Day 21

7/31/10

"Skies of Brightest Blue (HDR)"

Today was my first experience using a circular polarizer filter on my camera. Because of the poor weather yesterday the sun wasn't clear enough to try out my new filter. Today I went out and drove around, all the way out to Fitchburg and back to Lake Wingra taking photographs of landscapes and using the polarizer. Though the angle here isn't perfect (polarizers are best used at a 90 degree angle to the sun for full effect) and because of that you can see a small amount of fading in the sky from dark blue to light, I'm overall happy with my purchase of this filter. It gives a darker blue and more contrast in the sky, which motivates me to take more photos outdoors in the sun. I'm also happy with how this HDR turned out. I can't wait to take more sunny-day photos.

As usual, click for a larger image. This is always a great idea for HDR images, to get the full effect.

Day 20

f7/30/10

"Imagining Italy"

As a friend spends time in Italy, I envy the sights she's seeing and pictures she's taking. For my 20th photo in this project, I decided to take a photo of a Roman or Italian-esque scene because of what I feel like I am missing out on, and to remind me what things I am getting to see. I am getting to see scenes that I've only passingly looked at, and see them in a whole new light. I was just amazed by the intricacy of the black lines in the tile work that you can see when you look at the large 4288 x 2848 pixel image. I wanted to use this angle to try to convey a large, cavernous space, giving this space (one of the entrances to the second floor of the Memorial Union) a look of grandeur that it normally might not project.


A short side note, the last four images I've taken have all been manually focused, and I love the raw element to it and how much more it involves me in the photograph. Additionally, I believe that so far, all of my photos have been done on Manual mode for both aperture and shutter speed, as well as what ISO the photo is done at. No using the camera as a crutch. I'm quite happy with the very little I've used photo editing. I don't have the ability to "fix" any problems with photos, and I only slightly adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation, etc, if anything at all. I only use photo editing software to compliment the beauty of my photos, not to force a good photo where there is none, and I'm very happy with the results.

Click for a larger photo.

Following and Comments

I officially have my first follower. Most people actually come to my blog directly from bookmarks or from links from Facebook. However, if you would like automatic updates to my blog, if you follow any others, in RSS form or other (through blogger blog following), just sign in to your Gmail or Google accounts, and come to this website and click the Follow button above my blog.

Additionally, if you want to leave comments, I'd love to hear the constructive criticism or compliments. You can leave comments anonymously (but please sign them if I know you so I can know who I'm talking too. Its more fun that way), or by commenting, then signing in under your Google account if you have one.

Thanks everyone for checking out my pictures. I've got a lot more to come!

Day 19

7/29/10

"Petunias on Library Mall"

Today I kept with my work to try to use selective artistic focus (bokeh) on objects, particularly close up, where its most effective.  I had an idea to try to take photos of the beautiful flowers around campus, and while I was down at Library Mall with the fire dancers last night, these beautiful petunias were overshadowed by the fire and I totally didn't know. When I stumbled upon them today, it was just what I was looking for. Again, this would have been great with the prime lens I've been looking at. Someday, maybe soon.

Click for a larger photo.

Day 18

7/28/10

"Wednesday on the Terrace"

It was another Wednesday night down by the Union. I ran over to see if I could get some more shots of the fire dancers, but none of them turned out nearly as good as anything last week, and it would have been too easy to post those yet again. Instead, I went down to the Terrace to hang out with my friend Dylan and some other friends on Dylan's birthday. While sitting at a bench down by the lake, I saw this image framed in my view. Instead of a nicely lit, perfect image that I would like to take, I realized the limitations of my lens and decided to go a different direction. Low ISO, grainy, raw, long shutter speed, blur, and overly saturated. Here, I got almost everything I wanted. The only flaw in my image, through my eyes, is the two green dots that came through the lens. Not quite sure what causes that, something with how the light interacts with the lens I'm sure, but its too bad.

