VPW #12 - Kitchen Utensils and White

More experimenting - after meals

This started as only kitchen utensils and quickly became

another place to experiment with white balance.

The colors are pretty close to matching the real dishes but

it almost seems some of the blue from the racks is bleeding.

Also used a couple of clicks with the sharpening unmask.

And as a real learner, overlooked documenting most of my efforts.

Self-shot assgimnent

The self portrait assignment

Tried a lot of things and got this one when the camera went off in my hands.

I show up as john, johna or jrandlib when posting comments and may understand all that someday. Now I am just trying to learn something about PSE 8 and my Canon SD1100.

I was born in a train station on the Missouri Pacific line in a small Arkansas town many years ago. Moved on to a larger town which we thought was a city and there met a beautiful young girl who had come to town to do her 'practice' teaching with the mother of one of my friends.

Short version is a wedding and two boys later we moved to Mobile, Alabama and there I developed my love for seafood and began commutes to New York (where I learned to appreciate Broadway plays). Lived in the city for a year before moving to Connecticut where I learned to appreciate the Cos Cob power plant which keeps the trains running into the city.

Finally found my way back to "my kind" in the south and have retired in a university town where I stay busy with volunteer work, golf and travel. It's a great life for sports fans and warm weather people.

We try to have one overseas trip each year and have visited all US states but one.  Enjoy taking pictures as a way to re-live the wonderful trips.

Thanks for having the Virtual walk and for letting me be part of the learning experience.

Weekend Photos

For the weekend assignment, here are a few snaps of my trip to the river.

Today we have 70 degree weather with nice sunshine and very little wind.

Perfect February day in Alabama.

A very social setting for bikers along the way.

Then as we pass one of the 'nicer' homes it
was necessary to get this shot.

Once at the river, while sitting in the sun, one of

Mr. Parker's tugs steams past and

appears to be in a hurry.

Maybe more coal is needed in Mobile.

While wandering the river bank a beautiful

pine shines through its own frame.

VPW #11A (Big and Small)

My purpose in having a camera is to snap photos while traveling so I can enjoy the trips again while sitting home. I have a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS with a built-in flash and a wonderful setting of AUTO. Being digital means that I have alot of "not so good" photos on my computer and I purchased PSE 8 as something to occupy my inside time this winter. Now I sense I'm getting sucked into a time consuming venture by this dynamic "D" group and some have even suggested reading a camera manual!

There are no plans for me to be a "photographer" or to carry around anything larger than what fits so easily into my pocket. However, I am on track to learning how to use what I have thanks to you Ds. Really hung up on WB as we speak. (even learning the names of the various light bulbs) Val had some really good examples of the effects of lighting which stirred my interest.

From your earlier comments most of you don't really like using flash and now I understand some of your logic. None of these was shot with a flash and WB was automatic. While re-creating the setup I discovered how difficult it is to find natural light without creating strong shadows. These photos were made in the morning and the lighting is from sunshine light as the room has east facing windows. Another discovery from this exercise, "why am I taking this picture?". The background color has a significant effect on the two objects and depending on the purpose each color is appropriate (I think).

The above is auto and I thought everything was just fine until I took a look at the background on my computer. It came out f/2.8 and ISO 100 and shows good detail but it's now really the true white that was present.

Same photo with an adjustment layer (screen at 50%) and the brightness from the sunshine really comes through from the right side. Much like the real life view. A good example of what I failed to do with the camera can be corrected with Elements.

I think this is my favorite because of the details that can be found. This was a digital macro shot and came out f/2.8 with ISO 200. It is the same green background used in the prior post but this one has a levels adjustment of softlight at 50% which makes the green almost black and increases contrast of the other colors.

And a funny thing happened along the way. Most apparent in the green background photo, the larger pitcher has horizonal lines running across the flowers. So as I am wondering how this got screwed up, I discovered what a beautiful detailed shot I just created. I just took two pitchers out of a nicknack cabinet and set up this situation. The cabinet was from my grandmother and she started collecting pitchers from all over the world when she was young (early 1900's). She always liked the smallest ones and was so proud of her collection. As a child I would visit her and always got to clean out the cabinet, rearrange them and see what was new. Sometimes by size and other times by country. Many must be over 100 years old and I sure most are hand made. So the horizonal lines must be from the potters tools as the pitcher rotated on his stand. It really is a photo with great detail and would be sufficient for a "true" posting on E-Bay.

Another 'learned thing' from an experiment. Thank you Ds.

VPW #11 (Big and Small)

Big and Small can be relative (to something)

Big is about 3 inches

Small - about 1/2 inch

Almost afraid to post something this bad but I did come here to learn from you.

Sometime back the discussions were about white balance and I began to learn why some of my photos looked so sad, tungstun lighting with auto setting. The first photo with white background was an experiment with light and different settings for WB.

The second with the green was to see how a different background would influence the subject. Also added flash and look how the colors appear much brighter. Amazing what happens when light comes in at the appropriate place. And notice the difference in the white color of the pitchers in the two photos.

And I'm learning that straight items on backgrounds without trash would look better. (Sounds like a PSE exercise, but how much can one learn in a day?).

Val helped "turn on the light". Thanks

VPW #10 (Alone)

Empty (Alone) Hummingbird Feeder

The morning sunshine peeps through a

southern pine upon an empty feeder.

Where are my friends?

When will there be food and birds?