POTD Day 312-315 Ice, Ice Baby....

Oh Crop!! -A Tutorial

Wow…give me several days of isolation during report card season and THAT is when I get inspired to write a little tutorial. It has been on my mind for awhile since I have learned so much from other bloggers and want to “give back” so here we are. Our topic today is cropping and how it can change the entire feel of your photos.

Of course, it is ultimately best to compose your shot just as you want it in camera. Sometimes, I get a shot that I wanted and intended to get but I still play around with cropping to change the purpose or just see what the possibilities are. Cropping can change what the viewer focuses on in your photos. 

Here is an example of a photo I took today outside. (***The truth is, I was trying to get my dog to do his business outside but it is a sheet of ice out there and he didn’t want to get on that scary stuff. I don’t totally blame him. While out there trying to coax him onto that slippery surface and getting him relaxed/comfortable enough to relieve himself, I noticed the craziness that Mother Nature offered up today. Wow. All that snow that was on everything melted just enough to be “not snow” and then freeze up right away before it all dripped or flowed off. The result was Icicle fever!!! So there were shapes and cool effects everywhere.) I began snapping away…

Original photo-it is of that tree in front of my house that I love-I may have to make a collage of this tree during the different seasons and stages.

I just love that reddish color of the bare branches and how it contrasts with the color and texture of the ice. I wanted to get the branches “reaching” and I wanted enough context to see the scale of the tree. I also had to think about what was in the background. No offense to my neighbors, but their power meter and hose reel do not add beauty to my composition! I accounted for the fact that I couldn’t control those things so set the aperature to 7 (low for the lens I was using…)in hopes of getting enough focus on that coolness in the tree and then blur out the background a bit.

Crop ONE: I wanted to minimize the distractions, still include some of the red of the branches and include the ends of the ice covered branches but reduce the number of the branches so that the focus was more on that icy beauty.

Crop TWO: I wanted to zoom in a bit and see what it would look like with that one “clump” as the main focus. It wasn’t as in focus as I would have liked. I started to move the photo around the crop box to see how different compositions looked.

Crop THREE: In looking at this photo so much, I began to see ice animals crawling on the branches-take a moment to see that-really…do you see?  I saw that one branch (you know, the one that looks like a dinosaur going “rawr”) was more in focus and included the red that I originally wanted.

I did some brightening to enhance the iciness and the branches and am pleased with the result: red branches, good composition, focus on the ice, minimal distraction in the background but I cannot shake that dino face-can you?

 FINAL Image:

And another "animals vision" shot: I see frog legs reaching out for me...

POTD Day 311

How much cropping do you do? 

Icegeddon, Comcastegeddon, Meltageddon.....

POTD Day 308-Camera Strap "Cozy" that I made when I was in my house for one week straight

I began writing this post 2 days ago, sitting in Starbucks to use their wi-fi and was having problems so just figured I would wait the few hours (haha) for my Internet access to restore. Here I am 2 days later-2 days doesn't sound like a long time for no tv and no Internet but it felt like it was. I was trying so hard to follow what I was asking my 9 yr old daughter to do: appreciate that we never lost power and LOTS of others did, read, do projects, get some chores done, call friends and focus on what is really important in life! The truth is, I use the Internet more than I realized. It is so nice to go to google and put in a few ingredients and type "recipe" and so many options come up. My daughter was talking about wanting to take a dance class. Normally, we would go to the Internet to find all the options in the area for dance class. You know what I am saying... anyway, it is hard to believe that I lived half my life NOT using the Internet and NOT having a cell phone. Moment of appreciation. I really do seriously appreciate that we never lost power and have no downed trees on my house, in my yard, blocking roads in our neighborhood, etc.. But I am SO happy to have the Internet back. I won't see my daughter for half the day though since she about DIED not seeing her shows. I have  LOT of photos to share though!!!

Above is the camera strap cover that I made when I was Internetless. I have had the fabric for a LONG time! During the storm, at one point, I went down to Erica's house and visited her while she worked on her items for sale... she was sewing and it made me want to get my machine back out. My machine will have its own photoshoot sometime-it is OLD, avocado green and goes only backwards and forwards. It has been very reliable. I used to make clothing when I was younger and used it a lot. It has been collecting dust in the last few years though. Anyway-this is my first attempt-it isn't perfect but I still like it. Ahh....loving being back online and blogging!!!

POTD and Scavenger Hunt

POTD 288-291

1. Stacked up

2. Winter Wonderland-Loving the color of the branches contrasting with the white snow...

3. Sweet-matching jammies!

4. Hole-she got her ears pierced and got to change them out for the first time this weekend... Peace Baby!

POTD Day 282- 284 Fun times in town!!!

1. We fit right in at the Goodwill today.. sweats, mismatched clothing and whatnot. This thing was only thirty bucks and it would be fun but... so not practical or consistent with our (my) desire to minimize around here!

2. Next, we went to Ben Franklin to look for craft supplies for various projects we all had going. These two had to use the kiddie carts! It was not long ago that it seems like they were the appropriate size to use them!

 3. SNOW!!!!!