I've realized over the last 18 days that I love low-light photography. Maybe because thats when I have the most time, or most motivation to go out and shoot. Maybe its just because of the shots and the life you can pick up even in the dark of night. This realization has made me think that, depending on my financial situation at the end of the summer, I might like to buy the Nikkor 35mm AF-S prime lens that I was looking at. It would be perfect for shooting landscapes and shots like this, and with the high f-stop of 1.8, it would be able to shoot a wide variety, from grainy, to nice and clear, and this lens also would give me more options for bokeh, which I would like to shoot more of. Then, it would probably be time to save up for a wide angle, which, again with a higher f-stop, I could shoot more photos like this and in a nice wide angle to get more in my frame.

Thats all for now, click for a larger image.

Day 17

7/27/10

"Not Playing with a Full Deck"

Today, my goal was to try to play a little bit with bokeh. Bokeh, for those not in with photography terms is playing with focus to create an aesthetic blur. Higher end, higher aperture lenses will perform this aesthetic blur nicer than the lens that I have, one of my motivations to get a 35mm prime lens with a f/1.8. That, and the aperture allows pictures at much lower light levels with higher shutter speeds so there is less blur. But back to the picture, I just laid out a partial deck of cards and focused near the center, but closer to the 3 of diamonds, for no real reason. It was just the card where I was trying to focus.

So, mark me down for a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 AF-S lens if anyone wants to buy me a present. That is on the list with a Nikkor 10-24mm AF-S and a Nikkor 70-300, or a 70-200 if  people are feeling really generous (at $2400, I would be surprised to have such wealthy and generous friends).

Day 16

7/26/10

"Sunset on the Lake"

I love taking photos of sunsets. I attempted to take a few HDR photos of the sunset tonight but for some reason my AEB wasn't working correctly, so I just chose the best photo of the sunset tonight.

Click the photo for a larger view.

Day 15: Bonus Photo, HDR

7/25/10

"Patrick Marsh (HDR)"

This is my third attempt at an HDR. Again, I paid a lot of attention to my framing here, and though this image didn't turn quite turn into as in-your-face of an HDR image as I was actually hoping for, I think this turned out quite beautifully. This is a very understated and natural version of an HDR image of Patrick Marsh on the north end of Sun Prairie.

Day 15

7/25/10

"Patrick Marsh (Panorama)"

Tonight, on the way home from a weekend trip back home to see family and celebrate my dad's birthday, I stopped off at a site I've driven by upwards of fifty times now I'm sure. Patrick Marsh is a wildlife area on the north end of Sun Prairie, WI. Driving up on this area, I pulled out my tripod and placed it on the hood of the car and leveled the camera as much as possible. I framed the first photo, paying more attention to the rule of thirds than I had in any previous photos. From there I tried another HDR image, trying this time to actually make the image a bit more over-the top than before. The resulting image (after processing, which, I didn't do until later), was nice, and I've added it to the collection, but the photo(s) that I took next turned out to be the shot(s) of the day. Using a little computer magic I was able to blend 7 images together to take this panoramic photo of Patrick Marsh.

Its pretty imperative that you click the photo to enlarge it, as its to large to reasonably display on this website unless you do so.

Day 14

7/24/10

"Bismillah"

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد الله ربّ العلمين

الرحمن الرحيم

ملك يوم الدين

ايّاك نعبد و ايّاك نستعين

اهدنا الصّداط المستقيم

صراط الذين انعمت عليهم غير المغضوب عليهم و لا الضالين

Al-Fatihah is The Prologue to the Qur'an. Here I played a bit more with my focus, trying to get the first part of Al-Fatihah, Basmala (in the name of Allah) in the most focus of anything on the page. My first attempt at a more artsy shot, and a very important shot to me, as this is the first book I am reading in its entirety in Arabic.

مع سلام يا أصدقائي

Click for a larger photo.

Time to get Artsy... or is it Creative?

