degree plunge today, and I expect it'll be a rough few days for the geese and all wildlife braving the outdoors.

Project 365: Feb 8, 2008

What I did today.

Oy yes, I know, another lame photo - but I used up all of my creativity shooting film today, and I won't have those pics until after next week when I learn how to develop and print them in the darkroom. I'll likely scan something from today's film shots into digital, but until then...

Shooting the Sunny 16 and Light Meter Assignment

We finally got a few rays of sun cracking through the clouds today - enough for me to go out and do my photography assignment. Not that I wait till the last minute - we need 2 rolls of film shot by Monday, and tomorrow the temps are supposed to drop below zero again.

The first assignment was supposed to be a Sunny 16 assignment, but it was more of an Overcast 16+3 assignment due to the weather. We haven't seen the sun here in weeks. There were a few breaks in the clouds, so I tried to take advantage of that. The second roll we were to shoot was using the light meter on our cameras. With the snow cover, I overexposed most of my shots hoping to compensate for the light colored snow.

It was a decently nice day out: 40 degrees, no wind. I first went to the little cemetery at the end of my block. Shot a roll of b/w film there. It's really hard shooting and having no idea what the results are. Did I get the shot I saw in my mind's eye? Should I take a few more just in case? Were the camera settings right? Did I remember to overexpose that last shot for the snow? Shooting film is a lot more deliberate. It feels a lot more permanent, and it feels like there's a lot more at stake. If you run across a once-in-a-lifetime shot, there's more pressure to have the camera settings perfect. It seems like there's a bit more leeway in post-processing when it comes to digital photography.

The other thing I caught myself doing was shooting for color, which of course is senseless when shooting black and white. My eye isn't used to seeking out good contrast situations over interesting color compositions.

There was one shot at the cemetery that I was completely compelled to make, to the point that I was actually laying down in the snow trying to make the picture. (Me? Hater of all things winter? Despiser of cold? Laying in snow? Yeah. Like I said, I was compelled). I don't know if I got it, but if I did, that shot is going to mean a lot to me.

With the left half of my body soaking wet from laying in the snow, I got back into the car and loaded film roll #2. I headed toward Laraway to try and get some shots of this bright red barn that has an American flag painted on the side. Along the way, I took a couple detours, as I kept finding hawks perched on telephone poles and power lines. 3 different hawks eluded me while I made all sorts of crazy maneuvers, pulling off the road, and into various parking lots trying to get to a place where I could either park and get out or shoot from the car window.

I finally gave up on those hawks and headed on down to Laraway, when, lo and behold, there was ANOTHER hawk on a pole. I pulled off the road just in front of the pole and was able to get a couple shots of the hawk flying away. I had to shoot through my windshield, which is generally not a good thing, but we'll see.

I made it down to where that barn was, but couldn't find anyplace to pull off the road, unless I wanted to either park in somebody's private driveway, or park down the road at a nature trail for maybe a half mile walk. I decided to do neither. There isn't much traffic on that road, so I stopped in the middle of the road and got a couple shots out my window, but they will likely suck as they were not interesting compositions at all.

Then, I stopped at Subway for a sandwich, where the couple in front of me was so distracted with groping each other and sucking on each others' faces that they couldn't even come up for air long enough to tell the guy behind the counter what they wanted on the sandwiches they just ordered. Seriously? You have to make out in the middle of having sandwiches made at Subway? They weren't kids; they were probably in their mid 30's. I'm all for two people being blissfully in love, but that's just ignorant. Make out BEFORE or AFTER you order your sandwiches, for the sake of all that is good and holy. I thought maybe I was just bitter, but after the sucky faced trolls left, the people working behind the counter started talking about how gross and rude their behavior was - and these were teenagers who likely still get a thrill out of the mere THOUGHT of sex. So I don't think it was just me :)

After the sucky face/sandwich incident, I went to Pilcher Park to walk their trails and shoot the rest of roll of film #2. I was hoping to see a deer, and sure enough, I found a whole family of them! 5 deer! I didn't want to get too close and disturb them, but with the 300mm lens I was able to get some decently frame-filling shots. They were aware of me and were leery at first, but after a few minutes of me standing still, they went back to grazing and picking dead leaves off the trees.

Of course, since I'm shooting in full manual mode for this class, I keep worrying that I didn't have the settings right. I was very conscious of the light meter, but I was paying no attention whatsoever to the actual shutter speed that my light meter was recommending. Hopefully it was fast enough to hand-hold those shots.

I watched the deer for a bit then went down to the other end of the trail and got some shots of ice melting off of one of the buildings near the Flowing Well.

