A Benchmark, part II

It is interesting how photography can bring out parts of your personality that you didn't know about and magnify your behaviors that you are very well aware of, at the same time.

For example, I am usually very, very afraid of heights/falling/slipping/hurting myself in some way resulting from the pull of gravity. However, I will find random rocks to balance on, inch my way down a trail holding on to tree limbs or get much closer to the edge of a cliff when I have a camera in hand. See, things I didn't know about myself - I may not be so afraid of heights after all, eh?

And then we have today's example of the way photography can magnify our behaviors. I admit it, I am a perfectionist. I can't help it; usually things just happen for me in such a way that it is lovely and perfect and I consider it normal. Okokok, I think I might need to explain a bit more; its that whole perspective thing... who knows if it is perfect and lovely... I mean that I strive for what is perfect and lovely for me (it may be completely weird and clinically boring to others. no prob.). yeah. So, when things aren't perfect, or aren't lovely to me I get a little itch. A little voice in my head wondering what I can do next time. I ponder. I plan. I do. That's how I roll.

I was saddened by Tuesday's attempt to "celebrate" (????) my three-month benchmark with my XTi. Darned that stinkin sun anyway. Pooey on darkness. So, I tried again to today to capture some better shots from good 'ol Sunset Park. There were plenty of dreamy clouds today, just not a lot of interesting light behind them. Oh well. I tried. I still have more to learn, but at least this set offered a better perspective on my improvements over the past three months.

And now, we can put Sunset Park to rest "for awhile." I am amazed at the cool places I've been to since I bought the XTi, and I am curious about and looking forward to the wonderments I will be able to capture in the next three months. 2009 is soon approaching. Won't that be lovely?/

A Benchmark

Three months ago today I went on my first shoot with my Canon Rebel XTi. It was a beautiful summer evening and I headed to a place that is both near and dear to me... Sunset Park overlooking the Edmonds ferry terminal with the Olympics in the back drop.

Back in August, I realized when I arrived at the park that I didn't even know how to turn the darn thing on. After fumbling with my tripod, I barely caught the last rays of glorious sunshine.

I figured it would be a good destination in order to compare my progress over the past three months. In typical Lori style, though, things did not work out as planned. I'll skip the long winded, but rather humorous story (you know I have a story that will make you at least smile!), and just say that by the time I got through the gazillion traffic lights between Bothell & Edmonds the sun was long, long gone.

Honestly, I was getting a bit frustrated as I sat through those lights. But then I reminded myself that unlike my trip in August, I now have some night shooting skills. The pics didn't turn out as great as I would like, but it was cold & dark and as much as I wanted to complete my shoot for the day, L&L on 196th was calling my name.

The first two pics were from my original shoot back August. The bottom four are from today. Enjoy

Hot August Nights


Not So Hot November Evening

This was one of my first pics tonight. I liked the movement of the ferry, but I wish I had the mountains in focus. It reminds me of firecrakerfirecraker.


The next two pics are the same shot: the top one is unedited and the bottom one has some edits (Curve Assist & Cropping). I love the deep twighlight blue of the water.

And of course, I can't resist turning the saturation waaay down to see the image in black & white. What can I say? It's an addictive habit. I also altered the brightness/contrast to give this one a dark feel to it. Mysterious? maybe.

Overall, I am kinda luke-warm on today's adventure. I think that Sunday's trip to UW is a better mark of progress. Stay tuned though, I'm sure I'll find something interesting this weekend... (really, is it only Tuesday and I am already thinking about the weekend? uh-oh)

(insert any song here) go dawgs!

Aaaah. I can't believe that it has been ten years already since I walked the beautiful brick paths of the University of Washington campus. I am so blessed to have been able to study at such a great school. This place transformed me from an uber naive girl from Arlington into a thoughtful, progessive young adult.

I spent a few days on campus this past weekend for a reunion, and was mesmorized by the beautiful colors all around. I felt called to return today, to capture autumn's splendor.

Memorial Way
I misnamed this pic as "stevens" because I thought that it was part of Stevens' Way. I also (incorrectly) thought that the trees lining this street represented each of the counties in Washington. Of course, I wanted to get my facts straight before blogging, and turns out that actually, this is Memorial Way and pays tribute to the alumni and faculty that died in WWI. Dang, I am making things up and it isn't even Wednesday.