After two shots that I with which I was slightly disappointed with, creatively, I'm making a new resolution to be more creative or artsy with what I might find to be filler shots. I often come up with ideas of things I'd like to photograph, things that are within my creative comfort zone. These photos, occasionally work, but have already become cliche. Its now time for me to push my comfort zone and in the coming weeks and months will push myself to come up with new and artistic photos if I find it necessary to fill space when I have no immediate inspiration. I haven't been doing this for long, this photography hobby. Thats why, I believe that if I push myself more every day, I will see dramatic improvement from the beginning of the year to the end.

One bright point so far was the enormous reaction regarding my Firestorm shoot. From family, friends, and even professional photographer Peter West Carey, the framing on "Firestorm", including the depth of the darkness beyond the church, the lighting on the church itself, the position of the performer, and the people in the background all combined to make an amazing photo. Possibly even one of those once-in-a-lifetime photos. I am proud, and inspired, and I will keep trying my best for photos like "Firestorm" to keep me going.

Day 13

7/23/10

"Lights Out Lambeau"

Another night, a new subject, and another attempt at HDR. There are a few things I wish I had control over. The flare in the upper left corner from a parking lot lamp was unavoidable if i wanted the shot I wanted to get. Sad but true, and with my current equipment, I couldn't do anything about it. Also, with the multiple AEB shots I did and a moving part of this shot as well (the flag) being so lit up, a small amount of movement can be seen there. Lastly, a large white spot of a large spot light lights up part of a sign, creating almost a white hole in the photo. In my opinion, not bad for my second true HDR image, and I'm sure I will get better with time. Tomorrow I hope to get a chance to go in a different direction with my shots. For now, I sign off.

As always, click the photo for a larger view, and a reminder, that all my photos are copyright of myself. If you want to use them for any purpose beyond a desktop background, please let me know. Also, if you pick a photo for a background, let me know that as well, because it would sure make my day. Comments can be done with a Google (Gmail, etc.) account, or even anonymously, but you're encourage to sign anonymous comments so I know who you are. Thanks!

Firestorm Shoot

I wanted to share some of the 50+ photos I got last night at the fire spinner shoot. The beginning of the shoot caught me unprepared, as I had just walked up on the beginning, when one of the group began to hula-hoop. I only got my tripod out to catch the next part of the show, but those pictures I did get with a tripod were fantastic. Click any of these photos for a much larger shot.

"First Time Fire-Dancer"

The next few photos were done with the performer using a flaming hookshot.

"Snake"

"Alpha"

"Burning the Air"

I'd like to note how much I like this photo just because of the vortex that you can see of the flames, and the individual little tongues of flame as well. A bit over exposed, but I thought I might as well try many settings just in case I was missing out on something, and I have to say I really like the results.

"Butterfly Effect"

These photos are of a performer with a flaming staff.

"Light at Our Backs"

"Bending the Atom"

This last set of photos is of the performer with flaming poi.

"Ring of Fire"

"Flower"

"Ying and Yang"

"Buzz Saw"

"Kamehameha"

Day 12

7/22/10

"Shelter from the Storm"

Tonight, I didn't have quite the opportunity to take shots that I was hoping for, particularly the bad weather. I got caught in quite the storm on my way out to take pictures of it from outside the storm. The weather was so bad I had to pull over and wait for a break, and immediately went back to the Wisconsin Union to seek shelter and go to my Hoofer meeting. However, I wasn't the only one seeking shelter. It turns out that the Hoofer Sailing group took over our meeting space to finish up a little party that they were having, and since no one showed up for my Hoofer Mountaineering meeting, I decided to snap a quick picture before I left. Not particularly proud or excited about this one, but sometimes you just have to go with what you've got, and not every day will be as great as last night.

Later tonight I'll put up some more pictures from last nights shoot as well.

