Project365 - Ice Fog

Tonight, as I drove home from the hockey game (Calgary Hitmen beat the Kootenay Ice 4-2 ! ), we noticed how thick the ice fog was getting. As we got closer to home, we saw how the fog was causing ice crystals on the trees. Here are some photos I took of one of the trees.

The amber lighting of the street lamps makes this series look like the old sepia-tinted black & white photos from the turn of the century.

 

Each branch is finely lit by the overhead streetlight, accenting the shapes of the individual branches.

 

 

This is my favourite from the evening.

 

 

 

My friend Maggie has asked me how I will learn from the Project365 will help my photography. These images are technically fine. A nice balance of Aperture, ISO & shutter speed rendered what I consider to be vaguely romantic photos. What did I learn this evening ? To stop and shoot the wondrous beauty when & where I see it.

 

 

Project365 - Banana Cream Pie

This evening's entry was a very random and spur of the moment shoot. It proved to me that I was ill-prepared, and that I needed to re-think my setup. At the very least, I need to leave the flash attached to my camera body. In the perfect world, I could have set up a pair of flashes, to create a more "studio" effect. Or perhaps set up a light box, to create an even, balanced look.

But alas, that was not to be....

To make banana cream pie, a hand-rolled crust is introduced to fresh sliced banana.

A creamy, custard-like filling is gently poured over the banana slices. In this shot, we needed some extra lighting. The pot holding the filling was creating an awful shadow over the pie.

The filling stiffens as it's poured, creating the marvellous ripples & texture seen here.

Perhaps this photo shows the texture a little better ?

Another learning moment - capturing photos of steam isn't as easy as I had hoped. You can vaguely make out a few wisps directly above the pie. Next time, I would make sure to have a very dark background to shoot against.

 

The meringue goes on. Properly lit, the whips create wonderful texture on the surface.

 

The finished pie. Now that's a tasty treat for a reward !

So the lessons learned through this entry is that I need to be better prepared. Since photography is essentially learning to master the properties of light, it seems fitting that I need to recognize when additional lighting is required, and to always have that external light source handy !

 

Project365 - Panoramas

I like to try different photography techniques, usually right after I read about them & see stunning examples of the craft. I think to myself "I can do that !", and off I go, merrily seeing if I'm right. In this case, I'm curious about panoramas.

A panorama is a series of images stitched together at the sides, which are made to look like one very wide photo. The latest iteration of iOS includes the ability to do panoramic shots within its software, but I find the camera on my iPhone to be pretty crummy compared to my 60D !

Interestingly, I do a LOT of my post-processing on my iPad - running iOS7. But alas, I need to use a third party app, instead of the native iOS implementation called "Camera". So, being frugal, I downloaded a free app, just to see how this works.

Here is the first image of three.

The second image...

 

The third image.

When all three images are "stitched" together, you end up with an image like this. The software uses an algorithm to determine points on each picture which overlap. It then uses those as reference points, to make a single image. I cropped the final image a bit, just so it would have nice, square corners, but you can easily make out the distortion at the corners.

 

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Project365 - Around the Kitchen

A friend & I were chatting about my progress with Project365, and he remarked that he thought I needed to spend more time "feeling" the textures of my subjects. That if I truly wanted to take great pictures, the viewer had to truly be able to feel the textures themselves.
So on another blustery evening, my eye turned to the kitchen once more. I attached a 25mm extension tube to my 40mm F2 (Shorty McForty), to get up nice & close. While not truly able to reach the 1:1 ratio which is ideal for Macro Photography, I am still pleased with the results. Let's take a look:

I started with the stalk of a bunch of bananas. The aperture was wide open, making the depth of field remarkably narrow. The only way to get the entire cut in focus would be in post-processing.

One of the bananas, taken from the side. It is awfully difficult to take macro style photos freehand, but my tripod would have been very cumbersome in the kitchen. A skill I still need to work on, I suppose...

The side of a grapefruit resembles the surface of the moon, with all of its pock-marks. And yet, it reminds me of the pores in human skin.

My daughter made popcorn. It looks all fluffy when puffed up ! At this resolution, you can make out the flavoring salts she used !

Pat is an accomplished baker. Look how flaky a hand-rolled crust is ! And with the cherries out of focus, they resemble bokeh.

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Project365 - A Moment of Humility

I promised you that you would participate in Project365, good or bad. Well, today was not so good. Photography is a balance between the speed of the shutter, the size of the aperture, and the sensitivity of the sensor. Today, I neglected to consider that despite sitting down, people tend to move quickly ! I wanted some pix of the kids opening gifts. Sadly, due to my oversight, this is what I got. Object lesson learned !

 

While this pic has the beginnings of some nice bokeh, it's about the only redeeming quality. The lighting is messed up, and the subject isn't completely in focus.

 

Yep - blur. Just blur...