Scenes from the Quad

As a social science type, I spent a lot of time in the quad. Most pictures that you see from this area are usually spring scenes, when those sweet little cherry blossoms make everyone smile.

The first picture was taken from beside my beloved Savery Hall. The econ department is housed in this hall and I had many, many classes here. Savery is getting a face lift, it seems, and so I took this one looking out from Savery instead. Lovely, isn't it?

The middle picture is taken from just a few steps away, looking towards Smith Hall. I remember having a Japanese class in this place. The little Japanese man was passionate about keeping things real in the classroom and would get very, very upset if we said "ummm" when trying to think of a word. He insisted that we use the Japanese "um" which is "e toooo."

The last picture is of Raitt Hall. I don't think that I ever walked the halls here. Well, maybe. I don't have a story about this place, other than I liked the lighting tonight. OH, and I apologize that it is crooked. I need to get PS3.

Denny

The oldest building on campus is Denny Hall. For this picture, I tried to capture the old and the new. The old being Denny (duh) and the new being the news board plastered with upcoming events along side a recycling bin. Back in the day they didn't even have plastic.

The idea of photographing the oldest building on campus intrigued me, so I ventured up the stairs to get a closer shot. I managed one pic and then noticed that I was in a rather secluded area at night. I quickly packed up my trusty tripod and headed out. Content with the shots I had captured and interested in making a few more trips.

Last Look

Sometimes, just when you think you are done for the day, you come across something that just calls out to you. As I was headed back to my car, I noticed the crescent moon looming above Gerberding Hall. Unfortunately, a cloud moved in and covered the cloud, but it is still an interesting shot. I was standing under a light when I took this, so it turned out orange. I made some minor adjustments and viola, a great pic. enjoy.

Thanks for taking a little trip down memory lane with me. Now, I am going to go enjoy some chicken vegetable soup that has been simmering while I wrote this post. It is such soup weather, no?

A quote to ponder

I don't have any pictures for this post; just something to ponder.

A few times a week I get an email at work with links to interesting pieces of industry news. There is a quote at the bottom of each email that is usually heartwarming and encouraging. I love things that are heartwarming and encouraging. I keep a sheet of paper at my desk and jot down the ones that seem to strike a chord. Today's quote from Helen Keller is particularly relevant to me right now:

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Encouraging, isn't it? (I am not being sarcastic)

... now I just need to find that darned new door of happiness... ug. (ok now I am being sarcastic)

blurry but good

Holy cow. I filled up a whole CF card... and then some! The bad thing, though, about blogging too soon after the shoot is that I am less picky about the pics I put up. Today was a great day, and so many of the pictures remind me of the beautiful Pacific Northwest scenery that surrounded me all day. The pics may not be the best quality (no, your eyes aren't going blurry... it is the picture) but I like 'em.

For today's adventure, I went with my friend, Cole, to Mt. Rainier. We went there in August for a photography lesson at sunrise, but got turned around a missed the best colors. This morning, we were determined to redo our shots. Mother nature wasn't as cooperative though, and we were greeted with a lovely, but photographically boring sunrise. OH and it was sooo stinkin cold at the lake! d-ang.

The good news is that we were on a beautiful mountain with the whole day to explore. We headed east and made a couple of stops along the way...

Aren't the fall colors amazing? There were so many yellow little maple trees everywhere! It was "enchanting."

Since were in the area, we also stopped by Northwest Trek. I've been wanting to go there FOREVER and it somehow seems to have recently dropped off my other list ;) (big sigh). OH, I almost forgot to mention that today's adventure had a neat twist: we rented lenses! Glazers in Seattle rents out lenses (very cool... i know!) so we had a 70-200mm and a 24-105mm. I think the 24-105 would be a great upgrade from the 18-55 and the 70-200 is amazing! So much fun!

The pics below are from the Nortwest Trek expedition. Some were taken with the 24-105, some with the 70-200. We got there at the end of the day and the lighting was quite challenging, so I used a lot of high ISOs; resulting in some rather noisy shots. oh well, that's why I'm learning, right?

reflection


little falls



on the tram. 3 o'clock.

porcupine portrait. so cute.

A shadow? (nope.)

blurry but cool

awe.

Roosevelt 1

Roosevelt 2

hey look over here

seasons change

As you can see, mr. mangelsen has no need to worry about competition from me. It was fun trying out the different lenses and I found myself just happy that I could get it (mostly) in focus. My admiration for del's wildlife shots just increased a few notches. He makes it look so easy.