Day 11

7/21/10

"Firestorm"

This photo you HAVE to click to see larger. It was a great night. I wanted to shoot some more HDR, so I made my way to a spot I had picked out to take long exposure shots of traffic from a good vantage point. I was so lucky that that required me to bring my tripod, because on the way back, one of this guys lady friends was starting to hula-hoop with a flaming hoop. I didn't get the tripod out in time to shoot clear shots of the hula girl, but when the guys saw me shooting he pointed out where I should be (far enough away from the fire, and with my tripod), lit his hookshot and went to town. I have a bunch of photos that I will process later, but this shot, at 200 ISO, 1.6", f5, is completely untouched. Not one dial was moved during conversion from RAW.

Seriously. Click it. Make it bigger. Use it as a desktop background. For real.

Day 10

7/20/10

"Capitol from Monona Terrace"

I had a lot of fun with this shoot. Not only did I get to take my first HDR photo (auto-bracketed exposure +/- two stops), but the shoot was with one of my best friends, Elizabeth. We went out wandering State Street and around the Capitol building and though I wasn't thrilled with any of the early shots, when I saw this shot, I knew exactly what I wanted.

I took three of the same shots with three exposures, then used a program called Photomatix Pro which then takes the best parts of each exposure, and then allows you to tone-map the photo to create an ultra-realistic photo called an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo.

Enjoy, and click for a larger image.

Tech: Noise Reduction and Nighttime Photography

The last couple of hours I've been playing with faux-HDR techniques in hopes of coming up with a good faux-HDR of my photo that I posted last night. I've come up with a very in-your-face version of that photo, or one of the ones in that same set. Two layers, one bright, and one with a lot of shadows and contrast. The only part of the contrasted layer that is showing is the part of the capitol that you can see. Once I get a remote trigger, I plan on going back out there and playing with true HDR photography.


However, I've spent the bulk of my time trying to figure out noise filters. I've run a noise filter on this image twice and I am upset with the amount of noise in the sky, particularly the red portions of the sky. The water is just gorgeous, but the sky shows so much noise, and I have no idea what to do. Is it the noise filter itself? Should I invest in a program like Noiseware? Despite the problems with noise, which I hope to iron out in the near future, here we have my faux-HDR image of the capitol, from this morning at 12:30am. Enjoy!

"Midnight Capitol Across Monona Bay (Redux)"

Day 9

7/19/10

"Midnight Capitol Across Monona Bay"

Tonight, after my internet went out at around 8:30pm and I read through my new Rock and Ice, Urban Climber, and Climbing Magazines, cover to cover, I decided to go out and shoot some frames to cure my boredom. Though my original plan didn't work out quite as expected (I will share pictures that work in that fashion some other night), I thought of something I had hoped to take on a clear night as this: the reflection of the Wisconsin State Capitol Building, brightly lit up and reflecting off Lake Monona, one of the two lakes that butt up against the isthmus that is downtown Madison.

I took this right after midnight, probably around 12:15pm. Constantly worried that I will get accosted by police, even though I am always on public land with no posted time restrictions. After a parking mishap that lead to a ticket, I might be a little paranoid now. I sit listening to NPR (970 AM in Madison) in a parking lot next to Lake Side Fibers coffee shop, which turns out is closed for July, not that it matters much at 1:00am. You can still get WIFI!

The photo is just cropped, however just processed slightly from its RAW file. Just adjusting the brightness and black level. Not done as an HDR. After taking many pictures on both bulb settings and long exposures (15 seconds - 30 seconds), it became quite obvious that I need a remote trigger, so I will likely pick one up tomorrow. Additionally, as is seemingly the case with nighttime photography, there is a lot of noise in the sky, a bit more on the uploaded photo than in RAW or TIFF, but some there as well. I may have to consider buying Noiseware to start getting rid of noise in my photos, because its so bothersome to me and I feel it ruins some photos. Here however, I am overall very happy with my photo tonight.

As always, click for a larger photo.

