Week 8

Old Detroit
1/30s f/2.8 ISO 8000

Ariana went to the Detroit Historical Museum over winter break with a friend.  She has been wanting to go again and show us what was in the basement.  She loved the museum and would not tell us what was in the basement.  She wanted it to be a surprise.  We finally had a free weekend and took the kids to the museum.  I had picked up two free passes at the library and Trevor got a library card and picked up two free passes as well.

Before we went to the museum we first stopped and had lunch at Lafayette Coney.  We love that place.  It is a hole in the wall but they really do have the BEST coneys.  If you have never ate there, you are really missing out.  The next time you are in Detroit stop in and get a coney.  Check out their facebook page at Lafayette.

After lunch we went to the museum.  When we got there we discovered there was no charge to get in.  I'm not sure why. We didn't even need to use our free passes.  The kids had a blast.  They really like museums and seeing artifacts from the past.  We were walking around looking at everything and then the girls and I lost Trevor.  Or he lost us.  Either way we couldn't find him.  When we finally caught up with him, said he was in the basement and wanted to show us it.  Ariana was a little deflated.  SHE wanted to show us the basement.  Trevor felt bad that he went in the basement without us but he thought we were down there. He told Ariana that the rest of us hadn't see the basement and could lead us down to it.

When we got down there, we were all in awe.  It was a walk through time from mid 19th century to early 20th century Detroit.  My favorite was the 1840s.  The picture "Old Detroit" is my picture for the week because this is what Ariana had been waiting to show me for a couple months.  I can see why she thought the basement was very cool and wanted to show us it.  If you get a chance, check out the Detroit Historical Museum.

Wolf Moon Blogged

March 19th, 2011

Wolf Moon Over the Lake

I started following Michigan in Pictures  back in July of 2009.  It is a really cool blog where the author showcases pictures from Michigan and writes a blog post to go with them.  I have been wanting one of my pictures to be featured.  After a long wait my Wolf Moon Over the Lake was featured on March 19th.  Read the blog post Sap Moon, Worm Moon, Super Moon and see my pictured featured on blog.

Week 7

Luck
7.5s f/16.0 ISO 100

It was cold and dreary today and I had no idea what to take pictures of.  I looked out the window and saw no light and only grey skies.  I was hoping to get a beautiful sunset tonight but looking out the window I didn't know if that was going to happen.  I decided to press my luck and wait.  There have been days where it was so miserable all day and then the clouds break and there was the most beautiful sunset ever.  I was press my luck and see if I would get that sunset.

While I was waiting for that sunset, Ariana went to her friend's house to play and I did our taxes and paid some bills.  After a few hours I pulled myself away from the computer and checked outside again.  Still no light.  I decided to keep waiting.  I did some laundry and edited some pictures.  Still no light.  I started to get a little worried.  I began to realize that there was not going to be a sunset.  What were we going to take pictures of?????  I had no ideas.  It looked so crappy out that I didn't even think portraits would look good.  There was no light at all to work with.  It was week 7 and I was plum out of ideas.  Only week 7 and no ideas I thought.  How would I ever make it to week 52?  What was I going to do?

I started walking around my house looking for anything remotely interesting to photograph.  My house is pretty boring and I couldn't find anything.  I looked out in the backyard and all I saw was melting snow and mud.  Yuck.  The end of winter and beginning of spring is never pretty.  I am so sick of winter and just want spring to get here already.  Then I remembered St. Patrick's Day was this week.  I started to think of how I could incorporate the holiday into the photo challenge.  I thought about the dried four clover I had in my jewelry box.  I really didn't want to take a picture of a dried up clover so I kept thinking.

I started to think about the photography lessons I had been I teaching Ariana.  I taught her about aperture the last few weeks and thought maybe I could teach about shutter speeds this week.  Then an idea came to me.  I could teach her about light painting.  I could teach her how you can leave the shutter open and paint light with a flash light!  This was how I was going to incorporate St. Paddy's Day into the challenge.  I was really excited to tell Ariana my idea.

When she got home from her friend's house I told her about the my idea.  She love the idea and was excited.  She knew what I was talking about because we did this over the 4th of July with sparklers.  In July she drew pictures of stars with the sparkers while I was taking pictures of the fireworks.  This time though, she will get to take the pictures too.  We had to wait for it to get dark first.  This is when she reminded me that we should have done this the day before.  We would have to wait longer for it to get dark outside since we had to change the clocks ahead this morning.  She was right but it was worth the wait.

We waited until it was dark and then went and got the camera and the tripod.  You must use a tripod if you are going to hold open the shutter.  We also used the D60 because I don't have a remote for the D700 yet.  One more thing to add to my list of camera equipment I need.