As always, thank you for taking a look at my pics and reading all this goofy stuff that goes with it. The critters at Northwest Trek were already celebrating Halloween, so I'll leave you with this last festive pic...

five in five

Today was a day of creativity... my mom and I worked on a set of banners for an upcoming reunion I am working on... She is so crafty. Truly! I am amazed at how she can just figure something out, no pattern, no fancy directions, and it turns out well constructed and beautiful. Classy.

The pics below were taken with my 50mm portrait lens, handheld, while she was sewing. I used my close up filter for the needle shots, too. I was a bit frazzled... usually my subjects aren't moving and I have the luxury of time to set up my shot. But dang it, we had work to do! So, I used a variety of aperture priorty, shutter priority and manual mode. Honestly, I was just trying to snap some cool shots (aren't sewing machinces cool? and the people that sew even cooler?) and not slow her down too much. So, I can't tell you which one is which. I took these in under five minutes and there are five good ones, so I am calling this post "five in five." I did very little processing to these, just the first one (to make it black and white) and the bottom one (I messed with a bunch of things...) I *think* that is about it.

vague. yes.

enjoy.

Thanks for bunch for checking out this wee little post and thanks again to my wonderful mom for all of her help! You're neat. I think I'll keep ya. ;)

Exploration

Perhaps it is fitting that I found myself in unmarked territory over a weekend that celebrates Columbus' exploration into the "new world".

The pics below are from a couple of hikes over the weekend. You won't find these hikes in any hiking books, although a hand-held GPS device seemed to function well.

Ooo, a Log!
This is one was taken along the side of the road (figures, huh?). I liked the glow of the yellow leaves in the setting sun, and thought that the trunk was an interesting feature, too. I wish, though, that I had taken the time to grab my cokin 2ND filter to minimize some of the glare on the right-hand side of the pic.

Color Crop

I had trouble framing this one just right (again, the 2nd would have come in handy!). I really like the colors, though, and figured I could just crop it. Hey, thats what I did! I didn't make any color/contrast/saturation adjustments, just a bit o' cropping.

Look!
The pic below may be just "so-so" but it is an example of something I have learned. My current focus is to just try different things and see what happens (resulting in a lot of wasted frames. Luckily, I have plenty of CF cards!). I was pleased with the depth of field for this pic, along with the expert use of my polarizer. Yes, I stood in the water. Yes I made some saturation changes using the canon software (the original didn't have the right color saturation).




Beams of Light
For this pic, I was initially concentrating on the water in the lower corner. The little ripples caught my eye because they were so noisy! However, I ended up catching some great light beams. I converted this to black & white to give it a classic feel (plus, I loooove black & whites). I think that this is my favorite pic for the weekend. (btw, wouldn't it be even more fantastic if I had a 10-22mm???)

I don't know

I am calling this one "I don't know" because, well, I am unfamiliar with this part of the state and have no idea what mountain I am looking at. I love rocks.

The Sign

Given that this place was so beautiful, yet so deserted, and not listed in "the book," I was curious about its history. Del spotted the back of the sign from the beach, and I trekked up see of it offered any clues.

Nope.

Flashy Leaves

This pic was another lesson learned. I thought that the fall colors looked so pretty against the blue sky, complete with fluffy clouds; however, the first pic I took made the branches way too dark. A-ha! Fill flash! I tried several different aperture settings to get a pic that would show the branch in a way that was not too dark, and not too light. Enjoy.

Alrighty, there you go, my lastest & greatest. As always, thank you so much for taking a peek at my pics. Peace.

Glimpse

My dear sweet mom & made a quick trip to the UW campus today to check out a venue for an upcoming event. As we left the parking gargage, I looked up and saw this building (it is the administrative building and houses the office of the UW president).

Its an alright pic; but it is a bit of a benchmark for me. For the first time since I bought my camera two months ago, I confidently took it out my bag, set it to aperture mode (f3.5 ish), pointed and clicked. And then we went on our merry way. I didn't scratch my head wondering what to do. I didn't even think about my little canon until the car ride home; I realized that the rebel XTi and I are becoming friends. How nice... finally.