Day 8

7/18/10

"The Last Minutes of Maxwell Street Days"

I went back today to try out a Nikkor AF 10.5mm f/2.8 ED DX Fisheye Lens today. The folks at a local camera shop had one used Fisheye for $525, which they offered to lower to $500 (in the last minutes of Maxwell Street Days, hoping to move the lens and make a sale), an enormous deal, and though I love the lens and effect, I can't justify that much of a buy right now. Here I upped the saturation a little and the exposure as well, warmed up the tone, and cropped out a bit of my palm in the lower right corner. Its incredible what a fisheye will pick up. This also is an AF lens, not AF-S. My camera does not have a built-in autofocus motor, which this lens would work well with, but since the lens does not have a motor in it, I had to focus manually, which is kind of a crap shoot until you're used to it.


A side note about my use of saturation in photos. I try to keep it to a minimum. Though I've been shooting semi-seriously for only a short while, I've been paying some attention to photography for some time. Though you won't see as much use of heavily saturated photography until you get into professional lomography, a lot of so called pro-thusiasts over-saturate everything, even if just marginally. Its quite the effect, and though it can make photos quite beautiful, I think it can make beautiful photos mundane, if just by repetitiveness. I will try my best to vary the level of saturation and after-effect from instance to instance.

As always, click for a larger view of the capitol and the crowd.

Day 7

7/17/10

"State Street Roda"

Here, beyond a bit of cropping, I played a bit with the tones to try to make it as realistic as possible. Not too much saturation. I don't want every photo to have the same tonal feel. This may be one of my favorites so far.


Definitely click this one to make it larger.

Day 6

7/16/10

"The Post-Sending Recovery Drink"

I was tired after 9 hours at the climbing gym, and not very creative. My roommate was having a beer so I took the opportunity to snap this photo. Not my best thus far, but its something. Let me emphasize, this is not my beverage.

Day 5

7/15/10

"Storms behind Lake Wingra"

Taken at about 1:15 am, I was hoping to get out and catch some lightening but none was close enough to get. My ISO settings were all off for the storm, but I decided to not touch this one. When you enlarge you can see the lake and lifeguard chair as clear as day. Learning my ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed is the main thing I need to work on.


Click the photo to enlarge.

Day 4

7/14/10

"The Project"

Another attempt at the faux HDR. This time it came out much nicer, and I spent more time getting Jeremy's body properly layered. My only problem, in my mind, is the framing. I wanted to capture movement and intensity, but the hand was just out of where I would liked to have framed it, and his head was a bit more blurred than I wanted also. A slight side note, is that I did this all by hand, no auto-select tool usage. In hindsight, it would have gone a lot quicker had I done that.


Click for a larger photo.

Day 3

7/13/10

"Patrick at the Ivory Room"

The exposure just wasn't right, but I didn't have a chance to take many more as the place filled up. So I went with this. I also forgot to trim the photo a bit, but the proportions were what I wanted, so again, I just took it as is.


Click for a larger photo.

Day 2

7/12/10

"Lovers on the Lake"

Lake Mendota from the Memorial Union, Madison, WI
The color of the sunset was just gorgeous earlier and I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of it. The couple sitting on the pier was just too well placed to pass up photographing. Here I meant to do Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) for a HDR shot, but I rushed down to the water so fast to catch the sunset that I didn't have enough time to figure out my AEB on my new camera before shooting. I notice a lot of noise in my shot, especially the clouds, so I have to look for a noise reducing program.


Click for a much larger photo.

Day 1

7/11/10

"Divergent Crack"

Burt Lindquist belaying Jon Jugenheimer on the little repeated "Divergent Crack" 5.10a, North Slope, West Bluff, Devil's Lake, WI.


This was my first attempt at faux-HDR. Blending of the layers could have been better, but I had already spent an hour just getting the image this far. I'm sure I will have better shots to work with in the future.

The Photo Project: 365

Hey everyone. After some attempts at doing this on Facebook, I've decided to take my Project 365 here. My goal: At lease one quality photo a day for a year. So far, there are some photos that I could take or leave, but the whole point is to watch my photography and editing skills progress over the course of a year.
These photos are under copyright. I have taken and edited all these photos myself. Please respect my wishes and do not republish them without my permission.

I hope you enjoy.