Ariana was the first one to take the pictures while I drew with the light.  I decided to paint four leaf clovers with the flash light.  It was so much fun.   We then switched and I took the pictures and Ariana drew with the light.  We kept going back and forth.  Then we started to get creative and write our names with the light.  We were outside quite awhile.  It was cold out there but we didn't care because we were having too much fun.  Ariana said this was her most favorite photo challenge yet.  I told her we would have to do this more often.  She agreed that we should.  We then decided to call it quits and go inside.  We were both pretty cold.  Ariana said she didn't mind that she was cold because at least there wasn't any mosquitoes.  Again she was right.

I picked "Luck" as the picture for the week because I made my own luck.  It was a grey dreary day and I was so uninspired.  It was the luck of the Irish that pulled me out of my photography idea slump.  I also thought it was fitting since it is St. Patrick's Day this week and I am part Irish.  Ariana also drew such a beautiful four leaf clover.  To get the green effect I edited the picture in CS4 and changed the color to green.

Rock Star

17.0s f.16.0 ISO 100

This picture was the runner up for this week.  If it wasn't St. Paddy's Day I would have picked this one.  To get this picture I told Ariana to strike a pose.  Then I used the light to trace her body.  I like how the light not only traces her body but also highlights her body and face just a touch.  In CS4 I changed the color of the light.  I like the effect of the different color of lights.  I think it makes the picture more interesting.   Ariana really loved this picture.  We will be doing more of these in the future.

Michelle

17.0s f/16.0 ISO 100

I took this picture and painted my name with the light.  I then changed the color in CS4.

Forever
12.0s f/16.0 ISO 100

We were all done and I was about to take the camera off the tripod when Ariana said, "Wait I want to do one more."  So I took one more picture.  This is what she made for me.  I will treasure it forever.

Week 6

March 6th, 2011

Young Photographer

24mm 1/160s f/22 ISO 200

Our plans for today were to take portraits of each other at my favorite boardwalk.  I don't have many pictures of myself because I am always the one behind the camera.  The portrait plan didn't work out.  We had to be done taking pictures at 3pm because we were going to my brother-in-law's house for dinner.  It was noon and we were getting ready to leave, and the sun came out.  Usually this is a good thing. A nice sunny day in winter to melt the snow and drabness away.  But when you have to take pictures between 12-3 the sun is not your friend.  The best time to take pictures is in the morning or the evening.    And you never want to take portraits when the sunlight is so harsh.  You will get bad shadows, everybody will be squinting, and your shots just won't look good.  

I wasn't sure what to do.  I wanted to do portraits but that wasn't going to happen.  I needed an overcast day or I needed to shoot in the evening.  The evening was out because of the dinner plans so I had to come up with something.  Then I thought of something I read in one of my photography books.  It said something about using the light to your advantage.  So I thought maybe we could go to a park and take pictures of shadows.  Maybe a fence and it's shadow in the snow.  It wasn't going to be great but at least it would be something.  

Ariana was up for the idea so we headed off to Kensington.  When we got to the park I drove around a bit looking for something to catch my eye.  The fence I was thinking of had a car parked next to it. That idea out.  I started looking for another fence.  I found another fence but it was one o'clock and the shadows weren't long enough and didn't look interesting.  I drove some more.  Then I saw a trail that led back into the woods.  Perfect I thought.  I turned the car around and showed Ariana the spot.  She liked it also.  

I chose this picture as my picture for the week.  I wanted a portrait and I really liked having her in this shot.  I thought she looked adorable wearing her sunglasses and holding the camera.  Today might not have gone as planned.  That's okay though.  Being a photographer you have to be creative.  You might have great ideas of what you want to photograph but if you don't look around you might miss the shot you were suppose to take.  I love Joe McNally's bit of advice from his book, The Moment It Clicks, "I can't tell you how many pictures I've missed, ignored, trampled, or otherwise lost just 'cause I've been so hell bent on getting the shot I THINK I want," (p. 4).  

Another lesson learned today.  Always, always, ALWAYS have an UV filter on your lens.  Ariana accidently scratched the filter while putting or taking off the lens cap.  No big deal.  I did that too a few years ago when I first got the camera.  You can replace a UV filter for $20.  Replacing a lens is another story.  That will cost a couple hundred or depending on the lens, over a thousand dollars.  Good thing I use UV filters on all my glass.  

Here is the picture without Ariana in it:

A Walk in the Woods
24mm 1/160s f/22 ISO 200

And another one from today that I really liked:

Miss Hollywood the Photographer

70mm 1/3200s f/2.8 ISO 200

All my pictures are edited using Photoshop CS4.

Week 5 Update

March 5th, 2011

I printed the two pictures from Week 5 and I changed my mind.  "Standing" is the picture for the week and "Growing Up" is the runner up.

Standing