And yes, I did do some editing when I came home. Just a little bit though (and no, mister, it is not a slippery slope). First, I dropped the color saturation down to get a black & white shot, then I increased the contrast a bit to see what would happen and liked the darkness that appeared in the lower corner. Thats it... see, just a wee little bit of editing.

I took a few other shots for the day, but they were kinda boring. I would like to head back there sometime though... the UW campus is so beautiful and in many ways feels like my second home. I am so nerdy. (insert any song here) & GO DAWGS!

F3.5

I think that my photos usually capture my personality and outlook on life. They put a little twist to the ordinary (I am so weird... I definitely don't fit a box, much less a pigeon hole). I try to bring out something that is beautiful and interesting about whatever I am seeing. I think that they end up looking pretty nice, pretty positive.

But life isn't always roses.

For awhile I've wondered if I could do some darker pieces; scenes that are still interesting but aren't so "pretty." The pics in this post are my attempt to try out a different style.

The Creek

F13, ISO 100, 6 seconds

Spooky Tree

F 3.5, ISO 100, 0.8 second

I used the Canon software to lower the brightness, increase the contrast, push the saturation & hue to the extreme and bring the sharpness to a medium level.

The Bridge, 1 & 2

Both are f3.5, ISO 100, 0.4 seconds

I converted both to black & white-ish, there is still a tiny bit of saturation in them both. They were taken without a tripod (I was in a hurry!) but I kinda like the noise (or as Canon puts it... the pictures are "slightly grainy").

Thanks for checking out this group of pics. I am interested in any comments... are they interesting to you too, or just weird? Or are they just kinda blah? C'mon... be honest

Sunday Stroll

Ok, I am going to keep this post short... famous last words, right?

I am still adjusting to life after grad school. Weird isn't it? What is spare time? I am also trying to intentionally not fill up my schedule and just be open to whatever comes up. (Although, a quick glance at my calendar shows me booked till next Tuesday. sigh.) Sunday was just such a day. These pics are from a wee little hike in the North Bend area. I haven't been there before, but I had a trusty tourguide.

It is a Sign
Grr. I forgot my tripod! My new, beautiful, handy tripod! It was nice, though, to take some hand-held pics. The challenge for the day is to keep the ISO low, the shutter fast and the blurry images to a minimun.

The one of the sign below is at ISO 200. I chose a small aperture setting, f3.5 to get a fast shutter speed (1/8 of a second) because I was holding my camera. I didn't even intend to have such a nice, muted background. Nice. One thing that I would tweek a little if I could would be to have the top right-hand corner of the sign fully in the frame. I like the lighting, too, and didn't make any tonal adjustments to this pic.

HD Iron Horse Trail

Our destination for the day was a cool little water feature on the Annette Lake Trail (side note: the cool little water feature has disappeared! maybe next year?). The trail crosses the Iron Horse Trail and we could hear water falling over rocks somewhere. Didn't find any waterfalls or rushing creek beds (too many trees!) but had a nice little wander down the Iron Horse Trail. It was late afternoon by this point, and the lighting created kind of a weird HD effect. My eyes were buggy. Del took a shot from a similar spot that shows EVEN MORE sharpness. Insane.

Fall Leaves
I found a gigantic berry bush. Ooh Berries! I tried several different angles, but couldn't get the shot I had in my mind. I could frame it, but it was too shaky. I tried Del's tripod, but couldn't frame it right that way either. So, the fall leaves below are a close second to what I had in mind. I am really pleased, though, with the water droplets lining the edge of the leaves! I shot this one in ISO 200, f5.6 (because I was zoomed in a bit), and with a shutter speed of 1/20th of a second.



Abstract Tree
I loved the maple trees on this hike; they had tiny little leaves! This tree caught my eye as we headed down the trail. I don't know why; I was drawn to it. At the time, I was frustrated with the composition... again, not quite what I had in mind. However, when I had a chance to review the shots at home, I ended up having a hard time figuring out which one I liked the best. I can see so many different images in this shot. I'll use "vague lori" descriptions in pursuit of brevity... the lighting was interesting, it reminded me of trees in Japan, I can see a tree angel, and it reminds me of school plays were people play trees (think Dead Poet's Society). Here is a vague zinger for ya: I can see the grace and beauty of nature in concert with humanity.


.... or maybe it is time to go to sleep. g'night & sweet, tiny maple leaf dreams to all. Thanks for checking out my pics & reading my unending randomness.