While I generally dislike winter, one thing I did realize today was that there is a benefit to walking the trails in the winter: animal tracks. It's pretty cool to see animal tracks in the snow and try to figure out what they were made by and how fresh they are. I must admit, I took a couple pictures of animal tracks. They probably won't turn out very well in b/w due to low contrast, but we'll see. I'm new to this whole b/w thing.

After Pilcher Park, I headed home.

In class last week, we went into the darkroom for the first time to practice loading film onto the reels for developing. I was very comfortable with it. Darkness doesn't bother me in the slightest, and I usually opt to be in the dark when I've got a choice in the matter. I think I will greatly enjoy the darkroom experience.

I'm slightly nervous about remembering all of the steps of film developing - particularly, the length of time to agitate the developing tank for each step. It seems like you really need to do each step in quick succession, but until I know the steps by heart, I'll probably be referring to notes (which takes time). I need to go buy a bottle top opener and a pair of scissors this weekend for my darkroom supplies. I think I've pretty much got everything else I need.

I was looking online at developing tanks and the chemistry. The instructor suggested early in the semester that we might want to develop our film at home and then make our prints in the college darkroom. It looks like the tanks are around $20 and the chemistry isn't very expensive - probably $50 in all to develop film at home. I'm considering it.

I'm also keeping my eyes open for a reasonable enlarger and printing equipment. I'd love to set up a home darkroom. A friend of mine used to have a home darkroom that he would set up in his bathroom. I've got a bathroom :) I don't want to jump the gun on that, though. I'll wait and see how much I really like darkroom work. I can always use the equipment at the college, too.

Project 365: Feb 7, 2008

Me. Taken by the iSight camera in my iMac.

Sorry I'm so far behind on Project365. Work has been nuts. :-/

Light Meters and Exposure

Today in photography class we covered light meters and I think I finally "got it" in my head. I was having trouble with the apparent backwards-ness of it. For example, for snow scenes, you're supposed to open up 2 stops, but in my head, I was thinking that snow = bright, therefore you'd want to expose LESS. However, with today's explanation of the gray card, it finally clicked. I'd read about gray cards before and understood that they represent an average scene of equal portions of light and dark - 18% gray. I got that. What I didn't get was how that tied into exposure.

The camera assumes all scenes are average. It sees snow and exposes to properly make the snow neutral gray. Well, snow is white, not gray. So we need MORE light to hit the film to expose the snow areas enough that they're brighter - enough that they're white. Thus, the reason why you open up and expose MORE when you have a bright scene. The reverse is true for black. The camera will take a primarily dark scene and assume those shades are an average scene and make them 18% gray - so dark areas would show up gray. However, we want them DARKER - so we want to expose those areas LESS to KEEP them dark. Therefore, we UNDER expose by x number of stops to keep those dark areas dark.

I think the key to my understanding was thinking consciously that the camera sees ALL scenes as average scenes, containing equal parts dark and light tones. Then, thinking in terms of whether my subject was brighter than neutral gray (needing more exposure) or darker than neutral gray (needing less exposure) - that made it click.

We'll see if I can keep it clicked in my brain and apply it in the field!

Found a camera?

I ran across a cool site while reading Post Secret today: I Found Your Camera

It's a blog where people can post photos taken by cameras they've found (you know - you're at a concert or someplace and you find somebody's lost camera and want to return it to them with the photos).

Great idea, I thought!

Project 365: January 2008 Collage

1. My Favorite House, 2. Great Horned Owl, 3. blackhawks_vs_bluejackets-01242008-33, 4. Cat Shadow, 5. Billows in the cold, 6. Love, 7. It's cold., 8. Brodeur, 9. Relative warmth, 10. Bamboo BW, 11. Rarrrrrr!, 12. My babies, 13. Doppler Radar in Lockport, 14. Cat fight, 15. Mike Modano, 16. Raindrops on the window at night, 17. Goose in a cube, 18. Cardinal Silhouette, 19. Red-bellied Woodpecker, 20. Northern Harrier, 21. Bye bye, video card., 22. Young Cooper's Hawk, 23. Common Redpoll, 24. Jumping Female Cardinal!, 25. Catghost

Project 365: January 2008

Reduce camera shake for < $1

Found this via the Digital Photography School blog -

Cheap camera stabilizer: reduce camera shake with a homemade gadget that fits in your pocket!




$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - video powered by Metacafe

Project 365: Feb 1, 2008

Here's the "public" version of my Project 365 post. The "real" version is a snapshot of me and my 3 year old cousin, Karli. This picture here was actually taken by Karli, of vicious Sammy the Dog. About the only time you'll see his teeth is when we're goofing around and making him look vicious :) Look at those chops!