hosted by Lisa at Lisa’s Chaos here is my little man. This is on the plane back from Hawaii this last summer.

It was a trip fraught with so much uncertainty, it seemed apropos that he be caught in the shadow.

Also for Cabe’s challenge at The Daily Focal Point I have some cranberries for you.

I grew up making everything by hand except the jellied cranberries. Now that I’m officially all grown up and have cooked a few turkeys, I find the cranberries the easiest of all to make.

I like the nitty gritty imperfect world. I want to hear how great your life is but I’d be just as interested in how much of a struggle this past week was. Just tell me.

This is my photographic style as well. I don’t like posed photos. I don’t try to set up a shot. Sure I’ll move that extra sock that doesn’t need to be in the photo and I’ll look around to see what else doesn’t belong, but the beauty in shooting real life as it unfolds is that it isn’t contrived. If the light is too low, I won’t take the picture. But if it has some nicely placed shadows, I shoot away. It’s seems to look better to me.

When I shoot real life photos, they truly become an accurate portrayal of my life.  As I linger over the photos, I remember the moment so well. It’s almost better reliving it a second time than it was living it the first time.

Here are some surfboards I saw in Hawaii. It was cool then but if I didn’t have the pic I couldn’t now say, “Oh yeah! Those were cool!”

Do you like real life photos or do you like the crazy spruced up ones? Or a bit of both? Do you love going through the old photos and reliving the past?

With Cabe’s challenge at The Daily Focal Point. Cabe asked that we take a pic of anything we liked. This is of a little frog instrument I got in Bali. I bought it for my son and loved the dark rich rustic tones of it. I tend to like things with texture and character if you haven’t noticed.

Play on little Froggy…

The first in the series I already posted a few weeks ago. Here it is again.

This was of a truck sitting next to me at the stop light. I leaned over and grabbed my camera. I liked the lines and color and texture. He drove away and I got that little thrill. I got the shot!

November’s theme is Grateful. Here’s my entry:

Oh and I live on Guam but have a US FPO address. I hope this qualifies me!

I am grateful for….”The Simple Things” -Like a  blue chair sitting amongst fishing gear. It reminds me that you can find some comfort and beauty in anything.

We’d probably all say we’re grateful for our family and our health. But here’s some not so radically important things I’m grateful for anyway.

• Oreo cookies
• Hot coffee
• Candles
• My radio
• Elmo
• Band aids
• Geckos
• Inchworms
• Tote bags
• Ross
• Pasta noodles

What are some not so radically important things that you are grateful for?

ARCHITECTURE IN BLACK AND WHITE

He said:

Take a photo of any structure that catches your eye in black and white. It can be close up or pulled back. Take one of the city you’re living in, or your office, your house, your neighbor’s house, heck even your dog’s house… I don’t care! Anything that showcases architecture in black and white.

So here is my entry. My friend Ericka mentioned at our last book club that way back behind a well known building was this dilapidated building. You can see the Marquis reads some pretty old movies. Well not really that old. It would have been cooler to read Casablanca and then have it all framed with those palm trees, but oh well- it’s old enough!

• I love photography
• I’m a total amateur
• But it’s what keeps me interested in it
• I Use a Canon Rebel XTi
• With a standard lens
• I need to get a polarizer, good flash, better lens and come to think of it- a more robust camera
• But it doesn’t matter
• I still take photos none-the-less
• Because it’s about getting out there and trying
• I shoot mostly with natural light
• Compose my shot right from the get go
• Don’t overly rely on post processing
• When I need it I will use Adobe Photoshop CS2
• I’d like CS3 but can’t justify the expense
• You don’t need a good camera to take cool photos
• Just the desire to catch a moment otherwise left to your memory
• The above photo is taken with an inexpensive point and shoot
• It’s one of my favorite photos
• Ansel Adams once said:
• If it’s not good enough then you’re not close enough
• He also said:
• It’s not how a photo looks that’s important, but how it makes you feel

Are you too hard on yourself and getting that perfect photo? Are you too hard on your photos?
Once taken are you scrutinizing and discarding them too quickly?

I’m a big lover of crisp, sharp photos. I discard a lot of blurry, out of focused photos claiming they are flawed. When I first saw this photo I was bummed. It looked too warm and too blurry.But the more I looked, the more I accepted the inherent flaws as what made it lovely. I noticed the beauty in the unfocused and flawed.

So next time you are going through your photos take the blurry ones and see if you can work with it.
That’s the joy of photography. It’s not just about following the rules and creating a perfect representation of something you have already experienced. It can be art. It can show you what you haven’t seen before and become a new experience.

Gabby was in love with this balloon flower and kept smelling it over and over. I caught her quickly in the act. I’m so glad I did because now when I look back I can see the magic that she saw!

Since I don’t know much about Photoshop and color conversion to black and white, I surfed the web looking for a site. There’s a lot out there to choose from but I found digital Photography School very helpful. Using their How to Convert Color Digital Images to Black and White Ones tutorial I was able to convert the color image to the black and white as seen below. I used the channel mixer option because I thought it was the easiest for a beginner such as myself. I stayed with the simple R:70% G:30% and B:5% as suggested by the author. They had other suggestions to make the image even better but honestly I couldn’t do it because Jacob had woken up from his nap and was crawling in my lap intent on seeing the baby in the computer. So I just played a bit with contrast, brightening and sharpening and called it a day.

I like the final result but I think of myself as more of a color girl than black and white. What about you? Which do you prefer? The color or b&w photo of Jacob? Do you ever shoot in black and white or convert it post production? If you do convert them, which method is your favorite?

We took this photo on a boat to Green Island, Australia. Brianna was mesmerized by the ocean, the sharks and the other incredibly friendly passengers.

Only later when I was analyzing the photo did we notice the details!

The Road Less Traveled…

Freedom…

Ocean Freedom…