Razor

Confession time: I have a toy box. Several, actually. Plastic bins full of interesting junk that might come in handy for photography someday. There's the liner from a cereal box, several dozen egg shells, string, pressed leaves, buttons, broken tools...you get the picture. So to speak.
 


Included in the pile are the salvaged head components of a discarded electric shaver. This is one of three  blade covers, photographed on a Fisher Price tracing toy (back-lighting box) I held onto from when my kids were little.

Hoarding. It's a Good Thing.




Posted late for I Heart Macro and early for Nature Footstep Memes: Abstract.

52 Photos Gallery 31: My Work

Work: Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something. - The Free Online Dictionary

This one stumped me for a while. I'm retired, you see. But I am directing quite a lot of physical and mental effort and activity toward producing interesting images and becoming a decent photographer. So here ya go: This is me, exploring the macro potential of a cheese grater.

That counts...right?

Posted for the 52 Photos Project
And linking to NatureFootstep Memes: Abstract

52 Photos 27: Someone You Love

I had hoped this week's gallery would provide an opportunity to try my hand at portraits, something I  haven't really done yet. Unfortunately, my particular beloved someones were unenthusiastic about posing for me. On to Plan B: Cropping an existing photo to turn it into a portrait. Above is the result, an image of my younger son, Mike.

And for good measure here's an older one I did of my little nephew, who is too young to protest.





Posted for the 52 Photos Project

Bigger on the Inside

An abandoned brewery, circa 1858, was just too much to resist, even though the midday light was awful. I couldn't resist playing with the Halloween toys at Picmonkey, either. (I added the mouse and moon to the interior view.)




Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2 and for The Weekend in Black and White.

One Brilliant Barn

These were taken at the Round Barn Winery in Boroda Michigan. The tasting building is a 1911 barn that was saved from destruction in the nick of time and reassembled on site by Amish craftsmen. It is glorious. (And the wine isn't bad, either.)

For my fellow barn lovers, here's a link to the slide show of the barn being dismantled and reconstructed: Round Barn dot com.

Linking to The Weekend in Black and White and to Shadow Shot Sunday 2

52 Photos Gallery 22: In My Hands

Per Bella, the hands in question didn't have to be ours, and whatever it is could be ON a hand too, so here ya go: My mother in law's 83-year-old hand, which is much more interesting than mine, as she admires a ladybug. This one gave me a chance to experiment with focal point color, which was fun!

Posted for 52 Photos Project

52 Photos 18: Light and Dark

Our challenge this week reminded me of a series of photos I took through a kaleidoscope some time ago and always meant to revisit. At the time, I didn't like them because the images weren't perfectly centered. But I've decided I'm OK with that.






There are a few more on Flickr, but these are the ones I like best.

Posted for The 52 Photos Project

52 Photos 15: Fresh

Why should flowers have all the fun?

Posted for 52 Photos Project

52 Photos 13: Layers / Stacks

Given the number of layers and stacks of stuff occupying my closets and corners, this week's assignment was almost too easy. However, scouting for a subject embarrassed me into cleaning up the piles instead.

Plan B: A quick dash into the Indiana heat, armed with garden shears, to raid the day lily bed. We don't usually see many of these three-layered ones, because the deer find them tasty. So. Layers, plus a chance to play with my new light box. In the air conditioning.

As for stacks, here's one taken at a factory that makes cabinet doors. These are going to be "rails" - the pieces that hold the center panel of a door:




Posted for the 52 Photos Project. And the top one may very well be linked to the next Weekend in Black and White, unless something better presents itself by then.

Black and White: Enigma

I spotted this from my upstairs home office window, and it seemed like a perfect excuse to put off doing paperwork.

It's the shadow cast by the sun shining through the chimney and side of our fire pit out on the deck. The effect lasted only a few minutes.

It looks mysterious and alien, don't you think?

Linking to The Weekend in Black and White and Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Black and White: Covaleski Fountain

Taken earlier tonight after a game in South Bend's baseball stadium. I loved the light and the laughter. (It's one of those innocent-looking ones embedded in a plaza, starting up suddenly and soaking the unwary.)


Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2 and for The Weekend in Black and White.

52 Photos Project 8: Stripes

Stripes?? Yipes. Where to find those, where to look. Well...There were lots of striped balloons in the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta ...


