Photo Posts are Moving

To keep this blog more Thailand oriented, I have set up a new blog for the daily photos. To see it click here.

New post on Angkor Wat tomorrow!

Day 7 - Cats and Cutlery

Usually we don't take Mouse outside; she seems pretty content inside with us (more accurately, it's rare that one of us walks from one room to another without her following). But today was nice and cool, so I took her outside for a sniffing spree. There's something about the concentration on her face here that I just really like. Plus, she's out of her element, and yet so curious about everything at the same time.

Also, I think I may have discovered where sporks come from.


Just kidding. See you tomorrow!

Day 6 - Side Lighting

Today I even brought the camera to school with us, but nothing was inspiring. Then I tried taking some pictures of the pineapple we had after dinner, but they were terrible. Because of the blue tile our house is covered in, everything ends up with a terrible blue cast to it, and blue pineapple is not something you want to see. It's just not very appetizing.

I've been reading Strobist, a wonderful lighting blog, if you're into that sort of thing, and I looked at my tripod, and saw the interesting shadow it was making. I shot it in RAW format, so I could choose my white balance later (no more blue cast).

Tomorrow I will shoot some street Thailand life, as I am sure you are all eagerly waiting for.

Day 5 - Oranges

Some oranges in Thailand are not orange, for some reason, they are green, even when ripe. I got out some candles tonight, turned out all the lights, and took some pictures.

Day 4 - Danger Cat!

Today we just hung out at home, so here are two shots of Mouse, and one I took through the louvered glass windows in the kitchen to create the light and dark stripes. Tomorrow I'll be more creative, I promise.

Day 3 - Revisiting the Garden

Went out into the garden today again. Managed to catch a snap of a butterfly and another picture of those red bushy flowers.

Day 2 - The Garden

I went shooting in my garden today, and I came up with a shot of my plumeria and this other flower that I have no idea what it is, but the tree out front is suddenly bursting with them.

The plumeria is overexposed, but I think that adds a delicateness. I shot both of these with my Canon 50 mm f/1.8.

I know I'm breaking the rule that says no white parts of the image should touch the edge (and I'm breaking it a lot), but that's what art is about, right? Breaking rules.

Day 1 - Cheaters Never Prosper

I spent all day thinking about this blog post, planning how to make my first honest day work. I didn't bring my camera to school, because I didn't think there would be shooting opportunities there, and I figured I would have plenty of time while the light lasted after school was over.

But, after school was over, we went grocery shopping and then we had a flat tire on the motorbike . . . so it was dark by the time we got home.

And since I haven't sprung for an off-camera flash yet, all that remained as a possible light source to pin down my remaining subject, aka Mouse, was (gasp!) the dreaded on-camera flash. According to Lumiquest this is "perhaps the most unflattering light source in photography."

So, I decided to change the photos to black and white. It helps a little. Tomorrow, onward and upward!

Day 0 - Cheating

It's the first day, and already I'm not playing by the rules. I did not take this photo today, it's from the most recent trip. My excuse? I didn't see anything worth shooting today. I've spent the day trying to catalog the 5700 photos I took in the last two weeks, and didn't really spend much time away from the computer.

So we'll call it Day 0. It doesn't count. From tomorrow on, I'm on the straight and narrow. I swear it.

Thanks for understanding, guys.

Editing: I cropped this, because I was shooting with a 50 mm lens, and I wasn't really as close as this looks. Because the lens is manual focus only, getting the focus just right was really hard. Fortunately this guy was just sitting there chillin' or I would have been stuck with one of the 15 shots I took before I got this one. It was a little overexposed, so I darkened it a touch, added some sharpening and a little bit of clarity, and that's pretty much it. Here's the original for comparison:

My New Month (Half Month?) Resolution

I was reading the Photoshop Insider Blog yesterday, as I often do (even though I am by no means an insider when it comes to Photoshop), and from time to time it has some really great photography links. Well, yesterday it had the link to this blog, where the guy puts up one photo a day for a year, all straight from the camera, no editing. Some pretty nice pictures there too.

I thought, 'What a great idea! Why don't I do that?' But . . . a year seems a little long. And I really enjoy the editing process, plus it's useful to know how to bring a photo to its full potential.

So, not a year, but a month. Starting today. And not unedited, but I'll use only Adobe Lightroom, and I will explain all the edits for each photo I post. Also, every photo I post will be taken on the day I post it. It should be a fun project, and a good way to try some new things with photography. If it works out, who knows?

Plus, in unrelated news, Evan and I just had a fantastic ten-day trip with my mother, so we have plenty to post about that. Together we all took about 5700 photos in ten days, so I have some organizing and editing to do before I start putting together posts on that. Hopefully I'll get that under way in the next few days.

Anyway, let me know what you think about my new photo plan. If you're all unanimous that it's boring and a waste of internet space, I'll consider dropping it.