 

The whole exposure is messed up !

This one didn't turn out badly focused, but even with artistic cropping, it would not be so hot.

 

 

 

This is the only one that turned out reasonably. With some proper post-processing, this will clean up nicely.

 

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Project365 - Shortbread !

OK, I admit it. I am unabashedly addicted to shortbread. Pat indulges me from time to time, and Christmas is no exception ! My friend Steve, who is highly sensitive to gluten, lives vicariously through my Food Porn. This entry is for you, Steve... Merry Christmas !

Pat makes her own pastries, doughs & cookies by hand. A talent that I will never master...

Can you guess which cookie _I_ decorated ? :-)

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Project365 - (Christmas) Food Porn !

Merry Christmas, everybody ! As you can imagine, the holidays are a very busy time, so I am multiple-tasking. The subject of today's Project365 entry is the preparation of Christmas dinner. It's a time-consuming labour of love, so I thought I'd double up & document some of the steps as I go. If I have done ANY of this right, you will be salivating as you go... Enjoy !

 

Here are the beginnings of the "in the bird" dressing. I took this series without a flash, so as to better learn to compensate with ISO, shutter & aperture.

I know you're wondering just what I am up to... All will be revealed soone enough !

 

 

 

Tada ! This is something my mother taught us - using bacon to baste the bird. After this, all the normal spices & seasonings go on.

 

 

After a couple of hours in the oven, tented, the bird is starting to look pretty good, although it needs the cover off to brown up.

 

 

And here we see the finished product - nicely browned & ready to go. I'm going to let it stand for about 30 minutes before we carve it.

 

 

 

Who doesn't like pie ? Here's Pat's "front scratch" Apple & cherry pie...

 

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Project365 - Brining the Bird

When I was learning how to prepare meats in the smoker, I kept reading that fowl of all kinds should be brined, so that they would stay moist & tender through the process of cooking it. The bigger the bird, the longer the soak. Yurkel the Turkey will soak overnight, until he is ready for his extended stay in the tanning bed... Shhh.... We're not going to ruin Yurkel's Christmas by telling him what's really in store for him !

I love the way the turkey looks like it is emerging from the shadows in the deep, dark ocean !

This shot didn't turn out as well. While I like the "malevolent" feel of the bird in the dark brine, the effect is marred by the reflection of the light on the surface of the brine. Better to take the shot from a slight angle, like the image above !

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Project365 - Down the Chimney !

Thee was no Project365 entry last night, as Pat and I were super busy running around malls and shopping plazas. When you go out thinking "We'll just pick up a few last-minute things...", you just KNOW you're in for the long-haul. Then it was home to wrap-stravaganza, with a flurry of paper, ribbons and bows...

This morning, I was rudely awoken by a certain feline (Diesel !), who has decided 4:30AM is a reasonable time to begin attacking the fingers and toes which peek out from under the blankets. Bleary and tired, I was struck by how the Christmas tree lights illuminated the walls of the living room.

I decided this morning I would pull out my wide-angle lens, and see if High Dynamic Range (HDR) would help with the uneven lighting. HDR is a process of blending highlights and lowlights from multiple exposures to create one photograph. I don't use it often, as it tends to be for landscape photography more than anything else.

I especially like how the lighting stays soft & warm, while the HDR allowed the (very) dark foreground to feel like it was basking in the glow as well. In the original pictures, the presents are dark and difficult to distinguish.

It should be noted that the lights on the Christmas tree are the ONLY source of light in the room.

 

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Project365 - Gingerbread Construction Company

So Tessa & I decided we wanted to build a gingerbread house for the holidays. Pat bought us a kit, and we had fun putting it together & decorating it. Here's a few shots...

The walls go up without the help of a single Amish person. Oh well, we got them up without too much fuss !

The roof is on and the windows & doors are going in. Look at the colorful candies on the roof !

There are more windows on the side. Who knew it took so much icing to build a gingerbread house ?!?

 

The finished project, complete with snowman & owner. The candy cane fencing completes the front entry, while the gumdrops from a perimeter for the yard. And look at how OCD Tessa was - the lights around the roof line follow a perfectly repeating sequence !

 

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Project365 - At the Mall

I took the kids to the Mall to finish their Christmas shopping today. I thought I might take the opportunity to take pictures of crowds, with some depth of field. Who knew there wouldn't be a crowd at the Mall first thing in the morning. One of the basic rules of photography is to always have a "Plan B". so here they are !

I always liked the icicle lights, and the Mall was festooned with them ! So I decided to look almost straight up at them. Only then did I notice the sun was lighting the lights !

Yet another example of forgetting to change the white-balance. Again, very blue due to the light reflected off the snow. Not a particularly interesting composition, but I wanted to point out that I'm not the ONLY guy to put a wreath on the front of his truck at Christmas. Mine USED to light up, but a trip through the carwash fixed that !

 

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