Lots of stripes on this cobalt blue fish, which go nicely with the spots on his little buddy.



And there are lots of stripes on my old gardening jacket, too. So they weren't so hard to find after all.




Posted for the 52 Photos Project

Fence

I try to use the photo memes I do as inspiration to teach myself something. Currently, I've decided to work on compositional focus in black and white. In this set, the first crop is about the barn, the second crop is about the sky, and the third is about the fence. Which do you like best?

Posted for Fridays Fences and Skywatch Friday.

Shadow Shot Sunday 2: It's Magic

This shadow of a feather on stone took on a whole new dimension with just a tweak or two.

I am having SO much fun with Picmonkey, salvaging and spectacularizing shots that would otherwise be discarded. I may even spring for the "Royal" version.

See More Shadowy Goodnesss at Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Shadow Shots: Something New

It's my first day as a retiree!  I celebrated by hunting shadows and frittered away the rest of the morning at Picmonkey.

I've been green with envy at the cool, awesome, and generally amazing images other photographers are producing with special effects and layers, and now's my chance to get in on the fun.

Below is the image straight out of the camera, which I kinda liked too. Above is the heavily messed-with version. Which do you like better?

(P.S. The secret to the the frosty-looking bottle is on Havenwood.

See More Shadowy Goodnesss at Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

Shadow Shot Sunday2: Losing Focus

Photography was a lot more fun before I knew stuff.

In the beginning, I just set my little Canon Powershot G9 on Program or a preset and snapped away at whatever caught my eye. The occasional lucky shot was enough to keep me happy.

These days, I try so much harder and accomplish so much less. I get frustrated and discouraged by focus that's never sharp enough, exposure that's never quite right, "The Shot" that happens a split second too soon or too late or too far away.

So I decided to put away the DSLR for a while, dust off the G9, and get back in touch with my dumb old snap-happy self.





I took the camera to work, shooting from the car at snow-covered roads, tail lights after dark, trees, whatever. No effort at all, just literally point-and-shoot. Predictably, the results were mostly garbage. But since I was just playing, the results didn't matter; anything good was a nice surprise.

I did like this one of the parking lot at the office, taken through my sleet-covered side window.





I experimented with it in Photoshop, cropping and straightening. In the first one, I tried adjusting the color. The second has an "artistic filter" applied, though I have forgotten which one.(Photoshop is still very much an unexplored territory for me.)

It's been a long time since I've actually enjoyed just taking pictures. I plan to do a lot more of it.

See More Shadowy Goodness at Shadow Shot Sunday 2.

FYI: How to Fix Stuck Pixels

Just sharing. I found this a few months ago on The Third Eye photostream at Flickr.com, and I've been meaning to post it here as a quick tip.

It's a process to fix stuck pixels - those annoying red, blue, or white spots in your shots. It's for Canon cameras, and it worked like a charm on my Rebel T2i. Enjoy.

Stuck (BAD) pixel - removal procedure on Canon Rebel XT, Canon Xti (400D), 5D (possibly other Canons) (also software for removal from JPEGS from any other cameras)

Shadow Shots: Made in the Shade

In celebration of my upcoming retirement, I just bought a fixed 50mm lens and a macroscopic lens adapter to play with. (The combo was less than half the price of a real macro lens, and offers more uses than just a macro.)

I tried it out this morning on the frost on my tubular bird feeder, which offered two layers of fern-like crystals. They only last while the shadow of the house protects them, which isn't long past dawn.

I should have had a tripod. But for a hand-held macro shot I was pretty happy.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Macro Monday: Hummmers

I blew most of my day today trying to find the right combination of settings that would give me tack-sharp, noise-free, magazine quality photos of birds. (It's an ongoing quest of mine.) I never found the magic recipe, but this one isn't too bad.

I know the National Geographic guys are using equipment that costs more than my house, but I still think my little Canon Rebel is capable of much better. I just can't seem to push the right buttons.

For more close-ups, join the fun over in Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos.



 

Shadow Shots: Patterns in Black

It was too rainy today to put the cushions on the deck furniture, but the water that collected on the strapping made for an interesting study in texture.



In the half-light and on black, the rainwater looks more like molten metal, doesn't it?



Once the sun came out, the frame cast a complex network of shadows, too.

Posted for Shadow Shot Sunday 2